Finally, finally I am here in Florida!  I arrived late Saturday night, after spending some time with friends in Atlanta on Saturday morning and packing up the last of my belongings stored at Nicole’s house.

My new living situation is a three bedroom, two bath house to the north of the UF campus.  I live with Meg and Lisa, two other girls in the English program, who are a few years ahead of me.  Matilda has been successfully reintroduced to Tucker, Meg’s one year old beagle-collie mix and the wrestling and running rarely ceases, unless sheer exhaustion forces a momentary truce for naps.  For the first time ever, Matilda seems to be running a little low on energy, especially in the mornings, while Tucker is always ready for a new game, new wrestle, new chase.  I fear this might mean I am on my own when I finally get back into my jogging schedule.

I attended my first day (of 10) of orientation yesterday.  I learned that it takes over a year to become a citizen of Florida, because one must provide a year’s worth of documentation proving that you indeed do live in the state and intend to move here permanently.  This means I need to update my driver’s license, register my car, notarize proof of employment in the state, file forms with the state etc. before September 5 in order to get this process started.  Then, next summer, there is another round of paperwork to be filed.  After all of this, I can still be denied state citizenship.  Luckily, this does not impinge on my ability to register and vote in the state.

I feel as if I am drowning in orange and blue paperwork! On top of state citizenship, I need to fill out all of the necessary student forms and the necessary employment forms, as I am both a scholar and a teacher here.  I was called out yesterday in our orientation for being the only person to have yet handed in my immunization forms, which precludes me from being registered in my classes.  While it is a formality because the English department handles all of their own registration, I was known at the dinner party we had last night as the girl who isn’t registered yet.