Guess which society I joined...

One of these days I'll remember what my degree is actually in, but for now the music geek in me will continue to reign.
Today we had academic orientation. We weren't sure if we actually had to go because we're not freshman, but we thought we'd go anyway, if only for the free tshirt. It turned out to be a couple of hours of waiting around as they piled 4000 students into one room for convocation: a weird event involving bagpipes, the national anthem, a very anecdote-happy guest speaker and pledging to be good students and not let ourselves die. It was strange. We planned to hang around for the free food, but the prospect of standing in a massive queue for the sake of a burger was a bit much. Instead we went to Chicken Chicken, which is next to Pizza Pizza. They really go for ingenious company names here.
I spent the afternoon lounging around eating Malteasers and watching Chalet Girl. Ed Westwick makes me happy, although in my head I think I spent the entire film thinking of him as Chuck Bass. <3
Later came the Expo (freshers fair/squash) where I considered joining the Quidditch team, before realising that no amount of Harry Potter references could make me run around a field on a broomstick chasing someone in a yellow tshirt. Although it does slight worry me that it's the actual running around and not the general ridiculousness of it that's putting me off.
We then established that Carleton really doesn't have talent. Really.
The big event of the day was a talk from MTV's The Buried Life. For those of you who don't know (I certainly didn't) they're basically four guys who travel around trying to complete their bucket list, and trying to help other people do things on their own bucket lists. They've done some pretty cool stuff, like sneaking into the Playboy mansion, riding a bull, playing basketball with President Obama, as well as helping people reconnect with long lost children etc. It sounds amazing, and not at all like anything you'd ever associate with MTV. They spent the time talking about what they'd done and encouraging people to do what they want to do and to make dreams a reality. I'll be sure to take them up on that advice once I've figured out what my dreams are. Anyways, listening to these guys talk and hearing students share the things on their bucket lists was really interesting and gave me a lot of respect for Canadian people. In true British fashion, I've been pretty cynical so far with regards to the passion and enthusiasm that these people have, but I actually think that it's lovely that these people are so happy and open. Yes, the screaming and cheering can be a little a lot terrifying and I find myself missing the reserved and repressed ways of the Brits, but the spirit and pride that these students have for their school, their country and just the fact that they're alive is something to be admired. Having said that, an entire song about how much they hate the University of Ottawa (culminating in a chorus of "Fuck you Ottawa U) is a bit much.
Classes start tomorrow, which means I should probably get some sleep, since tomorrow alone I have almost as many hours of classes as I did in an entire week in Exeter, and I'm not sure how well reacquainting myself with education is going to go.
And yes, that is a Carleton University bandana in my hair. Go Ravens!