BGR was 5 straight days of sunny, gorgeous weather. Now, all the uppeclassmen move in, and it's raining like I just washed my car.

Now, I'll give a little overview of the important people in my first week at Purdue.

Ricky- Boiler Gold Rush Team Leader
What can I say about Ricky other than he's totally awesome? He voluntereed for BGR (no compensation whatever) to lead 15 n00b freshman around for 5 days. In that time he walked us around the entire campus, showed us where our classes were, spent his precious money (yes, every dollar is precious now, I'm in college) on fun stuff for us like squirtguns, and made a genuine attempt to get to know us and have fun. He let us skip unimportant events and tried to get us to visit the important presentations. More importantly, he's really funny and we get along great. He's an atheist, speaks l337, and loves Homestar Runner/Family Guy/Futurama, etc. At one point, we serenaded some girl with "You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin," Top Gun style. After BGR, he even drove me to Wally World in his car, instead of breaking all links to the lowly freshman of his group. Ricky is awesome, and made BGR fun.

Other BGR Leaders- Look For Those Colored Shirts
I met a few other BGR leaders that were also fun. One was from Cincinnati, and all we talked about was Greater's Ice Cream, LaRosa's Pizza, and Cincinnati Chilli. Marylu was our "buddy team" leader for some of the activities, and she was very nice. Dan and a few other guys are really funny. All the BGR leaders have a lot of enthusiasm and patience.

My Family- Support Back Home
I thought it was implied, but regardless, a big thanks to my awesome family. I wouldn't be here without your help. Letters, Emails, packages, IMs- they all mean a lot to me. Love you all!

Ryan Royer- Hall Resident Advisor
A fellow Ryan always has a special place in my heart. At any rate, my RA is really nice, and he actually enjoys his job (he's a counselor as part of his major). He's helped me quite a few times already with misc. things like operating the laundry machines and disposing of Dell boxes.

BGR group- Fellow Freshman Friends
Initially, my BGR group started off with about 15 students. By the second day, we were down to about 6, because some people joined other groups to be with friends (defeating the point of BGR, which was making new friends) and some refused to go, instead sleeping or playing on the computer all damn day (which is dumb, because you're paying for BGR). Several of our teammates were international students, including Pranav and Nitin, although they didn't care much for the activities. Anyway, once the riff-raff had been weeded out, our core group actually got pretty close. Maddie, Sara, Allie, Jen, and Tim are my newest friends, and we usually get together for meals or a trip to the CoRec for some fun.

Jason Lee- Roomate and Physical Trainer
Jason and I get along great. We see eye to eye on most issues, but certainly not physically (this guy's a beast). At any rate, we've decided to keep each other on a program of dillgent study and regular exercise. I already know I need to study hard and work to make a kickass Freshman year, so I'm gonna help keep him on track too. Jason, however, has the main responsibility of making sure I leave the library and my dorm to get fresh air and do something physical at least every few days. Jason is funny and has no problem shrugging off the occasional insult or jab I throw his way. He's clean and reasonably tidy (one less thing to deal with), although he does seem hell-bent on broadening my musical tastes. He plays the guitar, quite well if I may say so. I usually wake him up because nothing short of an explosion wakes this kid up. At any rate, we've already become good friends. This should be a good year.

Danius- DJ and Blogger
He's my only Senior friend at Purdue, but we've read each other's blog for a while now. I'm gonna meet him for the first time at his concert Friday, August 27th. I'm trying to get used to his DJ style of DNB. He's a fellow engineer and a great guy to talk to.

Mehran- Friend From GEMS
Way back in the day at Glen Este Middle School I knew a really cool guy (Mehran) who was obsessed with studying and carried around a huge stack of books no matter where he went. Sometime in 7th or 8th grade, his father took a job as a professor at Purdue, so he moved far far away. Now I'm here, and for some reason, I haven't gotten to catch up yet. I'll get together with him soon.

Aaron- Starcraft Buddy
Randomly sat next to Aaron in the cafeteria one morning. Introduced, and in our brief 15 minutes, made a friend who loves computers and computer games.

Purdue Girls- Everywhere I Turn
We're at a major engineering school. Much to my suprise, there is an abundance of women on this campus. Lots and lots of good looking ones, too. Helps further my hope that she's out there somewhere. The award for "Hottest teacher" goes to one of the physics professors I met at a lecture a few days ago. "Most amazingly gorgeous upperclass student" award goes to Ricky's friend, Laura, another BGR leader. Wow, a hot girl just walked past my window. Just now. See? I told you. They're all over the place. *Must focus on being myself and letting relationships happen.*