Orientation Week

Monday 18th August

We were getting collected from L&C at 6.40am for Foreign Student Orientation so we were up bright and early. Orientation was slightly delayed because the breakfast was not ready for us at 7. Everyone collected a coloured folder and a name tag with where you were from on it. My folder was red which meant I would be doing tours with everyone else in the red group. We met some more international students and sat together in the large ballroom. We listened to the President's address and many other welcoming speeches. A microphone was then passed around to every student so you could introduce yourself to the 200 other students, say where you are from and what you are studying. The largest group by far is from Brazil, then Japan and possibly Ireland in 3rd place with 11 students from UCC. Once introductions were over we split into our different groups. George and Kate from England and Aoife from Ireland were with me in the red group with me. We were led on a tour around campus including a visit to the very friendly Foreign Student & Scholar Services office. After the tour we got our Grizz cards. I'm so happy with the picture on it. Money can be loaded onto the card to pay for printing, food or even shopping in town. After lunch we had more talks on the services available to us as foreign student. Which are very impressive. We also had a talk on coping with the culture clash and dealing with homesickness. When the talks were finished at 4.30pm everyone went to the international house for a free welcome dinner. It was really relaxed and nice. Everyone just chatted with everyone. We were dropped home after it. There was a house party going on in our downstairs neighbours house so me, Shannen and the lads decided to call down. We met the lads who live there Jak, Ethan and Daniel. Lots of other international students were also there. It was a great house party. They have huge speakers which make our ground shake! It was good to talk to everyone outside of college too.

Dinner at The International House

House party with Brian, Aoife & me.

Jak, Dervla, Shannen & me.

Tuesday 19th August

Shannen woke me up for orientation. I may have partied slightly too hard! Safe to say I paid for it during orientation that day! We started with coffee and cakes at 8am then had talks on the Global Partners Project, which pairs you with a UM student, and the Missoula International Friendship Program, which pairs you with a local Missoula family. A local police officer then gave us a talk on safety around campus.We also got talks on recreation, managing your finances and banking information. Then we were led to the Curry Health Center and shown its facilities. As my name was not on the list of people cleared for vaccinations I had to see a nurse. She informed that they had not received some of my forms from UCC and that I would need to either get another MMR ($85) or get a blood test done which was $30 so I went with that. I had to wait a while before they could take my blood. This meant I had very little time to eat before I had to go to the next part of orientation, which was verifying our visa documents. I found out later that a few other UCC students also had to get blood tests done because of missing doctors letters. When the visa documentation was sorted we went back to L&C. Me and Shannen made dinner and just hung out that night.

A sign on campus.

Wednesday 20th August

Me and Elliot got up early to get the bus to the Social Security Office to get our numbers so we could work. I took us a while to find it and we had to run across a very big road because we couldn't find pedestrian lights. When we got there our bags were searched for guns. After filling out a form and talking to a lady who worked there she realised we actually needed to have a job in order to apply for a number. So a bit of a wasted trip but at least now we know how the buses work. We went back to campus where me and Elliot handed in applications for jobs before the academic advising meeting at 1. After the meeting we went to Food Zoo with George and Shannen. It's an all you can eat restaurant that you pay to get into. We found some really nice food. I made a salad and added some feta cheese, or at least what I thought was feta cheese! Lets just say I have now tried tofu... and it was as awful as you can imagine. As it was around 4 the dinner service was just starting. The football team arrived in and ah... made the most of the all you can eat offer :P . As I was already there I decided to hand in some references to Food Zoo. It just so happened that the supervisor had actually just emailed me to come in for an interview. She went over my timetable and found shifts which worked around it, which is great. She told me to send in Elliot for an interview too. After stuffing ourselves we went to a meeting about the Missoula International Friendship Program. It sounds really good so me and Shannen signed up when we got home. I hope I get paired with a family with a dog or some other animal. Really missing Mya, my dog.

Some local wildlife.

Thursday 21st August 

Sign ups for a trip to Glacier National Park opened at 8am. Shannen, Elliot and me really wanted to go and as there were only 32 places we got to the FSSS office very early. We were first in queue so we were delighted. We got the bus out to target from college. Mallory, the lady who'd interviewed us had told me where we could cross the road safely to get to the Social Security Office. We showed them all the forms from Food Zoo, but my visa was not yet in their system so I'll have to go back again. When we finished there we went to Walmart for some shopping. I saw a really nice camera for $199 but decided to check Amazon before buying it. We got the bus to the Southgate Mall. We went to AT&T to finally get our American numbers. I can text and ring people again but more importantly can phone home :) . There are loads of shops in the Mall. American Eagle, Hollister and Aeropostle all have  really good bargains. Safe to say I will be needing at least 2 suitcases when I'm going home! We got some lovely organic homemade froghurt where you could add as many toppings as you liked. There were lots of other internationals out shopping too. When we were all shopped out we went home on the bus. It's great that the buses here are free for students because we really make use of them! There was a party downstairs again that night so we got ready and headed down. It was a really good night again with lots of international students and a few Americans. The Americans are starting to move in now because classes start Monday.We met two of our downstairs neighbours Bridget and Brittany, two juniors from Hawaii. The party went on until after 3.

