Wednesday August 23rd, 2006 Nando's been up in Minnesota for over a week now - I wonder what he already hates about it Greetings, all of you. My, it certainly has been an action packed month in NandoLand, and it looks like maybe things might finally be slowing down. As you all know, as soon as we got done with transporting my crap up to MN, I got to cleaning the apartment in Madison, which only took a few hours. I reasoned that I could just fit whatever was left in there in my car and that I should be good to go. Lord, was I mistaken. It all just barely fit, and I was worried about how i would take everything out in Chicago and then have to fit it all back in. Three pillows had to be sacrificed for the greater good. Before finally heading out, I had to remember to stop by to return the keys to the place. Seeing as how said place is right across the building from where I used to work, I decided to top on by family Service to see how things were shaking, so that was pretty cool. A funny thing happened in Chicago, though. Usually, I have nothing to do and get bored or frustrated easily and just head on out ASAP, but that didn't happen this time. I was actually pretty comfortable - despite my lack of stuff to do, so I decided to stay a good two and a half weeks, as opposed to the week I had originally planned. It was cool, though. Scott came over to the pad, and we relaxed. He broke my laptop. good times. I got to see Chua and Becker as well a couple of more times, which is always a good thing. It's hard to believe that the next time I visit, they won't be living in the same general area anymore, but I guess I'm not one to talk as I'm Mr.-4-states-in-7-years. Oh yeah and Erinn payed me a visit, which was pretty cool as well since I hadn't seen her since she came for a brief stint in Madison during the early summer.   I also reached my three movie theatre average this summer. I was supposed to see Pirates with Chua, Scott and Becker but when we got there every seat was taken and the only seats left were scattered all about. This was on a saturday a good two weeks the movie had come out, mind you. I was just kind of surprised that for being the 'best money maker' of the year, that none of us had seen it yet. So instead, we went in to see A Scanner Darkly, which I enjoyed, though Chua had to take pain killers to calm his headache afterwards.I did eventually get to see Pirates with Erinn, but it wasn't all that great.  I high tailed it to Melanie's on the 11th of August and we pretty much just chilled. The next day, I helped her pack and get her stuff ready to leave, as she was supposed to be out of there by the 17th - that thursday! We also got around to picking up my computer, which was finally ready by then. The price was ridiculous and I thought that it would have been cheaper to just by a new motherboard and have chua chuck it in there. My yearly allergies were triggered by Melanie's dusting and so we went to the store at like 11:00 at night to get me some over the counter stuff. All I can say is that this year must be ridiculously bad since I've been taking the medication and there are days wheneven that doesn't help much. I left early on Sunday morning after getting a nice croissant. I was welcomed to MN with a HUGE showerstorm, which prevented me from seeing very far ahead on the road. Oh well. The next day and a half was dedicated to cleaning up and organizing. On tuesday, a friend from the program in Madison named Betsy hung out together. She lives in a swanky neighborhood in the suburbs of Minneapolis, so I didn't think it would be that far of a drive, but yeah, it really was. Man, you'll have to excuse the horrible writing, but I didn't get much sleep and had to deal with a plethora of problems this morning. We played a few card games by the lake which was pretty cool. Then on Wednesday, I went grocery shopping and walked to and around St. Paul's downtown area, which I have to say is very business-like, contrasting with Minneapolis's crazy, top-blowing action downtown. Thursday and Friday were relatively low key. I had called comcast to set up the internet here on Wednesday but Friday was the earliest they said they could do it. So the dude comes but he can't find a line, and tells me that the repairman will have to come in on Monday. Right before he leaves, I ask him if the repairman will have the cable modem, or if he should leave it or what, buthe assures me that Mr. Repair man will have it all ready. alas, that is not the case. The guy takes a whole hour on Monday to get the thing working and I have to call BACK to get the cable modem placed in but they cant do it till wednesday morning. So that brings me to today. It seems that the University was upgrading their systemsover the summer, which prohibitted anyone from checking how their requests for loans were coming along. Every day for like 2 weeks after they said it would be fixed, I would check, but nothing. that was until I went over to Betsy's place that one day on Tuesday and she let me use the internet. I had a nice note telling me that my stuff was all ready to go and that the money should be in my account in 4-5 days. I didn't want to verify this since I feel kinda odd checking bank accounts on foriegn computers, so I just took it for a given that I had some extra cash. So there, I go wasting money like a madman on food, when today, now that i have internet, over a week later, I check my statement and see that i have fifty bucks to my name! And with the rent coming up... damn it. I'm not sure how I'm gonna get out of this one. So, yesterday, I went to campus to fill out some paperwork, and tomorrow I have to choose a bank because they don't have any of the same ones that they have in Chicago. Minnesota: a whole new country. I'm tired, worried, and really frustrated. I'm going to bed.

