International Student Orientation

A busy day filled with sessions on immigration and studying. What have I learned? The importance of the 3 E's to keep my status as an international student and not get deported or arrested: Employment (max 20 hrs/week: on paper yes, however as GA's, I am positive I will work more than that!), Expiry (don't let your passport expire while you are in the US!) and Enrolment (min 6 credits max 9 credits: I will take 9, as I am ambitious as always).
I also registered today for three courses: Stats in education, Research in PE and Adapted PE, all courses I have already taken at the undergrad level so perhaps I learn much more now at the grad level. My courses are Mon/Tues/Wed and Th nights. Thank goodness for having Friday nights off!
Extremely tired as I am, I do want to say that I enjoyed this day. Everything that was said today was not new, however, I did meet new people and that was valuable. I met three undergrads, two from Trinidad and one from Columbia. They just arrived this week and after orientation I took them to Wall mart to get sheets. Which they did not get as Wall mart was pretty much out of them, so they are borrowing my sheets and will order new ones online. Glad to help! I also provided them with some of my winter clothes which they were very grateful about. I still remember being a first year international student. All you bring is a suitcase! So I actually enjoyed helping out and getting to know them. They are all part of Chi Alpha I believe, a sorority that is grounded in Christianity but is open to all students, not just those who live in the house. I visited them in the house and everyone was just great. I even thought that if I did not have my furniture, living in a house like that would be a great idea. Even though I do enjoy having my own apartment. I guess there are trade-offs for everything. The great thing about this group is that they enjoy others to their events.
Two interesting notes for today as I think about "healthy and active living":
1) I live 15 minutes from school so I refuse to take the bus... I was the only one walking while others (about 15 students I saw), took the bus. And this is NOTHING to do with the "American way of life... driving everywhere" because all the students that were waiting for the bus were all going were I was going and were all international students. What is wrong with this? How come, on a beautiful day, 24 to 27 degrees, these students rather take the bus? Laziness? This won't brake a sweat.

2) We all had a free lunch so I got to check out the food courts. Interesting fact is that you can get on a meal plan and eat for about $3 a meal. The negative part of it all is that once you get into the food court, you can eat all you want!!! AAAHHH I can't believe it. No wonders students gain 15 pounds in their first year. You must be pretty disciplined to eat healthy. Yes there are healthy choices but there are also lots of other lesser choices and eating a lot is also not good. A solution? One plate per person? I was thinking of two aspects to the problem. Does the university expect the students to be responsible enough to eat healthy? Probably! Does that work? NO! Therefore, the university should enforce something so students can't eat all they want. wow, this is amazing because I was thinking of going on a meal plan just because I am on campus from 8 am till 8 pm and know I won't make lunches and have adequate amount of healthy options during the day. What to do?

In America, it seems that everything happens around food. Come to this meeting... free food! It is with food that they get people to join the events. Not with activities... come to the meeting...free volleyball game! Yeah right, that will be the day!
These students end up away from home with lots of opportunities for food but lesser opportunities to spend those calories, or at least they choose NOT to spend them by riding the bus in stead of walking for 10 minutes.
One thing is for sure, talking with the students, especially the undergrads is useful to me so i can understand what goes on in their life and how I can motivate them to add exercise and healthy foods to their daily routine.

Tomorrow, more orientation sessions, more geared towards grads so we will see what tomorrow brings. I think I will try to become more involved with the international center. Last year I got into the GSA, this year perhaps I will take the opportunity to join the international students and become a mentor next year for new students!

By the way, I have never seen so many international students together, I think there were about 400! From all over the world, although I was the only Belgian, the only Canadian. Snif snif. I must encourage some Canadians to come to the south. You'all come down now!!!!!!!:)