Quick Recap- Part One: Thursday-Friday

Hi everyone!
It's us again, Chelsea and Eric, the Braunsey twins. We're hanging out in Eric's room, about to try some awesome Orange Dulce Organic Tea.

For those keeping score at home, here's a quick weekend recap to get you guys up to date on the whirlwind adventure that is our college experience (for those of you thinking about going to college next year, we will add lots of colorful details to entice you to join us at the UW). This series of posts will probably be the lengthiest blogs we do as it covers several days and is full of superfluous details, so please, bear with us. Future posts will not be so long, we promise! Note: we mean "quick" in a relative term...like on a geological scale.

Thursday:
Let's start at the beginning. On Thursday morning, Chelsea went to bed at 1:30 after having said goodbye to her most beloved friends (who she misses like crazy by the way), and got up again at 4:30. Father Braun (that's our dad, not a Catholic clergyman) had insisted that we pack up the truck the night before, so we were ready and able to embark on our journey at 5:30...or so. We drove straight onto the Kingston/Edmonds ferry and made it to the E1 parking lot by 8:30. However, the U was just not prepared for the Braunsey twins. In fact, it was as sluggish as we were. (Although, Eric the Younger, was not all that sluggish. He didn't go to bed so late like Chelsea always does. Like most young men his age, Eric enjoys nothing more than taking a nice long bath complete with fragrant bath salts. For this particular bath, Eric didn't bother reading the instructions on the salts. He dumped the entire contents of the bath salts into his bath, giving him three times the recommended amount of bathly goodness which meant that all day long his skin was soft, supple, and smelled amazing. He read in the bath and ended up in bed by 11:30. Eric also made a cup of tea the night before and left it steeping, leaving him with a cold beverage for breakfast with a powerful kick of caffeine). Eric's check-in time was 7:30-9:30am, which meant that he checked in around 9:25 after having waited for a good hour in the parking lot. Chelsea checked in right after him.

Although Eric chose to stay in the same room as he had last year, Chelsea wanted to get away from her previous next-door neighbor...which was a storage closet full of strong-smelling chemicals that wafted into her room everytime the janitor decided to clean the bathroom. So, she moved into a lovely quad room with 3 roomates. Luckily, one of her roomates has a lot in common with her and had been there for a few days due to marching band practice. Another roomate moved in shortly afterwards. The third girl had been unreachable and none of residents of room M111 knew anything about her. Turns out she was a freshman (in a 20+ dorm), who had just flown in from South Korea. The poor thing was put into a room with 3 upper classmen who did not speak her language, had to go directly to freshman orientation the next day, and had previously been unable to register for classes. Oy Vey! Luckily, her roomates are a group of sweet, sensitive girls who go our of their way to help her feel at home. Go us!

As for the more practical side of moving in, we almost have packing down to a science now. Note: the word almost. It's true that it took us an evening to pack everything that will last us for a year, but it felt like the truck was much less crowded than it was last year. Packing took less time, and once we got there we knew where everything needed to go. However, as Eric was unpacking his belongings, he came to the startling realization that he had forgotten his bed padding, his comforter, a change of blankets, a change of pillow cases, and (less importantly) his nail clippers. So, for two days Eric relied on a thin bedsheet and a quilt to get him through the night. Thankfully, the Braun parentals were already planning on the making the trek to Seattle on Saturday and were able to supply us with everything that we'd forgotten.

For those of you who don't already know, Chelsea has accepted a new job as a student tutor for athletes struggling with English and Drama (because we all know how uncreative football players are). She had orientation for this new job on Thursday at 1:00 for 4 hours...which was probably informative, but considering she had had about 3 hours of sleep, she's not quite sure...Don't worry, she starts tutoring in about a week. The twins also met up with one of Chelsea's good friends from last year, Freddie, and her dad and had a lovely dinner with them at Thai 65. They got their food almost immediately, but ended up chatting for nearly an hour.

Friday:
About this time last year, Chelsea said, "Let's go to the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. It's just a short walk from our dorm." To which Eric replied, "Yes, it's free for students. All we have to do is flash our Husky Cards at the door. It's an excellent way to support our school and spend a fun-filled afternoon." After they were done filming the promotional video for the Burke Museum, Chelsea and Eric got back to reality and said, "Well, next weekend will be better." And it was. So was the weekend after that, and the one after that. Soon, the school year had passed by and they hadn't even come close to crossing the threshold of knowledge. So this year, they made a special point of visiting. Since they both love museums and learning new things, it was fun. Plus, it's just a really cool place. It's not too big, so one afternoon was just the right amount of time to experience it all. For those of you considering the UW next year, it's free and it's a pretty nice place. As a matter of fact, the Arctic exhibit was so amazing that Eric broke down and bought the Idiot's Guide to the Arctic and Antarctic at the UW bookstore which he had had his eye on for almost an entire year.

We hope you've enjoyed this first installment, it will be less painful from here on out we promise! Once Chelsea locates her camera, there may even be some pictures. We are hungry and are going to get some food, by the way the tea was delicious. We highly recommend it to anyone who wants to give it a try.