O.K, so there aren’t a million more weeks to go. In fact, I probably won’t live that long and when I say probably I mean definitely. If I lived for a million more weeks I’d be 19,235 years old and that’s slightly longer than the average life expectancy. But I digress… My first week was eventful to say the least. International Orientation began on Friday the 2nd, the day after I arrived and we covered a lot in one day. We had a campus tour, which didn’t take all that long, the campus is really small which is nice when you’re late for class but not so nice when you have nowhere else to go. After our tour we had the usual briefings about ID cards, security, safety and then we went shopping! Yeah. My favourite. Not really but it was at this massive mall and we hit up Target, a classier version of Wal-Mart. This was meant to be an exciting outing but instead I found myself having a small scale mental breakdown in the bedding section - why don’t Americans just have normal names for bedding? Why does a pillow case have to be a sham? Why do I need a flat sheet as well as a fitted sheet and why isn’t the duvet and duvet cover separate? Why do I have to buy a “comforter” which is really just a glorified quilt, disguised as a duvet! Getting cosy in bed is a simple pleasure, I wish I could say the same about the bedding selection process! My stress was relieved when we had dinner - the menu was huge but I made my decision with relative ease, I ate with relative ease and was then rolled back to the car and in to bed with relative ease.
The second day, Saturday the 3rd of September began with a technology lesson - learning how to log in and out of the computer, some not so scary meetings, a walk around the town of Chicopee which definitely isn’t a town. It’s just this place where four roads. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I always thought Bangor was crap and that there was nothing to do but I was so wrong. I imagine that it doesn’t bother most Americans because they can hop in their car and drive to the mall but I’m a lowly international student and that’s just not possible for me. I have to hop on a bus, something that I won’t ever be doing alone, but my encounter with American public transport will come at a later date.
Orientation for first year students began on Sunday and I will admit, they did put on a pretty cool fire show - how exactly you get into that profession baffles me. Everyone knows you just don’t play with fire. Ever. Think of Francis the Firefly, she played with matches and wrecked everythaaang! On Monday the 6th we went on bus trips and I headed to Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. Just in case you’re wondering, it isn’t forty minutes from campus, it’s two hours away and it’s no Sea World. I’ll be fair, it’s much better than our “Aquarium” at home which is really just a paddling pool with a few manky seals, In Mystic they have Beluga Whales, Penguins and some other cool things, so if you’re in the area pop in but don’t go out of your way, you’re not missing much.
On Tuesday we had this thing called Elms Night - basically all the students go inside the main building and each year sings a song and the seniors stand on the balcony and throw gifts at the freshman. It’s an interesting tradition - in Belfast students throw bricks and riot, here they throw massive foam fingers and little presents. Oh America, I don’t think I’ll ever understand you! Elms Night marked the end of orientation and classes started the next day!
I’m studying marketing, management, international business, gender/diversity in business and human oppression - heavy stuff I know! I have class everyday which will take some getting used to, especially as they start at 9.30am; you wouldn’t have that kind of nonsense at Queen’s! I’m actually really excited about class, it looks like we’ll be covering some interesting subjects, plus when I carry all the books around campus I feel really smart - they’re hardback!
That's a picture of an American pavement. No wonder they don't walk anywhere.
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