Photos

I have tried Posting photos up but the pictures i have are much too big and im not sure how to resize them. SO, when i figure out how to resize them il post them on for your viewing pleasure :)

Week one, Orientation

OK, first I would like to say sorry for not posting anything to this for like a week. But aw well there is nothing I can do now. I probably will only do one post each week actually. You know what to expect now.

So far my time here in Moody has been awesome, even better than I expected ☺ it. The orientation week was last week and it was so cool to meet all the different M.K’s (Missionary Kids) and international students like myself, from 22 different countries. It is so humbling to be in such a diverse community of people. There are people from Brazil, Korea, Romania, Russia, Guatemala, Canada, India, Honduras, Japan, Morocco, Haiti, Russia and Ukraine, Kenya, South Africa, Scotland, Norn Iron, and England. (I know that’s not 22 I just can’t remember the rest)

The different things which we have been doing are just classes showing us how to use the library, computer system, where to go if you need certain things etc, quite boring sessions really, but they ended at lunch time and then we could do whatever we wanted. Little trips to the beach became a regular occurrence for us. Its so awesome how large the lake is, you cant see the other side, it actually feels like you are on the beach of the ocean, and best about it is, there’s no salt water ☺

On Wednesday Night we all went to Navy Pier to watch a fireworks display, it was pretty cool. But sadly, I hadn’t purchased my camera yet so I couldn’t get a picture of them, too bad I suppose because it was a really calm night and the sky was so clear, until about 10. That’s when it clouded over, we were walking back and the biggest storm I have ever witnessed began above our heads, it was lethal, the rain was bouncing so high off the ground. Then the thunder and lightning started, it was so loud, and the lightning was shooting off everywhere. By the time we got back we looked as if we’d been thrown into the lake in our clothes, it was terrible, but a little fun too. On the Thursday morning we heard that there had been a tornado out in the suburbs so that’s why there was such a massive thunderstorm.

I finally bought a camera on the Thursday so I will get some of the photos up as soon as possible, I have magnificent view of the city from my floor, I have taken some photos of it, so you can get a wee glimpse of what its like. I will endeavour to go to the top of Sears Tower to take some photographs from there. I expect they will be good from there.

All of the returning students returned at the weekend and boy it is so much different now, there are people everywhere, I had gotten used to our small group of internationals and M.K’s that’s it just felt weird going to the SDR (student dining room) and all the tables were full, in contrast to the 2 middle ones, like it had been for the past few days. But it is cool to meet all of the people and find out their opinion of the place since they have already been here for at least a year already.

This past week has felt like a little bit of a holiday but I’m sure that feeling will soon diminish when I have to start classes and my workload piles up.

Moving Day - Saturday 18th August

Right, its Saturday now and I feel like I have been here for about 3 weeks, not just three days. I’m so tired but that’s only because I’ve been walking all over the city, up and down to Moody for cheap lunches (even cheaper again, its class!) and just dandering about to get my bearings.

Ok so today was the day myself, Chris and all of the other international students could move in. I’ll be honest, I was quite excited! I went to the front desk and collected my lift key, room key, and the “Welcome to Moody, you are an international student, pack” Like I said I was on Culby 19, the highest floor, so thank goodness there are lifts, haha. The guys who I met last autumn, who came to Belfast for the exchange, pulled a few strings for Chris and I so we could all be on the same floor! But, something went wrong and Chris got put on floor 10, which kind of sucks, but I think he can get moved up if he really wants to.

Ok so I’m sure you are all dying to hear what my new home is like so I’ll tell you. Well I’ll keep you in a little bit of suspense actually…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………(I think that is enough, anymore and it will loose what ever shred of comical value it had)

So my room, its small, smaller than my bedroom at home and it is just for me, I have to share this one!! But it’s pretty cool they have utilised what space there is in it very efficiently. The two beds have been raised up and there are desks and chests of drawers underneath them, this saves a lot of space and makes that area of the room a little more private and ‘your own.’ (When I finally get round to buying my camera I will take pictures and post them (if I can figure out how to do that, I’m finding it difficult. Haha)

Jet Lag

Ok so I have never really experienced jet lag before until my journey here and like I said at the tail end of my last post, it is a pain!! What’s worse though, is your body clock not being used to the change in time zones, (maybe that is also called jet lag, I dunno) but man is that annoying?? Every morning I have woke up at like 4am and felt totally awake, lay there for about half an hour until I fell back to sleep but then not even an hour later I wake again thinking,
“It must be time to get up now.” But nope it isn’t time for that yet its only 5:20am. Dangit!!! (Say with a Napoleon Dynamite voice, haha). This vicious cycle goes on and on and on!!! Then at about 8 in the evening all of a sudden I just feel exhausted and think to myself, “Yesss! Maybe if I don’t go to bed until like 11 or 12 I’ll be able to sleep on for a while in the morning.” But nope its 4am again and I’m up, AGAIN!!

Will this ever stop??

