Ever had that awkward experience when you hear somebody call your name, you turn around to see them but can't tell who said it so you just casually say "Oh hey" in the general direction and keep walking?
Well I had one of those moments today walking through a crowd on campus, but it ended in quite a funny way. That happened, and then as I kept walking I hear "Luke! Are you seriously going to just keep walking and not stop to at least generically ask how everything is going? Gah, sometimes I just can't believe you, Luke."
As it turns out, it was my freshman orientation group leader and she chased me down and then we proceeded to actually have a conversation. I think the throngs of people around were a bit confused by her refusal to accept my meager "oh hey" as I walked by. You see, today is the beginning of what we call "Bulldog Days"... the three days where accepted students can come and stay with students and experience life at Yale before committing to come here. This all happened in front of about 100 accepted students, and they just kind of stared at us like they were thinking "is everyone this socially invasive and blunt at Yale?"

Speaking of bulldog days, there were all sorts of student organizations outside near the area for accepted student check-in, and they were recruiting viciously. Viciously. These organizations are worse than the people that try to take pictures with you in Times Square in order to demand money from you afterwards. As I wove through crowds of accepted students, Yale students recruiting for their organizations would say "Have you ever been interested in a capella? Come join us tonight!" and I would persistently say "I'm actually a student here. No thanks." but they would have none of that. It is incredibly frustrating. A capella recruiting gets so frustrating up here that people buy t-shirts saying "No, I don't sing, nor have I ever wanted to." in order to get the a capella recruiters off their back. It may seem a bit blunt or rude to other people for me to just say "I'm a student" firmly and keep walking, but trust me, that's the most polite way of dealing with it. Not rude at all. Those poor accepted students will give the recruiters their email not knowing that they have just subjected themselves to a daily panlist that fills up an email inbox very quickly.

Today I was searching for cheap destinations to visit on the weekends this summer while my girlfriend, my roommate, and I are all in England, and I found out that Venice is actually incredibly cheap to travel to on the weekends, so who knows? We may be making a trip back to Venice this summer! Other potential options for weekend trips include Bucharest, Budapest, Milan (to visit one of my suitemates for next year, where he is from/lives), Athens, Berlin, Barcelona, Vienna, and Prague. We've got choose a few to actually visit. I was kind of hoping for Moscow, but that one is way too far and much too expensive.

On the bright side, I have only two classes left until my entire freshman year is over. Then it is on to finals! This year actually went by pretty quick.