The long awaited (and much needed) second post! (Part Two - Rutgers)

Seeing as I'm on a roll (i.e. I've actually posted something recently - see part one) I thought I'd carry on with my update.

So after arriving back from Miami I headed back to the apartment and immediately went for a run as there was still no one else there and after spending a week with 90 other Fulbrighters I didn't particularly want to spend the evening sat on my own in my room! It was still ridiculously hot and I had another running 'incident'... I didn't stray into sprinklers like last time as I took a route around the back of the soccer pitch but as I was running along, minding my own business and listening to my iPod, suddenly a beast jumped from the bushes into my path. I nearly had a heart attack as I tried to stop suddenly/change direction/jump over it all at once. Needless to say I felt like a bit of an idiot when I realised that the 'beast' was actually just a gopher (which is like what would happen if a beaver and squirrel decided to cross breed...). Now in my defence, the gopher was pretty big (I think it had been snacking on the leftover hotdogs from the stadium...) but I still felt like a bit of a wimp - so I ran a little bit further than I planned to make myself feel better about myself...

Arriving back at the flat, slightly flustered, I unpacked all my things and read through some of my Fulbright info I had recieved before getting a much needed early night in bed. The next morning I met one of my new flatmates - Czanad (pronounced Chanad) who is a 3rd year Hungarian MicroBiologist who had been on holiday in Colorado for the last few weeks. It was nice to see someone else about the flat, and useful to have someone to ask questions like how on earth the bus system works here... The buses are all lettered, and during term time it all makes sense, even to the point where the L goes to Livingston campus, the B to Busch etc. However in the holidays they seem to pick the routes by random, so advice from Czanad was much appreciated.

On the strength of his advice I decided to explore New Brunswick a bit more and was pleasantly surprised at what I found. New Brunswick isn't a huge town, but it has plenty of stuff in the center - as well as the student center it has a wide range of shops and I managed to get food, toiletries, a cell (mobile phone to us Brits) and a load of stuff for my room all pretty cheaply. Getting back to the flat with so much stuff was quite interesting, but I managed and dumped all the stuff in my room before meeting the third flatmate - Simon (pronounced more like Seemon) who is a first year Physics PhD student from Belgium. We are quite a mix of people but I'm pretty sure I'm going to get on well with both of them and think we'll have a good flat for the year.

Sunday was a quiet day (which really means I can't remember what I did...) but I think I spent most of it getting sorted for the start of International Student Orientation, which began on the Monday morning.

Me and Simon left pretty early as we were warned that there would be loads of queues, and we arrived at 10 on the dot (the registration was between 10 and 12). What we didn't expect was a queue out the door and only *just* getting registered before midday. Luckily we met Vukosi, a South African Fulbrighter I met at Miami so at least we had some company during the wait.

After a brief introduction we were thrown head first into the Orientation process. I thought the Fulbright Orientation had been intense but this was something else. They were constantly throwing info at you (health insurance, tuition fees, registration for courses, Visa stuff - all of it 'urgent') and seem to want you to be in about 3 places at once... On the upside there was plenty of free food, I got to see a lot more of College Ave Campus and I met some really great people. I spent alot of the week hanging out with Simon, Vukosi, Tarek (a half-Egyptian, half-Welsh Comp Sci Phd first year), Natalia (a fellow Brit here for a year exchange during her undergrad) and a few others. It was really nice getting to know everyone and I'm hoping to stay in touch with them all while I'm here.

One of the highlights of the week was the Skit night where the volunteers (all International Students) put on a sketch show about what it's like studying at Rutgers as an international student and in the process we learnt the Rutgers Fight Song - it really has to be heard/seen to be believed so I've included a video of the University Glee Club singing it. The part in the middle where they all go a bit crazy and start yelling "R U RAH RAH, R U RAH RAH, OOH RAH OOH RAH RUTGERS RAH!" is the Rutgers chant and can be heard at most sports events etc. Enjoy!



(and if you want the lyrics to sing along (!) then here's a copy the Rutgers Fight Song)

I also got an opportunity to order my course books - and nearly had a heart attack in the process! In the UK, a course textbook is nice to have but not essential to the course - a lecturer may refer you to the text for additional reading, but all the course topics will be covered in lectures. In the US, the textbook forms the backbone of the course - the lecturer might expect you to pre-read sections so his/her lectures form supplementary coverings of topics and most of the time the problem sets will come straight from the textbook. So a textbook is pretty essential - and the library doesn't tend to have more than one copy of each book - so buying them was pretty much given. What I didn't expect was to pay around $500 for 6 textbooks! I suppose it was a necessary cost but that didn't make it easier to hand over that much money for books I know will haunt me once exams come round...

The Orientation seemed to be over almost as soon as it started and I was thrust into the IMR - Introduction to Mathematics at Rutgers - a 4 day mini-conference for all Math PhD students starting. I've got a lecture in a bit so I think I'm going to leave this post for now, but tune in next time (hopefully soon!) for:

IMR! START OF TERM! FINALLY SOME MATHS! NEW YORK!!! I MEET OBAMA!

(That last one isn't true... I just wanted to see if you were paying attention...)

