It seems strange to think that as I write this, I have been studying abroad for almost a month. I’ll think back to the airport...
Leaving my parents at Heathrow was a somewhat emotional experience, as I expected. It was strange to think that I would be leaving home for a whole semester, spending that time 4,000 miles away from my country. The whole trip is a big thing for me - I’ve never really been away from home for more than a fortnight. I was of course ever paranoid that something would go wrong, but I managed to find my way to the correct terminal and board the plane with no problems. Apart from a slightly grumpy elderly American couple in the seats beside me, I had a pleasant flight - the leg room was a particular bonus! (For some reason when my ticket information was causing problems I was upgraded to a higher class of seating. I took this to be a good omen for the trip!) Thanks to in-flight entertainment and my sleepiness my trip was over before I knew it. Tetris really does make the hours fly by, and I seemed to be drifting in and out of sleep anyway, so it didn’t seem to take too long.
Arriving at the Airport and inexplicably nervous about the Immigration process I was greeted with the news that I had failed to fill in a card I was supposed to on the plane. Despite me asking a flight attendant twice if I had to fill in said form, the man assured me in friendly tones that it was not necessary. He had posed a small hiccup to me getting into the country, but I was able to fill in the form at the airport and was understandingly returned to my place in the queue. The second time was a success and I was off to collect my luggage. Tiredness on top of nerves meant for a stressful experience at times; I was meant to be meeting Robert Brooker near an inactive water fountain on a certain level of the building. After wandering around hoping to catch the gaze of an airport staff member I found myself starting at a map which miraculously told me I was no more than a couple of metres away from the elusive fountain. Here I waited for a few minutes, looking for someone meeting Robert’s description. At one point I saw someone who seemed to meet the description; fortunately I didn’t approach him as he was not Robert. That would have been very embarrassing. Calling Robert’s cellphone number proved unsuccessful, which worried me, but I saw him walking around and was directed to a CSU van. It seemed the most stressful part of my trip was over.
Even in my tired state I was comforted by the friendliness of the people on the Green Ride van. I was asked the usual questions about England and was happy to engage in conversation - though I must admit I was confused when asked about Prince Harry and his current girlfriend. Or was it Prince William? I think she knew more about the British Royal Family than me. Struggling to stay awake, I marveled at the scenic views of Denver, even nearing night time, and my solitary journey was over.
Walking into my halls was a jaw-dropping experience. They have a reception desk here that I believe is 24 hours. It’s like a hotel! It really is quite incredible. They have pool tables, vending machines...many nice features to ensure student comfort. But anyway, after signing the forms necessary to get to my room and much too tired to explore my new territory, I got in the elevator (yes, the halls so big that it has an elevator!) and found my room. The room has air conditioning, a bathroom shared with a suite mate (I’ll explain this in a moment, it confused me!) and is generally fantastic. I was greeted by a spacious room with a nice view of the ‘garden’ of the halls, and a helpful pile of documents with important information. Checking out the bathroom I was intrigued by the inclusion of another door. Trying desperately to open it, I realised that it was my suite mate’s entrance into the bathroom. Different to anything I have been used to, when you use the bathroom, you lock your suite mate out, and lock your bathroom from the outside when not in use. This is in case of the unlikely event that your suite mate decides to open your door and roam around your room. Thankfully I had arrived a couple of days earlier than the majority of CSU students so my suite mate wasn’t there to hear my presumably psychotic fumbling with his bathroom door.
Typically I felt setting up the internet to be of the highest priority, so I did this with little hassle and decided to head to bed. If you could call it a bed. The mattress was there of course, but due to a small planning error on my part I had not bought with me pillows and bedclothes. My bedding for that first fateful night was a pile consisting of a scarf and T-shirt for the pillow, and the blanket from the plane. I didn’t seem to mind and soon fell asleep, I suppose I can thank jet-lag for that! I had arrived at CSU, on the 17th August, 2010.
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I had set my alarm, though my body decided to do my phone’s job for me. I woke up to my second day in Fort Collins, Colorado at around 6am. I guess my body was confused. Oddly I felt refreshed enough, so proceeded to get ready for the day ahead of me and set out earlier than necessary. I had to meet at Laurel Hall at 10am for International Orientation activities, but set off well in advance in order for me to be able to locate the building! I have Google Maps to thank for my location of the building - the last thing I wanted to do was to miss the first important meeting I had at Colorado State University.
I found myself in a room full of exchange students like me. There weren’t too many people in the room, but there were students from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and England (more than I expected from England actually!). After introductions I found myself chatting to Gary from the University of Leicester. In fact the majority of English students here are from Leicester Uni! I can only presume CSU and UoL have a “special relationship”. I don’t remember too much about the first orientation meeting, though I did at least get some free food. I handed in insurance documents to Robert and sorted out the majority of important stuff, but the thing I was in need of the most was the promised trip to Wal-Mart. Bringing back bedding on a small crowded van was going to be an interesting experience, but it worked out. I bought cereal, cups, towels (yep, hadn’t bought these either) and some other things that escape me. Again I don’t seem to remember what I did after being dropped off at my halls by the kind driver, aside from making my bed. Jet-lag must have been clouding my brain a little, that day seems to have been dealt with on ‘auto-pilot’. Between getting home from Wal-Mart and sleeping however I do remember going out looking for a place to eat! On the first night I had to survive on vending machine materials as it was too late to go anywhere, so on the second night I decided I would try and find a place to grab some food. I eventually stumbled upon one of the many dining halls - Braiden Hall, which doubles as a dorm as well. Using my RamCard I had sorted out earlier that day I was able to begin using my meal plan - my card was swiped and I was free to get some dinner. Unfortunately I ended up creating my own burrito. Having little experience within the burrito spectrum I asked for a series of conflicting food articles to be thrown into the mix and ended up with a burrito that tasted pretty terrible. (This was my own fault and by no means a reflection of the wonderful food here!). To make things worse I was sat on my own in an unfamiliar environment, with hardly anyone around (as mentioned the bulk of the students were yet to arrive). Despite this, one thing was clear though on that first proper day around the CSU campus - I was going to have a fantastic time.
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