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Wednesday, September 9, 2009

GHOSTS! and Classes

Oh, blog. Follow my lead and pull on a hoodie, slip into your leopard-print slippers, and grab your own plate of pizza rolls, because I have so much to tell you.

I'm sure some of you will remember my brief description about why OU is considered one of the most haunted places in the United States. The campus is surrounded by cemeteries, which form a pentagram from an aerial perspective, and the city of Athens at one time housed a large, unethical mental hospital with the nasty habit of torturing and lobotomizing its patients. The hospital was closed, suddenly, one day. Some of its buildings were demolished and university buildings were built upon the land on which they once stood. Other parts of the hospital remain, untouched and unvisited, except by the hundreds of daring and drunk students willing to risk being arrested each year. Since the founding of Ohio University in 1804, students have been reporting creepy goingson and telling ghost stories about supposed supernatural experiences. Some claim certain words will jinx you if uttered in the wrong corner of campus, or that you can hear a bag of marbles being poured on the marble floor late at night in one of the residence halls. The most irksome rumor to me is that past students have committed suicide by jumping off roofs after becoming possessed. It's true that OU has had its fair share of such suicides over the decades, but I think that it probably started with one person, who lent the idea to others, who followed suit to be poetic or something. Either way, I've never made up my mind as to whether or not I believe in ghosts, because I've never had any reason to care. That is, I didn't have a reason to care... until a few days ago.

Roomie and I have gone to sleep early this week, so we've both been in bed with the TV on and lights off for a good length of time each night. One night, after we'd settled down and closed our eyes, a light above our dresser popped on. For a second, we each assumed the other had gotten up without our noticing, but it soon became apparent that anyone capable of reaching the switch was under her covers. We laughed about it together, chalking it up to living in an old building with faulty wiring, and Roomie got off her bottom bunk to turn the light off. I remembered the event the next morning while I got ready for the day, and tried to turn the light on again so I could see in the mirror better. It wouldn't turn on. I dismissed this, once again, because our cinderblock walls and dirty linoleum floors don't exactly add up to living in the lap of luxury.

It was the next night that things got strange. I tried desperately to fall asleep, but found myself flopping agitatedly from side to side and glancing at the clock at frequent half-hour intervals, well into the night. Every time I approached rapid eye movement, I'd bolt upwards to the sound of my phone, on my desk below, ringing. I wanted to strangle whoever found it necessary to keep calling me at all hours, and I knew it had to be a friend, since I have family and emergency numbers use a different ringtone. I couldn't make out the words of the ringtone, playing over and over again, but I knew from the bit of sound that reached me on my bunk-- the sound of a female voice, sing-chanting-- that it was "That's Not My Name." The next morning, after I groggily stumbled down from my bed, I grabbed my cell phone, irritated, to find out who had found it so necessary to reach me at 3:30AM. No missed calls. And the volume was off.

I've never been able to hear music from any surrounding room at any hour of the day, even when I've been silent at my desk, so I ruled that out. Last night, I purposefully left the volume on my phone, risking bothering my roommate, so I could hear if the noise was coming from some other source. As I cuddled into bed, and Roomie did the same below me, the overhead light for our entire room shut off, leaving us in the pitch black. We wrote it off as the lightbulb dying, and flipped the switch a few times to be sure. Nothing changed, so we went to sleep. This morning? It works perfectly fine.

The obviously natural response to something like this is to alert facebook, so last night, I made my status, "OUR ROOM IS HAUNTED!" I received a few curious comments in response, as well as a link from my friend Leah's mom to some sites that detail the reported hauntings of OU. I did a little bit of research after visiting these sites and, of course... (cue the creepy music) in my very building, several other girls have reported hearing women's voices talking, appliances turning themselves on and off, and unusual, unexplained insomnia.

dum Dum DUUUUUM!!!

Anyway, on a less freaky note, I had three new classes today. My first, a literature class required of freshman English majors, didn't sound too promising in its course description, which included phrases like "textual analysis," but I went in with the hopes that it would be bearable. BEARABLE! It turns out that we're going to be studying John Donne to great depth, and we're required to buy his complete works. So, you know, it's only a class on my favorite poet! This morning, we discussed "The Flea," and while I've read it before, going over it in a room full of people who share my knowledge and passion, with a professor who's, for once, significantly smarter than I am, caused my heart to flutter. I truly spent the whole hour beaming, and rushed to eat lunch alone so I could slurp up the supplementary reading. Finally!

