Last night, Ian and I went on another adventure to go find our classes. Ian got off at the wrong bus stop, so I spent some time wandering around Science Hill by the bus stop. I found a sign warning pedestrians about tree sitters, so I pondered about whether or not there were actually tree sitters up there. Finally, Ian showed up and I showed him the tree sitters. We shouted "HELLO!" but we got no response. We walked back to my apartment to get a camera to take pictures, and decided to look with a flashlight in the trees! But we couldn't see anything. We found the building that my class was in for tomorrow morning, and went to Oakes to find Ian's class. On the way to the bus stop, I saw a sign in a classroom window that said "GO HOME PROTESTERS." (Crazy Santa Cruz people!) Then we journeyed via bus to Oakes. I knew where Ian's class was since it was where I went to find out my undeclared major-ness, so I showed him and proceeded to sit down in a chair next to an ashtray and a trashcan. Ian stood around looking awkward. Within a minute or so, someone came out of the building that we were sitting next to. He whipped out a cigarette. I whipped out a cough drop. He lit his. I unwrapped mine. He placed his in his mouth. I popped mine into my mouth. "Oh goooooood, you smoke too!" "Actually no, it's just a cough drop." was the first exchange. From there, he proceeded to tell us stories and mumbles laced with bits and pieces of advice from the thirty something years he's worked here.
1. "Don't get caught up in all the yakkity yak yak yak." Then he told us a story about a cat named Socrates who lived at Stevenson and how students would always nuke him and feed him various drugs. He also told us a tale about how some guy named Robert would one day be buried next to Socrates.
2. "Fight the man." Back in the day, Kresge used to have Woodstock-like concerts called Kresge Day where people would drink, smoke, hang off balconies, and have an awesome time while listening to live music. Back in the day, the UCSC farm had donkeys, but some idiot lady fed a donkey carrots and then tried to run away, so the donkey bit her ass. Back in the day, UCSC used to be very chill, but not anymore. These days, there are lots of policies and rules that students and faculty must abide by. Everyone follows them, and nobody, or an insignificant amount of people, tries to fight it, so control just gets tighter.
3. "Break the ice." He told us a story about this one girl who was in one of the Science Hill buildings. He would always say hi to her, and one day, she said to him, "Joe! I'm so glad you're here, because in the seven and a half months that I've been here, you're the only person who says hi to me!" So don't walk around with your head down, because that's what everyone is doing.
I think that's it.
Going back to the tree sitters part... this morning, I went to my first class and I passed by Tree Sitters Way. I looked up in the tree and I saw a blue tarp-like entity. TREE SITTER!
On another note, at my first class/discussion today, there were four other people, no TA, no teacher. The moral of this story? If there are no lectures before discussions, don't go.
Also, yesterday, I ate dinner in the Porter/Kresge dining hall by myself, and two CSOs joined me for great funz & lolz. It was interesting.
UPDATE ON THE METALHEAD COUNT:
Day 6 (9/24/2008): Joey the Wintersun t-shirt wearing man. He lives at Stevenson and wears metal t-shirts so he can meet people with similar interests. Such as myself!
Day 7 (9/25/2008): Facebook guy named Chris who listens to At the Gates. I'm not sure if he's a real metalhead, but he might be. For the time being, I will not list him under legit.
Total: 11
Legit Total: 6
This is my apartment. Four of them are legitimate stoners. Six of them are inconsiderate. Three of them are nice. Excluding myself, of course, from all of the above.
