Well, I'm in Steubenville...and it's orientation time!

As you can see from the title, I made it to Steubenville. I left NJ early last Sunday. It took me about 8 hours to get there. Once I got to Steubenville, I spent the night in the Holiday Inn. Why, you may ask? Because once I arrived at the apartment, I found out that the landlord didn't live there. The landlord owns a tanning and hair salon, which is located on the first floor. My apartment is on the second floor. The place was closed on Sundays, so I'd have to come back the next day to get my keys and move in. So I spent the night at the Holiday Inn on University Blvd (it's right next to Padua Hall). The following day, I went back to the "house" (which this building technically is), and got my keys to move in. The move in was pretty smooth. The apartment is pretty much a converted attic. It has a kitchen/dining area, a living room space, bathroom, and a wide open space in the back. I've made one part of this space into a bedroom (I have a raised aerobed right now), and I'm planning on making the other part of this space into a study area. There's a door where there used to be a window (I supposed that's what it was when this was a single family house), with wooden steps leading up to the "front door". The "back door", as I call it, leads downstairs to the first floor (the tanning salon). And there's a parking lot in the back. So the apartment is about five minutes from campus, roughly about 1.5 miles away. It's not perfect, but it's home...at least for the next year.

So this week was orientation. Orientation began on Thursday. I got to set up my Franciscan email. And I got to eat my first meal in Antonian Hall. I found out that different places on campus have nicknames. Antonian Hall is called the Caf. St Thomas Moore Hall is called Tommy. And the JC Williams Center is called the JC. I already knew that the Porticula Chapel was called the Port. One interesting thing that happened on the first night is that it began to pour down rain during the grand opening in the Finnegan Fieldhouse. At one point, the power went out...almost on cue. You could hear the rain pour down on the roof, and the loud clashes of thunder. Perhaps heaven was making some noise for the new students (like me), and the rain was tears of joy. All of this happened while Fr Terry was addressing us. Only at Franciscan would something like this happen. Anyway, the students were put in different groups during the weekend. The commuters were in one group, and there were groups for those living in the dorms and Assisi Heights (which was the apartments next to campus that housed low income people). The group I was placed into was the graduate/ non traditional group, or GNT for short. This is the group for grad students and non traditional undergrads (those people who are 23 and older). I'll tell you, the GNT's were so friendly. And I made a lot of new friends. During the weekend, mass was celebrated in the feildhouse. For some reason, their incense smells better than the incense used at St Joseph's church in Carteret (don't tell Monsignor Endebrock). Oh, and I also went to a Lord's Day. The household I visited was Warriors of the Word, which was in Marian. It was really nice. I want to check some of the households out, because I'd like to join a household...I just don't know which one. I'll have to pray on it. Well, I have pretty much have seen the entire campus by now. The only map I'll need by now is the map of the parking lots. Oh, the friars got a new friary. There is a new friary right next the the steel cross. I heard that the old friary was falling apart, and that the friars were using duct tape to fix some things. So what are they going to do with the old friary, you may ask? Well, it will be torn down and made into another parking lot. At least I got to see the old friary before it's torn down. There was a dumpster next to the old friary that was filled with garbage. The new friary is really nice, and the bells ring on the hour and half hour.

So classes start on Tuesday. Let the fun begin! :-)