Long Days & 1000 New Experiences

Hello everyone! :) 

I've been wanting to write a new post since I arrived but two things got in my way: The Wi-Fi at TU hasn't been too reliable and TU had us exchange students busy every day from the morning until the evening. I will tell you all about it now.

Let me start by telling you about how I got here. Sunday morning I said goodbye to my family and my boyfriend, swallowed down my tears and got on a plane to Atlanta. I had a really nice couple from Bonn sitting next to me whom I chatted with once in a while. Other than that I tried to enjoy a few movies (sadly the movies would keep breaking off and you'd have to forward to where you were) and did my best to sleep a little. In Atlanta I had an immense layover of I think EIGHT hours. It got really lonely by the end. I also was really tired by the end of the layover because it has been a really long day so far. My last flight from Atlanta to Tulsa however was rather quick and I really enjoyed it. Since we were flying east we were chasing the sunset on the horizon. Flying at night has this beauty to it - seeing the lights of the cities sparkle. Another beautiful to watch bonus in that flight was that we flew right by a thunderstorm and you could watch the lightning within the clouds. Since the sun hadn't set completely yet the clouds also had a beautiful red-orange-purple color. I'm pretty sure though that I was the only who noticed that spectacle. 

At Tulsa airport

Once in Tulsa my new roomie came and picked me up, I actually unpacked the same evening and then fell into my new queen size bed and passed out. Monday was full of running around campus. Getting checked in with the Center of Global Education (CGE), finding something to eat, shopping at target for bedding and all the other stuff one needs, arranging our rooms and finally we free dinner on campus. After that I was seriously exhausted and went to bed early. There wasn't too much time to rest though! Tuesday our "New to the US Orientation" started. Tuesday and Wednesday were full with long talks and a billion information (important stuff like how to shake hands ;), but also some fun activities like a scavenger hunt. And then finally we were integrated into the "normal" orientation for all the new students coming to TU - the freshmen. 

Shopping for my room :)

Let me just tell you about the craziest part: the play fair. OMG! This was the craziest thing ever. All the new students were waiting in the entrance hall of the Collins Fitness Center when the Orientaion Leaders (OLs) started screaming and yelling to get excited. Eventually we were let onto the basketball court where the first needed to line up left and right and high five the people who were coming after. My arm hurt after all the people went by. After that we played crazy games where we needed to form groups, sort ourselves according to number of siblings and other stuff. We switched groups a thousand times at least and had to do all sorts of silly games. It was a lot of fun though. After that we had a glow in the dark scavenger hunt. I really enjoyed the glow sticks. 

Friday I went for formal sorority recruitment but I will tell you all about it in my next post. :) 

Thank you for reading!

Jenny Sch.

P.S.: Let me just tell you real quick: You get SO many free shirts at orientation. I love it. :)