Tour - Day 1 (August 15th)

Hey y’all (see what I have done there) lol
I have just finished my 1st day of my adventure and boy am I tired but, I thought id take this opportunity to write the first part of my blog, which has been named by Craig McKeown as ‘T-Dawg on Tour’

So here we go then:

It started at 4 45am whenever mum came into my room to tell me dad had phoned from Kenya to say cheerio. So, very bleary eyed and croaky voiced I took it (I cant remember how the call went though because I went straight back to sleep for another hour)
Next thing I remember was the familiar sound of my hideous alarm ringing in my ears wakening me, yet again, from a lovely deep sleep.

After my farewells to the family mum and I left for Dublin airport at about 6 39am or so (I thought id be accurate, lol). Everything went well for us and was running like clockwork up until the point where I arrived at the airport to find I had misread my ticket and was departing at 11 50am rather than 10 50am, like I had originally thought. Ok so that wasn’t really much of a problem, but it did cost me 23 euros because I treated myself and mum to a breakfast of bacon and tomato relish toasty, was very tasty I might add ☺

Check – in was next on the agenda and that was a very speedy transaction because i did it all on a computer rather than waiting in a queue. This was the part where I had to say farewell to mum, then after a long, emotionally charged goodbye hug we parted ways.

I got to customs and was thinking to myself, “this is going well,” but then disaster struck…
The customs officer spoke:
“Have you got your passport and visa there?”
I handed them over the desk after she had scanned my fingerprints. She then spoke again “Have you got an I-20 form?”
I thought to myself, “This cannot be happening, only me, why is it always me?”
I didn’t have a notion where the form was I didn’t even realise that I needed it after I had already got a valid visa and passport.
“You aren’t going to America today, son!”
My heart sank, was an awful feeling, here’s me stuck in Dublin, on my own being told I cant fly to America, what was I going to do, I didn’t know where the form was.
Then I remembered all of my forms for Moody and my visa etc. are in my suitcase (not much use to me there)
She called the baggage man to try and hunt my suitcase down. He came back and was very optimistic about being able to find my case quickly so I felt a little bit better but still felt as though I was just about to have a panic attack.

“Go and wait over there by the door and we will be with you as soon as possible, sir.”
I dandered over and after a few panicky prayers a man came out of the door and said,
“Arnold?” (I didn’t feel like correcting him at this stage so I held my tongue) “Come with me”
I followed him round to the doors, which lead out to the runway, and I saw the baggage lorry driving towards me. Finally a little light at the end of the tunnel. My bags were pretty much on the top so I was only outside for about 5minutes hoking for the forms. Went back in and showed the forms, passport and visa to the officer again.
Yes, you guessed it, the I-20 wasn’t there. That awful feeling sank down upon me again and I panicked a little more this time because I knew I had all of the forms packed and if it wasn’t there then it was lost. He sent me away to try and organise a flight for a different day.

At this point a man I know from Bible College, Johnny Pollock, showed up (he and his wife were flying to Mexico) He saw I wasn’t in the best of moods and was a little upset and asked what was wrong. And to cut a long story short he helped me out and we eventually found the form, folded up inside an envelope that I had received a few months ago so that I could order my bed linen for my room. We handed it over the desk again and I got approved for departure, PHEWWWWWW!!!!

Now, to the flight. I would say that it was pretty average; you get about the same amount of legroom as you would on an Easyjet flight to London for the day. Infact I had to sit by the emergency exit the day I was flying over to get my visa so I had more legroom. The food (beef lasagne) was ok, could have been better but it also could have been a whole lot worse.

Got to Chicago O’Hare airport in one piece so that was good I suppose. Went straight to baggage reclaim and yes my bad luck in airports had kicked in again, mine was the very last bag to arrive out of the chute (I think that may be because I had to hoke it out of all the rest just before take off though)

Went through customs on this side but this time, to my surprise and relief there ere no question asked. Finally I was in Chicago!!! Met three people at the airport who drove me to Moody where I could meet Josh, the guy whose house I’m staying in for the 1st three nights. He was running a little late and I had half an hour to punch in so the guys who drove me from the airport decided it would be a nice time to take me on a tour of the campus, its massive, I’m tired, and its like 25degrees so reluctantly I said “Yea that would be great” so off we went. The place is massive and its like right bang in the middle of the city. The building I am staying in is 19 floors high and I’m in the top floor, Culby 19.

Evening time now and I’m absolutely starving so Josh his mate, Nathan, and myself all went to an all you can eat buffet, man, there was a lot of food! There were about a million different types of prawns, crabs legs as long as my arm, chicken, steak, lamb, rice, potatoes, sushi (its quite nice actually), noodles, curry, chips (fries)…I could go on but cant be bothered! And best of all free refills on your drink as well as your food plate. About 4 helpings and 3 glasses of coke later I was about finished eating but then we spotted the dessert cart (the Americans know how to eat I can tell ya). We left the place about an hour later feeling like we had eaten our entire body weight haha.

That was pretty much the end of my day because we just went home and went to bed, thank goodness, jet lag is a pain!!!!