Oh, Mylanta

So I'm here in the A.T.L., in a dorm room outfitted as a guest room, which is interesting. There are things I did not expect--sofa, chair, TV with cable, fridge, microwave--and there are not things I did expect--plastic cup, soap. So I am sitting here all grimy and thirsty, watching some gothy cartoon with a skull. Oooh, and a spider girl, which reminds me of this bizarre anime we rented one time in college, in which these geisha-esque chicks turned out to really be robots, and their faces were the backs of these spiders. This is all I remember of the anime, other than the spiders surging up a wall in pursuit of someone. (Alcohol was involved in the watching of this movie, but I swear I'm not making these details up.)

This day has been surreal. I overslept (of course), drove up here in 100-degree heat (the AC works, but I was still sweating it), got a bit lost trying to find the school, hung out there for a few hours, got REALLY lost trying to get to the dorm, did almost the same traffic loop twice, and after an hour, finally made it to the dorm (two blocks from the school, mind). So far, I don't think badly of the much-maligned Atlanta drivers; traffic is heavy, yes, but on the whole, people were surprisingly polite and not dangerously aggressive. However, the way midtown Atlanta is set up is just confusing. There are all these one-way streets, and if you miss the cross street you need (at least, if you're me), you end up on some highway funneling you far, far from where you are trying to be with no chance to exit for several miles. On the plus side, I now know I can successfully find my way around a good chunk of metro Atlanta without a real map and with surprisingly minimal road rage.

Anyway, I'm starving and headachy. Half of me wants to go home, and half of me is in love with this city already.