Reunited!!!

YAY!! We had the most wonderful weekend together after surviving the longest stretch apart we've had to go through in our whole lives - almost two weeks! It was so amazing to catch up and just relax, it was exactly what we both needed. 

On Saturday morning, Luce drove out to Chapman and picked up Han, Sierra, and Katie for a trip to Disneyland!! It was awesome for Luce to meet Han's roomies and the four of us had a great time running around the park. 

 We had FastPasses for Indiana Jones and were all super excited for the ride. We got more of an adventure than we bargained for, though, when we reached the final thrilling moment where the boulder seems like it's going to crush you then - screeeech! AHH!! Everything grinds to a stop, music goes off, light's come on, and a voiceover tells us the ride's broken down! We had to wait about fifteen minutes before it got running again, and we snapped some behind-the-scenes pics while we waited.

After that, the two of us snuck off for some twin time in California Adventure for a little while and there were NO LINES!! On a long weekend?! It was amazing!! We went on all our faves then headed back to meet up with Sierra and Katie for Fantasmic! We ended up going to the later show and got PERFECT seats, right on the water's edge. The show was as full of Disney magic as we could've hoped for and it was a wonderful way to end the night! We headed out of the park, dropped the roomies off at Chapman, and went back to Lucy's.

On Sunday we went and visited Chambers - and didn't get a parking ticket this time! - which was really nice. It was kind of surreal, actually, as if nothing had changed and we were still living and hanging out together in the city. After a great morning at bootcamp, we went out for teriyaki chicken for lunch and headed home for the afternoon. We had a productive afternoon doing homework, had fro yo at The Grove, and watched the gorgeous James Marsden in 27 Dresses!

Monday was an errands day but still fun because, cheesy as it is, we were together. Luce did laundry, Han did homework, we wrote the blog, went to Trader Joes, and Meme treated us to Starbucks coffees, yum! Too soon it was time to drive Han back to Chapman and say goodbye. We were a little melancholy about it all day and we're still working on adjusting - this goodbye was just harder because now we actually know what it's like to be apart and miss each other! The weekend was great though, and it made us realize that we really are close enough to be able to visit regularly. We both settled in for another week of classes - luckily a shorter one, thank you labour day! - and are already excited to see each other again soon!

College Life!

-- Hannah --
This week was my first week of classes! It was such a busy week, with some ups and downs, but I made it through and I'm loving my classes! The three that stand out are Intro to Performing Techniques, Literature Mirrors Society (about Latin American literature), and Film Aesthetics. The subject matter is fascinating and the professors are so engaging and knowledgeable - I'm really excited to learn from them!

I've been riding my bike around and I'm feeling really comfortable with where things are on campus. The food is INCREDIBLE and I'm definitely getting a start on that Freshman 15! Exercising is really fun, though, because there are heaps of options for fitness classes like Zumba, kickboxing, and hip hop! I'm trying to take advantage of everything there is to do here and just throw myself into life on campus.

Having made it through the school week, it was time for Whiteout!! This was the frat party I won tickets to with my limbo prowess and it was SO FUN! Sierra and I got all dressed up in our white outfits and went over to the club with a big group of friends!

The venue was awesome! We owned our under 21 status and headed onto the dance floor!

There was blaring music, smoke machines, neon lights, and SO MANY people! Ahh it was completely crazy and we had a ball!

It was a great finish to an exciting, stressful, rewarding, and fun week! It's been hard being away from Luce but we've been chatting on the phone most days and we got to spend the weekend together, YAY! So there are more fun stories to tell in the next post - stay tuned!

Orientation!! (and My First Week Without Luce!)

This was one of the most exciting and overwhelming weeks of my life!! AHH! I hardly even know where to begin! It was completely jam-packed, so this might be a long post, but I’m going to tryyy hit on the highlights rather than giving a play-by-play of everything.

Tuesday was move-in day! I checked in then – with much assistance from Mum and Q – got three full trolleys of my stuff to my dorm room!

