Well aloha, friends! Melissa here, writing to you from the opposite side of the country. It's been a whirlwind of a few days but I've finally gotten a few minutes to sit down and blog about the first few days in California. Boy, has it been interesting.
I've been here for orientation the past few days..today is the final day of Session 111, which is reserved for international and out-of-state students, which means that almost everyone here is unfamiliar with California. To be honest, around 50% of the students seem to be from China, Singapore, Korea, or Japan.
Translation?
Asians. Everywhere.
It's not a bad thing, of course. It's cool to meet so many people from such a variety of places. I've made friends from Russia, France, Singapore, China, New Zealand, Canada, and of course, places in the U.S. I guess our session is a great example of how diverse this school is....which makes me realize just how white Massachusetts (and the rest of New England, I guess) really is.
I mean, in my community, I knew basically all of the Asian families because there really weren't that many. I was the only Asian on my volleyball team, one of the only Asians in my friend groups....I guess it dawned on me when I got here that the place where I grew up was an extremely Caucasian-dominated place.
I feel like I'm in a bit of a weird situation...of course, on the outside, everyone can see that I'm clearly Asian. At the same time, I act and think so much more like the Americans here, not at all like the hundreds of international Asians. It's just weird, I guess. Sometimes I feel like you're automatically judged because of your appearance, but that's nothing new. I'll just have to get used to it.
Orientation so far has been pretty good! I arrived on the 13th for early arrival, and was picked up by my mom's friend and her husband. They live in Irvine, so it wasn't too long of a drive for them to come to LAX and bring me to UCLA.
After checking in at Rieber Hall and moving all of my luggage into my temporary room at Rieber Terrace, we had lunch and then they headed back to Irvine. I spent the next few hours exploring, meeting new people who were just arriving, and walking around with them.
I went into Westwood with a group of friends we roped into joining us, we watched the UCLA/Texas football game in one of the lounges (Although it was a stressful and nerve-wracking game, we came out on top!!), and then headed back to another lounge to congregate with the rest of the Early Arrival kids.
There were a ton of us in that room, and we played some ice breakers with the NSAs (New Student Advisers, who were current upperclassmen at UCLA) and figured out where everyone was from. Then they brought us into Westwood for the night, where everyone either pigged out on Diddy Riese or In-N-Out. Some of my friends and I got bubble tea at a coffee shop nearby, and then joined our other friends who were eating burgers. I am still an In-N-Out virgin, but that cherry will surely be popped soon. It's only a matter of time.
Over the past few days, we've done so so much walking. That's one thing UCLA will do for you: it'll tone and firm your calves, thighs, and butt, no question. Literally, there are hills everywhere, as well as lengthy sets of stairs on the Hill (the residential area of campus), so you're getting a good workout in just by walking from your room to class.
On the first actual day of orientation, we met our NSAs for the next 3 days. My NSA has been Ollie, who's been a lot of fun to hang out with. In our group of 8 students, I am the only American. Everyone else hails from India, China, Canada, Singapore, and Russia. Crazy!
We had a lot of speakers (funny ones, sleep-inducing ones, etc.) that day, welcoming us to orientation and the first year of college. In the afternoon, we explored some of the clubs on campus who'd gathered at dinner to give us more information about joining. I signed up for a bunch of interesting clubs, like Model UN, the Daily Bruin (student newspaper), Running Club, and even Ballroom Dance! We'll see which ones I end up sticking with....
That night, there was a cute show put on by the NSAs called Cabaret, which was essentially a collection of skits, songs, etc. There were a lot of jokes and insults directed towards our rival, USC, and a lot of parodies of well-known pop culture bits, like SNL and Frozen. They also had Club Jamba that night once the show was over, which was like a dance party. We danced for a bit, but it really wasn't all that great or fun, so we left and headed back to the dorms.
Since so much is crammed into every hour, each day has felt like 3 or 4 days. For me, orientation reminds me of summer camp because we get split up into little groups and we get to know each other and walk around carrying identical knapsacks and whatnot...which of course isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's been fun to experience everything with so many people.
The second day of orientation gave us a lot more free time and independence regarding choosing what we wanted to do with our time. There were a bunch of different workshops regarding your major, internships, research, living in America, etc. We had a lot more free time today to choose what we wanted to do.
We also had to meet with our NSA twice on this day in order to figure out our desired class schedule, and also to just get to know them better. I went into Westwood with a few friends that night, and had to sprint back to the Hill to meet with Ollie...let's just say there's a ton of walking every day.
The third day of orientation included a few "discussions" and presentations on social life in the morning. In other words, they educated us on alcohol, sex, rape, and other related topics. Sounds super fun, right?
We also went for an all-inclusive tour of the campus, laden with crazy stories about anything from pranks pulled on USC, to secret treasures in different buildings. There are tons of ridiculous, interesting facts and stories that I learned. It really makes me want to be a tour guide during the school year. I feel like that'd be a great job for me...but I'd also love to work at the gym or the Student Activities Center.
The tour finished up with us getting "bruin-tized"in the Inverted Fountain on campus. We all repeated the official oath and then dipped our hands in the water. Apparently, you can't touch the water again until you've finished senior year....and if you do, you have to spend an extra quarter at UCLA. I don't want that to happen, that's for sure.
It was a fun three days of orientation! I'll post soon about what I've been doing since then...it's just been a crazy few days! Can't believe I've been here for around 2 weeks...it feels like so so much longer! I love it here, though. Really, really happy so far!
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