I have arrived and settled in State College now. The journey here was long and exhausting, but the train was a lot more comfortable than the planes. The bus wasn't very comfortable but thankfully it was just a short journey.
So far the town seems pretty quiet, lots of through traffic but not too much foot traffic. I'm staying in a temporary residence so I'm not sure what my permanent housing will be like. The food is very expensive at the dining commons at the moment, as I don't have a meal plan yet (US$14 for dinner!) so I've been eating microwave meals and sandwiches from the local supermarket in the meantime. The temporary housing is in an inconvenient location - 20 minutes walk to the nearest restaurants and 30 minutes to the supermarket, with the buses running only very infrequently owing to the time of year.
My temporary room mate is from Kazakhstan, so it's been interesting chatting to him about his homeland. He's a graduate student, which I imagine most people here this early are as their orientation starts tomorrow while mine isn't until the 14th.
Anyway not too much excitement to report, I've just been relaxing these past couple of days. Nice to have all the travelling done!
Aug 16
As a matter of fact, my orientation doesn't start properly until the 19th! Not sure why they made us all come so early, but it seems the international students start their orientation today but we exchange students start on the 19th. I've been hanging out with my fellow VUW students these past couple of days though so that's kept me occupied. Also, I don't move out of this room until either the 17th or the 22nd.. not 100% sure, there are conflicting reports, which I'll have to follow up on.
Lectures start on the 23rd.
McElwain is certainly a lot more conveniently located than my current accommodation, it's at least 20 minutes walk to anywhere interesting and the free campus buses aren't very regular yet as the term hasn't started.
Aug 20
I found my cord but my camera has run flat and I've just spent a very exhausting day at orientation. There were a couple of other kiwis from the University of Auckland in my group, as well as an English guy and a few people from Asia. Overall today didn't teach me too much about Penn State I didn't know but it was good to meet a few new people whom I'm sure I'll get to know better over the coming weeks. I've resolved to try and get tickets to the American football - the stadium is the third biggest in the world, believe it or not, and seats 110,000 or so fans, all in this small college town. Every game for the season is already sold out but apparently there is some chance of getting hiked up tickets from scalpers (which I'm assured is legal) online.
Aug 27
The headphones (noise cancelling - ed.) arrived today, and they are very impressive! Much needed as despite his friendly nature my room mate is incredibly noisy pretty much all day. Hopefully these will help prevent me going insane... Thank you very much!
I've had all my classes now, though I had to drop astrobiology sadly as it clashed with one of my more important classes. I've picked up hydrogeology to replace it, which is essentially studying underground water which is something I can't do at VUW. So far we haven't really got into any detail in the classes though.
We've tentatively planned a trip to DC next weekend as its a long weekend (Labour Day). It appears renting a car is many times cheaper than catching a bus once a few people sign on, and thankfully we've befriended a Brazilian student who's used to driving on the right- else I would be the only one able to drive and I'm not quite sure I'd cope driving on the wrong side!
I have been eating lunch in Pollock which seems less crowded, and dinner in fact in the West Halls common, because pretty much all the other people I've met so far live there, and they have better food than the ones near by. The cookies they have their, fresh baked from the oven, are apparently famous throughout the state. I have eaten far too many cheeseburgers since I've arrived though. It's easy to see how America has problems with obesity... At Taco Bell, you can buy a drink size of 40 fl oz (which is almost 1.2l). That can't be good for you.
I also went to some freshman event the other day on the basketball courts where they initiated us into some of the PSU traditions as well as introduced us to the marching band (some very impressive drumming!) and all the major sports teams. They take the whole school pride thing very seriously here and are very passionate about their sports... Especially football!
(Posted by Brian on James' behalf)
