Thursday, August 19, 2010 @ 8:22 PM Author: clarinda
New bed and couch coming soon!!!I went for the dining orientation this morning and guess what, we had free lunch after that which would have costed $9.50. YEAH!! The food was not too bad. I tried to try as much as possible. Not really fantastic but it is still fine. Nonetheless, it is really cool as it has all kinds of food. Chinese(does not look good), Mexican, pasta, spaghetti, salads, pizzas, deli, fruits, cookies, cakes, ice-cream, yogurt, milk, cereal, waffle (which is super cool as it has a cyclone logo on it, ISU mascot), etc. A variety of food isn't it? I felt really fat just by looking at the food. Hopefully I will start exercising more as I really do not want to grow fatter. Perhaps I should consider swimming? Anyway, I think that I will most probably sign up for a Backpacking trip to Minnesota: http://www.recservices.iastate.edu/outdoors/trip-detail.php?id=188. This means that I will definitely miss classes. I do hope that all of the trips that I will be going for will not be at the expense of my results. Afterall, it will account for 40% of my entire degree. By the way, I have made some Mexican friends and if possible, I will visit them. Paulina said that I could stay with her. Since she drives and speaks Spanish(that's a given), it will make traveling way much easier. I am looking forward to visiting Mexico!! ;)
@ 3:20 AM Author: clarinda
Movies that I watched during my flights:- Iron Man 2
- Slumdog Millionaire
- Liar Game: The Final Stage
- My Darling is a Foreigner
- 50 First Dates
- The Bounty Hunter
Nationalities of the friends that I have made here so far:
- Finnish
- Norwegian
- Swedish
- Swiss
- Italian
- French
- Belgium
- Turkish
- China
- South Korea
- American
- Dutch
- Egyptian
- German
- Indian
- Irish
- Australian
- Malaysian
Saturday, August 14, 2010 @ 5:24 AM Author: clarinda
After traveling for almost 24hrs, I have finally reached Iowa. I felt totally relieved because I literally have to dash from one gate to another for my connecting flights. Furthermore, the walk for all but one cases was horrendously long. At San Francisco Airport, I had to check in at a counter meant for US citizens or permanent residents (this was instructed and facilitated by an ANA ground staff), waiting to colect my baggage from the baggage claims area, re-check my baggages again before proceeding to the gate that is located at a far away place. I supposed that was the worst situation of all. I was just on time for all of my connecting flights with the exception of the one at Denver whereby I was comparatively earlier.At Tokyo Narita Airport, I found the sight of American-Japanese children speaking Japanese odd. They looked like Americans (though you will actually be able to tell that they are of mixed-heritage), and speak English with an American accent. Nonetheless being able to grow up as a bilingual person, speaking two distinctively different languages, will definitely by advantageous to them in the future.
Enroute to Denver, the places where the plane flew past seems like a desert, hot and bare. In stark contrast to that of Iowa, I was plesantly surprised at the endless sight of trees surrounding houses and other public areas. This was the first time I see a place that has more greenary than Singapore (and I’m not kidding). It was different from what I imagined it to be, endless stretchs of agricultural fields. I am certain that Iowa is gonna be realy fun. It really depends on whether I want to venture out of my comfort zone.
Day 1 of orientation was boring. Talks after talks. We had free lunch in the afternoon and my goodness, that was the worst lunch I ever had. The bread looks utterly disgusting (appearance: damped and flat), the cake was awful, the chicken was salty, the vegetables were overcooked, the rice does not look appealing. To sum up, it is simply gross. In the evening, there is a welcome pinic for international students. It was a brand new experience for me and I enjoyed myself there tremendously. The people were so nice and I have make lots of new friends. There are people from Sweden, Belgium, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea and China. I think that is about it. I am gonna go to US bank, Walmart, North Grand Mall and university tomorrow.
Laptop, please do not die on me or I will have to give you up!!! You must jia you arh!!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010 @ 3:56 PM Author: clarinda
Flight Details:
