I probably won't do this everyday for orientation or maybe I will. All I know right now is that I'm exhausted. So much physical activities! LoL Okay, that's not a bad thing, but it's "hot" out right now and I sweated today! SWEATED! I've sweated everyday I've been here!
Actually, I don't think I wrote anything about yesterday. I biked to the small shopping center yesterday. I didn't time myself going there, but coming back it took me about 15 minutes to come back. That's not bad. I went to Kmart to get another cable lock (one that fit through my bike seat) and then decided to go to Borders and Home Depot since I had to cross the street to get to the other bike lane. It made just as much sense to just cross the street than make a left. :P That Borders is about the same size as ours (maybe a tad smaller) square-footage wise. It's definitely smaller product wise. Then again, I think our store is at one of the bigger tiers for product. Anyway, after biking back I just hung out in my room. The funny thing about yesterday was yesterday at 9am an Ultimate Frisbee game started up. I woke up to this cheering and thought there were cheerleaders outside my window (great...). Turns out it was just team cheers! They played for most of the day. Then, lo and behold, SOCCER teams showed up again! So I had ultimate frisbee and soccer to watch outside my window for a bit. It was kind of funny.
Today was first day of orientation and it started at 9:30. Jane and I decided to walk to Bren, which is about a 20 minute walk. Not too bad. They gave us a quick debriefing and EVERYONE went around and introduced themselves (name, where you call "home," where you got your degree, what degree were you awarded, what is a significant job/experience, and what is one thing you like to do in your free time). You learned a lot about your fellow students then. After we finished that it was lunch time! A bunch of us went to the UCen to get lunch and our student IDs. We got the free black and white ones. The colored ones are ACCESS cards, cost $20, and you can use it like an ATM card. Didn't need the ATM card and I'm a poor grad student! I found the Wells Fargo ATMs too. They're RIGHT outside an entrance to the UCen so that's nice. I got a sandwich at one of the food places. I will definitely NOT be making it a habit to buy food at the UCen. My sandwich, as good as it was, was $7.99. Then I got a drink. So my lunch was $10. Yeah...bringing lunches now!
Afterwards we went back for 4.25 hours of the Career Development Team doing ice breakers. We first started with a scavenger hunt, which was kind of fun. It involved a lot of walking, but you could talk to everyone in your team of 6-7 people pretty easily. They had us go all over the place - bookstore, counseling/career development, multicultural building for the graduate division office, the financial/billing place, etc. They had a list of things we had to do and they gave us a disposable camera. We had to take at least 15 photos (including the ones they assigned us - about 8). "Extra points" were given to those who were creative in their photos. We had some pretty funny ones. Like we had to have a staff member in a photo and the staff member we wanted was taking a photo of another team so we all stood around her and pointed to her. We also took one in this fountain that wasn't filled with water (tiles were falling off, etc). We all sat in it like we were in a jacuzzi tub. Another photo was with another team and we all posed like it was a West Side Story fight (one team on one side, the other on the other side). There's another one in this building (Cheadle Hall) where we found a painting of Mr. Cheadle. So we all sat around the photo and looked at it like it was storytime (Indian style sitting). We had some other ones too. Definitely creative!
Next they had us do a few things on the beach. We all stood in a circle and questions like "who needs a place to live still?" or "Who wants to do yoga?" were asked. Those who wanted/did those things went to the middle of the circle and quickly conferred about things. Then we did a team building thing where they had a HUGE beach ball and we were split into two teams. The goal was to have every team member touch the beach ball while in the air without holding it, touching it twice, and having two people touch it at the same time. Our team tried a number of different ways: two lines facing each other, "tap" back and forth between each other, chaos circle where everyone just went for it and stepped out, and one single line where we "tapped" the ball backwards over our heads with some "safety" people on the sides. The last one worked, though it got a little chaotic at the end of the line. :P It was tough! There's about 100 MESM students (the largest class to date) and that's 50 people who have to touch a beach ball without it falling.
Afterward they brought us back for a snack. They had water, Hane's soda, beer (yes, you read that, beer), chips, salsa, a chicken mixture, beans, and cheese. They also gave us a choice of trail mix, snickers, milky way, skittles, starburst, and other candy as a snack to eat while back in the room. I have to tell you, Bren definitely knows how to feed and water us! :)
Back inside they had us do another thing where a team of 6-7 people got together and wrote down as many things they could find they all had in common and one unique thing no one else did. It was fun, though tough to find something we all had in common. It was a lot of everyone but one or two people had someone in common. :P They brought us back in and we read them out loud so everyone got to hear it. There were some really funny things.
Overall, the day was pretty good. I was roasting outside on the beach, though. I'm not burned or anything, but my right arm looks darker. I don't know why only one arm is darker, but it is. I don't have a farmer's tan, but I've got a gradient going. :P So I'll have to watch that. I dislike farmer's tans a LOT. (Mom, I have sunscreen! I didn't burn or need a hat too.) My fellow students seem really nice too. We all got along pretty well and I learned a lot of names (the whole point of today). A good portion of the students are from CA and a good portion of those people are from the SF Bay Area. I did see a few students I met at the Admitted Students' Day again today too. That was neat. We also have students from India, Nigeria, and Japan. A few other students who have lived in the US only a few years (Brazil and another one from India). We have one Chinese student who seems pretty new, but not fresh from another country.
Tomorrow is the first day of the math workshop (9am-noon) and computer orientation. I got the last group orientation so I'll have 4 hours of nothing in between (bummer), but I can go to the SAAB to get my bus sticker at least! I guess there's a special Bren school password you need to access the wireless there. I also found out the significance of why my school e-mail goes "@umail.ucsb.edu." The "umail" changes for each department, I'd guess. At least for Bren's e-mail address it goes "@bren.ucsb.edu."That's used for our listservs and staff/faculty e-mail addresses.
Anyway, I guess that's really all for now. I'm exhausted and sweaty all over! Tomorrow Jane and I want to try biking to campus. I probably will for sure since I'll be returning back to the apartment after the math workshop and then biking back.
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