29O.

Rita and I woke up at seven this morning (I could barely get up); Tina was just like. Dead, lol. Anyway, Rita and I got some breakfast, and then Rita wanted to see Hedrick Summit, since she's rooming there. We tried to go in, but I guess our Bruin Cards only work for the Rieber buildings lol. We walked just a little bit over and I saw my Hitch Suite! I was actually really happy, because from what I've read, I thought it'd be like another mile away from everything else, but it's actually not too far away! Well, I suppose it's pretty far from the actual classes, but I'm just happy I'm not like, completely isolated from the other buildings. (:

Then at nine, we headed back over to Rieber Terrace to enroll for classes in our counselors' rooms. Ruben passed back our worksheets to us, and he had lost mine. And I was kind of like asdf since I put in so much time and stress into that last night. But Ruben said he'd just let me go first, and I was like sweet. But then he called someone, and a few minutes later that Thomas counselor guy came in with my sheet lol.

Me: Can I still go first? =D
Ruben: No.

Lol damn. The order we registered actually didn't really make much of a difference, since all the classes we were really anxious about getting into (Chemistry, GE Clusters) we weren't signing up for anyway. Ruben had already put in a recommendation for those classes for us, and so at that point, it was all just a lottery. After everyone finished signing up, Adrian and Marcos had to go back on the computers since I guess they had to pick a new alternative for one reason or another. Meanwhile, Ruben had Gladiator playing on his screen, and he was kind of explaining what was going on to me. We were watching this one scene where this guy named Commodus was all crying cuhs he could never been the son his dad, the Caesar, wanted, and I was like '... this is laaaame.' And then Ruben was like BUT WATCH THE NEXT SCENE! And the Commodus guy smothers his dad and kills him, and I'm like OMG! And Ruben's like SO AWESOME!

Afterwards, we headed over to the Ackerman Ballroom for this presentation called "Socially Speaking: Life Outside the Classroom." Basically it was about sex, drugs, and coco puffs (ohoho you see what I did there ~). Okay no, it was just about sex and drugs lol. They had two counselors read this scene with a girl and a guy meeting at a party leading up to something like acquaintance rape, with them each reciting their thoughts or perspective on what was happening. The girl leading the presentation showed this acronym CONSENT and what each letter stood for in relation to consent. And afterwards, they had them do the scene again, stopping at various parts, and had us raise either a green card or red card for whether we thought something was wrong, and they asked people in the audience why they picked a certain color. One guy kept raising his green card, and at one point where everyone had their red cards raised, he was like "Yeah well I saw four out of the seven letters up there," and it was kind of stupid but funny, but then right after him, Amber stood up and spoke from the perspective of someone who had been sexually abused. And you know, she's a really good speaker. I completely wouldn't have been able to stand up and speak as calmly and clearly as she did, especially on such a touchy topic as this, and the whole room just went silent for her, and everyone applauded when she was done.

Afterwards we got some lunch, and this counselor named Michelle brought her group over with us. Marcos and I kept whispering about whether that was his girlfriend, since I thought she looked a little like this girl in a picture he had on his desk in his room.

I went to the bathroom, and posted on the inside of the door was this flyer lol.

After a while, Ruben and Michelle came back dressed up as Obi Wan and Princess Leia hahah. They basically gave us a tour and told us some of UCLA's myths and legends, and after telling us them they would ask if we thought that story was true or false. If it was true, he'd hit Michelle (who turns out was his girlfriend lol) with his lightsaber, and if it was false, she'd hit him.

(While we were walking, we passed by another counselor, and Ruben and him initiated like a fake fight; the other counselor started swinging his backpack over his head like a nunchuck or something, and then Ruben suddenly pulls out this secret toy gun thing that was tucked behind his belt on his back, and starts shooting, like, rolled up paper balls or something at him LOL.)

The first story he told us was about the Bunche building. First of all he pointed out how tall the building was, and how one side of it was made of this really reflective material. The story goes that years ago during the afternoon, the sun would shine on the building, and the light would reflect onto the 405 (or whatever number it was) freeway right over on the side, and it would cause all these traffic accidents, so these officials were like, you gotta get rid of that. But apparently there's some law that says you can't tear down a building within ten years of building it because of all the money and resources put into building it, so that option was out. Also, they contacted the architect person, but he wouldn't change the material used on the building, since it was his artistic thing or whatever. So UCLA teamed up with NASA and rotated the building to its side; apparently this one teacher actually took all these pictures of it and put it together like a flipbook (except it was from all different angles so it didn't quite achieve the effect, but you got the idea). The base was kind of shaky so they constructed these eight pillars to support it (which was one of the questions on yesterday's Scavenger Hunt!), and he pointed out all these tractors that were operating on it nearby, and said they were currently adding more springs and such to make it more stable. So then he asked if we thought it was true or false, and I thought it was a pretty incredible story, but with all the little details like the flipbook and stuff, it had to be true! But it turned out to be false! They were both really good storytellers; I totally couldn't distinguish a true tale from a false one!

