On Thursday September 17th, I attended Freshmen Reception with high hopes for brownies or something of that sort , because when I read the little “save the date” card, I saw “Refreshments Served” before anything else on that paper. Unfortunately, I found out that the refreshments turned out to be one, いち, the derivative of x, uno , single cookie. So rather than waiting in the long line for a single cookie, I went home and enjoyed a nice serving of chocolate chip cookies with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
According to one of the advisors who spoke that day, those who planned this event only expected 200 kids or so, but almost all of the freshmen class showed up for the event. I am not sure about how the “rumor” that the workshop is mandatory started, but I received an email from the Center for Academic Advisement that clearly says “Come fulfill you mandatory freshmen enrichment workshop while having fun.” (“you“?) Maybe that was why most of the freshmen class showed up. I bet they had high hopes for the refreshments too. (Just kidding!… well maybe, I don’t know.) Since the advisors did not expect so many people, they did not prepare enough folders for everybody. It was a bit troublesome to go to the office another day to pick up the forms.
Even though the whole reception was a bit chaotic, I think that the advisors handled the situation pretty well, they herded up all the little freshmen into separate rooms and explained the handouts ( that I did not have) very briefly. The amount of time that the advisor used to explain the handouts is almost the same as the amount of time it took to sign off everybody in the room. But I understand that was difficult for the advisors to deal with so many people. In the end, I fulfilled the “mandatory” workshop while having fun. 🙂