Later Days

David

P.S.
As a bonus I'm going to share with you some of the Rutgers branded items you can buy here - I told some of you that you can literally buy *anything* with Rutgers on it, and here is my proof (all of which are available online at the Rutgers University Bookstore):
A licence plate cover:
A baby-gro:
Golf Balls:
And even a standard lamp...

The long awaited (and much needed) second post! (Part One - Miami)

Well, first off I owe an apology to all you avid readers of my blog - this update is more than a little late and should have been written at least 2 weeks ago...

Now that I've got the apology out of the way its time for my update. I'm warning you now that because I'm covering about 3 weeks of stuff this is going to be a long one... Consider yourself warned!

The last post left off just as I was starting to settle in to Rutgers - I had walked a bit around the area, been to the football stadium, got lost and was sorting out my room (and still didn't have any bedding...). The next day was the start of my trip to Miami for the Fulbright Gateway Orientation - a chance to meet Fulbright Scholars from all over the world and also to prepare for the reality of being a Fulbright Scholar.

Leaving the flat that morning I headed to the train station, arriving in plenty of time to get a cup of tea from Dunkin' Donuts (unfortunately not to try the donuts) before hopping on the NJ transit up to Newark Airport. The train journey was surprisingly pleasant - the train was a double decker swish number with plenty of seats free and plenty of space for my luggage. I was sitting reading my book and generally minding my business when (about 5 mins into the journey) a conversation was struck up between the strangers around me. Considering that no-one knew anyone else I found this rather surprising and decided to join in (after all, even if I made a fool of myself I would never meet these people again!). After talking a little about how hot the weather had been recently, they asked about where I was from (another lesson: everyone will love the British accent and will ask you lots of questions about the UK, including usually 'Why did you choose to come to America?' - I think the UK has a special place in the hearts of a lot of Americans so the thought I could actually leave there is shocking to them...). After letting them know I was studying at Rutgers I mentioned about being a Fulbright Scholar - I have never seen a reaction like it! Everybody was amazed and impressed and couldn't praise me highly enough. I knew that Fulbrighters were well respected in America but I didn't realise the amount of acknowledgment I would get from (a) complete strangers; and (b) non-academics.

This set me in a rather good mood for the flight to Miami and the week ahead - and I wasn't disappointed. The flight was uneventful but also long - I didn't realise it would take nearly 3 hours to fly just 'down the coast' - as my 1st lesson showed me - the US is HUGE! I arrived at Miami airport and attempted to find a couple of other Fulbrighters I had organized to share a taxi with. A useful hint: trying to find 3 people in Miami airport, all arriving on different planes, at different times, none of whom you've ever met or seen before is COMPLETELY FUTILE! Needless to say I didn't meet them and ended up just heading to the hotel by myself.

Arriving at the hotel I was greeted by an all you can eat buffet for us which I promptly dug into (after surviving on pretty much only cereal for 2 days this was much needed sustenance). I met a few of my fellow Fulbrighters and headed to a bar on the bay front for a drink and some salsa dancing (don't worry Dad, I was watching not dancing - so I didn't break Wilson tradition...). Then it was off to bed to get some sleep before the sessions the next day.

The next morning I got up bright and early and headed for a run around Miami - my roommate Fabian came with me and we explored a bit of the bayside. I thought running in the heat in New Jersey was bad but this was truly something else - the humidity meant it felt like you were running through sludge, it was pretty horrible. We then headed to Miami Dade College to be greeted by a bag of freebies and a packed schedule for the next few days.

The next few days flew by - we had lectures every day on subjects ranging from what to do if you're arrested (or rather, how not to get arrested in the first place), to 'culture shock' (the process of adapting to life in a new culture), to leadership (as Fulbrighters we are expected to be cultural leaders), to the US judicial system (the supreme court is a fascinating topic) to a jazz seminar (which consisted pretty much of listening to our own private performance by a jazz band for an hour and a half - bliss). I learnt so much during the week and it was hard to absorb all of it in, but then I think the main thing I took away from the week was not stuff I got form the classroom.

I've got to tell you something - every single Fulbrighter I met at Miami is amazing! They are all really cool, grounded, amazingly intelligent and friendly people. I can't list everyone here because I'd inevitably miss out some people but I made some really good friends there - and ones I'll stay in touch with in the future. I've included a picture here of some of us before heading on the airtrain.

During the week there was so much to do outside of the lectures - we had a cruise of the bay and 'star island' seeing such sights as the house from Scarface, and many celebrity homes, we had a night at an all-the-meat-you-can-eat restaurant, we went to a local club which had amazing live music for free(Jazid if anyone is ever in Miami), explored little Havana, and had a night at a private club on South Beach where we swam in the Atlantic (much warmer than the North Sea!) and tried to spell Fulbright in the sea... There is photographic evidence, but I think we ended up spelling FULBRGHIT - you win some you lose some...

All in all it was just a fantastically good time, and one I'll remember for a long long time. And I've now ticked another state of my list to visit!

This is the end of part one, tune in next time for part two:
MORE RUTGERS! MORE FREE FOOD! MORE ORIENTATIONS! FINALLY SOME MATH!

Later Days

David