Day 2
1/17/2013
Today was the first day of classes. Not even a day to recover from all the
adventures. I woke up at 7 am this
morning the first time. Apparently when
you’re from a different time zone that’s the time you usually wake up here when
you first arrive as my roommates told me.
They all wake up at 7 when they return from home. Not long after however, I was dead to the
world until 9 when I really did have to get up.
I probably laid there for a good fifteen minutes before I convinced my
body that it was indeed a good idea to get up and moving, when it was 2 am back
home. I slowly got out of bed and
dressed, heading down to the canteen to see what I could scrounge for breakfast. I got lost again in the building. Well not
really lost, I took a stairwell down to the basement and I got to where I
needed to go, just on the opposite side.
I got some kind of giant cheese pastry about size of a small sheet of
paper and a bottle of water, which I took back to my room figuring out which
staircase it was I really needed. Turns
out you have to take the staircase on my floor down to the ground floor, walk
across the lobby and then take the stair case on that side down to the basement
and it will put you out right next to the canteen. Confusing I know. I only ate about half saving the rest for
later, which turned out to be dinner. At
last it was time to head out for classes.
I
honestly didn’t remember any part of the route from last night so I stopped in
at the front desk to ask directions and it turns out that the girl, Tata, was
on her way to class in about 10 minutes and she could show me. We headed out and she showed me some of the
places around town on our way, asking about what I was studying and how I liked
it so far. She was also from
Russia. I seem to have a thing about
Russians here. She was friendly and
showed me where my class room was when we got there. I didn’t really think about security at the
door since Queens doesn’t have any, but we had to pass through a metal detector
and swipe our ID cards on a turnstile to get in after you get in the door. Inside the main building is impressive. It was the Communist headquarters back when they ran the country still. It was kind of cool knowing that you were sitting
there where some serious history had happened listening to a lecture about
Balkan Literature.
The
main hall of the building consists of a massive granite staircase with flags of
each country represented at the university hanging above it. It’s quite an impressive sight. My first class was just off to the left of
it, History of Islam. My body was
revolting against me, going “What class at three, almost four in the morning? Are you on drugs?” It took all my willpower just to stay awake
in class. It was really
interesting. There were a fair number of
students in the class. We talked about
the empires and systems in place in the times before Islam in that region. Things like Mesopotamia, the Romans, the
Ottomans, and the Persians and how they fought with each other. I was interested to learn about how some of
them adopted traits of the others, particularly the Romans from the
Persians. I was glad when class was over
though so that way I could get up and move around and wake myself back up. My next class was in half an hour in the same
building so I used the time to find it, which took all of about five minutes,
and then I found an empty spot on one of the couches and sat down to write some
more in my travel journal while I waited for class to start.
Apparently
the class had grown considerably since this week is Add/Drop week and classes
are constantly shifting. The professor
had quite a few names missing on the roster.
We are reading a book called The Three Arches Bridge? It’s something similar to that, by an
Albanian Arthur. From talking about it
this morning it seems like a pretty interesting book. I really enjoyed this class, when I wasn’t
valiantly fighting off sleep. I’m
thinking this is going to be a pretty good semester so far.
My
next step was to find the OCC or computer services office so that I could get
my user account and ID to access the computers around campus. I had to ask for directions to that one since
I didn’t even have a clue as to where to begin for that one. Turns out it was tucked way in the back of
the second floor. I was shown how to
access my account and get into my school e-mail which is Outlook which is kind
of disappointing. I’m not a big fan of
Outlook. I already had about 20 unread
messages, which was surprising. Most
were about classes and registration. You
can also look it up online via the AUBG website. I left there and prepared for the moment of
truth, can I find my way back?
This
was the ultimate testament to the power of having a semi-photographic
brain. It turns out that I could find my
way back on my own the first time around, which was a really awesome feeling. My only moment of doubt was remember which
building exactly was my dorm. I couldn’t
go by numbers since III comes first then I then II. I remembered it was next to the library which
was down at the end of everything. I was
right. I was feeling pretty darn proud
of myself. I still had a few more things
before I could be done and go rest.
First I took my laptop over to the Ballanski Academic Center next door
to see about getting it connected to the network, where I was promptly lost and
wandered all four floors of the building before finally spotting a professor
that I asked for directions. I had
walked right past it. Then I was told
that I had to go online and print out an application and bring it back to them
filled out and signed to be able to be approved to use the network, which still
doesn’t work yet. So I came back to the
dorm and took a stab at finding the computer lab which was off the main lobby,
down a hallway and around two corners.
They don’t make anything easy here for new students. I got the application and went back over
giving it to them, before heading on two other errands.
Luckily
they were both in my dorm meaning I didn’t have to trek much farther. I went down to see about the waitlist for the
Introductory Bulgarian course at the Dean’s Office and I went to drop off my 35
Leva for a trip organized by the International Students Office to go to
Thessaloniki, Greece for a day on January 25.
I’m pretty excited about it. When
that was done I could finally go up to my room and work on these blog entries
as I know people back home are ravenous for more detailed updates other than,
I’m fine and not dead. Going to post
these and since I don’t have any classes tomorrow, I’m going to take two
Benadryl and SLEEP. Until next time!
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