Beginning of the end

This morning I moved back to UO for my final year. I'm so excited - and today has gone so much better than I could have hoped for :)

My work schedule is perfect. I have great shifts doing my two favorite things - barista and dining room. I work the opening barista shifts on Mon and Wed (my class schedule is all day Tue and Thu, and Fri afternoons). Everyone has to work one weekend shift and mine is Sunday nights, which means that I get to spend Friday night, all day Saturday and most of Sunday with Chris when I'm home. The dining room shift is mainly keeping the dining room clean and stocking shelves. Sounds kinda crappy but I love it because I don't have any mutha uckers messing with my shi :) No customers, no bosses, no coworkers. As long as I keep myself busy and stay out of trouble, no one bugs me for 3 whole hours. Hells ya.

My new room is absolutely amazing! Last school year, I shared one of the smallest double rooms on campus (about 140 sqft). This is a picture of my old room (and for the record my side is the left lol):

This year, I have a single room with a sink. There's so much space I have no idea what to do with myself! lol I'm still unpacking and getting settled, but here's a quick shot of my new room:

There's also two big wall lockers which can't be seen in the picture. Along with a dresser and vanity sink/medicine cabinet, the storage space is practically tripled what I had before. All the furniture and fixtures are brand new. I can still see the contractor's markings on the wall and smell the new laminate smell in the drawers. This may not sound like much, but the UO housing has been compaired to dungeons by the Princeton Review. My building was featured in the opening scene of Animal House; the dorm room they lived in before joining the frat was how my room once looked. The new updates are greatly appreciated!

Not to mention there's an elevator in this building so we didn't have to lug all my stuff up 5 flights of stairs. The laundry room is on the same floor so no hauling my clothes down to the basement. There's a tub in the shower room (although I haven't actually tested it out yet, it's nice to know the option is there lol). I can drink the water that comes out of my tap too, unlike the gross shared water fountain in my old hall.

And omg - the view! I can actually see Autzen Stadium, which is about a mile away.

In about a month when the trees lose their leaves, the view of the stadium will get even better. I wonder if I'll be able to see the big yellow O?

My old room didn't have a horrible view. Being able to look down on Hayward Field was great:

But for the most part all you could see was the roof of the covered walk ways below and the brick wall of the other building. (Sorta unrelated, but there's talk the Eugene Marathon will actually start and finish on Hayward Field. Kick ass! Although I'll probably only be walking the half this year depending on when I get knocked up, should still be a lot of fun.)

So far, there's a couple downsides to my new room. One, just two outlets for the entire room and none by the sink. Two, I now live right above the chow hall. Nice because it's much much quieter than my old room (no people standing below my window fighting at 2am or annoying people singing over the loud speakers at Hayward Field), but not so nice because I can smell everything that's cooking. Today was chicken strips, cheese sandwich and french fry day - drool! Tomorrow night is bbq chicken.

After I got moved in, Chris stayed with me for most of the afternoon. He made sure my computer was up and running, got everything arranged just right for me and helped me put up some strings of purple lights around the room. We went out to lunch then bought my books and some supplies, then sat in my room and talked for a while. He wanted to spend the night with me, but we couldn't leave Hank outside alone all night (it's been cold and I'd worry, plus Hank gets really anxious if he misses a meal). But now there's enough space in my room that both Hubby and Hank-dogs can come stay :)

Obviously, I'd live in a cardboard box if that what I needed to do for my degree. I no joke lived in a tent in my parent's backyard two summers ago*. To just have this opportunity to be at UO is an immense blessing. To have this space to live in on top of everything else is so much more than I ever could have asked for.

* In order to graduate at the same time as Chris, I needed to take second-year Japanese over the summer. Unfortunately, Oregon State does not offer second-year Japanese summer term; I'd have to attend either University of Oregon or Portland State. That same summer, Chris was in OCS at Quantico, Virginia and I was responsible for the pets. Our families live in Portland and my parents agreed to have me and Hank stay the summer with them, so back to Portland State I went. Unfortunately, my brother was also living with my parents after returning from Japan and my sister has my old bedroom. My options were to sleep on my parent's couch, sleep on my sister's floor, or pitch a tent in the backyard. I opted for the backyard.