This week has been very long. Don't get me wrong; it's been a great week, but it has been full of new people and places. It almost feels like I'm back in the MTC - for those of you who've experienced it, remember the first four days or so? How each day felt like two, and when Sunday rolled around you couldn't believe it hadn't been a month?
On Monday, I moved into my new apartment in the Munger Graduate Residences on Stanford campus. These apartments are incredibly nice and only a year old, and the scale is almost megalomanic. The doors are all ten feet tall and there's so much space in the bathrooms we joke that there's no doubt about their handicap accessibility. I have my own private room in a four-person apartment, and all the rooms have private baths as well. My room is in the corner of the building - it has sloping roofs (funny enough, just like my room a year ago in Nanjing) and lots more floor space than the other three, although it curves around and is very nookish. But I like it quite a bit.
My roommates are Sam, Tom, and Jake. Sam is from Salt Lake City and went to Georgetown for his undergrad; Tom is a Michigander and went to school in Maine; and Jake is from New York and went to NYU. They're all pretty fun guys, especially with a couple beers in them. :) I attended my first keg party ever this week, along with sloshball before the football game and a party last night which featured whiskey and beer! Probably more alcohol exposure in a week than the rest of my life combined. A word to the wise: keg parties (or this one, at least) are hot, loud, and extremely dull without a few drinks in you. I only stayed for 20 minutes. Not everyone knows I don't drink yet, but my roommates do, at least. They'll have a glass of wine or a beer in the apartment, but so far we haven't had any wild parties here, and I'm glad of that.
Orientation was good - I think I got the luck of the draw when it comes to professors, and I feel fairly comfortable getting around the law school already. The new dean seems very competent and personable, and I feel much more excited about my next three years here after orientation.
Free food is ubiquitous; it sounds like there are catered lunch events nearly every day of the week, and I will definitely be taking advantage of them!
The weather is amazing. It was a bit cold on Friday, but other than that it has been cloudless and warm. I went running on Friday night after the football game, and it was the perfect temperature for running. Speaking of football, it's amazing to me that Stanford gives free tickets to all students and there's an actual student section! So much nicer than the system at BYU. We only won the game by 3 points, but it was still fun, especially going with two friends who had never been to a game, Shae (also a 1L, member of the church) and Coco (exchange student from Germany).
This weekend: went to the food bank with about 65 other 1Ls yesterday to volunteer, and today was church. I played the organ. I hope that's not my calling, or at least not my only calling. It probably will be, but I guess I don't mind that much. It would just be nice to do something different as well.
Classes start Tuesday, and I have a lot of reading to do beforehand, so this is it for now. Wish me luck!
