My name is Marcus, I'm 18, and about five weeks ago my parents drove me three hours to State, unloaded a minivan full of my stuff into a cinder-block room the size of a walk-in closet, hugged me in the parking lot in front of everybody, and drove away. I have been on my own ever since, if by "on my own" you mean living with 40 other guys on one floor and eating food somebody else cooks.

I made this page in the computer lab in the basement of the library because (a) the lab is open 24 hours and my roommate snores, and (b) my mom asked me to call every night and I figured this was cheaper. Mom, if you're reading this: I'm eating vegetables. Sort of. Corn counts.

I'm majoring in "undecided," leaning toward business, or maybe computers, or maybe whatever major doesn't have calculus at 8 in the morning.

Saturday, August 21, 1999 - Move-in Day
Arrived 9 a.m. The line of cars to get to the dorm went around the block twice. Guys in orange shirts with carts. My roommate is named Derek, he's from a town about the size of mine but in the other direction, and his mom brought a bigger fan than my mom, so we're using his fan. He has a TV. I have the mini-fridge. Between us we have one working stapler and no can opener. Our room has two beds, two desks, two closets and one window that looks out on the parking lot, which is great because you can watch other people's parents cry. Mine cried in the car so nobody would see. I saw. Went to the "floor meeting" at 7 where the RA (that's the resident assistant, a junior named Kev who is in charge of us) told us the rules. The rules are basically no candles and don't prop the fire door. Then everybody just kind of stood in the hall being nervous. First night: didn't sleep. Derek snores like a lawn mower with a loose part.

Monday, August 23 - First Day of Classes
Calculus I. 8:00 a.m. MONDAY WEDNESDAY FRIDAY. What was I thinking when I registered. The class is in a lecture hall with like 200 people and the professor writes on those overhead transparency sheets and never turns around. Then Intro to Psychology (also huge, but the professor is funny), English Comp (only 22 people, we have to write a paper every two weeks, kill me), and Intro to Business at 2:00. Got lost twice. The campus map they give you at orientation is not to scale. Also I bought my books: $312. For BOOKS. The calculus book alone weighs more than my microwave.

Thursday, August 26
The meal plan. OK so I have 14 meals a week at "the Commons," which is the dining hall, and you swipe your ID card and then it's all you can eat. All you can eat sounds great until you see what it is. Monday was something called "Chicken Surprise" and the surprise is nobody knows. But: there is a cereal bar with eleven kinds of cereal available at every meal, including dinner, and a soft-serve ice cream machine, and a waffle iron on weekends. I have had cereal for dinner four times this week. I am 18 and nobody can stop me. Derek puts soft-serve on his waffles. Derek is a genius.

Thursday, September 2
Got my school e-mail account today at the computer lab in the basement of the library. You have to go to a window and show your ID and they give you a slip of paper with your password on it. I have never had an e-mail address before. I e-mailed my sister and my cousin and then just sat there waiting for a reply and nothing came because it was 3 in the afternoon on a Thursday and they have lives. The lab has about 60 computers, Pentiums with Windows 98, and Netscape, and a laser printer you pay 5 cents a page for. It's busy from noon to 10 and then dead, which is when I come. There's a guy who is always at the same computer in the corner. I think he lives here. Also today: first calculus quiz. I got a 6 out of 10. The average was a 5. I'm choosing to feel good about this.

Monday, September 6 - Labor Day
No classes! Slept until 1. Saturday night the whole floor went to the football game; State won 31-10 over some school that has a direction in its name and I lost my voice by the third quarter. The student section stands the entire game. The entire game. My legs hurt Sunday. Derek painted his face and then couldn't get it all off and went to church that way. Went to the Commons at 4 today for the lunch/dinner "brunch" thing. Cereal.

