Move-in day, natural disasters, and everything in between.

Here's a summary of my first month as a Meredith College Avenging Angel! Sorry this is kind of a long post, but, it's been quite the eventful month!

August 11: Goodbye Oviedo, Hello Raleigh! Here is my poor car, Bill, all packed up and ready to make the journey. What a trooper of an SUV he is!

August 13: Move in day! My dad had his mind set that we would not be waiting in line, needless to say, we left the hotel before the crack of dawn (literally, it was still pitch black outside.) and we were the first people in line to move in! That worked out beautifully thought, because by the time I was done moving in, my roommate, Anna, got here! It would have been super hectic if Anna and I had tried to move in at the same time. But, here is the finished product!

August 16: Honor Code Ceremony! Every year the new freshman at Meredith College have a honor code ceremony, where we read the school's honor code, and light candles. While the honor code is super important, and is taken very seriously at Meredith, it is also the first big event. The first of may traditions, the first time every girl pulls out her pearls, and puts on her favorite Lilly dress. This is the moment when you think "wow, I'm really here. The time has finally come! I'm a Meredith girl!" And let me tell y'all, that is one awesome feeling. I went to the ceremony with my S.A (student advising) group. We are all music eduction majors! The ceremony was a great experience, and I'm so glad I got to take part of it.  I did, however, have quite the grasshopper issue, involving a half dead bug, lots of squealing, and numerous attempts to kill said grasshopper. All in all, it was a night I won't forget.

August 21: The first Big/Lil Social! I'm sure y'all have heard me say, "well, Meredith is one big sorority." this is another way thats true. As a freshman, you sign up to get paired with a big sis. I however, requested mine. Your big sis is a junior your freshman year. And I met mine when I was at Meredith for scholarship weekend. Her name is Sarah Moore, and she is the greatest big sis I could ask for! At our first big/lil social, she gave me a halo, because I'm now an official Meredith Angel.

August 22: Dinner with Anna, Sara Anne, and Caitlin! Sara Anne's family friend, Candy, had the four of us over for dinner. It was so nice to spend time with the girls I share a bathroom with. They are all such lovely ladies. I would have to say that I totally lucked out with the roommate/suitemate situation. There is nothing like having a home-cooked meal, after living off of dining hall food. We ate until we were stuffed, had giggle attacks, and almost got lost. It was a great night! So here is a picture of us after we got back from dinner! (from left to right) Caitlin, Sara Anne, Anna, and me!

August 23: My first Earthquake! Boy, was this sure an interesting experience. I was laying in my bed, on the phone with my wonderful Daddy, and all of a sudden, my bed started shaking. Now, sometimes my muscles twitch (yeah, weird, I know.), so I figured that's what it was. Well, it just kept going. Then I noticed that things on the wall were shaking. I told my dad in what I'm sure was a panicked voice "Dad! I think there is an earthquake!!!!!" I jumped off my bed to see if Sara Anne was feeling the same thing I was, just to be sure I wasn't going crazy. When I walked in, she was jumping off her bed to come find me. We walked into the hallway, which was full of panicked girls, screaming. Once upon a time, I heard you were supposed to stand in a doorway during an earthquake, so thats what I did. It was quite a scary two minutes, that felt like an eternity. Thankfully, by the time it reached Raleigh, it was just a small tremor that started in Virginia. I had always said that I wanted to experience one, where no one got hurt, and nothing broke. So, my wish came true! While I don't have any pictures to document this event, here is the one that was widely circulated as a joke. Which actually has a lot of truth behind it, because the damage you see in the picture, is about all that happened in Raleigh. (That poor chair really lost a lot)

August 27: Hurricane Irene. North Carolina was having a rough weather week. Hurricane Irene came hurdling towards us. Raleigh wasn't really affected, but more coastal cities were really torn apart. Aside from loosing power for a few hours, and some rain, nothing happend. We were quite blessed. So I took the hurricane as an opportunity to sleep until noon, and then lay in bed, eat junk food, and watch movies with my friends all day. It was nice.

August 30: I was walking to class, and couldn't help but take this picture of my school's beautiful campus!

September 1: Girls night with Ella! Ella is a good friend of mine, who I hadn't seen in several months. We got dressed up, went to olive garden, had frozen yogurt, spent too much time in target, made Nutella cupcakes, and stayed up way too late watching tv. It was lots of fun!

September 4: Greenville for the day! My dear friend, from Oklahoma, Lauren lives in Raleigh. In fact, she is the reason I'm at Meredith. She went here, and long story short, here I am! Well, she got the job that she had really wanted, so, we went up to Greenville to celebrate! We had lunch with Tim, Hilda, Mia, and Karen. It was really nice! and Hilda made us some really incredibly yummy food! There's nothing more fun then spending the day with some great friends! (From left to right) Tim, Lauren, Karen, me and Mia. Hilda was playing photographer!

So folks, there it is! My first month at Meredith! Hope y'all enjoyed the lengthy post!

Love y'all!

Sara