Day 5

Exciting news, everybody! No, I didn't find housing, although that would be exciting. Rather, I made a friend! Like, a real, live, actual friend. He is from Denmark and his name is Emil and he is awesome.

Here's how it happened: I got up this morning and got ready to go to campus, and Ann told me that she was very sorry, but she couldn't make it because she had to go see another house right then. I shrugged it off, promised to tell her if I could get a card so that she would know before she made the trek, then headed out.

I arrived on campus and sort of meandered up to the student union building, passing a large group of kids all holding these white plastic bags, one of whom looked surprisingly similar to my friend Tanner. I arrived at the union building, and at first I was tempted to log on to the internet before I did anything else, just to check for messages from home, but I decided to exercise my willpower and instead went straight to the student services office. I had barely stepped in the door when the lady behind the counter was like, "are you a new student?" and I was like "...yeah." Then she shoved one of the white plastic bags into my hand and told me to follow the flock.

Figuring I had nothing to lose, I took my goodies and tracked down the group. By the time I found the correct room, most of the people were already there, and my choices in seating were either all the way at the back, or next to the Tanner lookalike. I chose the Tanner lookalike.

I know what you're thinking, but I did not speak to the Tanner lookalike. I thought about it, but we were being talked at by a nice lady, and it would have been rude. Instead, I just absorbed all the information I could, and once the session was over I headed back to my pizza cafe with the intention of logging on and continuing my search in earnest.

This plan was short-lived, however, as moments after I'd settled onto the couch, the Tanner lookalike came waltzing up the stairs from another part of the building, looking very much as though he wanted a plug. Figuring that the universe was trying to tell me something, I invited him to use the plug I was using and sit with me. We proceeded to spent the next couple hours talking and laughing and comparing housing listings. He even got to talk to my parents, because they logged on to skype while I was sitting there. In those two hours, I learned many things about him, but one thing more important than the others: he is the perfect friend for me.

His name is Emil. He is from Denmark. He's a physics/engineering student who's studying here for six months, with the plan to travel around more afterward before going home. He's really in to science fiction and fantasy, and one of his favorite books is Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. But, most importantly of all, he'd left his girlfriend behind in Denmark, and they'd broken up before he left, and he was still rather upset about it and feeling lonely with no one to hang out with. Seeing as that is basically exactly how I feel, although I didn't break up with my boyfriend, we ended up being able to sympathize with each other really well. It was nice to get to talk to someone face-to-face instead of over the Internet. We got lunch and made plans to go to the beach on Wednesday. I'm excited.

In the meantime (tomorrow), the quest for housing continues!

Much love,
Morgan