CC Student Web Journals - Colorado College

Somhrita'S JOURNAL

February 2007

With the new block in January, CC gave a warm welcome to the winter start students. I had the responsibility of showing the campus to two exchange students from Wales. Initially I was amused by their profound British accents, and I made it a point to make my friends meet these students as they thought I had a British accent. I found myself showing them the same spots I was shown on my orientation… it felt a little strange because I have only been here for a semester, and here I was showing them the ropes of CC. They had the same questions I did… how are the people, will they like us, how are the classes. After that I watched as everyone asked them the same set of questions over and over, just like they had done to us – where are you from, why are you here, what classes are you taking and how do you like CC. It was like watching an encore of my first week at CC. As the other winter starts arrived, we were taken back to our first days of college, shaking hands and introducing ourselves. Two of my friends have winter start students for roommates. I had heard that the winter start students hangout only with each other, but I beg to differ. I feel they have fit in beautifully with all of us too.

February 7 was to be my first birthday away from home. My parents sent me a package; it arrived a little beaten up on the last week of January. It had an array of random things – earrings, henna, pickles, snacks, a bag and a shirt. The weekend before that my friends gave me the most adorable surprise I had ever received. Every Friday we go downtown to Coffee and Tea Zone to listen to this band play, and everything was going on like a regular Friday… Until I found myself being blindfolded and dragged across downtown. I could hear strangers telling me this was not fun… and I was mortified that I would trip or slip on the icy road, but I guess my friends took good care of me and I found myself in the melting pot. They were going to get me dessert and they sang happy birthday to me and I felt like a little girl when I got balloons. This gesture really made my day.

On my actual birthday and the night before, I got phone calls from so many people from back home – my best friend, my brother, my parents, my uncle, my little cousin sister and a few more friends. I felt really special and happy… well that’s exactly how people feel on birthdays I guess. I also felt so far away, probably because my homesickness has been increasing over the months. I guess the main difference was that these people got to wish me in person for the last 18 years, and here I was pressing a cell phone to my ear, hearing only their voice, remembering exactly how they look. But then they must have changed over these days, because I have. They all asked me one question — when do I come back home.

On a lighter note, I spent the block break exploring Denver with a bunch of friends. After a block of calculus, it was a refreshing and well deserved break for me. Math on the Block Plan was quite different from the other subjects I had learnt so far. It was intimidating despite the fact that I had learnt most of it before.  Block break was a lazy time and we saw a bunch of movies because the theatres were much closer than they are here. We ate super cheap Chinese food too. We came back to college with some more fond memories etched in our minds.