I shimmied into Theater, still smiling like I'd won a Jamaican vacation, and was further pleased to find one of the girls from my floor, Katie, in the same class. We had a fun conversation about the merits (me) and absurdities (her) of Spring Awakening, the hilarity of putting on musicals in small high schools like ours both were, and Into the Woods, in which we both had leads as seniors. We were making plans to watch the premier of Glee together when a large, sweaty man entered from the back of the classroom, slinging a stack of papers in the crook of his arm and apologizing for being, what I hadn't even noticed was, twenty minutes late. He hoisted himself onto the counter and asked an unfortunate girl in the front row to maneuver the labyrinth of desks and legs and bags to pass out our syllabi, which consisted of a disorganized, unstapled pile. The professor proceeded to insist that we call him by his first name and ask us to, please, swear as loudly, offensively, and often as we wish. Requirements for the class include attending awesome campus play productions and reading the textbook, which, while disgustingly expensive, is surprisingly entertaining. Another course that I can definitely get used to.

As for Mass Media... we'll see. It meets in a giant lecture hall, but due to some strange scheduling mishap, there are only about thirty of us for a couple hundred seats. I sat myself in the front third of the hall, thinking I was being a good student by reserving a responsible, interactive chair. The professor was this older Flitwick-type character who quietly told us not to move if we didn't feel like it, so we naturally assumed he'd be using the microphone sitting there on his podium, and that I'd still be relatively near the front of the class. Oh, but it didn't work out that way. No, instead, he delivered his two-hour lecture in the world's quietest voice, barely opening his mouth, to the point that I was leaned forward as far as possible and holding my hair out the way from my ears, in hopes that I'd catch every other word. The row behind me followed suit, asking each other for clarification and sulking, whereas those in the back gave up entirely and closed their eyes. When the professor paused for a second, I jumped down a couple of rows, until I was practically in his face, and I still had a hell of a time making out his sentences and not drifting into an afternoon nap. If there's anything I hate more than seeing things done slowly or unnecessarily gently, it's seeing them down quietly. I was crawling out of my skin. If the few words I heard from the man hadn't been so brilliant and well-worded, I would have given up. And at least he was speaking quietly, because had he whispered, I would have yanked out all my hair and outright left. So what did we learn today, kids? When people tell you to sit in the front of lecture classes, LISTEN TO THEM.

I go back to Religion tomorrow, and then have Theater again and my Freshman Seminar on Friday, but then I'll have scoped out all my classes. Michal, Kayla and I just went uptown to get some more of our textbooks, and then Michal and I went to the "artsy" coffee house and played with a box of Trivial Pursuit from 1980. "What bird produces the largest egg?" I asked, reading that the answer was the ostrich. Michal replied matter-of-factly, "Pterodactyl." I slipped the card back into the box, nodded, and said, "Correct." It's as if we put in a combined effort to form pricelessly funny conversations that are strictly for our private pleasure. I like her.

I'm now going to have a few Oreos and dip them into milk until they're soggy and deteriorating, because they're best that way, but my dad always found it gross enough to yell at me for trying. I'm then going to watch Glee with Katie from Theater class and any other available musical fans, brush the cookie from my teeth, and snuggle into bed with some John Donne. Pray no dead mental patients possess my body in my sleep!

Sexy: The atmosphere of cafes, though I don't actually drink coffee or condone the practice of purchasing drinks the price of burritos. The mismatched plush furniture, old lamps, light jazz and company, however, I can totally go for.
Unsexy: Washing dishes in a stationary tub in the bathroom. Guess what I'm off to do?

Chipotle burritos this year: 29
Bagel Street visits this school year: 1
Subscribers: 20,241

Bye, guys! Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow. <3

52 comments:

  1. If you get possessed and jump off of a building, I will fucking hurt you. Just... don't, okay?

    GLEE TONIGHT!
    Woooooooooooo.

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  2. Good advice to sit in the front of the class. Oreos and milk are awesome. I'm on the west coast so with the time change, you are watching Glee right now!! I have to wait several more hours.

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  3. Oooo, ghost stories! What could be better? And it sounds like your university is the birthplace of every demented slasher film ever made, what with the haunted mental hospital and all. Personally on the rare occasions when I feel like i'm in the presence of something possibly supernatural, I just make a point of letting them know I mean no harm or disrespect to them. This seems to work, if only because it makes me feel more relaxed.

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  4. That's awesome. Like, seriously. Creepy...but...awesome.

