Tour de Faunce

Last night, I found it a bit hard to sleep due to the time change. Luckily, I still felt well rested when I woke up at 8 AM to get ready for breakfast with the Brown-II cohort. Last night we had decided we would be going to one of the campus dining halls for breakfast, the Sharpe Refractory -- known as "The Ratty."

Before breakfast, however, I took some time to explore a bit around my residential hall. When I went back to my room, I ran into Tory, my Leader Fellow. As explained to me when I got here, each floor in the residence hall has a Leader Fellow, who supervises the other pre-college students. When I told Tory I was taking the Women & Leadership course, her face lit up as she told me that she would be the TA for that class!

During our stroll this morning to look for 
The Ratty, I really enjoyed looking a the 
architectural styles of the buildings!

After chatting a bit with Tory, I got my things together and was headed downstairs to meet up with my cohort so we could all walk to The Ratty together. We used our phones as maps and walked through the Brown campus to find our designated breakfast spot. The weather was very warm, and somewhat humid. The walk there was still pleasant, as I got to take in the surrounding environment and where everything is. After all, I will be spending the next two weeks here. After walking around, trying to find The Ratty, we finally found a tall building that led to a large hall and a breakfast area.

Once we finished eating, we went back to Perkins Hall to relax for a bit. When we got back, there were a lot of new faces coming into the building, checking into their dorms. Just like us, they were Pre-College students spending the next two weeks of their summer at Brown within the Leadership Institute. I was disappointed to see that my roommate had still not gotten here, as I was excited to meet her.

The grassy scenery at the Main Green.

The Faunce Building.

The famous Van Wickle Gates!

Since we had planned for a tour around the campus at 11 AM, the cohort and Ms. Neal headed over to the main part of the campus, arriving at a grassy area surrounded by trees and campus buildings which we later found out is referred to as the Main Green. I learned from the tour that the Main Green is the hub of student life at Brown. We stood in front of the Faunce building, which is a large cafe/study hall consisting of various floors and, allegedly, home of the best blueberry muffins on campus. We even got to see the famous Van Wickle Gates. The tour was incredibly informative thanks to Jason, our tour guide who had just finished his freshman year at Brown. The tour was a great experience to see just how unique the campus life at Brown is. From student-run museums to a library where students are forbidden to study, Brown University is truly an amazing institute.

The ladies take a picture with the Brown bear in front of the Brown bear.

After the tour, we went to the Brown Bookstore to buy sweatshirts. We all ended up buying gorgeous sweatshirts that we probably won't be wearing during our time here, since the weather is 90+ degrees Fahrenheit each day. While heading back to the dorms, we ran into a fellow with a huge snake wrapped around his upper body.

Jordan, owner of a 145 lb. albino snake named Angel, had a lot to say about snakes and how he had been bitten 47 times by snakes in his lifetime! He gave us facts about snakes and gave his own personal thoughts about snakes. Jordan was very enthusiastic about snakes and animals in general. He was a really interesting guy!

We spent so much time looking for sweaters, talking to Jordan, then renting our fans that as soon as we looked at the time, we realized we were about to be late to the first orientation!

We rushed to Salomon 101, where the orientation was taking place. Luckily people were still settling in to the big hall and the orientation hadn't really started. At the orientation, we were introduced to Robin, the director and founder of the Pre-College Leadership program. She was really humorous and told us a lot about the program. She went in depth about how to approach the courses and how to get the most out of the pre-college academics. The most valuable piece of advice she had to offer during the orientation was to not get too attached to any "dream school." To not base our life on getting accepted into any certain school. It really made me reflect on my college expectations. We also met Allison and Matt, who told us about campus life and events and activites. We learned that later today there would be a big activities fair for students.

When the orientation was over and we had eaten lunch at the Ratty, we each met up with our resident advisers, assigned to us based on our floor. Once we met up with Tory, we walked with her once again to Salomon building for another orientation, this time for students only. The orientation basically reiterated what we heard in the previous one. Afterwards, we had dinner with our resident group and then we were dismissed. My resident group is a very diverse one. These girls come from different states than me, some even from different countries! Defna, a Turkish girl, told me about how she had flown 11 hours to get to Rhode Island. Bao Doan, who lived in Texas but was born in Canada, bonded with me over Starbucks and sports. I spent a lot of time with Bao Doan at the activities fair, mostly playing volleyball with her and other girls from outside the Leadership Institute.

When it was finally getting late, we got some free ice cream from the fair and then went back to our dorm.

Ava and I sporting our Brown gear!

I was so excited when I saw the other half of my dorm room now had bedsheets and luggage next to it. My roommate had finally arrived! Ava is from New York, and had arrived late to the dorm because she had been in Africa for the last 10 days! She has met Nick Jonas twice, plays tennis and saved my life from a moth who wouldn't leave our room later during the night. She watched some of the same shows as me and is an all around awesome girl! I'm so glad I'll be spending the next two weeks with her.

At the end of the night, our residential group met up with Tory one last time at a floor meeting to discuss her rules regarding curfew, safety, and hygiene for the dorms. It was a good bonding experience for our group.

Lastly, the Brown-II cohort met one more time to take a picture of all of us in our new Brown University sweatshirts.

Now, I have to read a last-minute homework assignment before my course starts. Apparently, our course instructor tried emailing all of us the reading, but wasn't able to, so we barely received it tonight. Wish me luck as I tackle on my homework the night before my first day of class!