My day in detail i read this book called Piranesi (shoutout Aneeq for the read) where the author writes about his days in extreme detail so the reader can visualize them. i find sometimes life gets too fast, so i write entries like these to remind myself about how my days are, to the lowest level. enjoy.
Today was my first day of RF training. I slept late, but I woke up at 6:00 a.m. Training started at 8:00 a.m.
I woke up early because six is a good number. I just set my alarm to that. I felt quite anxious yesterday, and I felt a bit of that anxiety this morning too.
The first thing I did was pray. I have a green prayer mat with hints of yellow and a black border. My knees usually crack, but this time I was slow and made sure that they didn't when I bent down to pray.
I then put on a pair of gray shorts and a full-sleeve Uniqlo shirt. The shorts were from Uniqlo too. I had a mismatched pair of socks that I wore, one of them was looser than the other, so I changed my socks and wore my white shoes, which my friend Kuro bought me. I wear them often. They're comfortable, but sometimes I don't think they look the best with my outfit.
I went to the cafe and had food with my friend Bjorn. He is from Jamaica. We talked about how the culture there is so different and much diverse, and he mentioned how even though he had not traveled much, he experienced a lot of exposure to that culture through growing up in Jamaica, because there it is so immensely multicultural.
For breakfast, I had French toast with maple syrup, potatoes, and diced potatoes. I also had three patties that they have in the cafe, as well as Greek yogurt and granola. I left early because I wanted to call my family once I came home. I actually recalled my praying wrong, I prayed after I went to the cafe. I came back, prayed, and then called my sisters.
My older sister mentioned that she wants me to look into the UK visa, and she was very serious about it, so I put it down on my to-do list. I have two to-do lists: one is called "Essential To-Do List," and the other is called "Overall." In the overall, I jot down everything that I think I need to do, and in the essential, I jot down only things that I really need to do. I put down the UK visa thing in the essential list.
I did not complete it today. I stayed on call with my siblings for a while, and then I left to our first RF session. I got to meet our team. They were quite nice. Our shirt color was blue. They gave us a Residence Life shirt. I was not going to wear it, but my friend Bjorn reminded me that I should, so I did.
We sat down and the new on-call manager introduced herself as Jessie. She looked a bit Bangladeshi, she had dark hair, but with blonde highlights and dark skin, but she was still young. It was her first time in such a role, so I could tell she felt very nervous. She was very adamant on the fact that we represent her, and she really wanted us to do really well, be as punctual as we can be, and not be on our phones during any of the sessions. She told us how the week was going to go. In the meantime, I got to know my co-RF as well. She was very cool. Her name is Nimeka. She is from Sri Lanka. She is funny. She also has blonde highlights in her hair. We spent the morning just going through the schedule and the team was getting to know one another. After that, we went to our first RLS class. There, they gave an introduction to everybody. I met a lot of old friends there. Mia is one of them. She is around 5'8", very pale skin. She wears glasses and she has dark brown hair. Her glasses are very big, they make her eyes look small. She's very kind and intelligent. I am grateful I am friends with her.
I also have somebody named Hady on my team, a friend who I know from before. He's 6'2", Egyptian, has short, curly hair. He's very nice.
We sat down and had the intro, and then we took photos of our teams. During the intro, one of the instructors told us about this quiet coyote that she would use to silence everybody. You take your two middle and index finger and put them on your thumb, and it makes the shape of a coyote, as she calls it. And when she raises this into the air, everybody must put their hands up in the same gesture and the room goes quiet. I think that was pretty cool.
The coordinator's name was Jess. She was funny. She was very adorable too. She looked like she would give very good hugs.
We went down to take photos. We took two of them: one of them was a normal face with smiles, and the second was a silly one. Each team had their own photo. I am on Team Rito. I am on the fifth floor. And then later on, we went outside and we took a photo with all the teams. They made us stand in our shirt colors, which, if positioned in a certain way, would make a really nice rainbow. That was nice. I got to speak to new people. But the sun was very bright and it hit my eyes very harshly. It was nice to feel the warmth, though. I have very thick eyebrows, so they helped cover my eyes, it wasn't as bad as others had it. Now, it was around 11:45 a.m. and it was lunchtime. Lunchtime was 11:45 to 1:15. My friend Kuro needed help. He lives in Prescott House, which is on one end of Carleton University.
I hadn't had much sleep, so I wasn't thinking straight, and I ended up going to Leeds. I called him in frustration and asked him to open the door, even though I was in the wrong building. I was frustrated because I had a lack of sleep.
He said, "Why are you giving me attitude?" I said, "Sorry, I haven't slept enough." He said, "Okay." I then went to the right building. He asked me to take his bags down, and he told me that they were outside on the floor. I assumed they were on the ground floor, so I went on the ground floor. Turns out he meant that they were on the sixth floor where he lives, which makes a lot more sense.
So I went back up and got those bags and helped load them into the car. But by that time, Kuro already came down, and he had loaded them himself. I then went back up and helped him get a box and a speaker and put that in the car.
Afterwards, I was going to lunch, and I stopped by a fellow RF friend, whose name is Tristan. He plays tennis. He recently broke his ankle in tennis. Tristan's around 6'1". He looks almost Puerto Rican. His skin is not pale, it is light brown, but ethnic brown.
He is fit, and he is currently walking around with a vehicle which he puts his knee on, and he can roll it around, kind of like a scooter. I took him to the caf. We went to the caf together.
