Orientation

Hello again,

So, over the weekend, I had the opportunity, nay the privilege to go through orientation. >.< In plain and simple terms, it was the same as that of any other college: tour of campus, icebreakers, where to get help if you need it, &tc.

Saturday started out with a formal meeting for all the transfer students. I suppose it is important to note that I am the only domestic exchange student at Skidmroe for this year. That means that out of the entire nation and all the applicants who tried for Skidmore this year through the NSE program, I was the only selected for this year. With that being said, I am incredibly honored and very grateful to be given this opportunity. Anyway, since there are so few exchange students (2 international and myself) the school combined our group with the transfer students. I believe there was somewhere around 32 transfers this year, most from the east coast. Well, the meeting was informative, but slightly boring. It covered the basics of knowing how to get help around campus and who to contact in case we needed to know something. After that, we all donned our class shirts and went to convocation. Here at Skidmore, the classes take part in convocation. Granted, it is just a formal processional and the classes have banners that we walk behind. For this school year, I am a part of the 2012 class. Convocation was nice, some of the deans and the president of the college spoke to the students and parents, welcoming us to the school.

By this time, I was really hungry. I had not eaten all day and it was about 6 EST when convocation got out. Us transfer/exchange students were given a fairly nice welcome dinner, which was much appreciated. After that, I returned to the dorm for yet another fascinating dorm meeting. Just like home, the meeting consisted of dorm procedures, quiet hours, icebreakers, &tc. Then, to make it even more fun, there was an entire dorm meeting with all four floors of the dorm. That was hectic and makes me never want to be in a dorm bigger than Decker (UNC). I think there are more people on my floor of the dorm than the entirety of Decker. So, definitely something new and exciting. Finally, the last thing I did was go to a pizza party for the transfer/exchange students. Unfortunately, I did not stay long, but got to once again enjoy New York pizza. Yummy. Afterwards, I made calls home to check in with the family and then went to bed.

Sunday was another day of orientation activities. In the morning there was the SKIDMAZING RACE, which was basically a scavenger hunt around campus to help orientate us new students. My team did not complete it and instead went to lunch. Such motivation! >.< After lunch, I went back to my room to begin reading some of my assignments for classes. In the afternoon, I signed up for a tour of campus to find my specific classes, which was not too terribly difficult, so I had time afterwards to time how long it would take to go from classroom to classroom. As it turns out, the most it would take me to get from one class to the next is about five minutes. So, having completed that mission, I went down to the little pond on campus and sat there meditating. Twas very peaceful and relaxing. After about 20 minutes of sitting there, I went to the bus stop where the transfer group was to meet to go downtown. There is a bus and a trolley that can take students downtown for free with the student ID. So we went downtown and walked around the park. Soon after, we went to a cafe and got dinner, which for me, was a BLT bagel. It was really good. I may have to go back to try other things. Also out here Ben and Jerry's is the ice cream of choice, so we went and got ice cream cones as dessert.

Saratoga is known for three main things: the horse track, the natural springs for which the town is named, and the Battle of Saratoga. It the park there are faucets that have some of the spring water that you can taste. One of them tasted like sulfur (icky) and the other tasted like pennies (also icky). But it was the experience that mattered. Since the trolleys were going to stop running, we got the last one back to the campus. The group decided that before going to some showcases, we would go see the college apartments and continue to hang out. I did not stay long and went back to the dorm to read and sleep.

Yesterday, Monday, I spent the entire day reading Robinson Crusoe. There was a sex education program that I could have gone to as part of the orientation, but I decided school work was more important and thus spent the day reading.

So, in all, the only things that I really liked out of orientation were finding my classes and the tour downtown. But I suppose all of it was necessary and may come in handy sometime.

Until next time,

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people" ~E. Roosevelt