Brown Beginning

Well, today there was so much to complete. For starters I had to repack all my things because today was the day that we would be moving into Brown in order to take the course on Women and Leadership, this was so exciting.

Second, we had to go to Brown and check in.

Third, there was the brunch we were to have with Mr. Ramsey, Ms. Kronenberg, Session 1 Brownies, Brown Alumni, and other well respected individuals. At this brunch I was also scheduled to give a speech.

Fourth, we had to transport our luggage from The Hotel Providence to our assigned dorm rooms.

Repacking did not take much time and so we simply checked in our luggage at the hotel so that they would take care of it while we were at the brunch and that way afterwards we could simply go and pick it up. After leaving the hotel, not really early it was around 8:30 AM, we headed to Brown.

Ms. Kronenberg first took Lydia, Lucero, and I. She dropped us of there and drove back to the hotel to pick up the rest. In the time that Ms. Kronenberg dropped us off, by the way she dropped us of at the famous Van Wickle Gates, and returned for the others Lydia, Lucero, and I took pictures like this one…

It was terrific to be on campus! Well, after the rest got here, we went on and had to get into line which was divided by alphabetical order of last name. Luckily, Lydia also was in the same line with me. The line was really long when we got in it, it almost reached the side exit gate by Sayles Hall. However, soon enough we were at the front table receiving our informational packet.

From there we went to two three other tables’ one to get our ID, another to check we had turned in all the necessary paperwork, and the other to receive our room key and number. By the way thank you so much Don for having taken my ID picture. It did not take too long but soon enough we were done with this and decided to go and find our dorm and room, with the help of a small paper with instructions which we got from some other people working at the check in outside once we had everything else. It took us a bit of time because our dorm, which is called Harkness and is the place that my Residential Advisor (RA) said that Emma Watson, Hermione from the Harry Potter movies, will be staying next year.

My room is on the third floor as is Irene’s and Mariana’s. Our rooms are a bit apart but I saw Mariana quiet often and Irene not so much because she has a different RA. I have a single, meaning I have no roommate. After finding our room and opening it we closed them and left for the brunch.

The brunch was great -- I really had a great time. I was able to speak with many people as we ate some really delicious breakfast food. Among the people I spoke to were Joe Fernandez, Brown’s Student Association President, and Joan S. Khattab, a Financial Advisor and a Wellseley Alumni ’78. Both of them and the rest of the people were very nice and friendly. They were more than happy to share with us some of their thoughts and details of experiences. It was great to hear them all and learn what they do.

Mr. Fernandez was really amiable and delivered a fine speech once we had eaten and gone to a separate room for speeches. I also enjoyed my conversation with Ms. Khattab who shared much and was very sophisticated. It was also great to see Mercedes, one admissions officer at Brown. For the second time she came to one of our events and told us to email her to set up a day in which all six of us can have lunch with her on campus.

All of the Brownies of this year were present at this event. Mr. Ramsey’s speech was remarkable, he mentioned so much about our district and the ILC. In the end I presented my speech and sat back down to listen to the rest of the speeches. After, the speech we posed for a group picture, which some wanted to have, so we gave the photographer, which in this occasion was not Don like in the rest of the ILC meetings, our cameras so that we would also have a copy of it on our camera. It took some time of smiling and standing to get the picture taken with all the cameras.

Then we said our goodbyes not only to the Session 1 Brownies but to the rest of the people present.

Before leaving, the Session 1 Brownies gave us some of the stuff that we would need on this trip that they had bought. I think it was really nice and generous of them to do so. Once there we left and headed towards Harkness, in order to check if we could borrow a fan because the dorms have no air conditioning. When we asked about the fans they stated that they were out and the same for bed sheets. Except, that they said that maybe soon they would have sheets

We then informed Mr. Ramsey and Ms. Kronenherg about the situation and they instructed to go with one of their really sophisticated friends. Lucero and I had to go shopping for what we needed, bed sheets and fans. Once we returned we had to go get our luggage from the hotel and rush to orientation.

It was great to see the video presentation, all the people in charge were really amiable. After orientation we went to eat dinner and I returned to my room before going on to see what was going on in Wriston Quad. At Wriston Quad there was an “Ice Cream Social,” there were lots of people out playing frisbee on the grass and twister on a giant mat on the grass. Besides that, there were tons of students waiting in line to get FREE ice cream. After that at around 9:00 PM I attended a mandatory floor meeting with my RA.

The meeting was very productive she had us do an ice breaker called “Speed Dating”. It was basically for everyone in the group to get to know each other. In addition to this, as an activity she had us write on two posters to see what it is we expected from the other residents and what we expect from her.

Tomorrow my class on Women and Leadership begins tomorrow!!