Friday, September 10 - Big News
Derek got a Sega Dreamcast yesterday. 9/9/99, he waited in line at the mall at 9 in the morning like it was tickets to something. So now there's a line of guys outside our room from about 8 p.m. until Kev makes them leave. The graphics are unbelievable. I have a paper due Monday for English Comp on "a place that matters to you" and I have written one sentence and it is about my dog. His name is Buster and he's 9 and I miss him more than I miss any human, no offense to any humans. Also I signed up for intramural flag football today. Our team is the 3rd Floor East Dawgs. We have practiced zero times and our first game is Sunday.

Tuesday, September 14 - CARE PACKAGE
Got a slip in my mailbox that said I had a package at the front desk and I ran. Box from Mom. Contents: two dozen chocolate chip cookies (about 15 by the time I got upstairs, hall tax), a bag of the good pretzels, six pairs of socks (?), a $20 bill folded inside a note that said "for something that isn't pizza," a roll of quarters for laundry, a picture of Buster, and a church bulletin from home so I "know what's going on." Called home and talked for 40 minutes. Told her about the socks. She said "you'll see." I do not know what this means and it worries me.
Also we lost the flag football game 35-7 on Sunday. The other team had a guy who played in high school and we had Derek, who ran the wrong way once. We're 0-1. The Dawgs will rise.

Sunday, September 19
Did my own laundry for the first time in my life. Now I understand the socks. I put everything in one load with a red T-shirt and now I own pink socks, pink undershirts and a pink towel. Derek says the socks were Mom's way of saying she knew this would happen. Moms know everything. It's a little scary.
Calculus update: we're on derivatives. Something clicked on Friday when the TA (that's the grad student who runs the small "discussion section" on Tuesdays) explained it a completely different way than the professor and I actually got it. Got an 8 on Friday's quiz. Rewarded myself with cereal.
Dawgs update: WON 21-14! I caught a touchdown!! OK it bounced off another guy first but it's in the book. 1-1.

Friday, September 24
Five weeks in. Weird thing: I don't get lost anymore, and I know which stairwell doesn't smell, and I know that the Commons has the good pizza on Thursdays and NOT Tuesdays, and I have people I sit with without thinking about it. Derek and I made a rule that whoever gets up first has to open the window. He's still a lawn mower but I don't hear it anymore.
Other weird thing: at like 2 in the morning in the computer lab, when it's just me and the guy in the corner, I get pretty homesick. I miss the dog. I miss my mom's chili. I miss having a bathroom that's mine. I don't miss high school though. Not for one second. I think that's how you know you're in the right place, when you miss home but wouldn't go back.
First calculus exam is Thursday, September 30. Pray for me. Actually don't pray, study with me, I'll be in the lab.

(More entries as they happen. I'm updating this from the lab about once a week.)

Homecoming is Saturday, October 16, which is 22 days from when I'm writing this. My parents are coming up for the game, and my sister, and Mom is bringing chili in a cooler and I am not even a little embarrassed about that. There's a parade Friday night with floats that the dorms build (3rd Floor East is building one; it is currently a wagon and an idea) and a bonfire, and then the game Saturday, and then my parents are taking me and Derek out to a real restaurant with real napkins. Derek has already picked out what he's ordering. I have to clean the room before they get here. That's going to take most of the 22 days.

Mom: the room is fine. Don't bring the vacuum.

• The Study Skills Page -- run by the learning center lady at a university somewhere. The Cornell notes thing actually works, I tried it in Psych. I'm not going to tell her that.
• Campus Corner Copy & Print -- if your campus has a place like this, find it. Ours is across from the library and it's the only place open at midnight with a working printer when the lab's is jammed.
• Quake II Clan [DUST] -- Derek plays. I watch. The lab computers won't run it, I checked. Twice.
• The Basement Tapes: Our Garage Band -- some guys with a band. We don't have a basement. We have Derek's Dreamcast.
• Mr. Whiskers' Cat Emporium -- I'm a dog person but Buster would want me to be fair.
• Back to the CollegePark neighborhood