They also took us to this one area (I think one of its names was the Second Garden), and he said that there used to be a bridge over there since there used to be this huge ravine separating the ground, and at some point they filled it all up, but now there's still this whole system of underground tunnels, and the bridge is still down there. Sounds insane, but it was true! My mind was blown! Apparently you can get suspended by going down there, but people still do lol. Definitely gonna have to see that at some point!

There's another story about the Janss Steps; apparently these Janss brothers made a huge contribution to UCLA and the school wanted to commemorate them somehow. They argued over it since one brother wanted something really natural, like just a plaque on a hill, and the other one really liked Gothic architecture and stuff. Anyhow, while one brother was one, the other brother took the opportunity to have these stairs constructed (which made the other one furious, naturally), and at that point his health was deteriorating, so to ensure that the stairs remained there, in his will, he wished to have his remains mixed into the sixth step. Apparently it's against California law to desecrate a grave, so it is actually against the law to tear it down. The UCLA students have this thing going that's like, it's bad luck to step on the sixth step, and every time you step on it, it adds another quarter to your life at UCLA. It turned out to be false, but it's still a UCLA tradition; someone actually wrote RIP in chalk on that step hahah.

Turns out all the counselors were dressed up as something; this guy (who I suspect was the Lady Gaga guy at Cabaret lol) had this awesome Robin costume. (x

We walked around for a bit and took a group picture. (8

We also finally found out about our classes around this point. I GOT CHEM! I was sooo relieved. I didn't get my Cluster though, which I was kind of bummed about; Ruben said my LA History Cluster alternative was actually open, but the time conflicted with Chem, so he thought Chem was more important and went with that. Some of the guys had already found their schedules online via their phones while we were walking around earlier. I felt really bad for Marcos cuhs he didn't get Chem or a Cluster. Adrian didn't get Chem either, but he's in this PEER program, and apparently he has to take Chem, so Ruben said he'd fix it for him.

Afterwards, we continued the tour and heard more legends. Apparently this locker with the stickers was Jim Morisson's locker; he had this huge thing with acid, and what he would do was put a drop of acid on all these stamps. So he would take out a stamp, lick it, and then stick it on his locker. The students at UCLA kind of see his locker as a tribute to him, and so people go over and stick all sorts of notes and whatnot into the slits of the locker (it's bolted shut, btw). It ended up being false, but I still thought it was a good story lol.

Then they brought us to this fountain; I had actually seen it when I was lost on day one lol. Apparently this was a tradition thing the students actually took very seriously and carried out. Basically, during your freshman orientation, the counselors bring you here, and you put your hand in and are "baptized." Then after you're baptized as an official UCLA student, you can never touch the fountain water again until after you graduate, or else it adds a quarter to your UCLA life every time you touch it. It was really funny though, cuhs Ruben was telling us this story from session 102 or so. Apparently Michelle brought this water gun and filled it up with fountain water to spray people since it was a really hot day. She saw this other counselor named Daniel (who was actually just across on the other side of the fountain from us when they told us this story) and asked him if he wanted to be sprayed and he said yeah, so she sprayed him, and then told all the freshman to be careful since it was fountain water. And then Daniel was like "... WHAT?!" and "called her many things that [she] will not repeat now," since apparently he hadn't graduated yet and Michelle didn't know lol.

Afterwards, we all went back to the area outside Covel Commons where we first all met up. Ruben brought out a survey and a Student Planner and UCLA poster for each of us, as well as his name sign that he had the first day for us all to sign. We all said our goodbyes and went back to our rooms. When I got there, Tina was there (and apparently she'd been there by herself for like 20 minutes lol), and we waited for Rita to get back and take a picture. It was really fun rooming with these two, and I'm all the more nervous to find out who I'm gonna actually be rooming with in the Fall now! We got our stuff together and checked out.

I definitely had fun at Orientation, but it's good to be home. ♥

(When I got home, the crazy Aunt Naimin was there, in all her ridiculousness.)