I found some other friends of mine, and I wanted to sit with them, but he was with me, and I told him I would sit with him. So I decided I will sit with him instead. I had two drumsticks and marinara pasta. Tristan's food was a lot healthier than mine. He had rice, beef, salad, and a bit of pasta. His plate looked a lot nicer.
So when I went for seconds, I made the effort to have healthier-looking food too. In my second time, I had lettuce, rice, beef, and chicken. They said that the chicken might have been raw, but it tasted and looked fine to me.
After lunch, we had another session. This one was more about active listening. They taught us how to make someone else feel heard. I wasn't listening as much because I felt as though I did not need that lesson because I think I am already good at it.
But that seemed selfish and egotistical, so I tried to put in more effort into the lesson and listen to what they were actually saying, and I tried implementing some of the things they taught us. One thing I found a lot of people said that they struggled with was body language, not fiddling when they're listening. I felt a bit arrogant because I do not struggle with those things anymore, but I am not better than somebody who does.
So then I reminded myself that, and that thought left. They made us do a fun few icebreakers as well. We ended up playing rock, paper, scissors with everybody in the room. That was nice. After that lesson was over, we had a team-building activity. That was very enjoyable. Team Rito sat in a room and painted mugs. I painted a mug with the letters M-U-G on it. They were all in caps. The M was red, the U was blue, and the G was green. I also added a period after it for extra effect. For dramatic effect. It was for my co-RF. I think she liked it.
I was getting the painting right for the first part, but then afterwards, I tried to do a black outline and I messed up. I also placed the cup in a tilted manner where there was a bit of paint on it. I think once I saw that there was a bit of paint on it and I couldn't get rid of it, it made me give up on making it look nice. So I stopped. Maybe I shouldn't have given up that early and it would have looked a lot better. I don't know.
While we were painting the mugs, we played a few games. We listened to music and everybody shared their two truths and a lie. They caught mine. My truths were that I went bunny jumping at Victoria Falls, that I have played with lion cubs, and that I was a D1s football player in Zambia. I forgot that earlier I had told one of the members of the team that I wanted to join their football team and that I was a six out of 10 in skill level. So he caught me.
We ended off that team-bonding session by playing Mafia. I was the sheriff. I managed to convince everybody to vote for two of the mafias, and I was eventually killed, and then they eventually found the third mafia. But before I died, I told my co-RF who the third mafia was. Corruption can be oddly effective.
Afterwards, I had dinner with my co-RFs and the two RFs on the floor above. I then got a text from a mutual friend saying that he needed a place to store his luggage for the week. I was quite hesitant because I did not know this man very well and it was a very last-minute thing. I think my ego wanted to not do it.
But then I called my friend Kuro and I asked him, "Should I or should I not?" And he said one time he called me or somebody else and asked, "Should I do this nice thing for somebody?" And if I can make someone's day better, might as well. So I decided I would take his stuff. I told him to come to mine and I am keeping his stuff in the lounge on my floor.
I then went to IKEA with my friend Audrey. She is very nice. She's around 5'4". She has brown hair and glasses. She kind of looks like a mouse, but she will not take offense to that because I say that to her face as well as a joke.
IKEA is very big. They make you walk around the whole store to get something and it can be hard to navigate, but I think it's a very beautiful store. There's a lot of cool things. When I went, I marveled at the complexity of how hard it must be to maintain just that store itself, let alone all the IKEAs in the world. There were so many things there and making sure you have the supply for everything and keeping track of every minute thing is very difficult.
I got two lamps from there, which was very nice, and Audrey said I should get some plants, so I got those too. They're now sitting next to me on my desk. I have one aloe vera plant, which is apparently easy to keep alive, and I have another plastic plant where its vines dangle down the window. Audrey also got herself a berry drink. She offered me some but I said I don't want one. We then went to Dollarama to finish off my list. I got:
wipes a toilet cleaner some shampoo some sticky stuff for the mirror that I bought the day before a cup for my toothbrush an extra pair of toothpaste some earbuds as well We were supposed to stop by Value Village but I got impatient. I often get impatient when I shop. I think it's because as a child I would go and shop with my mom a lot and she would take a lot of time doing things but I think that's just an excuse. Perhaps there is a deeper reason. I don't like that I get impatient when I shop. I think I don't like impatience in general. I should not have to rush this beautiful life.
Audrey was kind enough to deal with my impatience. As we were headed to the car I said I need to go to the bathroom really bad and I went and came back promptly. Once we got back to my dorm in Rideau around 9:30 pm, she helped me set up my new lights. My room looks very cosy now. I'm very grateful I have a friend like Audrey.
I asked her, "Do you feel like I am using you for your car?" She mentioned no because I texted her even when she doesn't have it. I'm glad she feels that way. I would not want her to feel like I'm using her.
She went to go watch the movies alone. I had watched a movie that she had gone to watch or she was planning on watching but I wanted to go with her because I was not sure if she was in a good state of mind. I asked her a couple of times and she said no. You should not go and then I kept asking and she said no, there's no need. I felt as though I could have asked more and she would have let me go eventually if I forced myself. If I am honest I do not think I wanted to go that badly even though I should have. I say "should" instead. I want to say "I want to" because perhaps it would mean a lot to her. I asked her to stay at mine instead for a bit and just help me set things up but she said no. She already paid for the ticket and wanted to go watch the movie. I hope she enjoys it.
I had some of the co-rfs come and check out my room. They liked it quite a bit too. They met Audrey. It was a nice encounter. Afterwards I cleaned up my room a bit, threw out some trash, took a shower, and now I am journaling. Today was a good day.
