orientation round 1

On Monday I attended the USC university-wide graduate orientation.  The day started off with check-in, a pretty unappetizing lunch of shriveled hot dogs and fries, and a couple speeches about joining the Trojan Family, a phrase that made me laugh a little each time.  ("How do you get a Trojan family?"  "Buy an expired Trojan!" woh-woh)

Then it was off to a number of information sessions of varying usefulness.  I started out with "Exploring LA," which proved not to contain a lot of new information, other than the location of several malls, but was presented by an adorable gay guy who is the director of the campus LGBT center.  The complimentary Skittles (rainbow, get it?) were a cute touch.

The financial aid session was actually pretty useful, but the real fun was the campus tour.  Here are some things you may or may not know about USC:

- People at USC are kind of into football.  Just a little.

- According to some independent study or other, USC has the strongest alumni network in the world

- The USC marching band is the only college marching band to be featured on a platinum album

- There is a weird concrete statue on the main walkway through campus that looks like a hand giving the finger to Westwood, where a certain school with which USC has a teensy rivalry is located

- In front of the humanities building there is a stone column from the actual city of Troy, which was donated to USC by the Turkish government in the '50s.  I took a picture of it, but my camera cable is AWOL at the moment.

- Somewhere on campus there is a statue of a Bruin (the mascot of a certain school with which USC has a teensy rivalry) holding a football.  It was supposedly placed there by a vindictive architect.

- In an earlier post I mentioned how everything at USC is named after someone.  Well, apparently every building facing Queens' Courtyard is named after a woman, giving said courtyard its name

- While at first I thought having a pharmacy on campus was a random amenity, I swear to God, there is not another pharmacy in a one-mile radius of campus.

- Waving the victory sign and yelling "Fight on!" to fellow tour guides passing in a golf cart is not considered dorky in the least

- The following story may or may not be true.  In addition to several Lucas buildings in the film school, there is a Spielberg sound stage.  Steven Spielberg did not go to USC (supposedly he was rejected three times.)  Spielberg and Lucas were working on a movie together, which apparently Steve-O thought was going to bomb.  Lucas bet Spielberg that if the movie succeeded, Spielberg would donate a building to USC.  The movie, of course, was Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the rest is glorious sound stage.

Who knows what I'll learn at the Cinematic Arts orientation on Friday!