A Series of Unfortunate Events in USC

OOO. EEEM. GIII…How can so many things go wrong at the same time? I don’t even know where to start. I’ve been in such angst and trepidation due to various incidents during my college orientation that I feel like my head has whirled into the Land of Oz and my fingers still twitch in short bouts of panicked spasms.

Here’s a short-capped version of everything that went wrong:

• I (almost) lost my cell phone, which is my lifeline considering that I’m in a foreign place
• I discovered that the bus ticket I reserved to San Leandro was booked for July 6th, not July 15th (Holy Shit!)
• I also found out that it didn’t matter anyway because orientation ended much later than I thought (which meant I had to spend another night in LA, since there was only one pick-up bus per day at noon)
• After I reserved my spot in the Wilshire Grand Hotel in downtown LA, I found out a day later that I reserved my room for July 19th, not July 15th (What the hell is wrong with me?)
• The food in the USC dining hall sucks. Seriously. I couldn’t even cut through the steak, which was cooked way, way done.
• But the worst thing is: On the hour when everyone was rushing to register for classes, which is first-come-first-serve, I discovered that my registration was put on hold because my freaking housing contract was cancelled!!!!!!

I seriously had to bit down on my lip to prevent myself from bursting into tears! Anyone who has gone to university should know what I’m talking about when I say there is a mad rush to register for the classes you want. While everyone walked out of the computer labs with their newly-printed class schedules for this Fall semester, I was still sitting by the phone, reaching the voicemail over and over again until I finally reached the administration and cleared the misunderstanding.

By the time I got to the computer to register for classes, all the classes I had wanted to take was full. I spent another hour and half trying to find classes that would fit into my schedule, blinking away tears of frustration. My advisor took pity on me and helped me out, but even now, my class schedule is not fixed and I have to check up on the class availability constantly, hoping that someone would drop the class.

So, that’s how my orientation went. Daily fluctuations of misfortunes and disaster, one right after another.

Okay, that’s the bad news. The good news?

• I freaking love USC. The campus is gorgeous, the weather is gorgeous, and the people are gorgeous!
• I already made some friends whom I really like, and found out they were assigned to a housing right next to mine!
• I was assigned to the housing I wanted, which is apartment-style with a kitchen (Hell YEAH!!)
• I managed to reserve another bus ticket on July 16th (tomorrow)
• I eventually found my cell phone
• There are more than five frozen yogurt shops within walking distance! USC is froyo-heaven, baby!
• The breakfast in the USC dining hall was actually pretty good compared to other meals!
• Despite all these dramas, whereas previously would have caused me to crumble under the stress and succumb to ED, I still stood strong. This is the ultimate proof that I can withstand all the college stress and still fight for my recovery!
  
• Because I get to spend another night in LA, I’m free to blog tonight and catch up with you guys! Missed the blog community so much!

So. It turns out that the score is six bad things to eight good things, so YAAAY! I’ll have to say this trip to LA was still a success!

By the way, I tried to take pictures when I could surreptitiously, but truthfully, the food was really lackluster. I found myself buying tons of foot-long subs from Subway as snacks because the mealtimes were way to early and I found myself getting hungry at night.

My first meal in USC before the dining halls were open:
A TAC sandwich from Submarines:
 Turkey, avocado, and smoked cheddar cheese on Squaw bread with all the works

Red Mango, right in the middle of our campus!
 Green tea froyo with blueberries

Subway’s new Harvest Fruits Chicken Salad Sandwich:
 Chicken with mayo, celery, cucumbers, olives and dried fruits in flatbread with feta cheese (Delicious! Try it!)
More Subway:
 Turkey and cheddar in flatbread with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, pickles, red onion, mustard and mayo

Hasty continental breakfast:
 Apple, muffin, coffee

The worst meal I had in my life:
 Crap, crap, and more crap

Second round, just to make sure (same meal):
Still crap (wasn’t gonna take a pic, but still did half-way eating through it)

More Subway as night snack:
 Foot-long black forest ham with feta, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, pickles, mustard and mayo on 9-grain honey oat

Picnic lunch:
 Roasted veggie sandwich, turkey sandwich, Baked Lay’s, Granny Smith
Way too much bread and too little filling…How the hell can you screw up a simple picnic sandwich?

But on the bright side, here’s a few shots of my beautiful campus:
Welcome to USC, my friends!
Gorgeous Doherny Library, which is 9-stories total (5 underground):
I wanna live in this place!
Stunning ceiling, just like Hogwarts:
Gorgeous pool:
 Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism, where a lot of my classes will be!
Parkside Apartments, where I shall live in:
Sorry, I just had to share these; I am so proud and in love with my school! Proud Trojan, fight on! All right, off to catch up with  you guys!

P.S. This time tomorrow I will be reaching San Leandro. Hopefully I’ll have better eats to share there!