Lets Get Oriented..

Let me start by saying I am confused by this blog stuff. Sometimes I get a nice window to type my entry, other times I get a simple text box that has no formatting options. I guess I just gotta get over it.

So I got in a few minutes late. The stupid train (I love you, train) took forever to come. When the lady got to the part on lateness she was talking to me the whole time. But that's ok. I missed the most important part. A couple of chefs were talking to the class of 10. I was number 9. At least I even showed up.

First impressions... well, obviously, I'm late. I feel like a jerk, so I walk to the back of the room to take a seat quietly. But everyone from admin wants to talk to me. They want to take my picture, take care of financial aid stuff, ask for this and that. MEANWHILE people are addressing the class. I tried to insist that I should sit down and we can discuss it after. But they insisted that I address them immediately. Just makes me more of an asshole for being late.

We did a quick round the room introduction. I don't know why my heart started to beat quicker as they approached me. Why should I be nervous? These are my peers. I was also last to talk. So I had 8 other people to listen to, analyze, try to comprehend, and think about my response. The memorable ones are the ones you can a) hear in the first place, and b) tell you something interesting. There are only ten people, so the names will be easy (though I can only recall a couple right now). It looked like 2 of the 3 girls were right out of high school. I know one was for sure, she said so. I will refrain from describing denomination and shapes and sizes because, quite frankly, that's not important. But I will say, this isn't orientation to Vassar College. These aren't bright high schoolers with the only thing running through their heads being thoughts of how to get one of their classmates in bed, or "wow, that girl in my freshman group is really cute, I'd like to get to know her." Some of these people are more educated than others, older and wiser than others, with more or less people skills. Some people have traveled from Las Vegas and Pennsylvania, others from Staten Island and Queens.

We needed to say our names, where we're from and our favorite dish to cook and why we're here. I believe I said "Hi, I'm Edwin. I grew up about 20 minutes down Grand Street (pointing down the wrong block, I think). In college I worked in a deli and I made this grilled roast beef sandwich which was really delicious. All my friends loved it. Then I experimented with better cuts of meat and the sandwich just got much better, so I hope to make it the best sandwich ever.."

Corny, perhaps.. got a few chuckles when I mentioned how the better cuts of meat made it a better sandwich. But my heart immediately stopped racing, and I was able to focus.

I'll leave out the dry bits, which was basically the rest of the orientation, however, everyone had a black FCI duffle bag in front of their seat. I figured because I was late and walked straight to the back, mine was somewhere else. Not quite. Because I signed up last minute, and my loan had not been approved yet, they pretend that I'm not really signed up. Didn't get a bag, but did get to talk to a bunch of people about how I was going to pay, and why my loan doesn't show up on their administration sites... etc. I spent an extra hour with various admin, concluding that I needed to make some phone calls and figure some things out myself.

Luckily I have figured these things out, and everything is being processed. I think they will let me in the class tonight.

I am now in the hole for $33,500 bones, at a stifling, $600-$700 a month for the first 9 months, then $300-$400 for the next 10 to 20 years.

I did not sign up for that, I didn't think. I guess I did. I'll let you know how class goes tonight.