<p>^Hey … Sorry I haven’t noticed your reply until now. </p>
<p>Lately things are going better … there are a few people at Baits who are awesome, and I’ve been randomly sitting with people and talking with them … but still I feel slightly disconnected from them b/c they still seem like strangers (or we don’t have common ground b/c of dissimilar interests). Still waiting for ECs and classes to start and hoping to connect more w/ people. (I know some art majors and I’m not a very artsy person)</p>
<p>But it’s not terrible. Usually, you can try to stay connected w/ people and to get to know them better by spending time with them. (1) Offer to play games with them. Have fun. I spent the entire afternoon of my third day playing poker with a few people from my house. It was fun, and I learned to play it decently. (I didn’t know the game at first). (2) Facebook is your friend now. There’s tons of people in college, so to keep track of them and stay in touch, you need Facebook. I’ve also had some great luck, b/c sometimes I’m a klutz (I carry around a piece of paper and a pen to ask someone for their e-mail and first + last name if I decide I like them … you can’t be friends w/ everyone in college, admittedly) but I still bump into them on campus. Great thing about college at UMich: There are so many people there that if you don’t like someone … you can always choose to not talk with them and to find other people. After all, unlike high school, there’s 6,000 other people, not including sophomores and juniors. Some of them are great people.</p>
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<p>That’s not how you meet people in college based on my experience. Usually, I’ve noticed that successful conversations = starting by asking someone their name and what they’re majoring in and what their classes are, and then you try to build from there. From time to time, the conversation will really start to roll and it seems great and stuff, but other times you’ll be sitting there in awkward silence for 45 minutes as you eat your way painfully through your meal. (Yea dining halls are great for this even if the food isn’t)</p>
<p>Also, pay attention to your RAs to see if they organize any group events. Not all group events are a good fit for you though … it depends on how you work. Aka meeting people at a football game isn’t so much like me, b/c I don’t follow football. But I’ve met great people at Game Nights (there was one in Baits and another one in the Blue Apple a few nights earlier) … Mafia was a perfect memory. When our house played it, the people who got killed off were sent off to the center of the room, where we huddled around a table with Tostitos and salsa (the RAs brought it) and we talked quietly as we munched away.</p>
<p>That said, I’m no expert at starting conversations, but when I feel like I suck, I find comfort in watching the Friends episode where Ross has beer with Mike (“The One With Rachel’s Phone Number”). Hilarious.</p>
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<p>Same here. My room mate and I are SO distant we live in different time zones. Today, he went to bed at 4 a.m. after returning from a frat party and I woke up at 6:45 a.m. I felt sorry at first, but I didn’t feel terrible in the end, b/c it’s not like he cares or notices me that much. Usually, during the day, I go out and about, but when I am in the room on the Internet or reading, my room mate sleeps so we don’t talk at all (even though I want to). It’s disappointing.</p>
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<p>Where do you live? (PM me!) We can go from there.</p>
And I met some people who live in my building too, so I am in good shape I think considering I’ve hardly been anywhere yet.</p>