Lets Start At The Very Beginning...

I am finally taking the leap onto the World Wide Web and opening up my strange musings and experiences of American University life to friends, family and anyone vaguely interested. So, having fought my way through customs and immigration (quite literally) I have now arrived in the beautiful, country campus of the University of Connecticut, in the rural town of Storrs and have spent 3 days being ‘orientated’ into my new life. I have moved into my new room, which vaguely resembles a prison cell, and have got lost on the massive campus which makes the University of Warwick, my home university, look pathetic in comparison! The sun is shining, the air conditioning is constantly below freezing and, well, the campus is pretty much empty. The bulk of American students start arriving tomorrow and this weekend, as classes start on Monday, so that is when the true excitement will begin.

This week has been orientation week for us international kids; we’ve been forced through numerous talks on our visa requirements, and the state laws, and the University code of conduct. I expect we know more about the University than most of the students who graduate do! And while, yes, lots of it has seemed dull and pointless, not helped by the mind numbing jetlag, at the same time I can’t help but think that I probably should have had something like this at Warwick. The kind of talks where you can ask all the silly questions and not actually feel silly; ‘is it better to take laptops to lectures or to write notes?’ ‘Where do the buses go?’ ‘How does the grading system work?’ Thinking about all my closest friends starting Uni in the next few months I am reminded of the whole process of being launched into a completely new setting and system of learning and not actually having a clue what the norm is. I guess in England the point is that there is no norm, you’re supposed to ‘be free’ and ‘do whatever’s best for you’ but it’s always nice to have guidelines!

All in all my first few days have been tough, not going to lie. In fact, I seem to recall spending most of my first night planning on how to get to the airport to get a flight home and trying to calculate in my head how much money I would lose/save if I did go now. I never did work it out. But the second day was better;I had a pillow for starters which always helps and I realised that the way to not get strange looks from fellow corridor mates was by using the women’s bathroom not the gents... woops. I have also finally managed to meet some people; the first few days were a bit too busy and organised so sustaining a conversation with anyone was always rather rushed and frantic. Today we went to Avery Point, another of UConn’s regional campuses which is on the coast. There we learnt about the ins and outs of hurricanes and tropical storms; oh the irony seeing as we have both on the way... I’ll keep you posted on that front!