The only thing that took me out of Cook County all summer was registration (Day On Campus) at Purdue on June 27.
4 AM found me and mom southbound on the empty Dan Ryan, GPS navigator in hand along with a Coleman cooler full of sandwiches and broken dreams. I was driving through the morning fog, abusing the cruise control and not knowing that we actually didn’t have an IPass at this point and that the white coaster-like box on the dash actually was a coaster.
Eventually we reached the flat grassy expanses of Indiana, where I nearly lost my life in several lightning-related incidences. Generally, I’m just driving along when I suddenly see a gigantic fork from the ground all the way to the top of the windshield. I’m so in awe at the unobstructed view that I almost swerve and hit a truck full of cantaloupes. This happened only a couple more times.
At about 5:30, when the rain started coming down in sheets and visibility became a few dozen car lengths, I slowed to 65 mph. Then I realized that I could escape the storm by driving East faster. Yeah… I almost hit the cantaloupe truck again.
We arrived 45 minutes early for the prepharmacy presentation in the Heine building. There were only seven people there so I read over the material I was given and gnawed on some of the mayonnaise-saturated contents of the cooler. After warning to us that if we got more than 3 C’s as undergraduates, we were ejected from the program, they split us up to choose classes.
Sidenote here: For some reason, Purdue -and Harper- smell like old people.
My Schedule
Instead of my actual adviser, I got one of the pharmacists from the University Pharmacy. He didn’t have an office so we discussed classes in one of the basement rooms: a windowless, 9×9 foot room containing only three chairs and a table. (Not unlike the one from the first Matrix film.)
After explaining all my AP scores which he wrote on a post-it, he left us and ran upstairs to ask my adviser what academic shape I was it. He returned and told me I didn’t have to take freshman Calc or Chemistry. I told him about the Harper class and after more post-its, he went back up again. I didn’t have to take the first semester and instead could take Fundamentals of Biology’s second semester first semester. After this he ran upstairs a third time for reasons I forget. Many minutes and many post-its later, he comes back with my final agreed-upon schedule. Written on a post-it.
| General Chemistry I | General Chemistry II |
| Intro Analysis Calculus I | Intro Analysis Calculus II |
| Fundamentals of Biology I | Fundamentals of Biology II |
| English Composition I | Economics |
| Organic Chemistry I | Organic Chemistry II |
| Anatomy & Physiology I | Anatomy & Physiology II |
| General Physics I | Intro to Microbiology |
So my freshman and sophomore classes are combined into one year. That still doesn’t mean anything unless I can get accepted into the College of Pharmacy next year. Most usually don’t enter it until Junior year. And they tell me I sorely lack extracurriculars that demonstrate my “people skills”. Bastards.
Next on the agenda was turning in my check for orientation, Boiler Gold Rush. The address was for the Student Success Center in Stewert Hall. We asked for directions several times along the way, but here is the general path.
From the front door of Stewert Hall, down a long walnut-paneled corridor, down oak-lined stairs, into a sterile tile-lined hallway, down more stairs, into a deserted hospital hallway, down two maintenance corridors and finally through a unusually narrow passageway into the surprisingly spacious Student Success center. (They had sofas and foosball and everything.)
My Dorm
After crossing campus, passing several fraternities, sororities, a construction site, Meredith Hall, Earhart Hall, and a rec center, and a yellow school bus full of middle school girls, I arrived at my dorm, Harrison Hall. The distance from campus?
| as the unladen swallow flies | 0.6 miles |
| as the unladen swallow walks | 0.9 miles |
| as the unladen swallow takes the bus | ∞ |
In the main lounge, there was a map of the US which newcomer freshmen had stuck through with colored sewing pins indicating their hometowns. There was a many-colored sphere around the Chicago area.
When I tried to push my pin in what I guessed was Arlington Heights, it accidentally nudged another one, which fell out and which took out more needles as it fell. Through the newly-created space between the colored heads, I could see a quarter sized hole in the paper where Chicago used to be.
Despite this, I feel a bit misplaced here at Purdue. Maybe part of it is that my email is tran@purdue.edu. Where are the Asians?!
The dorm rooms were relatively spacious. Two desk/dresser/cabinet hybrids, two extra-long twin beds, one window and two closets with no doors. 12’ish x 15’ish x … whatever, the ceiling is tall enough for me. I can post pictures on move-in day.
That’s about it, although I should mention that I’m working in the restaurant in the lobby of Harrison. I go down Saturday the 16th for job training and *shudder* team-building exercises.
