For some reason, I always imagined Parents' Weekend, or Celebration Weekend or whatever else your college calls it, to be a time for extensive catching up and realizing how much or how little we'd changed in six or so weeks. That wasn't at all the case. The thing I was most looking forward to was my parents paying for things and being able to eat food and buy things outside of the dining hall and bus system.

The first thing that I did was send my parents a list of things I wanted from home or had forgotten, and asked them to bring it all. So, the first order of business was getting it all into my dorm room and setting it up. Then, my roommate, her parents, a friend of ours, me, and my parents went to Pier 1 Imports to buy a small coffee table and some chairs. This successful excursion was followed by Panera's and sundaes from Friendly's. It was a nice, very college, night out.

The next day, on Saturday, we had a late brunch in downtown, at Max London's, and it was really nice to eat somewhere that wasn't the dining hall and that I wasn't paying for. While in downtown, we ran a few errands that I needed done, namely snacks for my dorm, some laundry essentials, and duck tape. We then went back to campus and I showed them all my various classrooms, now that I know where they all are, and then they went back to their hotel for a couple hours and I stayed in my dorm to get some work done. The day finished with dinner also in downtown at Forno's--wonderful place--before surprising my dad.

Big Top, a student-run club showcase of sorts, was happening that night and the acapella group that I'm in was performing. My dad didn't know that I was in it, and so when he saw me get up on stage, he was apparently quite surprised. It was a belated birthday gift for him, and I'm pleasantly surprised that it didn't fall flat.

Finally, on Sunday, my mum and I went around town and bought, on her dime, a slightly absurd number of sweaters for the winter. We also bought a few other things--like a scarf, leggings, and a pair of boots--during our excursion. We also stopped by the farmer's market and saw the softest llamas (we were allowed to pet them). One was growling and sounded quite irritated with us all, but he was sweet so it was all good.

So Celebration Weekend was nothing like how I had expected it to be coming into college, but within a month of being here, I knew that this was what it was likely to turn into. After all, it's a rare opportunity to buy stuff without paying for it myself.