On Iowa!

Hello from Hawkeye Country!

I made it up here to my apartment in North Liberty Thursday and moved myself in! Now I'm ready to be a Hawkeye, I suppose. Thursday was spent getting situated, and then Friday was the beginning of "On Iowa" for me. First, I met with other off-campus students for lunch and an info session, and then there was a Tippie College of Business open house. Following this, we met with small groups and learned more, sat in a lecture hall and learned more, ate supper in the IMU, and then went to Kinnick Stadium for our Class of 2016 picture and a kickoff. There was a program for us, and we got to hear the marching band play.

Do you see me there? I'm at the top of the I, towards the middle-left. The one in the yellow shirt...

Today I didn't have to be at campus until 1:30, but it took me a full two hours to find my way. You see, my usual parking lot doesn't have bus service on weekends. After waiting there for 10 minutes with no luck, I drove for the Hancher lot without knowing where I was going (bad idea!!). Finally, I pulled off, looked at a map and found Hancher, drove there, waited 20 minutes for the bus to come, and finally got in to campus. I had similar difficulties getting out later on. Didn't think to look at a map and it took me a detour or two to get back to 218. But at least it gave me something to do!

As for the actual continuation of On Iowa, we met again in our small groups and did some other activities, and then went to an activities fair at Hubbard Park where we looked at different student organizations, etc. I met a girl from China in my small group yesterday so we spent the afternoon together until we left in time for supper. It is neat to have so much diversity on campus and to meet so many different people!

I finally made it home in time to make supper-the most real meal I've eaten in my apartment-and then was looking for something to do when I found an unsecured internet connection here. So, of course I had to get connected again! :) And that leads me to the present! Hopefully all will go well here at Iowa this year! Thank you all for your prayers and support.

SOME SIDENOTES

Speaking of being a Hawkeye, I spent some time this afternoon talking with a Chinese acquaintance of my Chinese friend. She was confused about why everything said "Hawks" and "Hawkeyes" so I tried to explain that it was our mascot and that Hawks is short for Hawkeyes...she seemed to be pretty confused! She said her roommate had emailed her and at the bottom she always wrote "Go Hawks", but she didn't know what it meant. 

Earlier on, I was talking to the first Chinese girl I met, who I will now name Lu for comprehension purposes. She was confused about the word "like" and what it meant when people said it in the middle of their sentences and how to use it in a sentence. Ok, Americans...answer me that one! I tried for a while to explain it, but I couldn't help her...

It's really interesting to meet people from different languages and cultures and we can really learn a lot! :)