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006 newsflash: nando uses orientation day for something that's actually useful I hate orientation crap. With a passion. They force you in with all of these other weirdos and make you say stuff about yourself. On and on and on and on it goes. So, as you can imagine, i was dreading having to go in today and play those ridiculous 'get-to-know-you" games which started at 9:00 am. Verifying the bus schedule, I made sure to leave here in time to catch the 8:30 bus. I had to pay with cash because I didn't have a U-Pass card because I wasn't signed up for courses because I didn't know how to do that because no one had told me how to despite my question to my adviser. So, I only had a vague idea of where to get off on campus, and suffice it to say, I missed my stop. When I thought, "oh, I'll just get off at the next one," the bus had taken me across the Mississippi and onto the Law School of the West Bank. Ugh. It would be a long walk back to the east bank; this was something I had come to learn from experience, having traversed the campi back and forth twice the last time I was there. The hard part however, was first knowing how to turn back because I couldn't turn around (sidewalk ended), or cross the street (high divider), or even go straight forward (sidewalk ended). Luckily, I found the entrance and once in there, I was able to orient myself to where I needed to be. So off I went. And once I had made it back to the East Bank, it was an adventure trying to find out where I needed to be. When I was there in April, I had ventured through the Twin Cities campus from a motel on University ave, not from the department where my program is located. however, I remembered that when they picked us up, we went north, so I proceeded to do so as well. When I hit Pilsbury Drive, a good twenty minutes later (it was a long walk back), I started to congratulate myself, as the building is 178 Pilsbury Drive. You could only make a right and the first building said '500' on it. Perhaps they would get shorter, I thought, but no, pretty soon I was on something called Union Street. Blast! Where did I go wrong?? Pilsbury Drive is a short road. And it's not like I could have turned any direction but right! Once I could no longer go east, I headed back North, but took major streets to see if I could orient myself any better. Eventually, I did manage to get on 4rth street and turn on 14th, where I got onto Pilsbury Drive. yay! I was an hour late. But I still made it. "Fernando!," someone said to me," so glad that you made it." After filling out some sign in sheets and getting my picture taken, i commenced to sit down in a room with like 35 other people. That's a huge cohort! I leafed through my sheets and found that they have a pretty huge Masters program. Only 9 students are new to the phd program. And my heart simply sank when I found out that one of the guys I had met in April was not on the list. He and I seemed to have hit it off so well, and I was looking forward to hanging out with him. The ironic part was that he was way more gun-ho about this whole thing than I was a few months ago. sigh. oh well. I'm sure these losers will entertain me in some fashion. During a break (five minutes after I sat down), the two other guys that did end up joining the program came up to me and asked how I was doing. I told them I was fine and asked them what I had missed. "Oh, just introductions," they answered. Sweet! I managed to luck out of having to tell people about myself. Always a plus. started to ask me about classes. "Yeah, how do you register?" I asked. "I'm not too familiar with all that" and since I need to be registered in order to get my bus pass and to get my loans, I was particularly interested. So, one of themwas kind enough to take me to the computer kiosk and show me how you go about doing all that. Now, the adventure starts. I try signing up for the courses that I find outlined in one of the pamphlets they gave me, but it says that my record has a hold on it because they haven't recieved my transcript from the UW-Madison. What the crap? I sent that thing in over two weeks ago! Not knowing what to do , I try calling the secretary from my Masters program in Madison. Maybe the transcript they sent still wasn't complete. I don't know. No answer. So, then I go up stairs and see if the secretary in this program is available- which she is (hurrah!)- and I ask her about what I could do about it. She calls the graduate school and tells them about my situation and they request that I fill out a waiver, which basically gives me a few months to get everything straightened out. I high tail it over to the Graduate School (mind you that orientation is still going on downstairs at this point). I get there and someone eventually attends to me and with a few keystrokes, I'm in the system! I rush back to the department and try to sign up again- success! So now that I'm registered, I see what I can find out about the U-Pass, and I get the same message about not being able to sign up for one because I'm not registered. It also says that they usually need 24 hours to update their records. But interestingly enough, I also read something about a U-Card being required.Oh crap! A student ID! I'd forgotten all about that. No one had even told me that I needed to get one or where to go. So, I look up where I can go to get my ID, and once again, leave (while orientation activities are going on) and walk a good eight blocks to the rec center, where I get my mug shot taken. Once I FINALLY got back into that room with the 35 other students, it's 11:30 and lunch is about to start, and professors are answering stupid questions about their attendance policies. I can already tell who is gonna be a pain in the ass. Oh man! Subway clubs for lunch! We talked with our advisers while we ate and I really had nothing to say besides the fact that I'm from all over the midwest. I look on my sheet and there are still like FOUR HOURS of this crap to go through. After I finish my sammich, I excuse myself and go to the bus stop and now I'm home. I gotta say, I am really not looking forward to this crap. Later.