    The park down the street from where my family lives used to be a cemetery, but they moved most of the stones to the main cemetery a long time ago. However, there are still a few headstones there belonging to people whose descendants either refused permission or who HAVE no remaining relatives and thus had no family to give or deny permission.

    Right by the entrance to the park are three flat headstones from the 1870s. They were buried under a pile of dirt and when they built the park, they uncovered them: they belong to three siblings, who died within three weeks of each other. All were under the age of twelve.

    I was around 11 when I discovered this. My house was built about twenty years after these children died, but for weeks I can remember lying awake wondering if their family had known the people who built my house in 1897. And how tragic their story must have been. The first two stones are elaborately carved; the last is plain and has only name and date. Like the family was so grief-stricken that they couldn't bear to care anymore.

    ...I think that kind of thing is why I'm a writer.

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  5. I only have one ghost story. It's very short and unimpressive.

    My cat died. (sad face) but sometimes, I swear I can feel him jumping onto the bed and nestling in the covers.

    Is it weird that you posted this spooking blog on Ghost Hunters night? Oooooo-weeeeeee-oooooooo.

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  6. Just saw Glee, it was so great. =o
    Yay for Gleeks.
    #Glee is my number one word in my top five on TweetStats. And I didn't even try.
    [Ok, well, I tried to make a one-man trending topic.]
    Rent is also in my top five. THAT, I did not try for.

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  7. I'm freaked out now, if Hayley gets possessed by the mentally unstable, what would the world come to?

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  8. 1.) That was really creepy.
    2.) Your theater professor sounds interesting.
    3.) GLEE! I love it so much!

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  9. *Bonus: I love coffee shops, as well.*

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  10. Please don't get possessed by a lobotomized dead mental patient. With the lack of a part of your brain, I doubt you'd be as entertaining... haha

    And my English lit. class is analyzing my favorite poet of all time, too! Dylan Thomas, FTW!

    AND YES. GLEE. YESSSSSSSSSS. I'm looking forward to your review.

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  11. I get spooked really easily. ah well.

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  12. Creepy!

    I heard, from my mom which obviously makes it legitimate, that if you wake up and look at the clock at exactly 3:33am that a dead person was thinking about you... And that was when your phone rang, right?

    AAAH so creepy!

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  13. You tell those ghost in no uncertain terms that this is YOUR room now. They can't stay, they have to move on, go into the light, whatever. Be calm and assertive. You can be a Ghost Whisperer!

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  14. Your experience sounds so similar to my school!! I love reading your blog; it's like revisiting freshman year for me. I go to The University of Alabama and we have 2 large cemetaries on campus. Also, off campus there is still the remains of an old mental institution called Bryce that was closed for mal-practice. It has the creepiest long dirt road lined with the scariest trees leading to it's front door. People are busted for going to it all of the time too.
    We are also supposed to have old civil war ghosts on our quad where a battle was fought when the Union tried to take the school.

    Anyways, yay college!

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  15. John Donne, oh how I love him. I studied him during the VCE, I guess the seniors of Australia, and I fell in love. I think my favourite will always be "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" but "The Flea" was wonderfully witty.
    "This flea is you and I, and this
    Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is"

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  16. Hah. I'm reading this blog as I'm watching Ghost Hunters. Fun, fun. XD
    But yea...as for ghosts...I think I believe in them. A few creepy things have happened to me, like after living in my house for two years we suddenly see a knife sitting above a doorway in the living room that did not match ours'.
    Or my mom hearing someone yell out the name of our cousin in the middle of the night a couple months before he dies in a car crash.
    Aaaand my friend and I were sitting in my room one night at around midnight when a white moth flies between us out of nowhere and then disappears right before our eyes.
    Ahahah. After all of that, you'd think I'd definitely believe in ghosts. Maybe I'm just in denial. [sigh]


    As for your classes...I'm glad you seem to be liking them so far.

    =]]

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  17. Thats kind of creepy, the house i used to live in was haunted. Doors would open and close by themselves, lights would turn on and off. You know, all that good stuff.

    And it makes me insanely happy when you mention Spring Awakening in your Blogs :D

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  18. Oh my lord I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight after reading this blog.

    GHOSTS!

    Your classes sound incredibly rad, Hayley. I'm liking that sweaty guy.

