Day 1-4
Apparently in Natalieland time is not linear. It is my blog and time can function however I please. I like being supreme ruler over my blog.

Anyway, here are some highlights from the first few days.

Day 2: So I sit here in a huge mess as I try to stuff my entire life into an 11' x 13' room. My parents have been great. They are sticking around to help me out, so I haven't been too lonely. I have two Asian roommates, one from Beijing and one from Japan, and one American. The kitchen is a mess!! Everyone has their own things, so there are 4 dish soaps, 4 sets of pans, 4 sets of dishes etc. Needless to say there is no room for my stuff. I am probably going to have to store it in my tiny room!! What an adventure. LOL. I have basically spent the past two days putting together all of my IKEA furniture, so now I am a pro! Tomorrow I have orientation from 9:30 to 2:30. Why they have to orient me for 5 hours, I have no idea. BORING!!!!! My bedroom window looks out on the baseball field, so I can hear the marching band practicing at various hours throughout the day. It is pretty crazy. I wish I had more exciting news, but I have just been unpacking.

Day 3: Orientation was lame. It was a bunch of Yay! We are in school and it is going to be hard. Yay!! I ended up leaving early because it was just too much. I went to the bookstore and bought my books instead. The football team was there buying books so I just followed around a bunch of man flesh. Yum!! I don't see my roommates very much. I get the feeling that everyone just does their own things. There should be five of us, but only four rooms are filled. We will probably get a new roommate at some point. Ling, from China is the one I see the most. She always has a friend over and they just speak in Chinese all the time. She has stuff everywhere! She has lived here for 2 years so she basically has taken over the place. Miki, the girl from Japan, is never here. Mary, my other roommate has lived here about a week and she has never even seen Miki. It is pretty funny. I saw her only once and I said Hi and she just walked away. I am have decided that she must not speak English very well (or she is just rude.) LOL. This is definitely different than Utah. All of the gas stations have slot machines. I could become a gambling addict and flunk out of school. That is about all I have seen of Reno, oh and Wal-Mart. I am almost all moved in, so I can hopefully go out and explore. My parents are going to go home tomorrow, and then I am going to be all alone. :( I need to find me some hot men. That is about it. I am sure I will have more exciting things when I actually start school next week. Crazy! I can't believe I actually live here. It is a little surreal.

Day 4: So my parents went home today. My mom and I were sobbing, and my dad even had some tears in his eyes. I had a good cry the first night I was here. I missed everyone so much and I had been here less than 24 hours!! LOL. I am such a dork. I have been trying to keep busy. My parents did take some stuff home, but they accidentally left a big pile of odds and ends, so now I have to figure out what to do with them. Ugg. Oh well. I am down to the end, it is almost ready. It totally looks like an anthro nerd's room. I put up a bunch of my masks from around the world on the wall above my desk. I have one from China, three from El Sal, one from New Zealand and one from London. I decided I am obsessed with people because I noticed all the stuff I bring back is figures of people. LOL. NERD!! I forgot to tell you the best part of orientation yesterday. I met another person in my Anthro program. She is probably 45 and from Montana. Let's just say the first thing I noticed about her is the awesome haircut with the giant rat tail in the back. Then she grabbed her backpack and had two "Gay Pride" buttons on the back. It was so obvious. LOL. I totally feel like I am back in college again. Someone is playing Bon Jovi super loud. So dormish. My roommates were all supposed to be grad students, but I found out they are all undergrad. Mary is only 22. I feel like an old lady. It is her birthday today. I was going to see if she wanted to go to a movie or something, but she hasn't come out of her room. As I said, everyone just does their own thing. Mary is a health ecology major. I don't know what Ling and Miki are. Ling is always cooking and it smells good. My mom said I should hire her to be my cook because I can only make Ramen Noodles. I told her I have been to China and it seems she thought that was pretty cool. I have a scroll that I brought back from there and I want to ask her what it says. It probably says "Some stupid American paid 50 bucks for this piece of crap." But since it is all Chinese it looks beautiful. :) Now Pussy Cat Dolls are blaring. I would die without MapQuest. I went to the community college and bought my used textbook for 100 bucks. Ugg. It is in a really pretty setting, up on the "mountain." (Hill compared to the mountains in Utah.) And the parking is free!!! Yay!!! I just discovered that I can download audiobooks from the library to my laptop. I have been listening to books nonstop to take my mind off of the fact that I now live in Reno. I was in target today and some guy offered me a job. He said it involved "financial planning." I have no idea if I want to get involved with that. But he said that a lot of students do it. I hate that all the shows are an hour later here. I don't want to have to stay up late to watch shows that are usually on at nine!! The marching band just started up. LOL.