"The Way Must Be Tried" [Part 1]

This is the official motto of York University. And since the past week was not just about getting to know YorkU, Orientation events and great fun I feel like somehow this whole trip runs under this exact motto.

Monday:

After arriving at the residence on Monday I decided to take a walk across campus and see whether I could find out where to get my student ID-card. Although I got a map for campus from my don and there are several signs across campus I got completely lost. Luckily, there were enough people around I could ask so I finally made it to the office. The campus is quite nice: there is a lot of greenery and sooo many squirrels. Whenever I take a walk I see at least one squirrel rummaging around some shrubs or running up a tree. There are geese on campus, too. Although they might seem to be rather tame and nice there is geese poo everywhere and they are sooo noisy!

I thought I should better get the bedding-problem sorted out because I still did not know how long it would take me to get to Walmart. My don had told me which bus line to take. So after the successful start of getting my student card I made my way to one of the many bus stops. As I got on the bus, I did not have any coins. The bus driver was ever so nice and let me get on for free since he could not change any money. It only took me a short ride to get to the big store but when I got off the bus there were barely any people around. Slowly it began to dawn on me: it was Labour Day. Frustrated and angry I took the bus straight back to campus. I was in desperate need of some food now. Because I had no idea how this whole food thing worked and where all the restaurants where I just got some food at the first place I came across. I was happily munching along but even though it was only early afternoon I felt extremely tired.

Nevertheless, I went to my college to pick up my Frosh Kit after dinner. There are different colleges on campus, for example Vanier, Stong, Bethune. I am in Calumet which includes a lot of the health studies and psychology. Every college has its own Frosh-Week which is like an orientation/ fun week for all the new students (also all the transfers and internationals). The “leaders” of the college organise a few events and group activities for everyone to make it easier for the freshmen to start university. Arriving at my college I was instantly taken care of. The leaders offered me pizza (which I had to decline because I just had dinner) and welcomed me warmly. I did not stay long though as I was incredibly tired. So I walked back to my residence, pulled out a few towels and warm clothes and rolled up in bed.

Tuesday:

After a good night´s sleep I felt much better the next morning. I got washed and dressed and walked to the mall on campus. There, I finally found some more food places and picked one that sold tea, coffee and breakfast. Today was the day for all the official orientation events. And I really could do with a bit of orientation! So once again I wandered around clueless with no idea where to find the right location for the exchange orientation. Of course I knew this would happen so I left really early so I would not get in trouble. Therefore, I had plenty of time to get talking with a bunch of Norwegian girls and a girl from Switzerland. They all seemed really nice. At orientation we learned about where to go if we needed help with something, public transportation, health insurance and all them things. The best thing about it all: there was free food and drinks, hooray!

I had another orientation shortly after the exchange orientation for internationals in general. The group was much bigger and extremely diverse. We did a few fun group activities and I literally met people from all over the world: China, Brazil, Jamaica, Nigeria, South Korea.... I did not learn that many new things but it was a nice experience anyway.

So after all these official organisational issues I still had another big concern: the bedding odyssey. Now that I knew where I had to go I took the whole trip to Walmart again (only this time I got a Presto card, which is similar to an Oyster card, so I could pay for my fare). Thankfully, Walmart was open today. I looked for a fluffy feather cushion and some sheets. When I searched for duvets I could not find any. One of the staff told me that they were completely sold out because of all the students going back to school. I could not believe it! I noticed another guy walking up and down the aisle looking for duvets, too. We got talking and it turned out him and another girl came from Wales on an exchange with YorkU and they were having the same problem as me. Their names were Sam and Carly. I asked them whether they wanted to join me to go to IKEA. So we did. Another guy from France came along too, so it was actually great fun finding our way to IKEA and raiding the shop for their bedding. Because my room looked horrible I got a little lamp and a plant to make it more comfortable. And my room did start to look quite homely once I got back to my residence. It is amazing what you can achieve only with a little bit of greenery, colourful cushions and a few polaroids on the wall. Although there was a Frosh event in the evening I wanted to go to I could feel the overwhelming power of jetlag once again. So I crawled under my fluffy brand new duvet and fell to sleep way before 8 p.m.

Wednesday:

Today was the official general orientation day! But before that it was time to actually start my Frosh Week. So I walked over to Calumet for some team building activities. We all played several games in teams and although normally I am not a great fan of games like that, I really enjoyed myself. Go team Strikers! After these morning activities we all walked over to our orientation sessions. All the psych students wore matching blue T-shirts and mingled in a big lecture hall. Different professors held speeches welcoming the new students, introducing psychology and giving general advice. The whole event was not very useful for me, because:

a) I have been studying psychology for a while now and I already know what it is all about

b) I would not share any classes with the Freshmen, anyway.

Still, I must admit that it was motivational to hear all these praising and enthusiastic speeches. What I love about the orientation events is that there is always free food, even this time!

In the evening we met up with our colleges again (of course everyone had to wear matching T-shirts with the college´s name on) and we made our way to the welcome ceremony in the stadium. One after another the colleges walked into the stadium and were introduced by all the others. Every college has their own chants and everyone joins in forming a huge mass of chanting and shouting people. To begin with this seemed extremely weird and really American but after a while I joined anyway. Actually it was great fun to be part of this group with everyone shouting as a chorus. The ceremony was equally amazing. There were different groups and clubs that performed on stage. For example there was an accapella group and the “I get consent”-activists performed a little act about sexism and sexual harassment. I also loved the indigenous representatives who performed a traditional drumming and singing act. Of course the president of the university held an official speech, welcoming all the students in the end. Once all this was over there was a big firework. I absolutely loved it. There is no way my university at home would host an event equal to this and it somehow made me feel to be here and to be a part of this.