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From Petra's diary
Those weeks before moving to college were pretty chaotic, between paperwork, boxes and phone calls we didn't have any free time. But in the end we made it, here we are at the Tech Sixam University!
Nico: Good luck, Petra!
Petra: Thanks! And, if you need any help with your homework, write to me, okay?
Gaia: C'mon, don't worry about us! I'm sure we'll manage, you should focus on yourself now!
Petra: But…
Gaia: And have some fun too, please!
Petra: Okay, okay…
Mom, my brothers and Techna helped me bring all the suitcases and boxes I'll need here. In a way, it was reassuring to have them here for the first few hours, after all living on my own is going to be a big change. The line between being reassuring and embarrassing was very thin, however, and I think they realized it too, because they soon preferred to wish me good luck once more before definitively saying goodbye.
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So Emy, Mike and I ended up living together in one of the dorms at Tech Sixam University. Emy and I share a room, while Mike took one of the beds in the one next door.
Michael: Hey, is that a chick?
Petra: So it looks like...
Michael: Where may it be from?
Petra: No clue about it.
The change in pace compared to high school is obvious. We always wake up early in the morning to go to class and then we have to study until the evening to finish the homework, presentations and essays that we have to hand in day after day.
So, all things considered, most of the free time we get is in the evening.Emma: What's good for dinner?
Cook: Pasta with tomato sauce, roast chicken, curry rice... What do you prefer?
Petra: Is the pasta good for everyone?
Michael: Yes, it's also the cheapest.
Emma: You're not wrong, it's way more expensive than I expected. Even eating the campus canteen and picking the cheapest option, we paid more than 10§ each!
Michael: Prices are rising everywhere, they say that cereals production in Newcrest and Riverblossom Hills has been poorer than usual. I guess we can only hope that the next season will turn out to be normal instead.
Petra: Um…
I also heard about it from Techna, it seems that a long-lasting drought has reduced food production in the very regions that used to grow cereals for most of our continent. Many people here are complaining about the rising prices, without realizing that there are many people who are doing much worse than us. In many Countries people aren't able to afford food at this price anymore, and this could easily lead to famines. And I'm sure Mike and Emy know it just as well as I do, they just don't want to talk once more about unfair problems completely out of our reach. So, when Emy suggested:
Emma: Why don't we go play something instead? I don't know about you, but after today's lessons I can't concentrate on anything serious anymore, I need to unwind a bit…
… we couldn't help but shrug and follow her to the games room in the students' common area.
Petra: Well, for the sake of balance, this should be the safest one to move…Petra: Or maybe it wasn't.
Emma: Wow, we won!
A little later, objectively a little more relaxed than a few hours earlier, we returned to the dorms for the night.
I don't think I've ever been so tired in my life… But I've also learned so many new things, I really think that going to college was the right choice for us.
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Soon the first weekend arrived, finally giving us a few days to really explore the campus. On Saturdays there is always a little party in the central square where older students dance and have fun, so we decided to give it a look.
Emma: Hey, there's music over there!
We ended up having a lot of fun. There were ping pong tables, barrels of juice to share, soccer balls, and lots of jokes and friendly people.
Petra: Hey, that's a cool costume! Are you the mascot?
???: Oh oh oh, thank you, you puny vertebrate! I'm Laurine the Lobster, and I'm indeed our university's mascot!
She was talking with such a cartoonish high-pitched voice that it was too hilarious to answer back without a laugh.
Petra: Cool! Can we take a picture?
Laurine the Lobster: Oh oh, of course, that's why I'm here!
The girl in the lobster costume then walked away singing a song that was hard to catch, apart from the frequent: “Go Tech Sixam!” lines, before going off to cheer up some other students. We met many weirdos that week, but she was definitely the funniest.
Reluctantly, we left the party around lunchtime. Being the nerds that we are, we decided to use the time to get some studying done also today.
We found a really nice café with a large library where we could study. The cappuccino is great, and there are a lot of books that are hard to find elsewhere. I don’t know why my classmates don't like this place, it just seems really nice to me.
While students coming from abroad like us aren’t uncommon, the locals and most of the students around campus are obviously sixamians. Many of them are surprised when I tell them I grew up in Evergreen Harbor, but they don’t seem to care that much.
They're much more tech-savvy than the average people in the Sim Nation, but for the rest they seem just like everyone else.
Petra: I know we're here to study... But do you have any idea about what to do tonight?
Emma: Sorry, I have already some plans! My classmates organised a dinner together, and I just couldn't say no!
Petra: Oh, okay.
I was a little sad, obviously. But I couldn't be upset if Emy already had a commitment with her classmates, right?
Petra: What about you, Mike?
Michael: Sorry, but I have to study tonight. I'm already late on that C+ script I have to turn in on Monday.
Petra: C'mon, it's Saturday night!
For a moment I was about to decide to stay in the dorm too and work on my assignments. But, hey, it was our first Saturday night in college! We already studied all afternoon, I don't want to miss all the fun and then maybe regret it later!
So, after thinking about it for a bit, I got on my bike and headed back to that café on my own.
I sat down at one of the tables, sipping a cappuccino and thinking about what to do, when I saw a girl run in and put a colourful poster on the wall. She looked around to say hello to a few people, and noticing me sitting alone at the table, she waved cheerfully, saying:
???: Hey, hi, you were at the party this morning, right?
Petra: (Cautiously) I'm sorry, but I don't think to remember you instead...
???: (Joking) I wonder why people never recognize me…
With that, the girl cleared her throat dramatically, and then said:
???: Oh oh oh, go Tech Sixam!
… making me burst out laughing. That high-pitched cartoon voice was unmistakable.
Petra: (laughing) No way, are you Laurine the Lobster?
