Picnic at the Mall

Ready for the day

I woke up at 9 AM today and Magaly braided my hair. I got to try on my new flower headband and Thao wore her new Pokemon hat. NEMOW and my chaperone Jenny was supposed to go on a picnic at a park today, but it unexpectedly rained. Well, there was a high possibility of rain, but we didn't think it'd actually rain. That was because there was a high possibility of rain all week, but it didn't rain. In the Bay Area, California, it's almost always windy and rarely humid. It's the complete opposite in Rhode Island. Weather in Rhode Island, though, is strange. When it rains, it's still very humid. When it's not raining, the air feels like the bathroom after you take a hot shower. It's really hard to get used to the weather on the East Coast. 

The beautiful view of the mall from a distance

Instead of going to the picnic at the park, NEMOW went to the mall and had food together. On our way to the mall, we passed by the river where the Waterfire was held yesterday. The view looked so different from yesterday because it was the daytime.

When we got to the mall, we ate brunch with Jenny. We had Popeyes, Chinese food, sushi, Charley's, and Starbucks. Thank you Ivy League Connection for paying for our food. Afterwards, we split up into groups depending on where we wanted to go shopping. Only four out of the nine NEMOW went to watch Transformers at the movie theaters, which was at the mall. Sierra, Jesse, and I went back to our dorms to work on our Action Plan while Muang and Cynthia went to shop for more clothes. The three of us took the taxi home, which would be weird if we were in California. Taking a taxi home is so much more popular in Rhode Island than California. Taxis are lined up outside the shopping mall, waiting for people who are foreign to the area. Although taking the taxi was very easy, a part of me wished I had taken the bus. Yesterday, I lost my Brown ID and dorm key on Thayer Street. Without it, I'm not able to take the bus for free or to slide my ID at the dining hall. Anyways, I don't feel like it's great to spend a lot of money when you have a choice to save it. In this case, I took the taxi instead of taking the bus. Also, this taxi driver asked for a tip which I thought was unusual. 

My first manicure

When I got to my dorm, Sierra and I got our nails painted. It was my first time getting a manicure, so I was really excited tot see how it would turn out. During my free time, I like to do nail art which is drawing designs on my nails with nail polish. I always wondered what it would be like to get it done by someone else. After finally getting my nails done, I realized that all it really is having someone file and paint your nails. Anyone can do it at home themselves if they put the time and effort into it. After today, I don't plan on getting my nails done by someone else again. Why waste money on something you can do yourself?

At 5:30, Magaly, Muang, Sierra, and I walked to the Ratty for dinner. We went so early because we had a mandatory Action Plan panel and floor meeting from 7 to 9 PM today. Even though the Ratty was supposed to be open tonight, the doors were locked. It wasn't until later that I found out about the Ratty closing for the summer due to the end of some summer programs at Brown. It was a good thing that we went to dinner early because we made it right before traffic at V Dub. After pasta for dinner, we went back to the dorm and Isabella walked us to the mandatory meeting.

The Action Plan panel meeting was about Brown students who all found a passion about something and lead an organization. Stanley from Georgia focused on first generation college students while Tenzin from New York focused on health, sanitation, food quality, and making the world a better place. Lastly, Rie helped people be more aware of the differences in social class. In the meeting, Stanley, Tenzin, and Rie were all asked "what if people don't have a passion in life?" They answered by saying that you don't have to have a passion in life and you shouldn't worry about not being good enough. You just have to be patient with yourself and TRY EVERYTHING. 

Afterwards, we had separate meetings with our dorm RA. Kass, my RA, made us take an anonymous self evaluation about our time at Brown so far. Then, we had to talk about our high, low, and weird part of our week. My high was being able to use the things that we learned in class in real life, such as not assuming things based on something so small. The low part of my week was loosing my key because I have to rely on my roommate to get into my room. It's a problem for me because I never know exactly when she is in her dorm. Lastly, the weird part of my week was going to a doctor who couldn't tell what was wrong with my eye. I thought that doctors were able to find solutions to every problem that we have. I was wrong. In the future, that is not the type of doctor that I want to be. The weird part about this was that my ILC friend, Maria, solved my eye problem. She gave me a hot towel to put on my eye to get rid of my pink eye and it worked! Thank you Maria. You will be a great doctor.

When I got back to my dorm, I walked around my hallway only a hundred times to see if my roommate got back so that she could open the door for me. She finally came back at 10:30 PM and I did laundry with my floormates. I carried around my ducky laundry bag and introduced ducky to everyone in the building.