Friday, August 24: Another day of orientation. We're in Alston, second floor (oh, by the way...for those of you who don't know: ground floor = Keller/unteres Erdgeschoß, first floor = Erdgeschoß, second floor = erster Stock) with a huge window facing the quadrangle (quad), so we see all the other students arrive on campus, most of the First Years accompanied by their families, who stay in hotels near campus for three days before going back home. I'm already looking forward to finally getting to know my roommate later that day.
Meanwhile, we're getting an introduction to the Writing and Speaking Center, which are open for students 24/7. Basically, we can do all of our writing there, print our papers for free, practice our oral presentations (they have PowerPoint, a huge screen and a standing desk in the Speaking Center, and you can get videotaped there in order to analyze yourself). Furthermore, there are tutors who help you write your papers (from the first ideas/drafts to the correction of the final version) or improve your writing style, speaking skills and pronunciation. You can either make individual appointments, just drop by during office hours or register for the Partner's Program, which I did. They assign you a personal tutor and you have the possibility to meet for an hour at a certain time once a week. And - all of that's free!
After coming back to Alston, we're officially welcomed by Dr. Elizabeth Kiss (pronounced [keesh], not [kiss]), the College's President. She's really sweet and almost as new to the College as we are (last year was her first one on campus). She tells us a little bit about herself (born in the US, Hungarian roots; wants to focuse on environmental, feminist and international issues,...). Very down-to-earth, she even recognizes almost each and every one of us when she meets us on campus - and takes her time to talk to us. Okay, I admit that this is easier at a College which only 1000 students attend to, but still...Plus, she wouldn't have to do that.
Thanks to her, they brought an environmental policy to life, so people are now trying to recycle (I guess everyone of us threw a plastic cup into the recycling bin for paper once in a while when we first started *g*) and the campus ought to be climate neutral within two years.
To get to know each other, everyone has to answer these questions: 1) What do you enjoy most in life? (I liked Tehseen's answer: "The sound of my own voice") and 2) What do you really want people to know about your country?
Some examples:
Austria - We're not living up in the mountains, yodeling and wearing leather trousers all day (The Sound of Music); Austria is NOT Australia and there aren't any kangaroos; we speak German
France - Why is called "french kissing", when the tongue is involved?? People in France aren't the only ones who do that...
China - not everyone is a communist
Spain - we're not partying every day (although the two Spanish girls seem to disagree on that), Spanish is not the only language spoken in Spain
Trinidad - yes, it is an island in the Caribbean, but we're still not running around in bikinis all day
Ghana - we actually have buildings and cities there, people don't normally live on trees or in small mud huts
Nigeria - Africa is a continent, not a big neighborhood (people used to ask her if she knew certain people who lived in different parts/countries in Africa, when she told them where she was from)
Germany - we've learned from our history, it's not the way it was anymore
USA - there are some American people who are actually able to find it on a map
South Africa - there are safe places in this country, too
Pakistan - not every woman is wearing a burqa there (in this case, Tehseen herself was the best example for the fact that some people in Pakistan are different from what we had them expected to be, as she is the loudest, most outgoing and extraverted person in the whole group)
(some details might have been a little different - you know, as time goes by...)
Of course, Elizabeth Kiss and Jennifer Lund participated as well and answered both questions themselves as soon as they had stopped laughing.
After Dr. Kiss had left, we got some advice for academic success by two faculty members, who are former international students as well.
This was followed by a presentation/play performed by Jennifer Lund and Dr. Rafael Ocasio, an immigrant from Puerto Rico (can you call him an immigrant if he's from there - after all, it's US territory...?) who teaches in the Spanish Department. They tried to talk as "Southern" to each other as possible and made us guess the meaning. As a group, we figured it out in most of the cases, but the slang would have been very hard to understand without other people's help.
After lunch (in Evans Dining Hall, see pictures), I had to go to the Wellness Center again to have my tuberculosis skin test checked. As I had a 12mm red spot on my forearm by then, I kind of suspected the result, so I was a little nervous...It didn't help either that the doctor started whispering to me as soon as she saw the spot. She asked me to follow her to an extra room, where she measured the spot and started to look a little worried. She told me that I had to go to another doctor's office on Monday in order to have the chest x-ray done, because the spot was larger than the critical 10mm. At first she th
ought I might have to pay for that and I already saw dollar bills flying out of the window in my mind (American Health System, and insurance doesn't cover very much, you know what I mean...), but finally she called some doctor who would do it for free for Agnes students. She didn't explain to me, though, that the positive result might have been caused by my immunization, so I was starting to get a little nervous, too. It finally came to me that this might be the reason, so I asked the doctor's assistant on my way out, who, of course, didn't know the answer but thought it was possible.
As you can imagine, my weekend was not as relaxed as I had hoped it would be.
So, I just tried to avoid thinking about my red spot and concentrated on getting my things done (go to orientation registration to get another information package and another Agnes Scott T-Shirt, get my ID and a patch cable in order to be able to connect my notebook to the internet,...)
