International Orientation at UGA

Hi there!


300 other foreigners: that’s how many international students we’ve been at UGA (University of Georgia) during this orientation week! People come from all over the world to spend a semester, a year or even four years studying everything from English and business to physics here in the town of the bulldogs: Athens.

    And when I write the town of the bulldogs, I really mean it! UGA’s mascot is a special bred bulldog, the UGA students call themselves “dawgs”, almost every restaurant in town is decorated with pictures of the famous bulldog and slogans as “let the big dawg eat”.  Almost all shops (including the local Walmart!!!!) sell a variety of bulldog merchandise which includes everything from clothes, underwear and baby clothing to mats for your car, bedding and plates. The town lives for this university and the whole university spirit is much stronger than anything I’ve ever heard of. What can really gather all the dawgs is when the university’s (American) football team plays home games at the university’s stadium, Sanford Stadium, that has seats for 92.000 people and that hosted some of the soccer games when the Olympics where held in Atlanta in 1996. I can’t emphasize enough how excited I am to become a part of this “dawg spirit” and how excited I am to feel the rush of about 35.000 other students wandering around on campus.

So far, however, I’ve “only” met the about 300 other international students who’ve decided to come to UGA. During this past week we’ve been introduced to life on campus, activities on campus, the American health insurance system, downtown Atlanta, the local Walmart, the local cinema, the best restaurants and cafés in town (including Ben and Jerry’s which is located disturbingly close to campus), Sandy Creek Park, the rules of American football and a lot of other stuff relevant to our life at UGA. The (silly) video below shows some of what I've been doing this week (sorry for the bad quality!). 

    

The thing I’m most excited about is the very active musical scene in Atlanta. The town has several music venues for upcoming bands and artist and walking around downtown this Saturday evening I heard live music coming from not just one place but several bars, clubs and restaurants on the same street! Unfortunately, this week has been more about getting practical things done than enjoying the creative environment.

    Getting ready for classes to begin on the 12^th of august isn’t as easy as I could have wished for. I’ve been doing a lot of paperwork concerning my immigration status and my legal presence and waiting for me are things like: opening an American bank account, getting my last immunizations, signing up for and taking several placement tests, signing up for classes and making my schedule fit, signing up for health insurance, signing up for meal plan, applying for parking permit, moving into my dorm room… And probably 100 other things that I haven’t even been thinking of yet! Even so, I’m still SO happy to be here and to have met the other international students and the lovely International Student Life staff that has taken care of us during this week.

Tomorrow I’m going back to my host family in Griffin for a few days before I go back to Athens to actually move in together with my roommate at UGA! I CAN’T WAIT!

Looove

P.S. This week I’ve been sharing a room with a really nice girl from Japan named Ayaka, and we’ve had the greatest time listening to Tokyo Incidents (one of my favorite Japanese bands) and eating Japanese snacks :D