Brief Overview of Day 1 - 11

So it's quite easy to blog after all...

For those who don't know, I'm now in Raleigh (prounced raw-lee, rah-lee), in North Carolina, USA. Attending North Carolina State University on a one semester student exchange program.

I've been here for almost 12 days, and what a journey it has been! I don't know where to start writing, cos there's so much to write about. So here's just a overview of what happened the past 11 days, and more details will come later (for specific stuff).

Left on Wed, Aug 13, 7.15 am Singapore time. About 20 hours later, landed in Washington DC on the same day 3 pm local time to find that my flight to Raleigh was delayed, then cancelled. Took the next flight at 10 pm but my luggage didn't arrive in Raleigh. After completing the baggage-lost form and getting to the hostel, by the time I checked-in and went to my room, it was almost 1 am. There was no one outside by that time and without my luggage, I couldn't do anything but simply go to bed and settle everything else the next day. Thank God at least I had my toothbrush and toothpaste with me.

This is my room in its original state (actually my roommate's bed cos I didn't take a picture of mine before I put my own stuff). The first night I just slept like that (only had the SESS jacket and I didn't know how to adjust the temperature then). I almost thought I'd fall over in the middle of the night!


Day 1 - Thu, Aug 14

Woke up early to borrow stuff from people so at least I could shower. I guess I was really thick-skinned but no choice. Thank God there's Andrea, the other Singaporean from SMU here!

8.30 - 11.30 am: Orientation, breakfast provided. Briefing on the administrative stuff, students we could go to for help, important information etc. Got to know some of the other exchange students too.

2 - 4 pm: Information fair for new International students (exchange students and mostly graduate students). There were about a handful of booths by Christian ministries for international students so got some information. Suddenly felt very tired after this so went back to sleep for an hour plus.

6.30 pm: Shopping trip to Walmart, organised by Study Abroad Office (I think). Finally I could get some clothes and other necessities while I wait for my luggage. But I was really so tired (jet lag) the whole time. After we got back (about 10 pm) there was some free food by the Hall but I only hung around for a while. Quite sick of eating muffins and bagels already.


Day 2 - Fri, Aug 15

10.30 am: More orientation - meeting the academic advisor, attended some sessions by the Office of International Services on sch volunteer opportunities, getting around and places around school.

5.30 pm: Attended an International Students Welcome Dinner, organised by Forest Hill Baptist Church. Got some of the other exchange students from Korea and Japan to go too. There were probably over 200 students, mostly graduate students from India and China. The church holds English classes and some other weekend outdoor activities for international students too. Spoke to one of the volunteers and knew that they have been ministering to international students for almost 30 years, ever since a lady started English classes for the international students then.

And I finally got my luggage that night! Could start to settle in properly...


Day 3 - Sat, Aug 16

In the morning went to open bank account and more grocery shopping.

Roommate arrived in the afternoon, before I could properly settle in. Wasn't sure how having a roommate would be like but so far it's been good. She's African American, lives near the beach in North Carolina, about 2 hours drive from campus. Went for lunch with them (her mum gave a treat!) and to Walmart to buy more stuff.

5.30 pm: Attended another welcome dinner for new students, organised by Raleigh Chinese Christian Church (RCCC) for students from China so it's in Chinese. There were over 100 students who came, all graduate students I think. Quite weird to be there but got to know one of the student leaders, this girl from China (Luyan) who studied in Singapore for a year before coming to NCSU a year ago for Masters and PhD. She gave me and Andrea rides to church and back the last two Sundays.


Day 4 - Sun, Aug 17

7 am: I actually woke up early to watch the Olympic Games, the table tennis women's team finals. But it wasn't shown on TV!!! There were two Games channels and they showed tennis and baseball finals instead. How disappointing. But I'm so proud of Singapore winning a medal in 48 years and I ALWAYS tell everyone that everytime people talk about the Olympics or when they ask if I watch it. It's quite a common conversation topic here. So sad that I didn't get to watch the Olympics at all (except the closing ceremony). It's such a big event and it's happening in China but now i'm on the other side of the world :(

9 am: Attended RCCC in the morning. I went for both the Chinese and English service. So happens that the guy whom Shuang Ning gave me the contact of attends this church too. And the pastor of this church is a Singaporean who came to US 18 years ago. Their daughter speaks english with an American accent but the pastor and his wife still speaks Singaporean English. The church is really pretty much like Kum Yan. Mostly Chinese people. The Chinese service has more of the older generation people (congregation of about 240 people), while the English service are mainly young people (congregation of about 220 people). There's a Cantonese service too (congregation of about 60 people), so it's like a family church. There was lunch at the church, my first time eating Chinese food in US! And yes, I get to eat Chinese food every Sunday :)

After church I walked around the campus a bit with Andrea, explored the gym and bookstore and bought 1 textbook. It was USD 140!

5 pm: Attended the Bridges International Vision and Fellowship Night. Bridges International is an arm of CCC's ministry to international students. It was at an American's home and meant for Christians to share the vision of getting Christian international students to reach their own people. Something like vision tea, but only me and another guy from China attended. Again, they mainly reach the graduate students, so they don't do much ministry at all with exchange students.


