Highly uneventful day today. Got up late, read more of David McCullough's "Truman," which I'm reading for a friend's mom. She's having dinner w/ the author when he comes to a lecture at oswego, and wanted some good questions to ask him without wading through the 900 page book.... I"ve been assigned to read "John Adams" next. Other than that, major accomplishments were getting a parking pass for my car (which took 2 hours and 5 trips across campus) and buying another fan and shower caddy. Really hard to find a shower caddy at sears. I'm ended up buying a paint roller bucket, which i think will work well because it can hang from the curtain rod. This beat my previous idea of using grill drip pans with a bent clothes hanger as a handle. Goes without saying I am not McGuyver. One of the first times outside of a Popeyes Chicken that I was really really conscious of being incredibly, incredibly white. I really think I was the only white dude in the entire sears. Interesting experience, being in the Bronx. My first impression leaving the Fordham campus was of a billboard for Hennessy entirely in spanish... not really used to that in Utica or Oswego. I'm sure the Buddy Holly glasses, shortsleeve plaid shirt, and khaki shorts really helped me fit in... might as well wear a do' rag (sp?) at an AD party at school. Tried to go to a Yankees game, totally underestimating popular demand for a subway series. I mean, I see games on TV all the time with no people in the stands, why do they all have to go while I'm here? If I'm in the bronx for 5 weeks, and don't see a game, I'll be pretty damn aggravated. Roomate came in today, really good guy- we're both getting up for the 6:45 MSAT, which from the preview I got in his study guide, I'll have plenty to bitch about tomorrow.

Well, the drive down to NYC was uneventful, as soon as the "Efedrine" brand ephedrine kicked in I was wide awake and listening to the same mix CD over and over again. Made good time and got to Fordham around 3:30, where the mass confusion and inefficiency immediately commenced. Took me almost 3 hours to register, having to go to 11 different stations, complete some task or another (give $3 exact change for laundry, tell them I didn't want the laptop that I didn't sign up for and they didn't have waiting for me) and get a smiley face stamp on our little checklist, which along with the nametag on a lanyard and the hordes of parents waiting with their kids gave the whole circus a summer-camp feel. Barely got through the fingerprinting line (3 separate lines, like buying bread in the USSR circa 1978) before they closed at 6:00, made it back to the dorm just in time to unload my car in the rain. Things of course improved from here. There are apparently 2 dorms that TFA is using here, one is the "good dorm", Millenium, which is close to where we need to go every day, air conditioned, and each room has its own bathroom. My dorm, the aptly named "Martyr's Court" has no AC, 4 showers for about 40 guys, and is on the ass-end of campus. The one advantage is that it's near a Sears where I can buy another fan to cool down my un-airconditioned room. After missing dinner, I went with some guys I met to get dinner, locking my door on the way out, only to return and find I couldn't get in, as they'd given me a key that was for someone else's room. Eventually that got straightened out, although keeping me from a basketball game (probably a good thing). My roomate's not in yet, so I'll comment on him later. The guys that I've met so far (all-guys hallway) are great, hopefully the initial impression is correct. Drop me a line at cnyexpat@hotmail.com (I've completely forgotten the html for that, DV or JK drop me a reminder perhaps) if you get a chance. Apparently nothing to do tomorrow other than get my parking pass before 3:30... probably the last rest I'll get in a while.