Thursday
I decided to get up for rugby practice once again to see if I would be interested in the rest of the season. As I was coming out of my room to head to the field I nodded to the security guard who was sitting in the hall looking bored. There is a security guard on every floor at all times as well as security at a booth in the lobby at all times. This again is to ensure the safety of every student. The guards are only here temporarily until the elevators are properly set up for us to swipe our key cards in order to use them.
Getting back from practice my roommate and I went down for some breakfast. When we arrived back to the room we were watching a movie and beginning to doze off for an afternoon nap when the fire alarm began to go off once again. Apparently it had been going on that morning as well. By this time we are beginning to get used to the sound of the alarm, which sounds like a school bell summoning children for recess, and we ignore it until it stops. If there were an actual fire, our friend from the intercom would be telling us that this time it was not a test.
I haven’t checked out the pool or workout centre yet. It is not open to the hotel at this point; it should be within a few weeks. The area is functional now but the hotel isn’t sure yet how it is going to be scheduled for everyone to use. With the fire alarms waking us up, the slow elevators and the power tests, the week so far has been a little taxing on the students and the building. We are starting to adapt to it, and it is starting to adapt to us. However, the staff has been excellent in making sure that everything is running as smoothly as possible so we can get well adjusted to this huge change in lifestyle.
Friday
By Friday a routine had started to form in the mornings. I get up, have a shower, get dressed, go have breakfast with whoever is up and hungry, come back up to the room and see what the plan is for the rest of the day. The plan was to force ourselves to do as much frosh stuff as possible since it was the last day. After participating in a couple events we decided to walk back to Chestnut. Here it is like any other residence; you make friends with certain people and hang out in whoever’s room. The main difference from other residences is the amount of students that stay here. It is all different colleges and in a few cases different schools. On my floor there are quite a few engineers, people from Woodsworth and some people in their second year. This exposes us to lots of different people, which is a good thing, rather than being placed with people studying and doing the exact same thing you are.
The first week has been a little strange, because in the back of my head I keep expecting to pack my bags and go home just like what I’ve done in every other hotel that I’ve ever stayed in. It’s only starting to sink in that I’m actually going to be living in Toronto for the next however many years and staying in a hotel for my first.
To sum up the week I would have to say that it has been a really good start. The hotel isn’t perfect yet but I wasn’t expecting it to be with more than 1,000 students all moving in within three days of each other.
