Who Needs A Fitness Club When One Has The UW?

One thing is for certain, if I were to be a student on campus any more than a week I'd be skinny and fit in no time. It all begins with having to climb literally a mountain of stairs from the E1 parking lot. This exercise is combined with weight training i.e. carrying a 30 pound pack on one's back (because one is stupid enough to carry their computer to school). If one survives making it to the top, one then "gets to" walk what seems to be miles between various destinations on campus. Originally I thought that being in the "Distance Program" referred to the fact that I am a student from afar. NO! What it really means is that one must hike halfway across town to visit the Distance Program office (UWEO).

I decided to stop by the iSchool office in the Mary Gates Hall (MGH) building to ask them if I really needed to make the journey to the UWEO or would there be provisions to take care of business at tomorrow's orientation. Though it meant another work out due to the fact that the iSchool office is on the fourth floor of MGH, I figured I had a chance of saving myself the longer haul to UWEO. A lady named Sharon Talbert made a couple of phone calls to find out and then told me, "I have good news! It's a great day for a walk!" In other words, "Yes. You really do have to walk all the way over to the UWEO office." As I proceeded to struggle to hoist my pack back onto my back (I had taken it off to give myself a little break while waiting) Sharon said, "Why don't you leave that with me. That looks really heavy. Have you been working out?" I replied, "No, but obviously I need to." So, thanks to Sharon I was able to make the trek in what felt like weightlessness after that. Though the iSchool staff has a reputation for being tremendously friendly and helpful, my host student, Sammy, tells me they rarely do things like that because they don't want to create a trend. I appreciate Ms. Talbert's mercy very much!

Well, tomorrow is the "opening ceremony" and the "games" begin. It is likely to be a long, exhausting day.