Stick With the Fro Yo

I just made some old people very happy today. I called my grandparents and both grandmas said that my call just brightened their days and put a smile on their faces. I'm just that awesome.
Classes are so difficult. I really didn't believe people when they said it would be this much work, but it is. And it's not busy-work. It's plain old work.
My theology class is quite different from the religion classes of my past 12 years of Catholic education. Instead of talking about what the Church says and what the Bible says, we talk about different ways to interpret this stuff and a lot of it is unconventional. There's no wrong answers, but a lot of the stuff I was taught in Catholic grade/high school differs from the professor's views. There is this girl in my theology class who looks just like Megan McCormick, but is not like her at all. This girl is like Megan's evil twin. Well, maybe she's not evil, but she definitely shouted at the professor and interupts him all the time when she doesn't agree with him, which is always. She's read Cathechism and the Bible and is all "holier than thou" so when she hears something unconventional about the Church, she kind of flips out. At first it was ammusing, hearing this girl freak out, but now it's just kind of annoying. So in the midst of her shouting, I decided to take a gander at my fellow classmates. After taking mental note of the kid who looks like a blonde carrot top, I was suddenly stunned by the Asian chick, sitting up straight and keeping to herself. The best thing about this girl was her outfit. She had hot pink sweatpants, hot pink sequined flip flops, and a white t-shirt that had the word "WILD" written is huge hot pink letters. I highly doubt this girl was as wild as her large-lettered t-shirt claimed. She looked about as calm and harmless as her puppy dog pencil case (yes, she really did have a pencil case that looked like a fuzzy puppy). Perhaps if the puppy were real and she had actually killed it and gutted it for the use of containing her writing utensils, this girl would be wild, but I bet she bought it at the same place she got her Hello Kitty watch.
I really did not expect this girl to have such an entertaining outfit again, but she proved me wrong. Today in theology, she wore Van Dutch jeans and a bright blue t-shirt with (again) giant yellow letters reading "FREE." Woah. So not only is she WILD, but she is FREE and a skater. Or maybe she is some sort of prostitute and these shirts are a form of subtle advertising, claiming she is WILD in bed and on Mondays, her services are FREE, and perhaps she keeps condoms in her puppy pencil case. I highly doubt this. I mean, it's nearly impossible to get condoms on the Notre Dame campus. As you can tell, I am thouroughly amused by this girl and her clothes. Theology is my new favorite class.
Tonight, as I was talking online, not doing my homework, a knock came at my door. Both Caitlin and I shouted "Come in!" as is the custom in section 6a where everyone is friendly and you don't have to wear make up around your section sisters. We assumed it was Jess across the hall, so when no response came from the door, I shouted, "Come in, you fool!" as is the custom in what Akon would call the Gheeeeeeeto. So in walk two strange boys, whom neither Caitlin or I know. I immediately feel dumb. They were talking about selling food somewhere in Knott Hall, but we could barely understand them, they were laughing so hard. I came to find, however, that they were equally unintelligable at other dorm rooms.
I just read the first edition of this year's Visor. Last year's was far superior, though I have to keep in mind that the first issue always sucks. Behind Brown Eyes is the name of the new Editor in Chief, Amber Beery's column. Her column was terrible. Sorry, it really was. Though, again, my first column was pretty bad, too. I do like Alex Bluebond's column title, Kind of Blue. His column wasn't bad either. I didn't read Becky Pelini's. I'm sure it was very good as usual, but I knew I wouldn't understand it because it's about sports.
Thursday is Caitlin's birthday and since she doesn't have a blog of her own, she wanted me to let the world know of her 18th b-day through my blog. So September 1, everyone wish Caitlin a happy birthday. While we're talking about Caitlin, she just said "What's that saying? Don't hate...proliferate? That would be a good saying." It's appreciate.
Here's a fun little story about the dining hall. The other night, while dining on the fine cuisine of North Dining Hall, I decided to get some desert. I saw people putting icing on cookies, so I grab what looks like a chocolate chip cookie, take what looks like icing, and grab a spoonfull of what appears to be that blueberry goo you put on pancakes, because that stuff is the shizz. All of this, mind you, was on the buffet clearly marked "dessert." I get back to the table, only to find that the cookie is actually full of nuts, not chocolate chips, the icing is actually humus, and the blueberry goo is strawberry jam. In conclusion, I'll stick with the fro yo (frozen yogurt).