Some lovely number plates in the parking lot!

 

Flowers at the Mall.

My frozen yoghurt from Roxiberry.

Friday 22nd August

We had a bit of a sleep in as we didn't have any plans other than going to the library tour at 2. I was able to call my Mom at home for the first time since getting here, so I got the news from home. Shannen and me got the bus to college to go on a tour of the library, which is huge. It's the biggest in Montana with 5 acres spread over the 5 floors. There are archives of newspapers and government documents, a 3D printer and more books than you could ever read. I was really impressed when we got to the 5th floor and I saw lots of stuffed birds, carnivore skulls and oddities in glass jars, such as a bison fetus. What impressed me the most though was the row and rows of zoology books! With only a limited section at home I was delighted. I counted 3 shelves of books exclusively about wolves. Shannen, Elliot and me spent at least an hour just exploring and reading different book. I checked out a huge book on carnivorous mammals and one on the wolves of Yellowstone. We got the bus home and relaxed for the evening. I went on Amazon to look for a camera and found a Sony 20mp 35x zoom one for $120! I also got rechargeable batteries, a case, a 16GB memory card, 2 years insurance, a mini speaker and a portable charger for my phone. This all came with free postage as I joined Amazon Prime for a trial and it will get here by Tuesday. Better still it cost less than €200 altogether! Could never find that value in Ireland. Looking forward to being able to take good quality photos, especially with the trip to Glacier National Park coming up.

A sign inside the Library.

Saturday 23rd August

Elliot and me had to go to college early to fill out forms for Food Zoo at 12. I wasn't long learning off my new number because of all the forms I had to write it on. We had lunch there before meeting up with some more students on the way to the River Roots Festival in town. It was pretty cool but kinda strange. The music and dancing seemed similar to Irish music. The band that was playing were great. There were lots of stalls selling all sorts of craft items and loads of food carts. We met up with Ethan and Jak who were having a toga party that night for Ethan's birthday. A few of the girls headed to the thrift shops to try and find sheets and other stuff for the party. Aoife decided she will have a thrift shop party next week for her 21st. The buses finished at 5 so we got that back to campus. Me and Elliot had to complete food safety training from 6 to 9. We watched lots of very American videos on food safety and had a mini quiz about what we learned. The party started at 7.42 (very precise timing here :P ) so we hurried home. It was dark and we heard what I think was coyote howling. It was very eerie. We made it home by 9.20 and I tried to get ready as quick as possible because the party was already started. Shannen helped with my very impromptu toga, aka my purple bedsheet from Walmart. By the time I got down the apartment was already full. Everyone was in togas. The rule was toga or nothing :P . Dan and Jak got Ethan a giraffe cake made of cupcakes, which was really cute. The party filled up really quickly as a lot of other L&C students showed up. Eventually the village assistant shut down the party because there were noise complaints. Me, Shannen, Kate, David, Stine and James came up to our apartment. We chatted and had a game of truth and dare. I was dared to drink Guinness and apple juice by David, which is not as bad as you'd imagine. I dared Kate to eat one of the awful pickles I bought in Walmart (pickles are not gherkins here apparently). They all headed back to their dorms after 3 and we went to bed.

River Roots Festival main stage.

After the toga party!

 Sunday 24th August

Woke up to Facebook notifications that I'd been nominated to take part in the ALS ice-bucket challenge by my lovely sister Claire. I got Shannen up to video and called Elliot over to help with the water lifting. We filled a big bin and a small one full of freezing water from the bath and headed outside. Safe to say that getting ice cold water poured on you is one sure way to cure a hangover! :P I nominated Shannen (which she was delighted about) so we did hers too. In the afternoon we saw that the lads downstairs were trying to start the BBQ. It wasn't exactly working so Jak  decided to try and cook the food inside. 5 minutes later and the fire alarm was going off! Luckily their neighbour Bridget knew how to turn it off. That evening our housemate Sarah from Helena, MT moved in. Me and Shannen helped her move her stuff into the apartment. I had my first shift in Food Zoo that night from 8pm to 10. I was working as a custodian, which meant I was hoovering all of the floor. I felt like I was in Ghostbusters because I was using a backpack hoover. After work I walked home and got ready for my classes the next day.

The failed BBQ attempt.

Off to work!