 I met my roomies, Katie and Sierra, and the three of us get along SO WELL! Which is awesome and has definitely made the adjustment to college life waayyy easier. We all set to unpacking our stuff, which actually wasn’t too much of a challenge because our dorm room has heaps of space! We also have a lovely bathroom with a turquoise theme and a Singin in the Rain shower curtain! The room already feels like home :)

On that first day Mum and Q ran out to Walmart for me to pick up some stuff that couldn’t fit in the car the first time, and one thing they got was the new bike I had picked out! Yay!! I love it! Although I am still getting used to the whole back-peddling instead of hand break situation…

We had dinner with Katie and Sierra and their families, then it was time to say goodbye to Mum and Q for the night and head to my room for my first night at college! My whole floor is Performing Arts kids, so I met heaps of fun people and got to know some of the theatre majors I’ll be spending the next four years with! Everyone from 1st floor west had a meeting that night with our RA, Lord Ryan (yea, that’s his first name, it’s kinda crazy and kinda awesome) then called it a night.

On Wednesday we started off with an Opening Convocation where some of the faculty spoke and our whole class sat together for the first time – it was a really nice ceremony and a great way to mark the start of the year.

(I'm Right in the middle of the front bench facing the camera)

(And this is my room all done!)

After that everyone got into small groups based on our majors for some bonding time, had lunch with our parents, went back into our small groups, then had a big meeting with the COPA (College of Performing Arts) faculty and got heaps of information about the year coming up. Dinner was a welcome reception for COPA families, and it was also the last event I had with Mum and Q before they had to leave to catch their flight! Waahhhh!! It was a tough goodbye, but I know I’ll see them soon – Thanksgiving’s only a couple months away!

Playfair, the next event of the night, got me totally pumped up again!! All the new Freshmen ran through a tunnel of the Orientation Assistants and made the tunnel longer themselves, then we linked arms and the OAs led a charge snaking back down the tunnel – it’s kinda hard to describe but it was fun and loud and exciting! After that we did ice-breakers en masse and met SO MANY people!! It was completely hectic but so much fun!

Thursday and Friday had a lot of informational events but I also got to explore the Orange Circle and its cute shops and restaurants, and there were fun events on both nights. Thursday night was an evening at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts which was INCREDIBLE. The building was SO BEAUTIFUL and they had all sorts of activities and live performances – there was a hip hop class, a Polynesian dancer, arts and crafts, a beat boxer, and (my favourite) a drum circle. Around 1000 of my classmates and I all went into the auditorium, everyone had a percussion instrument, and this awesome hippie lady lead a sort of call and response thing with all of us. It just made such a loud sound and it was really unifying. The best moment was when she had students from different areas of the US stand up and make noise, then students from other countries – so I repped Aus and stood – and because there were so few people she had us say where we were from in front of everyone and I got a huge cheer! Yay!! It was such a boost and really affirming.

On Friday – and also Wednesday - night, Sierra and I got dressed up and went out to a couple parties at houses close to campus!

Friday was the highlight, though, because there weren’t too many people there and the guys were playing guitar and Sierra sang and they had a really cute dog, it was just a really chill vibe. I was pretty exhausted by Saturday, though, so I just hung out and recuperated.

Sunday, yesterday, was great! There was a pool party and the Chapman Radio guys were there playing music and giving away some prizes – I owned at limbo and won 2 tickets to a frat kickoff party on Friday which was a bit of a surprise to me! Man, I went so low, I was actually pretty proud of myself!

I had dinner and another RA meeting to get all ready to start classes the next day! 

Today was my first day of classes and it went really well! I’ll go into detail on the next post, though. It’s been such a whirlwind; moving in and starting to adjust to college life! It’s been tough to be away from Luce but we’re seeing each other this weekend, so there’s a light at the end of the tunnel! A lot of this is still scary and surreal but I’m feeling so fortunate to be at this incredible school with amazing facilities and inspirational faculty! Woo Panther Pride!!