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  19. I went to one of those hip college cafes last weekend with my brother. The mood lighting in conjunction with retro thermoses and jazzy swivel-chairs made it well worth the visit. All the servers were either gay or bisexual, and the cashier discounted my brother's drink because he was "hot", although by no means was the cafe restricted to gays only.
    Probably the most interesting facet of the cafe was the people. One man strolled in, nonchalant, and grabbed a flip flop off the counter which mysteriously matched the one on his foot. Another man loomed in the doorway with a heavy looking cape and pitch black nose piercings. INTRIGUING!

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  20. If you're the type of person to believe in ghosts. NEVER talk to them. That is BAD. Not even to tell them to leave you alone. You pretend they don't exist and ignore them. They will go away, or just do harmless things.

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  21. Glad to hear that you have all the cool professors in the academic world to yourself (I wondered where they all were). Don't get killed by the ghosts Hayley, I don't think Googgle lets ghosts use Blogger. Your middle name is funny.

    Happy tomorrow Hayley.

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  22. i had a ghost in my room last year (my dorm was built in the 1940s... so there's bound to be SOME ghosts)
    After we named him, Atticus :), he was nice! He shut the door and turned off the lights for us. But, before we named him he tore down my roommates blinds in the middle of the night, and knocked over my cups.
    perhaps naming your ghost will make him/her nicer?

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  23. Ghosts, huh? I don't know what to think, but I know I'd be a little freaked out with the history of the town. Ugh.

    Your classes (well, Literature and Theatre) sound really cool, though! I kind of wish I could join in, if only to observe.

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  24. My mom called me, all "I'm in Hayley's blog! I'm so famous!"

    ... well. She called me about other stuff, then mentioned you briefly. But still. It was cute.

    I'm ecstatic you're so happy, babe. And your praise of cafes has given me cause to reconsider my previously negative view of the fact that I live right above our campus coffee house. Mayhap I'll check it out when I'm NOT performing there for once.

    <333

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  25. One of my best friends is in her junior year, but just transfered colleges, so she's got a whole new campus which is supposedly quite haunted (mostly be friendly ghosts, but the one in the building she has classes in is supposed to be pretty agressive). When she first moved in she was complaining about these really loud neighbors she had you lived above her and kept walking around loudly in heels and dropping what sounded like marbles on the floor at very inconvenient times. Eventually someone told her that she has no annoying neighbors, just one annoying ghost named Jenny who's often heard walking around -- always above you -- and dropping her pearl jewelry.

    I'm going over to her campus soon to investigate the haunted areas and try to hear the ghost in her dorm. I'm really excited, actually. :D

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  26. so entertaining, i clicked the google ad :)

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  27. Oh, theatre classes. I was a theatre minor until I realized there was no way in hell I could work that out with my music major. Still, those theatre classes I took were my favorites out of my entire college experience. I'm pretty sure that theatre "professors" are the same everywhere.

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  28. I was LEGITIMATELY freaked out by your recount of supernatural experiences. Like, SERIOUSLY FREAKED OUT. You can ask my cat. She witnessed my involuntary shivers and hesitant glances around my room to make sure no mental hospital patient ghosts were waiting to possess my body. *VIOLENT SHUDDER*

    How many classes does that make? Like, six?! I'm taking three. Well, two and a half, really because one only meets for 45 minutes on Fridays and is, essentially, an introduction to college. And I get credits for this? :)

    As far as Glee... well, I'll have to wait and watch it again to decide how I feel about it.

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  29. I got completely behind on all your blog posts and I'm so glad that I spent last night catching up, because I'm beginning the process of apply to universities and I'm prone to mild freak-outs every time I think about uprooting myself in a year's time and starting this socializing thing from scratch. You're giving me hope, so thank you.

    And on the ghost story front; I didn't believe in ghosts until my good friend told me about the fact that they had to move out of their house because there was a (cliched but still shit scary) little girl ghost walking across the top of their house and pressing down on them in the middle of the night while they were sleeping. In the photo they took of the (empty) house so that they could advertise it, there was apparently the faint outline of a girl's face in one of the upstairs windows.

    Good luck with the whole posession thing! I'm sure you'll be fine.

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  30. i LOVE doing that with oreos. woops, er that sounds bad.....

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  31. THAT IS UNTIL NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    BWAHAHAHAHA

    BWA

    That late night partying is catching up with you pretty quick. It'll take some time to hang with the big dogs Hayley.

    Bwaa ha ha aaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiieeee
    oh shit what was that?

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  32. Your classes sound ten times better then mine! Lucky!

    Then again, I don't think I'd be able to stay in a school that's supposedly haunted!

