One Week!

Just one last week of classes (sure, and then finals week) and I'm free.
Not going to lie, it's about time. I'm getting that summer feeling; I think everyone is.

I forgot to mention in my last post all the things I was going through with housing, etc. Towards the beginning of April, you can fill out an online application for on-campus housing (either dorms or apartment-style, if you're old enough). Mid-April, you get a lottery number, and late April, you go to this HUGE lottery selection process... basically, hundreds of people show up, you bring your preferred roommate(s), if you have them already picked out, and you wait for your number to be called. After which, you fill out paperwork and are brought into another, quieter room where you select a room from the available spots. It's a strange, somewhat tedious process but it works, I guess. I luckily had a pretty low (good) lottery number - 56, AND I was in the out-of-area category (who all go before the 'in-area' - 50 miles or less - students).

My two roommates from this year had plans already for next year, plus our schedules never really meshed, so I chose to try and find another roommate. Unfortunately, the month or so before the lottery drawing, everyone I asked from the Film and Theatre departments already had plans... or forgot to get back to me. I finally (two days before, actually) met up with a friend of a friend who also needed a roommate - Psychology major, with a strong interest in music. Luckily, we hit it off, and look to be compatable as roommates... someone who won't necessarily be my best friend here, but someone I will actually enjoy rooming with / hanging out with. So phew. Got a roommate and a room.

Funny story is, they ran out of rooms even before the end of the second day of housing assignments (I think there were supposed to be three days, total). Chapman currently has some shortage on dorm space, so housing is NOT guarenteed for four years here (I have friends going into their sophomore year who didn't even get a room yet - they're on a waitlist). So that's a downside, for some, but we have a new housing complex that's under construction and should be complete within the next year or two, and solve a lot of those problems. I know a lot of people choose to live off-campus too, but my words of advice:

LIVE ON CAMPUS AT LEAST YOUR FIRST YEAR, IF YOU CAN.

I mean it, I know college is this time for being independent, and living on your own and all of that, and I do have a handful of friends who live off campus, happily, even their freshman year, but I truly think that living on-campus is an experience you can't replicate and will genuinely miss. Sure, it's not all wondeful, getting assigned to random roommates who you may or may not get along with, eating cafeteria food (which is actually decent here, but of course anything gets old after a while), etc. But seriously, I think it's something most people should experience... I would even reccomend living on campus the first two years, and then moving to an apartment on or off campus.
The benefits of living on-campus: It's a transition made fairly easy. You need to be in charge of your self, yes, but things are more together, more readily available, more planned out. Food, proximity to everything, friends, advisors, it's all there. You can still have a car, if you want to be out and about, but you're able to walk everywhere you'd need to be too. You don't have to deal with rent, the neighbors, groceries, etc. It's a few less things to think about in the already crazy (and exciting) change over to college life. You'll meet people, be involved in more on-campus events, and really just have a much stronger sense of community. And I think that's VERY important in college life.

That's the end of my bit on housing. What else have I been up to? Mostly finishing projects before I leave for the summer. Oh, and registration, which was crazy. (Welcome to stupid Chapman bureaucracy - as technically a freshman until grades come in, I can't register for the two 300-level courses that I'm required to take in the Theatre Department next semester, but rather need to get the signatures of the course professors, my advisor AND the department chair... even though I am REQUIRED to take the courses. So lots of running around to get signatures, just to turn in the form to get into the class. Argh. And the WHOLE freshman theatre class has to do that. Oh well.)
For projects, it's actually very interesting: Out of my five classes this semester, only one is holding an in-class final during finals week (Acting Fundamentals, we are performing a scene with a partner). The other four instead have final, culminating projects due by the end of finals week. So I'm working on sound designing a one-minute scene for Audio Techniques, finishing my 15-page short screenplay for Screenwriting, finishing an independent program for Computer Science, and editing a project for Editing I. Lots of fun. Actually, I quite like it because I have a lot of other stuff that I'm doing finals week (like packing! They make us leave our dorms 24 hours after our last scheduled final OR by 5pm on Friday, whichever comes first! THAT is another stupid thing that I highly dislike. We don't even get to stay through graduation, unless you're a graduating student!).

Anyway, I'll try to give an update before I head off to my summer plans, but after that... it's freedom! :) (oh, and working full time to make money. oh well)