It's lame. I'm currently experimenting with my webcam.
Just figured out that it had this quirky yet unique feature almost like frames on purikura machines
Today's orientation day, plus my first day of college!!
It was exciting!
The most fun part is, I got to meet a lot of new international students coming from various countries. I felt a bit nervous and awkward before though, knowing I will be speaking English a lot, and not to fellow Indonesians like usual, but to foreigners.
Yeah, it really challenges the heck out of me that I needed to collect all my guts.
Elda and I arrived at the campus earlier than the time the orientation started and the campus grounds were still very quiet.
Then there were these two girls running towards us, but then one of the girls stopped midway and apologized to us. Apparently, she thought that either me or Elda was her friend who planned to meet her at that place. But Elda and I ended up having a short talk with them and turned out that they came from Korea and Vietnam. Too bad we didn't get to ask their names.
The orientation went well though. It started with a welcome greeting and some presentations regarding to bank accounts.
I got to sit with fellow Indonesians who apparently came from different provinces (Surabaya, Makassar, and a few more from Jakarta). Well I guess since it's the first day, everyone feels more comfortable sitting with those who have the same nationality (speaking of same languages that we speak, ahem).
Oh and one more thing...
There are bunch of Indonesian students.
They're really nice though, and you know that there's this certain feeling - I can't decide if it's a proud feeling or what - but it's when you feel estatics to be an Indonesian and that you get to meet other Indonesians.
It would be no surprise though, since the agent told me already that this campus would possess a heap of Indonesian students, well, unless you're stranded somewhere in an isolated place in this world and happen to meet one.
Then it'd be another story.
Second largest group would be from Hong Kong and China. I quickly made friends with two Chinese girls sitting right in front of my seats. You can tell how exciting it really is to finally be able to make friends with international students. As I said, I did feel a bit awkward at first though. But it's like two cultures collide! You know it's the kind of feeling you can hardly describe by words, and you can tell how I'm bad at describing feelings so... yeah I'm lame at that, forgive me.
The next activity of the whole first day orientation was campus tour. The campus grounds are a really wide place with many buildings, so much different from my school building or any school buildings in Jakarta. Gah. Well, it's a college campus anyway. ^^
Later on we had this really huge chicken and corn salad and I met this girl from Hong Kong. We had lunch together with the other Indonesian students.
Placement tests are next.
English as a Second Language test is easy, and so is Algebra. Actually Algebra placement test is directed to those who don't plan to take any of science majors, so yeah it's actually pretty easy and the fact that the questions ARE ACTUALLY ALMOST THE SAME AS NATIONAL EXAMS made me feel quite confident doing it.
Those who are going to take science majors are required to take Calculus placement test.
Good thing I didn't take this test. I didn't even know what Calculus is like. I mean, Algebra sounds more common to my ears.
Oh have I told you that the day before I went to campus and visited the International Student Office?
There I met a student who volunteered in the office and today I met her again. I thought she'd forget me but then after spotting her at lunch, she happened to greet me.
What a surprise that people here seemed to memorize other people's faces. It's a good thing though.
Approaching the end of the whole activities, I happened to talk with a Vietnamnese student who turned out to have finished her Master Degree and transferred to this college. Even more, when I was about to walk out of the college with my two Chinese friends, I was picked up by my parents and I told my mom that they came from China. My mom sort of had this unlimited gut and happened to chat with them in Chinese.
I felt so embarrassed that my Chinese ain't as good as my mom's. -_____-
Right from campus, me, Elda, and our parents headed for an Indonesian restaurant located at Sunnyvale called Bayleaf, pretty close to our hotel. I had myself a Batavia Beef Stew (Soto Betawi) for dinner.
It felt good to finally munch on this familiar dish!!
All in all, today's a great day and no pressure yet since it's only the first day of college, which is orientation. Tomorrow's a day off since it'd be another group's orientation day, exactly the same with today's activity only with different group.
Gotta take care of the wifi network installation tomorrow at the apartment :)
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P.S: After I arrived at the hotel, I got a bit heartburn and worse, I didn't bring any heartburn medicines from Indonesia. I don't know why but maybe I had dinner a little too early so that's why.
But that heartburn and hand aches (due to writing a very looong essay that everyone happened to say "Oh your writings are so neat but they're so small." and "You should be a font maker!" on the placement test) finally paid off since today's a very exciting day...
Have a nice day guys :)
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