International Orientation Programme Summary Part I

Hello gang,

Orientation Week had ended for me not too long ago and yesterday I had moved in to my flat in Millstone C3 in Endcliffe! Every day last week there were jam-packed activities starting from breakfast served at 7:30 to the last activity that would end past 22:00. I will do a quick summary of each day to highlight the days and hopefully do it in just one post:

Monday: The first full day of the programme consisted of tours around the area including the Information Commons, a 24 hour library open for all students.

















For the week, I lived in Stephenson Hall is in Endcliffe Village where some of our activities took place and where they provided us meals.

I had taken some pictures outside of where I was staying for the week in the previous blogpost, so go check that out ;).  I will post the rest on Facebook.

The only problem I had with it was where I was living, we did not have working water for the bathroom. Don't worry I did shower every morning, but I had to go step outside and get into a few of my friends building to use their shared bathrooms. It was not a fun experience that began on Tuesday night and wasn't fixed until end of the programme.

The last thing I did on Monday was take part of a Dance Class. There were two one-hour sessions in which the Sheffield's society of Latin and Ballroom dancing taught us very basic moves for Waltz and the Cha-cha. It was quite fun and I thought I did well.


Tuesday: One of the first main activities I took part of was the Ice Breakers that began at 10:00. Here we did some introductory activities and games to meet people. I am surprised at how many nationalities of students are here from all over.

Afterwards we had a talk about the newly-refurnished Student Union that was awarded as the number one University Union in the UK. That is really impressive and the tour they gave us clearly showed why it was highly reputable.

There are so many club/bar nights during the week that students can go to that makes late night at the uni so worth it all. Many rooms and areas for all sorts of activities. I mostly enjoy the music and dancing so I will try to make the most out of what the school has to offer. Of course, it will be in the evening when I am done with my studies for the day ;-) I will try to talk about night life at Sheffield in some other post in the future.



I had lunch at Interval with some friends and then towards the evening, we were given talks in the auditorium. Lot of helpful information given out, but as a third year student, quite of number of things were familiar to me.

Now on to Quiz Night! Teams of ten students sit together at a table and are given list of trivia questions. Categories include Sheffield, British, International and random knowledge. It was quite fun trying to play to win this game. Learned a few things about Sheffield and that a whale can jump higher than a leopard and a human-I still do not know why....

Lastly, a group of us went to Bar One, the Student Union's bar. Some of us played pool, talked and had some drinks. Good way to end a day.


Well I would write more but I'll save it for a little later. Want to grab some morning grub while I walk past all the freshers moving in today! Part II will be posted soon, take care guys.

Bye~

Video and Pics from Sheffield!

Greetings from Sheffield!

Here is a link to my first Blog video post. I tried putting it here put didnt work.... Anyways, click here!

--> **** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38XT68ghcLI  ****

Some of my favorite pictures from today:

 

Goodbye America

Here we are... I'm waiting at my gate at the airport at JFK in NYC to board my flight to London. Its sinking in more and more that this is real but I am taking one step at a time. I arrive in Manchester after my connecting flight from London; right now Im on alert to make sure everything turns out smoothly. So far so good, had a wonderful time with my family for a couple hours eating lunch and everything. JFK is huge and I love flying and the whole process that goes with it. Taking a bus to get from one terminal to another and looking at what other flight are there in case I change my mind at the last minute ;) I wrote my last FB post for my friends and family to know everything is alright and I am waiting patiently at my gate. A lil relaxation here on my own, collecting my thoughts. Not really nervous or super excited right now because I still need to board so I'm mostly just calm. I look around and witness the rustle and bustle of the crowds of people getting to their next destination. That was me few hours ago! I will have to go through immigration at the LHR airport before flying out to MAN, located an hour outside of Sheffield. I'll be prepared for that. Till then, many thanks for the read. See you in England folks! Cheers~

Last night

Hello couple posts today, one from last night that didnt send through... So here I am, the eve of my departure if you will... many mixed emotions because as you all know I am leaving for Sheffield for a year. I am very excited to make this real because more than a year ago, it was just a thought. A thought that I eventually turned it to reality. Leading up to planning to study abroad is a lot more challenging than I though sounds, with months of planning and many many deciding factors whether to dive into it all. A year ago I was excited to hear from a fellow chemical engineer that he was about to start his year in England and it inspired me to do the same. I was astonished that what he was doing was possible and that I could do the same. I wanted to be like him and spend my year abroad, surrounded by British culture. Now here I am on my last night, after spending nice quality time with family, I couldn't ask for more. Tomorrow is the big day, lets hope for a great one. See you in my next post. Later!~

GenEds GenEds GenEds...

Hey gang!

Still have not left yet, still at home trying to get things in order before I leave the 14th (OMG pinch me! haha). 

Getting my courses to work out for my year abroad has been a lot of work these past two weeks. For starters, Sheffield has a different way of setting up their schedules unlike Buffalo's proactive approach of allowing students to craft their semesters several months before the school year has even ended. Us UB students have been used to looking at our shopping carts midway through a semester with the class times and professors listed waaaaay in advance. Sheffield does not do this, heck they still have not listed which modules (or "mods", what courses are called overseas) will be offered at the end of this month, let alone the location and instructor. In doing so, they will have a complete timetable of the year so students can schedule classes for both Autumn and Spring. I assume you can change your mods once Spring comes rolling around but you know what they say about assumptions...

So this stress has been building up a little bit and I did not post last week because I was in the middle of it all so here I am making up for that! There is this deal with general education courses (GenEds). I need to take one GenEd abroad to fulfill my department's requirement. I have found for Autumn semester three music and one sociology module. Getting a syllabus and having it checked off has been unsuccessful.

Let's dive into my junior year schedule for just a moment... I have been checked off with my Department advisor over at Furnas Hall for the engineering courses I will be taking in Sheffield. For Autumn semester, I have down 5 chemE mods and one intended GenEd mod. As of now, I need 3 GenEds to be fulfilled by graduation: Art, Social and Behavioral Sciences, and American Pluralism. My schedule in Sheffield has space for one GenEd for Autumn semester because Spring is packed with all 6 courses being ChemE courses. Soooo I had asked for a syllabus for several music modules being offered and I managed to get one a while ago. It was denied by UB for it not filling the art requirement. Ok… so then I waited on the other ones to see what would happen. The other two music courses I cannot even try to register because Sheffield says it is not offered to exchange students and that I am not qualified for the 2nd music mod -_- . My next option was through the sociology department, but just my luck, they do not hand out information externally so no syllabus for this guy. 

I decided to contact UB's study abroad office, whom asked me to talk to the college of Arts and Science which advised me to call the Engineering Department at Bonner Hall. Got through with someone in charge of advising and it was a very helpful phone conversation. It gave me an idea on what to do next because while I can still look for different departments for courses myself, I’d like a little more help.... pleaseeee. 

Emails were exchanged and the hunt for a GenEd continues. I was able to give her a link of the Directory of Sheffield Modules to look at all the departments and what they offer. This is the help that I need, someone that knows about what has worked in the past for engineering students and their requirements to look at what department I can contact overseas to get a syllabus. Then send the syllabus to the respective UB department to then forward it to Engineering to have it checked off in my file. This will all resolve soon enough. I needed this little extra something because I am hitting a dead end each time I select a GenEd option that may work.

Thanks for the read friends and family, hopefully I can bring some good news in the future. I am staying positive and proactive :-). I will blog again next week before take off, then I will really have new and exciting things to talk about with pictures! Take care guys and to my friends at school, have a great time at school this year. Miss you all.

Cheers! ~