Thursday, September 4, 2008

Look Frosh – a blog post! A blog post? HUH HUH.

Last week at uni was Frosh Week. As far as I know, there aren’t any US schools that have anything called Frosh Week, or anything like it masquerading under a different name. Frosh Week is the fun-filled week before classes start. There is orientation information (i.e. talks about the rules, what to do, meeting the faculty, etc) and also… partying. Dry partying, but partying nonetheless. Every night, I hear the parties going on in the quad from all the way at my residence hall at the very edge of campus.

At York, faculties are divided into groups called “colleges” (it’s like the Hogwarts houses in Harry Potter. If you haven’t read Harry Potter, it’s like organizing your cutlery drawer at home – spoons here, forks there). The colleges each have their own orientation for freshman students. My college is called Winters, and it hosts all the fine arts students at York.
Each college also has a residence building affiliated with it. It isn’t required that you live with your faculty, but it is recommended. I don’t live in the Winters residence hall; I live in a snazzy one called Pond Road which is the newest residence building, and the only one not associated with a college at York.

And so that brings me to my dorm room, which is a wonder upon wonders in the collegiate world. I share a suite a kitchen and bathroom with only one person, my roommate Laura. We also get our own single-person bedrooms. It’s basically an apartment, and we are freshman… which is insanely lucky and amazing.

And so it’s time to share the wonder that is my suite at The Pond Road Residence:

kitchen/bathroom:



john adams! woo!







my roommate's room:




my room:









eddie's on the window

the view from my window :





So my residence hall is amazing. The people I’ve met who live here are all nice as well. I met my don (it’s what they call RA’s in Canada, or at least at York) and a bunch of kids on my floor on move-in day. We had a barbeque, played some games, and met the other dons and Frosh Week leaders (Bosses).

During Frosh Week, my roommate and I only sampled some of the activities instead of going to every single one, like some people do. We went on a downtown tour with Winters. We went to the Eaton Centre, a huge mall downtown. While there, some of our frosh bosses started a dance party in the Apple store and got kicked out of the mall. And, while we were all running around downtown together, we sang some of the Winters College cheers. My personal favorite is the one where a leader will call, “Look, frosh – [an object]!” and everyone echoes, “[an object]? Huh huh! [an object]? Huh!” with each “huh” accompanied by a pelvic thrust. For example, when we overtook Downsview subway station, we shouted, “Look, frosh – confused and innocent bystanders!” “Confused and innocent bystanders? HUH HUH! Confused and innocent bystanders? HUH!”

Yeah Winters college is crazy and intense. Like I said, I can hear their quad parties from my res halfway across campus.




Kids and frosh bosses in a fountain during the downtown tour.



All the frosh in my res and our frosh bosses went to a “Space Pirates vs Space Ninjas” themed dance party in the Winters quad.


My costume (space ninja)


Laura’s (space pirate)


My res! (not my picture - I shamelessly stole this from someone’s facebook)



Winters Frosh Week culminated with an awesome boat cruise on The Empire Sandy, this old schooner that tours the Toronto Harbor.








the skyline from the harbor


So Frosh Week was amazing! I met so many cool people and did so many cool things! I miss it already.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

dude that looks freakin awesome XD Ahh how funnnn :D
And wtf is JOHN ADAMS doing on the side of your fridge?! xDDDD

Ellen Saunders said...

I couldn't call it home without John Adams on my fridge =o

Anonymous said...

that's so nice looking! you're so luckyyyyyy~

ahaha pictures of john adams and eddie XD

katie said...

Keep updating!!! Joey and I like your blog :)

Anonymous said...

I was google-imageing york and pond residence, when I came across your blog. Great stuff!

I'm living in Pond Residence this September and I'm really looking forward to it after reading your post! :)

Ellen Saunders said...

If only I had kept up the blog, hahaha. Pond is a great res—you'll enjoy it. Glad I could be of help. You starting first year? If so, good luck and make sure you do all the frosh things!