Orientation Week

This week hasn't been terribly exciting. Orientation sessions were exactly as you'd expect. Between the sessions and tours I try to line up necessary details for school, which has been difficult because very little about this university is straightforward, simple, or even described. I have been sent or given no information on registering for classes and have had to seek out the necessary people. The engineering office didn't have a scrap of paperwork about me. I found out who my advisor is this summer, but have yet to find her. I sent her an email yesterday but the soonest I can meet with her is Monday midday, after classes have started. Another American engineering student has had the same runaround, but was told to talk with another professor, which I plan to do, since being able to go to classes is sort of important.

Other things such as student IDs are occasionally hinted at, but the methods of obtaining one are discreet and subtle. Do they have to be smuggled in? Is it like a drug deal?

All of my flatmates are apparently local because only the international students are living in the student housing and I am the only one living in my apartment section. The exception is one Irish kid down the hall who moved in yesterday, registered this morning, then went home again. The place is rather quiet when I'm the only one there.

I got my fiddle out tonight for the first time since I got here. The fun was soon over though when I broke my A string, the only one I don't have a replacement for. I sure hope they let me figure out how to register cause sitting around here is boring, bumming around is rather expensive, and it's a long way home.