???: That's just my stage name, when I'm in civilian clothes you can call me Sonia.
Petra: Well, Sonia, nice to meet you,. I'm Petra.
Sonia: Nice to meet you too.
I think Sonia was just planning to quickly say hello, but we ended up talking for I don't know how long.
She said she is a sophomore and that she started playing the iconic Laurine the Lobster last spring, that she is majoring in Chemistry, that she is an only child, and that she likes pink and metal music. I talked a lot too, but I don't even remember exactly what I said. She's really friendly, I don't think it's possible not to get along with her.
It was late in the evening when she said goodbye, adding:
Sonia: Well, the soccer team's party will start soon, Laurine the Lobster can't miss it! But it was fun meeting you, Petra.
After which she got up happily and ran off to her party. Only then I really noticed the poster she hung near the entrance when she arrived, probably I didn't see it earlier because she covered my view while sitting at my table. It said:
Girls just wanna have fun 🌈
Join the board game evening,
every Wednesday at this cafe!
clearly showing a couple of flags I learnt to recognise from the internet.
I'd say that was... unexpected. In many ways.
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That poster at the café kept buzzing in my head for days.
Meeting other girls who like girls is not easy at all, so the rational part of my head is saying it's probably a good idea to try. On the other hand, though, I really didn't know how to behave in such an environment. What if I did something wrong? No, it would be too embarrassing… And then, would keep going to that café make everyone on campus understand I'm queer? But would that matter? And—
Michael: Hey Petra, are you okay?
Petra: Wha… Yes, of course, I just focusing on this exercise!
Michael: (perplexed) Are you sure? Because you seemed to be just staring into space.
Petra: It's a very hard exercise, okay?
Mike just shrugged, his perplexity was evident, before taking his stuff and preparing to leave. His next class was starting soon.
Well, thinking about it, Mike would definitely spend the rest of the day studying in his room, while Emy had once again said yes to a night out with her classmates. The med students group seemed pretty united, certainly more so than ours in engineering. And it was also pretty clear that now that we were no longer classmates, my friends and I were spending less and less time together, and more and more often we had completely different plans for the day.
And that only made the little voice in my head grow louder: it's Wednesday, why don't you go to the café? And if I didn't enjoy the company, I could always turn on my heels and go back to my room to study.
Yes, that's probably what I would have done…
Petra: (hesitantly) G-good evening!
Sonia: Hey, hi Petra! We're about to start playing Monopoly, wanna join?
Petra: Sure!
Sonia was really helpful again, she introduced me to a lot of people without me even asking. And I wasn't the only newcomer either, with the beginning of the academic year that's probably something I could have predicted.
In the end, we played Monopoly together all evening, chatting about the victory of the local team in the last soccer match, or about the last movie of Venessa Jeong and how pretty she is in that role, and about the adventurous vacation Jenny and Rachel recently had in Selvadorada.
I was probably worrying about nothing, the company in this café is really great. It may sound silly, my dear diary, but it would feel so weird talking about a lot of these same topics with Mike and Emy. This evening instead ended up being very refreshing for me.
I think I'll go back, who cares about what others will think. But I'll probably be back after the exam session, I really can't afford to slack off in the next few weeks...
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Studying, homework, essays, lessons, exams, lab practice… In those weeks we barely had time to sleep, but at least the results were clearly visible.
Curiously, the semester ended exactly on Winterfest, preventing us from returning home to our families to celebrate. I really missed decorating the tree with my siblings and eating three of Diego's cakes, but even here we ensured to have everything we needed to have fun.
We had the tree…
… and even a great dinner, kindly offered by the campus canteen. By now I have almost completely stopped eating meat, its industry is way too polluting, so I am pleasantly surprised by what the menu offered.
Petra: I didn't expect to find a tofu turkey also in here!
Emma: It actually doesn't taste bad either.
Michael: And then it's free!
It's been a while since the three of us spent an evening together like that, peaceful and without the stress of looming exams. We talked, played and had fun like we hadn't had in a long time.
Petra: (waving her arms) Hey, that's Sonia!
Emma: (A little confused) Um… I think you know each other, right?
Petra: Yes, her name is Sonia, she's my friend.
Emma: Oh. Well, nice to meet you, I'm Emma.
Sonia: Oh oh, what are those long faces? Tonight we're P-A-R-T-Y-I-N-G! Go Tech Sixam!
Sonia beat us all at juice pong even in her mascot costume, I have no idea how she manages to see anything while wearing it… And even more obscure to me is how she manages to always be so smiley and brighten up everyone's day. As they say, you can't judge a book from its cover: I'm really happy to have met her, she's really cool.
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§HermioneSims§ corner
Hello everyone! I know the chapter was very long already, but I have a few comments to make as well :P
First, I want to explain why a chick appeared in the middle of the dorm: simply, it was hidden in Petra's inventory when she moved out, and I didn't have any better place where to drop it. So the little chick remained in the dorm as a sort of experiment: I'd rather not anticipate how it ended, but I'd advise you against repeating it. -.-
^ find the chick
You can also notice that I'm using the Foxbury neighbourhood again, the same I used for the college years in Gen 5. To not make it seem like everything has remained immobile for five generations, however, this time I decided to replace the buildings with others that I found by browsing the gallery, namely:
^ this is actually a pair of building, one for each dorm tower
Also notice that in the picture of this chapter the glass roofs are oddly showing as completely transparent. This was actually a temporary bug that lasted a few weeks exactly when I played this part (how lucky...) and that will resolve by itself soon.
For the rest, you can see that the chapter is very long already, as usual with the college chapters there is a lot going on because I try to make (more or less) one chapter per semester. Thus, you can expect more long chapters and a lot more going on in the next few chapters. This time the ride will be particularly... complicated.