    Don't get possessed please! lol

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  33. I have never believed in ghosts, but if I was in your position, I too would be freaked out!!
    (Please don't die, kay?)
    xx

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  34. Oh wow!

    I didn't expect it to be THAT haunted.
    yikes!


    I live around Salem(Ma) so I always hear stories of haunted experiences.Though,luckily for me, I have never experienced anything like that.

    You should leave your video camera on while you sleep, maybe you will find some strange things!

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  35. Do us a solid, and try not to get possessed?

    Oh, my government professor this year is the exact opposite of your Flitwick. Granted, I go to a much smaller school and there are much smaller classes. But he will speak kind of softly for a moment, and then SCREAM at the top of his hate-filled lungs the difference between categorical and block grants. It's really quite terrifying.

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  36. I'm in secondary school, but I'm in this group in my year called the "Aim Higher" group, which is, basically, smart people who have the potential to go to university (not a lot of people who could go to university actually do). We went and stayed overnight at Hope University, and the boys got these posh new dorms, and we had to stay in the ones that where once a mental hospital. We were all on our own, but we pulled mattresses into each others rooms and all slept together (rooms were good-creepy in the day, but rate scary at night).
    Next morning, whilst packing all our stuff up, we started chatting to the cleaners. My friends and I were at the very back of the building, and apparently, that's where the cleaner saw the Nurse. The Ghost Nurse. I wanted to stay another night to see if I'd see her, but we had to go home.
    There's a ghost in my house though. We named him Dennis.

    Have fun with your ghostie!

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  37. You totally don't know scary until you've broke into the ridges (local name for the insane asylum). You've probably already heard the story about the bloody outline of a body on the floor. It's SO intense.

    We should totally break in...even though we don't know each other? lol. It's better in a big group because you're not as scared.

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  38. In my Word/Desktop class our computers don't have the internet restrictions that the other computers in the school do, so while I was in class today I just came here and read this :)
    All that haunted-ness would probably really freak me out...but I still really wanna go to OU. I'm an English major, too, (or, well, will be an English major) and when I went on their website and found out the English department was in Ellis Hall, I kinda freaked. 'Cause that's my last name. It must be a sign x]

    I'm glad you're having a good time :) Who knows, maybe your ghostie will end up being super awesome or something.

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  39. WOW. You realize that now I just want to go to OU about twelve times more than before. For one thing, you're there, my favorite teacher went there, it's got great writing and music programs, and now it's HAUNTED? Oh, yeah - Bobcats FTW!

    -Morgan

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  40. I like to sit near the back in lecture halls. That way you don't have to crane your neck to see the screen. :-/

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  41. What are you studying at college?

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  42. Oh, gosh. That sounds so rad. :] And oreos and milk plus disinegration = FTW.

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  43. Glee was AMAZINGG!!!! Sorry about your quiet teahcer, i have one who teaches my only and hardest ap class and i can't hear a WORD he says. i love oreos, im really craving them now... and i hope your creepy hauntings of your room go away!!

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  44. I love how your campus is haunted! I would be so terrified, but I'd love it at the same time, just for the adrenaline and the great stories you get to hear/tell afterwards.
    Tell us if you get haunted any more :D

    And your classes sound pretty great except for the quiet-man.

    -alex

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  45. Your school sounds awesome!
    Damn, I missed Glee!

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  46. ummm the ghost stuff had me totally getting the chills. you make me miss college so much.

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  47. CREEPY!

    Your classes sound so awesome minus Flitwickesque professor. Hopefully he's interesting as the class continues.

    CAFES = SEXY. Yes.

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  48. Hey Hayley!

    So, it's pretty awesome that you are at OU!
    I saw Ben Folds there last fall. My university is pretty nearby!
    maybe we'll meet some day.

    :]

    denise

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  49. Oh, haunted campuses. They're such a bag of laughs.

    I'm a senior at Albertus Magnus in CT, and our campus is possibly the most haunted campus in CT (might be second only to Yale). Three of our four dorm halls and the library are all old mansions, with fun histories of murder, suicide, and possession of previous tenants.

    And the one dorm hall that's not a mansion is Yale's old psych ward and not much has changed in the building itself. Observation windows were just boarded up and there's still a nurses' station on the fourth floor. Each floor has it's own handfull of resident ghosts, both bad and good. A personal favourite of mine is the 3rd floor nurse, who rattles the door handles to make sure everyone's safe in bed.

    It definitely makes for some interesting college tales, though. XD

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    ReplyDelete