My Name's Elise, I'm from Ohio, I'm undecided

That's what I've said about a million times already. I've opted for "My Name is Elise" as opposed to "I'm Elise" because the vowels blend together with I'm and Elise and people get confused and it sounds like "Amelise." Or maybe I just need to articulate.
I got here (Notre Dame) on Thursday (Aug. 18) and I was one of the first people in my dorm because most people don't move in until the 19th. So I had the whole room to myself to do whatever I wanted with it. Yay! It wasn't as small as I thought it would be. Carpet and a bedspread make it look a whole lot more homey. One girl, however, said to me, "I like how you set up your room. It looks really homely." I'm sure she didn't mean my room was ugly, and she meant to say homey, but I could be wrong. She did get into Notre Dame, after all.
Anyway, on my way into campus, I saw a bunch of signs pointing to the various dorms. The girls dorms were fairly boring, but the boys dorm signs were clever. Zahm, a male dorm, had a sign saying "Housing your daughters since 1976" and Knott Hall's sign said "Knott this way." I live in Pasquerilla East, home of the Pyros. Maybe I should clue you, the reader, in. Each dorm is single sex and has a brother/sister dorm and has a mascot and unique aspects and it's own little event.
Moving in wasn't too bad. My parents helped me out a lot. They have to stay in South Bend for 4 days for parent orientation, so it's kind of weird because I've spent 2 days here and I haven't had to say good bye to them. It feels kind of like summer camp.
When I was in line with my parents to set up some type of money account, I see this really pretty lady and her pretty daughter, though the mom looked very young. My parents said something like "Is she a mom or a student?" and then Joe Montana walks up with them and it turns out that that was Joe Montana's wife and daughter, who attends Notre Dame. Now, I would have been very excited and star struck about this had I known who Joe Montana is. Apparently it's some sort of crime to not know, but now I know and I saw him, so I went from being behind all the other domers, to being a step ahead. So there. (Joe Montana was a pro football player)
I stayed in my dorm room alone last night and there were only about 4 other girls on my floor, so I just chilled and went to bed. It was fine until I woke up and forgot where I was and started freaking out for a couple seconds. Then it was all good and I found the hall microwave and made some tea.
Girls started moving in at 9 and were moving in all day today. I met my roommate. She's really nice and we have common interests and it seems like we'll get along.
I walked my classes today and bought some groceries and little things like that. The Performing Arts Center is amazing. I love it so much, I may just become a film major. But probably not because that's not a very useful major.
Everyone got t-shirts specific to their dorm (I got a red one that says Pasquerilla East). We had to wear these t-shirts to the big fat freshman picnic. All was fine and good and I met some cool girls in my dorm. Then I was talking with my parents, Caitlin (roomie) and her parents and this guy comes up to me and was like "I talked to you earlier, right?" and I'm like "Noooo." and he's like "Oh, well you look really familiar" and I say "Ok well then I must have a twin running around somwhere" and he goes "My name is JT" I immediately think Justin Timberlake. Then I think JTT as in Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Then I stop thinking about celebrities. I tell him my name and he's asking all this stuff like what dorm I'm in and what I like to do (to which I answered "I don't know" because I was put on the spot. I quickly changed my answer to tennis and theater, which probably isn't much better). I thought he might be advertising something, because earlier, someone had come up to us, acting all friendly, and then was like "you should study abroad! take this flier!" so I didn't ask this kid anything about himself. Then I figured out he was a freshman, too, so now I guess I was being rude. After some chit chat he left, but not before asking for my number, which I gave to him because I don't know how to say no. I'd be surprised if I ever got a call from this guy. After he left, Caitlin's 15 year old brother informed me that "I think I've met you before" is a frequently used pick up line and I fell for it. So I guess that makes me a sucker.
Tonight was dorm initiation. All the dorms do it, but in different ways. My brother dorm is Knott Hall so we teamed up with them for super sloppy double dare. It was like that old Nickelodeon show, but no Mark Summers. Eggs, chocolate syrup, water ballons, soap, vegetable oil, mustard, etc were all involved. I had to find gum in a whipped cream pie without using my hands. I used my hands. This initiation was supposed to last 2 hours, but it only lasted 20 minutes, so the non-freshmen took the extra time to douse everyone the left-over supplies. I got chocolate syrup in my hair, mustard all over me, hit with a water balloon, and of course, a face full of whipped cream. I showered as soon as I got back. A few of the men's dorms went to the various women's dorms to serenade them with various N'Sync and Backstreet Boys hits. Zahm's was certainly the best, as each guy picked a girl to serenade individually. It was slightly akward having a stranger sing to me while holding my handing and kneeling (in the other hand were the lyrics to the song), but it was funny to watch.
More adventures from Notre Dame to come soon!

Once More, With Feeling

Here's a montage of songs from a certain T.V. musical...I'd be surprised if anyone could guess which one it's from.

You're not ready
For the world outside
You keep pretending,
but you just can't hide
I know I said that I’d
Be standing by your side
But I
I will walk through the fire
'Cause where else can I turn?
I will walk through the fire
And let it
Going through the motions
Walking through the part
Nothing seems to penetrate my heart
I was always brave
And kind of righteous
Now I find I’m wavering
Life’s a show and we all play a part
And when the music starts,
We open up our hearts
Life’s a song
You don’t get to rehearse.
And every single verse
Can make it that much worse.
I wish I could say
The right words
To lead you through this land
Wish I could stay here forever
But now I understand
I’m standing in the way
Where do we go from here?
Why is the path unclear?
When we know home is near
Understand
We'll go hand in hand
But we'll walk alone in fear
What a lot of fun
You guys have been real swell
And there's not a one who can say
This ended well.