First Post!

Gus the Dinosaur was a gift my roommate received before she left for college. Amazingly enough he has now become the protector of our dorm room, guarding everything from our laptops to our food. If Gus could talk, he would tell you of all the wonderful chaos that goes on in the dorm room of York 159. However, Gus is only a dinosaur and can do nothing of the sort. That is where I come in.















My name is April, and about a month and a half ago I moved from San Angelo, TX to Portland, OR, to attend Cascade College. I'm not exactly sure why I decided to move 2,000 miles away from home, but I did and I am loving it! There is always something to do and you never know what crazy thing is going to happen next, especially in the wonderful city of Portland! Although it is loads of fun, in the short amount of time that I've been an intellectual college student, I've found that college is very different than high school and sometimes you have to roll with the punches. Here's an example, apparently when you start your freshman year you’re supposed to know all the tricks of the trade of college. However, I was completely unaware of this requirement and was taken by surprise when I missed a class my first day! I had no idea that when put on a waiting list for a class you should attend on the first day, in case you get added to the class. So when it came time for the class, I didn't go. It was just my luck; someone HAD dropped the class, the day before, and I had been added, which in turn counted as an absence for me. Although I did not see the humor in it on my first day, it now seems quite funny and I can laugh about it!

Like I said before, there is always something going on, especially when you live with 16 other girls on your floor! Crazy stuff happens, including the gigantic first floor dance party we decided to have late one night. Then there are the random things. To prove my point, I will give you an example. Last night, my roommate Danelle tried to open one of our windows and it instead ended up shattering all over the place! A perfectly good window, gone!
















So now, instead of the beautiful parking lot, we get to look at a lovely piece of cardboard. When I say lovely, by the way, I totally mean lovely. I painted a cute picture of a forest on it and you can't even tell there's a window missing! Yep that’s right, it looks like 100% window, but I am still glad that the new real window will be up soon.





















Moving from such a small city in conservative Texas to the huge city of Portland definitely requires adjusting. I must admit though, there are a few things that I have yet to understand. First, everyone here says "pop", which is ridiculous because it's called "coke." In Texas it’s, "What do you want to drink?" – Coke. "What kind?" - Dr. Pepper. Secondly, it rains here. In Texas it hardly ever rains. Our equivalent of rain at home is turning on the sprinklers and running through them... lucky for me I love the rain! Third, people here say "You Guys". That's just insane. I don't understand. It always has been and always will be, "Ya'll." I'm pretty sure that during Creation, the word "Ya'll" was established and it was just up-hill from there. So, when people laugh at me for saying it too much, I laugh at them because they are the ones who have got it all wrong! Finally the most ridiculous thing about Portland would have to be… the squirrels. What is it with them? They are absolutely crazy. Seriously, I feel like the squirrels are taking over. At home if you were running or walking and you came within 2 yards of a squirrel, they’d take off in the opposite direction as quickly as possible. Here, instead of squirrels doing the natural thing and moving out of our way, we move for them. Who… no strike that, what are these tiny creatures that intimidate us so much so that we move out of their way? It's as if we're playing a game of Chicken with squirrels… and we lose… every time. It's completely ridiculous and we must show these silly creatures who’s in charge around here before they take over the world!

Hi, I'm April. Stay tuned for further updates.