"I said baby, baby I'm so far away from home..."

Anyway, perhaps I should elaborate. I've been so busy in this first week of orientation that I haven't been able to say anything. Now it's Saturday, downtime... I hear there's a waterballoon fight on the yard behind my dorm at two thirty, but I'm not even sure I'll go to that. There IS no a/c in here, which makes it a tempting prospect.

It's humid here, but beautiful. The buildings are mostly pre-1900, an unusual thing for Westerners like me. In my home town, if it's built before 1970 it's old. Here, everything is like some sort of idylic college paradise. The bells in Eaton Chapel time the hours, and we make fun that Beloit is TRYING to be a stereotypical college. The squirrels here are even different--grey and thin, more ratlike, and very in-yo-face. Bunnies and chipmunks run about gleefully, too.

One thing I'm getting used to (along with said humidity) is the constant scream of cicadas. The trees are coated with them, apparently. I've never seen one, but I don't know what to look for. Even now their wail comes almost in timed intervals. "REEEEEEEEEeeeee.... reee... reee...." And for all y'all who are from cicada-less lands like I am, they're not like crickets who only sing in the dark. This is an all-day affair. An insect Denny's--screaming! 24-7!

All of my classes start after nine, except on Tuesdays and Thurusdays, when it will be AT nine. So less waking up. Hooah.

I'm beginning to get at least comfortable with people. The two girls who live right next door to me are good company, and we tend to walk down to stores in a group; the gals in 209 are endless amusement with their love of Bowie and so on.

At times, though, I still get homesick. I miss my friends with whom I had a running friendship with, and I miss the dry heat, and I miss my puppies. But it's a brave new world, I guess, so it's all good.