Orientation.

Okay kids, I know I've been a little out of touch these past 3 days but for good reason: the good people at H@nken decided to extend our orientation over 2 days, in case we missed something the first 27 times it was explained to us. Now I realize that sounds whiny but I'll tell you why it ended up being a really good thing: because we all focused on each other!

Over the past 3 days, I've had time to meet at least a dozen new people, exchange names with a few more and look forward to taking classes with completely different people as well. I've already signed up for my 2 first classes in the first period [1 semester = period 1 + period 2].

The most interesting orientation talks we had consisted of a prof standing in the middle of the auditorium, pretending he was Brussels, and asking us to place ourselves around him geographically. That made for a really interesting depiction of where everyone was from. Also, it made it 100% easy to locate my new Canadian buddy from Saskatchewan, Nicole! [This was the introduction session for Masters and exchange students. Thus the insanely diversified world map we created.] My second favourite talk was done by the Green Office guy and he spoke to us about the importance of keeping H@nken green. He had a good sense of humour and kept it short - so it was memorable and we'll be keeping it green on H@nken's behalf as a result. Go travel coffee mugs! "Maailmaan paras isä!" ...jne.

Today was a pretty boring day in terms of information. We found out we need to bring the original copies of our diplomas in for "registration." This made me angry as we needed to send in lawyer attested copies ($50) and then I left mine in Canada so shipping costs ($60?) plus risk of it being lost... (iunno how much it costs to replace but you know mAcGill will milk it for all its worth...) soooo... perhaps I can keep on begging them to let me bring it after Christmas? I think that's a good plan... for now...we'll see...

ALSO, we heard from the student union about the Welcome Dinner, Sept 10th, the cottage weekend, Sept 18-19, the St-Petersburg trip ... and more to come! I'm really looking forward to it all.

Jackie is coming back on Tuesday afternoon and I'll be in Tampere by the evening on Tuesday. I need to skip class on Wednesday morning (already) because there's no point rushing back for a 1.5h lecture... but at some point I need to sign my HO@S agreement and get the keys to my new crib!

On a final note, I love this song because it calmed me down as I was getting in to Helsinki on Wednesday afternoon. Santogold's I'm a Lady. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpL8odTN2_c


Photo credits: here.