In the afternoon, the only thing I still had to do was taking my Spanish Placement Test, because I wanted to take a Spanish class in order not to get out of practice before going to Barcelona. It seems, though, that the level of language classes here is a little different from back home, as it took me only 20 minutes (instead of 90) to complete the tasks and I scored a 72 out of 80. It had only tested for basic grammar and vocabulary, so I was kind of worried that the test might not have been representative and that the course might be too difficult for me (highest level...they offer one or two courses on a higher level in spring semester, though). Inés, who took the Placement Test for French, felt the same way about her results (by the way, the woman on the picture is Jennifer Lund - I'll ask her for another picture in the next few days...)
Unfortunately, I couldn't get into the same class as Célia, one of the French girls, because her schedule interfered with our plan.
After coming home from the test, I finally get to know my roommate in person (I had already written her a mail shortly before I came here and she had answered me that same day). Her name is Joanna, she turned nineteen the next day (Ira, in case you haven't noticed: her birthday is on the same day as yours!), had already spent one semester studying in Arizona, where she used to live (she was born in Atlanta, moved to Texas at age 11 and to Arizona at age 13; and she had just moved back to St. Simon's Island, GA with her mom a short time ago)...and she really likes to give me the finger when I try to take pics of her, so this is pretty much the only one without an insult on it, which is why I chose it :-P Don't get me wrong, she's a really nice person and we get along great, she just doesn't like it when someone takes a picture of her - which I completely understand, because I don't like that, either.
In the evening: mandatory Residence Hall Meeting. For the First Years, almost all the activities during orientation are mandatory, we're treated a little more like adults, but still aren't used to this amount of being taken care of.
Basically it's just an hour hearing about different rules and procedures on campus and in the residence halls.
And as Winship, my residence hall, is mostly for First Years, there are a lot of rules - above all, no underage drinking. On my floor, there are almost exclusively transfer students (who had already started studying at another college/university), internationals and Woodruff Scholars (most of them in their twenties/thirties), so we don't have to follow all of them (we don't have to sign out if we go out at night, for instance). Fortunately.
I don't really know how people are supposed to become independent while living on this campus, because everything is done for you (you don't have to cook, clean an apartment,...) and there is a rule for every single detail in life, so you don't even have the chance to make decisions. Furthermore, moving out of their parents' house seems to be such a big deal for most American students, which surprised me quite a lot because I was really glad to finally be able to move out and start my own life at the age of 18/19. But, nevertheless, growing up seems to work like this as well.
As the first mandatory activity on the next day was the Honor Pledge Signing at 4pm, we finally had the possibility to sleep in, which we did.
After a long brunch and trip to Lenox, one of the malls in Downtown Atlanta, we came to Presser Hall at 3:50. Which was a little too late, as we soon noticed, because there was this long line of people waiting to get in - and as we were internationals, we were supposed to sit in the first two rows behind the faculty. So we tried to push to the front a little, but of course, we still couldn't get to where we were supposed to sit, so we just mingled with all the American First Years.
The Honor Pledge is a really big deal on this campus. Every student has to sign it during this ceremony when they first come here, and everyone on campus seems to set great store by this pledge. Thus, teachers can assign homework which has to be done under classroom conditions (i.e. without dictionary,... - and nobody, or at least almost nobody, would cheat), and it's no problem to leave your mailbox unlocked or to forget your purse somewhere, because nobody would steal anything. Of course, this makes the campus kind of a safe haven in the midst of a more cruel world, so I think it is very important to know that it is different elsewhere in order not to become naïve - but I really enjoy it while I'm here.
During the signing ceremony, we had to speak the pledge ("As a memeber of the Agnes Scott College community, I consider myself bound by honor to develop and uphold high standards of honesty and behavior, to strive for full intellectual and moral stature, to realize my social and academic responsibility in the community. To attain these ideals, I do therefore accept this Honor System as my way of life.") collectively and then walk up front one row after another (of course, we were in the wrong one, so it was a little awkward, but Dr. Kiss kept smiling at us, which made it a little more comfortable) to sign it. I even saw some girls and their families crying, which, in my opinion, is an overreaction, but okay...And I must admit that the ceremony really was emotional ;-)
After that, they wanted to take some group pictures of the Class of '11 and the internationals, so we walked over to Evans, were they tried to squeeze a few hundred students onto the stairs in front of the dining hall. As if the full body contact and the heat weren't enough, most of us were still wearing their formal, and in most cases longsleeved, clothes. Although the photographer worked as fast as possible, we had to stand there smiling in the blazing sun for almost 15 minutes. I really hope these pictures turn out to be good...
Having had a long cold shower, I finally walked to the Science Building to complete my last task for that day: the Academic Department Fair, where we can get information about various majors/minors and meet some of the faculty members. Luckily, the first representative of the Psychology Department I talked to was Dr. William Hopkins, who would kind of save my semester a few days later :-)
In the evening, we really feel like having to relax a little, so we go to Javamonkey again. Typical southern live music (they have live music/poetry every night, different styles, musicians), a woman who is dancing frantically (see picture and video), fun, good expensive wine,... (third from the left on the third picture below: Sandra from france; girl in blue shirt: Mikaela from...well, the US)
In order to get to know some other bars, we move on to a pub called Brick Store after that. Nice place, nice barkeeper (he gave me a coke for free), but a little too
crowded to relax.
