I woke up a bit later than usual, around 8:10, because it was Saturday. A lot of us were wearing shorts and/or sandals since we were done with all labs for that week! Anyways, I walked to get breakfast with Ritisha in Foster Hall. Like always, it was bagels and donuts with coffee. Afterwards, we walked downstairs to the lecture hall for a really interesting lecture over cultural capital. Dr. Catalán claimed that the slideshow came from the University of Michigan, but any self-respecting Hoosier would have recognized the crimson and cream logo of IU on it. Afterwards, we got back to the dorms around 10 and got to rest for a bit until lunch. I practiced my piano piece, Chopin Etude Op. 25 Nr. 1, for the talent show.
I had previously thought the NMSU bookstore was closed because it was the weekend, but I think it was open due to freshman orientation. So, I asked Ritisha to come with me to get my daily Starbs. I got a venti Mango Dragonfruit Refresher rather than my usual crème-based Vanilla Bean Frappuccino order. Then, my friends and I planned out our mall trip, a pleasant surprise from our wonderful TAs! But before we went, we got lunch—I had their pasta.
After we returned to the dorms to prepare for the mall trip, we made our way over to the bus stop next to Piñon Hall and had a rather interesting conversation with Vageesh about my Indian friends back at home… Anyways, we boarded the bus and set off for the Mesilla Valley Mall. We had two hours and two hours only there—I intended to make the most of them. My friends and I first stopped by at Auntie Anne’s, where I got a large cup of cinnamon pretzel bites and a lemonade, both of which I promptly scarfed down. I did a challenge with some friends in H&M in which we were each assigned to dress up another person. Maahi’s outfit absolutely ruined me, but at least I got to do the same to Ryan! After that, I got some really mid boba milk tea. We sauntered around the mall for a bit before I saw some crocheted plushies. I got a blue-purple octopus. Afterwards, we all met up at the end of our mall trip and showed each other our hauls. We got back to the dorms a little before dinner.
Dinner was better than usual because the incoming freshmen were there. I got potato chips topped with Tajín and lime juice. I sat with Mr. Shakil, and we had an interesting talk about Bangladesh, where he’s from, as my dad grew up near there in Kolkata. Afterwards, we got to return to dorms instead of having to do p-sets!
Sarah, Eva, Chloe, and Delilah wanted to watch a K-Drama, but we weren’t able to access Netflix on the TV in the common room. The remote control has been missing for a while, but I was able to connect using my phone with the help of an Astro participant. I was only able to login to my Hulu account, so instead of Crash Landing on You or Business Proposal, we had to watch What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim? We got comfy with blankets, soda, gummy bears, potato chips, and more food. One episode in, however, Eva got up to get more food, and when she came to sit back down, she hit the remote, and the TV turned off. We weren’t able to turn it back on…
So, we were in the room with the lights turned off and no K-Drama to watch—we decided to take a nap instead! We put on soothing sleeping music and tried to sleep. Whenever someone entered our room, though, we couldn’t stop laughing. Later on in the night, Ms. Alexa taught some other people line dancing, and a mini-concert was held in the lobby. Then finally, it turned 11pm, so off we went to our rooms.