Day 5 - Mon, Aug 18

9.30 - 11 am: Briefing by Office of International Services on more admin stuff

11 am: Cates Crawl. Organizations set up their booths along Cates Avenue (where my Hall is located) for freshmen to find out about the organizations. Lots of freebies. Haha.

1 pm: Campus Tour by Hall ambassadors. The campus is really huge! I actually didn't go to many places until this tour.

Went Cameron Village again to buy stuff and I bought something very important - a hot pot! Boiling water is one of my favourite activities now :) The water coolers don't have hot water so I've been drinking cold water since I came. The air is dry plus I'm in air-con room almost the whole day. Well, it's dry compared to Singapore. The people here says it's humid compared to other parts of US. But anyway I'm happy to be able to drink warm water in my dorm.


Day 6 - Tue, Aug 19

11 am: Library tour. The library is really a cool place. There are so many nice seats and computer terminals, and there's wii there too. It's so funny to see people playing wii in the middle of the place while others are at the computer terminals. (Hmm it's quite hard to post the picture cos it goes up to the top. Will post next time.)

After lunch with my roommate and her friend and another Japanese girl, I walked around with the Jap girl to the library, gym and bookstore where I bought more textbooks. Total bill is USD 590. And these are used textbooks!

8 pm: Hall meeting on some general and safety stuff


Day 7 - Wed, Aug 20

Classes begin! :)

9.10 - 10 am: Elementary Linear Algebra
11.20 am - 12.10 pm: Statistical Methods for Quality and Productivity Improvement

I enjoyed both classes very much, it's like doing Maths :) These two classes are every Mon, Wed and Fri.

5 pm: Chilling and Grilling. Some campus activity with free food - burgers and hot dogs. Just a time to hang out and socialise.


Day 8 - Thu, Aug 21

Classes again. The editing class in the morning was totally not what I expected and there's nothing I like about it so I'm dropped it.

1.30 - 2.45 pm: International Finance
3.00 - 4.15 pm: Public Finance

Both economics modules. Not as enjoyable as the other two modules but still ok.

8 pm: Campus Crusade for Christ gathering. They call it Prime Time. Held at the track, which apparently was just refurbished. There were probably 600-700 people, I'm not really sure. But the Bridges International people told me this CCC is probably the largest in US with about 1800 people.


Day 9 - Fri, Aug 22

Classes in the morning.

7 pm: Alpha-Omega Fellowship welcome dinner and session. AO is a bi-college fellowship, the college fellowship of RCCC but registered under both North Carolina State University (NCSU) and University of North Carolina (UNC). There were quite a lot of freshmen that day too. Got to know some of the people better.


Day 10 - Sat, Aug 23

9 am - 2 pm: Tour of Raleigh, organised by International Bible Study, a church group. Over 100 people, but mostly new graduate students. Split up into 12 vans. My group had mostly Indians, a Korean and a Hong Konger. Got to see the museum and legislative building, and lunch at the open space outside someone's house. Most of the trip was just being driven around, didn't get to go down.

3 - 6 pm: Service NC State. Quite a huge event organised by the international hunger relief agency, Stop Hunger Now. Student volunteers from different colleges packed 1 million meals in three schools - NC State, UNC and East Carolina University. "Our goal is to bag 1 million dehydrated, fortified, rice-soy meals containing over 20 vitamins and minerals especially formulated for the underourished." Haha I even do CIP on exchange! It was quite fun though, assembly line job but it was quite short only cos we were the last shift and we completed it early.

6 - 10 pm: Breaking Bread. A program where students are hosted by an American family for a meal. The other 3 students together with me are graduate students from China. The American couple actually taught English in China for a year before. Their 3 kids were so excited to receive us. Their house is by the lake and is so big there's pool table, table soccer and table-tennis. Oh the family said they didn't see any of the table-tennis matches on tv too. Had a good time getting to know the family and the other Chinese students too :)


Day 11 - Sun, Aug 24

9 am: Attended RCCC.

Went to the mart again to buy stuff and I bought a table lamp, after going to a few different places. Luyan was really nice to drive me around :)

5 pm: Alexander and Turlington Hall event with free food again :) So you see I've gotten quite a lot of free food since I came, with all the campus/hall activities and ministry welcome dinners :)

8.30 pm: Watched the Olympic Games Closing Ceremony (yes, it's a delayed broadcast cos no one's gonna watch it at 8 am). It's like the first olympic event I watched la. Oh I watched it with the AO fellowship people at Heather's place. Met more people again :)


Okay that's a lot for a blog post and I think I took a few hours to write this. I guess after this week my weekday schedule will be pretty fixed once I get used to my new routine. As for weekends I'm sure I can always find activities to do so it should be pretty exciting :) I guess I can say I've settled in quite quickly, once I got my luggage things were well for me. God is good. I feel happy and really blessed to be here :)