I am now an Illinermaker (or would that be Boillini?). I have completed my move from Purdue to the University of Illinois and have spent the last four days settling in and preparing for the semester.
The apartment is furnished, so the move was easier than it would have been had I kept my table, couch, and desk. I brought the table home to go into storage until my family or I have need for it. We did not just get rid of it because, in the Sue's words, "That was your grandmother's first table." The couch went outside to be picked up by a former coworker. I hope he got it; he was in the middle of a family emergency as I was moving out. If not, that couch certainly had a good run. It remained comfortable and clean through one bedroom, three dorm rooms, one apartment, and four moves. Finally, the desk went to Doug who wrestled that 6-foot monster into his new apartment at Purdue. Since I had such a huge desk at the old apartment, I think the universe needed to restore balance by giving me a really really tiny desk at my new apartment. It has just over half the surface area of the old desk. Aside from the small desk, I am very pleased with the new apartment. It is clean, quiet, as close to campus as I can get, and has many of the conveniences and appliances of a larger apartment.
I am going to be a research assistant for group this semester. That means I will not have to grade undergraduate work like I would if I was a teaching assistant, but I will have to do a whole lot more programming, reading, and other "research"-ey things. I do not know yet what I will be working on, but it will probably involve software testing and automated program generation. I will write about that and the classes I am taking when I know more.
I am ready and eager to start what my father accurately called, "the next chapter of my life".