It's kinda hard to believe i've been at Harvard for two weeks. Seems like i just moved in yesterday and had my first experience talking to someone's belly button (the guy is 1m90 or 6'3, who turned out to be my - very nice - Peer Advising Fellow, some sort of upperclassman adviser), now it's become a daily affair. Speaking of, i went to a dinner event yesterday at the Institute of Politics, wore my 4 inch heels, and was promoted from belly button to nipples. Hey, i consider that progress. Fake progress, but whatever.
I'm most probably trying out for stand-up comedy tomorrow. My parents are so going to have a stroke if they know they sent me off to Harvard to poke fun at myself and make people laugh. It's a good thing that they won't know then, like how they had little to no idea what subjects i took in Singapore, what sketchy program i was enrolled in, or even which year i'm in. I assure you there's no resentment from my part. I embraced, and still do, the independence and the freedom to do whatever the fuck i want. I reveled in it. I'd probably be really pissed off if my parents hovered and asked what i was up to every night of every day. Which is probably why ever since i was twelve, whenever they attempted such question i'd just brush them off. My parents gave up trying to help me with my life soon after. I think at some point they probably deemed me a lost cause... Remember, this is a girl who, at 3, had her first fight with a dude and lost both of her earrings in the process, and then, at 6, gained a reputation in primary school as the kid who hit boys. I've always had a complicated/weird/inexplicable relationship with boys. Thanks a lot to my brothers. We were too close, i now realize. My own homeroom teacher said the reason i was chosen as class monitor was because nobody knew how to deal with me otherwise. Funny shit.
Harvard does not look good. I was sent this "pre-departure package" some time ago, and in it an international student described Harvard as having "beautiful scenery with gorgeous red bricks" and i was like, what? In fact, it looks/is old and always smells of "organic" grass fertilizer. Not a good thing. At all. Especially when you, uninformed of what people had sprayed on the grass earlier, step out of your dorm and take a deep breath in order to "inhale all the early morning freshness". Needless to say, it was not freshness you inhaled.
A lot of strange things have happened on Harvard Yard. And i suppose there are more to come. The other day a cow, like an actual cow, was feasting on the Yard grass. Another, there was literally a live drag burlesque show in broad daylight. There were guys with bright neon green tapes around their ass and glitter all over their body, doing odd suggestive moves. And if all else fails, there are always groups of tourists, looking lost and taking weird random photos to entertain you every other day of the week now.
It's 3:17AM, Sept 12th and i just came back to my dorm. It was another night party-hopping and just generally chatting away with my dorm-mates until early morning. I'm beat, but it was fun. Much better than the last weekend. At least this time around there was good booze and actual parties to attend. Obviously there was a lot of awkwardness, but if Harvard's freshman year has a theme, it'd be "Embrace Awkwardness", simply because everyone's going through the same thing. You're not the only one asking for everyone's name five times before getting it. You're not the only one feeling lost in the dining hall, looking for a familiar face to sit down with, or a topic to talk about. You're really not alone, even though technically you are.
One thing i learned about Harvard, which is applicable to all colleges in general i guess, is that one should NEVER sign up for a 9am class unless there's a hot teacher. Believe me, you need something to motivate you to drag your ass out of bed, and German or Arabic does not do the work. Even hot classmates don't look good at 9am, having just rolled out of bed in their chocolate-stained sweatpants (at least i hope that's chocolate), with a banana sticking out of their pocket. I mean, like actual, organic banana peeping out of an actual pocket. I have no idea why i kept stressing the word 'actual'.
It's so fucking cold here. The outside temperature for the whole week has been below 20 degrees C, and its only September. I just walked in the rain, in like 13 degree C weather. I'm still having a cold/semi-swine flu. I'm gonna catch pneumonia and die in the winter or something. TOUCH WOOD.
It's kinda surreal when i go on sites like CollegeConfidential or VietAbroader now, and see how the high school kids are freaking out about getting into good schools, one of which being Harvard. Nowadays I don't feel like i'm at Harvard. At all. I've sort of forgotten how difficult/crazy/fucking insane it was trying to get into this place, how i was going out of my mind a year ago, trying to juggle the impending Prelims (which i was sure i was gonna bomb, not that i really cared) and the Yale application. Things didn't turn out too badly, but at that time i thought i was so screwed. Anyway, more of that later. I need some sleep.
Labels: Harvard Life
