International Orientation Days - The official welcome

After my shopping-Wednesday, I woke up Thursday for some International Graduate Student Orientation - meaning two days of lectures about everything related to U of A. Not all equally useful, I must say... But at least ONE important lesson learned, namely how to survive in the dessert - see pic ->

Thursday started with an encouragement to get out of the campus, and enjoy the States! Then another guy instructing us how important it was that we focus on our studies, and get good grades. Not necessarily a paradox I suppose. :) We also got a lot of information on immigration and exchange status, not much interesting to report, though it was good to be there. Also a great opportunity to meet more people! During the plenary in the morning we had a round where students were encouraged to stand up and say where they are from, so we got an overview. Since we were several hundred students, just one from each country presented himself, and the rest from the same country stood up to be identified. Of course I was the only one from Denmark... However, this little exercise led me to later meet Rachel, the only New Zealand'er (actually only from the South Pacific)! We hung out the rest of the day, since she lives far from campus, and wanted to stay around for an activity later.

So we went to La Aldea after having "enjoyed" a lecture about ethics and how to avoid plagiarism, and met Kristen. I'd already planned to go with Kristen to Walmart that day, so we brought Rachel along. And here is a picture in front of Walmart with Kristen. :) Got a lot more stuff for my room, so now its actually becoming quite cosy and useful!

Rachel, me, Ji-Young, and Meltem.

Back to campus and off to a campus tour at 7 PM... Not so informative, but anyway nice with another opportunity to meet and talk with the other graduate students! Later we had dinner in No Anchovies, which is a pizza place. Here I am with Rachel (left), Ji-Young from Canada, and Meltem from Turkey (right).

Waking up (as usual though Im getting over my jet lag) at 5 AM, I took this picture of the sunrise out of my bedroom window. :)

The next day was also orientation, but with some informational lectures, which I on the program found absolutely unnecessary. So instead I cleaned my room, wrote some emails, and went out in the heat to get some stuff done! First I actually went to the orientation, just to confirm that I wasn't missing out, and got some information about how the libraries - and I wasn't missing out. So when a police woman entered the stage as the next speaker, I snug out... Out to explore the campus, finding my way to the College of Pharmacy. Took some snapshots on my way. By the way, all pics can be found at here!
Now I just have to interrupt myself for a second; a thunderstorm is coming in, with huge lightnings and what seems to becoming quite heavy rain... It might be in the middle of the desert, but its also monsoon!  Will be interesting to see how that works out.

So after struggling a bit under the sun, I managed to find my way to two advisors, whom have and will help me registering for courses. Really nice, both of them. Also I "visited" pharmacy museum located in the pharmacy college while I was waiting for an advisor.

And here I am in front of my new school: 

In the evening I went out for another event for international students, and met a few others that are very nice! Florian and Martin from Germany, whom I will for sure be seeing again as well! I had to go home early, because I have a cold. In the desert, yes. But walking in and out with such big temperature differences due to air condition is just something my body can't manage yet. Actually I was expecting a cold - since this has happened several times in Europe and the trip in Asia as well. So... Today, Saturday, I have mostly been in my bed. At least in the afternoon... 

The morning started at 10 with a meeting with my 3 roomies - I think it was actually the first time I saw them all together! :) Just settling a few ground rules for the kitchen utilities and stuff... Afterwards I went to a lunch with International Friends, an association that pairs exchange students up with locals to exchange culture, so to say. Very nice. Then I went home to take care of my cold, but managed to get some shots of the sunset. ---->

Tomorrow Im off to Target again and will try to get some groceries and get some cooking going. :) And now I will go to sleep (it's half past midnight) after having had long video chats with mom and Sis respectively! Just love this technology... Talk to you all soon!