Syllabus week

Hey guys! There was a lot of exciting events going on this week and I was definitely kept busy! I arrived here in Wayne, New Jersey about 1:30 East Coast time. I got from the airport to school by cab, and I am incredibly glad I was not the one behind the wheel. The New Jersey Turnpike is insane! It took a little while for the  cab driver to find the dorm, but the campus police, and campus football players were helpful with directions and assisting with luggage. I knew going in I would have the room to myself the first night, but as of right now, it looks like I will not have a room mate which is quite nice. My room is a typical two person dorm room, but pretty big. For those of you who know the size of the rooms in Towers in Eau Claire, the rooms in High Mountain West  are even bigger. I share a bathroom with only 2 other girls, who are room mates in the room on the opposite side of me. They are both returning students, and are both of Caribbean descent. Its nice when when they have music going as its usually reggae or theatre as Shauni is double majoring in Public Relations and Theatre. I can see New York from the study area in front of our rooms, which is commonly known as the pod. The fact I can see the skyline is a huge excitement for someone like me, coming from a small town where the tallest building is the high school.

I have yet to actually go into New York, but the fact that I can see quite a bit of the skyline from my dorm is awesome. Another awesome reason to have returning students living so close to me,  is the advice they can give. I had no idea how to get into the city, and they were more than willing to tell me how to get into the city without having to deal with trains or switching buses. Apparently there is a shuttle that picks up outside my dorm and goes directly to the Port Authority Station on 42nd Street-a block away from Times Square.

The campus here is gorgeous. It is very green and the buildings are all red brick and beautiful. Campus itself is fairly small, making it easy to get to everywhere I need to go. The food in the dining hall is wonderful, but that could be because I am so used to the cafeteria food at Eau Claire, which leaves much to be desired. The meal plan I am on also has a certain amount of Pioneer Money (which is similar to the Blugold Dollars at EC), but the nice thing about this money, is that it can be used at local businesses such as CVS, a few pizza delivery places and other nearby business. CVS is handy at a five minute walk,  for snacks, toiletries and other minor things I was unable to bring with me. I did not have to spend any of my own money, and just used the Pioneer money.

Classes this week were fairly boring, but as any college student knows, the syllabus and class expectations are always boring. However, my Geography professor is insane and very flamboyant. He is always running late and shouts his lectures, which can be a bit much as the class is really small with only seven students. He is from Taiwan and talks about it quite a bit.

Campus has a great time to mingle with other students from 12:30 to 2, outside of class, called common hour. This week there has been a lot of free food and music during it and its not uncommon to see groups of guys just break out and start dancing. The student affairs group on campus has organized a lot of activities on campus this week, plus other things I was able to discover on my own. I found Intervaristy which made me incredibly happy and PK (Pastor Ken) is amazing! The other students were so welcoming and genuinely happy to meet me, which made the inevitable awkwardness of  meeting new people fade pretty quickly. I also met a few new people at new student/transfer student activities and there are a few that we have just hit it off really well.

Today I was waiting for the bus for a school sponsored trip and did not know anyone else in the group, aside from one girl who wasn't there yet, and a guy came up and was like, "You look a little lost. Would you like to join me for the day?" He was with another friend, and was gracious enough to invite me, so the three of is pretty much spent today together at the Fun Plex about an hour away. We paid the school $7 for this trip which included unlimited go-karting, laser tag, $40 worth of arcade tokens for the arcade games, bumper cars, carnival rides and food for the day. It was a lot of fun, and a great way to start to get to know some of my class mates.

For now its time to go meet some friends for dinner and probably do what little homework I do have. See you at the next post!