WARNING: Many spelling/ grammar fails will occur. I'm quite exhausted and I do not feel like proofreading this whole post. Enjoy!Last week, I had the fantastic opportunity to attend the ORU college weekend. This involved staying in the dorms, attending classes, and meeting potential professors/ classmates. Once I arrived in Tulsa, I almost instantly fell in love with the city. It reminds me so much of a mix of Charlotte and Fort Worth.
After I grabbed my suitcase, I went out to the shuttle and waited for an hour. During this hour, I got to talk to some rather interesting people. They were both in their late 20's and were going to ORU for the Graduate Theology program (or something like that...I'm not completely sure). So while we were waiting on the other people to arrive, I got to talk to these two people about missions for a good hour or so. It was quite a fantastic way to begin the weekend.
Once the other group arrived, we finally were able to make our way to the ORU campus. (Side note: Tulsa drivers drive really slow.)
I finally made it to the campus at about 1:45. Shortly after that, I had to hike across campus with my suitcase to be able to check in (albeit...the campus is pretty small).
After I dropped off my suitcase at the dorms, I realized that I had a good 3 and a half hours to kill...so I awkwardly walked around campus the entire time. How exciting.
After the three hours were up, I headed back to the chapel for dorm assignments. However, college weekenders (as the called us) were not split up by dorm, but also split up by two colors.
Blue and gold.
Little did I know that this seemingly small detail would turn into a pretty big deal. I'll get to that in a second.
Anywho.
I wish I would have been journaling during this whole experience, because I hardly remember the first day. This may be due to the fact that I only got 2 hours of sleep and was running on 4 shots of espresso...but it's all good.
That night, the college held an event called "ORU's Got Talent". The purpose of this event was to showcase some of the talented students that attend ORU (pretty self explanatory). The event showcased everything from beautiful music, to magic tricks. It was quite fantastic. Sadly, no one sang any veggie tales songs. This might change in the future.
Later that night when it was time to sleep, I had two major realizations.
1. ORU has very uncomfortable floors.
2. Sleeping on the floor beside a window when it's 30 degrees outside is not a good idea.
Enough said. Moving on.
The next day, I woke up early and took a walk around campus (after grabbing some coffee at Hava Java, of course). Everything is so gorgeous in the morning right after the sun rises. I just wish I was more of a morning person so I could enjoy it more. However, the freezing temperatures woke me up quickly. After grabbing a bite to eat at SAGA (a rather epic name for a cafeteria if you ask me), I headed to my first class...psychology. For those of you who don't know, I am highly considering minoring in psychology. It has always been interesting to me...but considering you can't do much with a major in psychology without going on for your masters, I decided minoring in it would be a better option. Anywho. Later on in the day, I got the chance to attend chapel at ORU and the chance to hear James Robison speak. It was quite fantastic.
After chapel, I grabbed lunch and headed to my next class...a theatre class. Once again, for those of you who don't know...I'm interested in being a DTF major next fall:
(http://www.oru.edu/academics/college_of_arts_and_cultural_studies/drama_tv_film_major.php)
The class I visited was fantastic. We got the chance to watch two students rehearse a scene from the play Proof (which I've studied in a previous class...huzzah!) After the class, the professor told everyone about a theatre scholarship audition that would be happening about an hour and a half after that class. Honestly, I'm not the best actress...nor do I plan on ever being an amazing actress...but I figured that I had nothing to lose. So after class, I asked the professor if she had any scenes or monologues that I could use for a cold reading...she handed me Proof. SCORE. So I skipped my next class and went back to the dorms to rehearse. I sat down in the common area on my floor (at the dorms) and called my mom to tell her about it. Apparently, one of the other weekenders happened to overhear me and asked if there was anything she could do to help. Of course, I was extremely excited about this so I accepted. After I felt adequately prepared (well, as adequate as I can feel for a last minute scholarship audition), we went and got smoothies and talked for a little while. Her name was Mimi and I have yet to find her on facebook (epically sad face).
When time was up, I headed to the giant golf ball for my audition.
As I watched other people talk about the numerous school productions that they have been in, I began to get a bit discouraged. As a homeschooler, many doors are closed in the world of theatre. Yes, I can put on little shows for my parents as many times as I want, but those kind of stopped being cute when I was five. When it was finally my turn to audition, I felt quite inadequate...but surprisingly...not nervous at all. I went up and met the two department heads and was my generally cheerful self and things seemed to go pretty well...until the professor that handed me the scene to work on earlier decided to surprise me with a new monologue. Yay.
I had one minute to review the monologue before I presented it to the professors. Frustration.
I couldn't accurately read their reactions...but it's all good! Yes, It would be fantastic to get a scholarship (considering I'll need a pretty big one to be able to attend ORU), but I'm honestly pretty relaxed about the whole situation. Sadly, I won't find out how I did until the spring.
Later that night, the weekenders had the chance to attend the men's basketball scrimmage. Although I'm not a huge fan of sports, I must admit that I love going to actual games. It's quite fun if you're with the right people!
A little while into the game, the mascot started walking through the crowd. My friend Olivia and I decided we really wanted a picture with him...so what did we do? We yelled, "HEY EAGLE!!" at the top of our lungs...mostly because we had no idea what the name of the mascot was (now we know his name is Eli). It was quite funny/ a tad embarrassing at the time, but we got the picture! VICTORY!
After about 30 minutes, we all (the gold team) left the game. This is where things start to get interesting.
Two words. Color wars.
Gold vs. blue. (GOLD IS OBVIOUSLY THE BEST).
Each team came up with a drama and a few team chants. It was quite exciting.
Especially if you consider the fact that I've been homeschooled all of my life and have never been able to really do the whole "school spirit" thing. Exciting.
At the end of the night, the judges decided it was a tie. Lame.
After returning to the dorms, I met up with Olivia and we went to a random dorm that happened to have karaoke. This was basically one of the highlights of my weekend.
After singing way too many Jesse McCartney and Britney Spears songs, I finally made my way back to my dorm floor.
However, I did not want to sleep on the floor again...so I headed out to the common area one last time. There, I met another lovely friend, Carmen. We talked about random things until about 3 am...which is when we decided that sleeping on the couches in the common area would be way more comfortable than sleeping on the floor. So that's exactly what we did.
The final day was a sad day. I really hate saying goodbyes. Not only did I meet some pretty cool people, I got to hang out with some old Texas friends that I've missed! Ah well. It's all good.
All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. My complete lack of blogging skills fail to show how truly awesome it really was.
I definitely know where I want to attend college next fall!
Anyway...I'm going to go catch up on some sleep now.
Goodnight.
