I'm going to jump ahead of myself. Because my entries are so desperately trying to catch up with time, and surely it is not nice to end my school term here with my blog still backdated eons back.

And so ended my first week of school in UC Irvine. And it wasn't even a proper week, since it was entitled "Week 0", so it's more like a Welcome Week, fun filled with orientations, fairs, free food and activities. Very happening, great sunshine, cool weather. Welcome to the UC in the OC!

I landed in John Wayne/ Orange County airport, and I found myself in the home of Disneyland, beaches and palm trees. Eve the airport looks kinda different, in a more relaxed setting with palm trees around the building. You can spot staff at the Visitor Information wearing Mickey Mouse headgear (yes, those with two round ears) and truly celebrating Disneyland's 50th Anniversary. People are polite, look rich and dress well.

And I had to stop there, before I start putting on the Hawaiian-like flower ring and dance around, with the realization that I'm here to study.

Ok, time to find the school and get into "school mode".

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Hop on a cab and got to school. The irritating part is that I found out (somewhere a few weeks down the road in UCI) that I was probably swindled by the Arab cab driver, who started pretending not to know where I'm going and kept looking at my map (and all the while I thought UCI was very prominent in OC), and when nearing the school, he took out his own detailed map of the school and refered to it! The fares jumped by $0.40 every time and it cost me like $15 for the 10-15 min ride. Plus when I went jogging some weeks later, I sort of think he did not take me via the most direct route. Got me fuming. Badly.

But oh well, enough of dishonest cab drivers.

And so I checked in without much of a hassle into my apartment in Campus Village, where I'm really pleasantly surprised to find that it's a really nice place! Almost like chalet resorts, with 8 apartments in 1 building. And it's so clean! Shared by 4 people, it has a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom and 2 bedrooms!

After selecting a bed (a priviledge for being the second to arrive), I put my stuff down and headed back to the center of Campus Village for a Welcome BBQ. And BBQ in the American sense is just drilling patties and sausages to make hotdogs and burgers. Really so much easier, just chop up tomatoes, onions, pickles, cheese and lettuce, with mustard, mayo and ketchup ready, and you have a BBQ!

By the end of the day, only Geoffrey (from Hong Kong but has been studying in US for 3 years) and Luo (from China, but American Citizen now, been in US for 6 years, and speaks better English than Mandrain. o_O) and myself in da house. Rudy was still in Mexico touring!

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Monday 19 Sept was spent getting used to the school surroundings and attending talks. Met up with the people from the International Center here and also many fellow exchange students from all over the world.

And it's starting to get on my nerves, all this orientation thing, as I must have repeated my name and written it on stickers for like the 20th time by the end of the week, as I attended gatherings and meetings meant to break us in and introduce us around. I think being 23 has something to do with it.

The typical conversation goes like this:

"Hi! I'm XYZ from Country A"
"Hi! I'm Kenneth from Singapore, majoring in Economics"
"oh! I'm majoring in ABC"
"blah blah"

As much as it is interesting to meet new people and find out more, there will come a point of time when you get tired of saying the same things over and over again. And somehow, getting to know too many new people can get tiring.






Where freshman of UCI are introduced to the Chancellor and Deans.

So anyway, I attended the New Students Convocation, which I later found out (when I'm in the hall already of course) was for freshman, and it has Dean's address etc etc. But I thought it was nice to go for such things in a new school, and hey, all the addresses were interesting, witty and even informal. You know it's a relax atmosphere when the Chancellor suddenly took off his academic cap and put on the UCI cap given to everyone when we enter the Event Center. And he tells interesting stories too!

Later went for the Anteater (the mascot for UCI) BBQ and fair, which is a display of all the CCAs and all the Fraternity and Sorenity houses (for those who do not know what this is about, I'll explain sometime later) strut their stuff, which means a lot of hunks and babes were on display. But it has an awesome atmosphere because it's held in the open in the middle of Aldrich Park (which also happens to be this big park in the middle of school!)

Walking around school, UCI is indeed "Under Construction Indefinitely". So many construction works and plans in progress. Upgrading here and new stuff there. Every year, students come back to find something different about this 40-year old school.

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Tuesday was spent in more talks, more introductions, more admin and more settling in. Got my UCI Student card (which is REALLY useful), all made within 1 minute once you reach the end of the queue of course.

And grocery shopping! Got to stock up that fridge of mine with good and cheap stuff!

In UCI, since almost half the student work, it is really not surprising to find pretty girls and good looking guys drive the campus shuttles. I'm not talking about ok-looking. I'm talking HOT.

Go figure.

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Wednesday was yet another fair-like even along Ring Road (the road that encircle Aldrich Park and where all the main school buildings are on). Truly happening, reminds me of NUS bazaars with 10 times the scale.

And being the explorer, I took time to take a bus and travel all the way to 99 Ranch, which is the California's Asian supermarket! The best thing about California, is that there is freaking a lot of Asians here, so food will never be a problem!

Being in the Asian supermarket, you actually learn more about the dynamics of this state. It's amazing, and you will really believe that language and culture is a social construct. There was this mother and daughter beside me browsing through the condiments. Not that I wanna evesdrop, but it is interesting to hear the mother speak to her daughter in perfect Mandrain (probably Taiwanese) and her daughter, all dressed up like a ABC college student, replying in American english, with the slang and all. And they understand each other perfectly well!

Somehow another strange thought comes to mind. And it's probably true that the mother knows English and the daughter knows Mandrain, but yet each is refusing/ not wanting to speak in the other language. To the mom, it's probably because she prefers her native lanugage, and to the daughter, who knows? It might just seem uncool to speak Mandrain, or maybe it's just that she don't use it all that much.

I wonder if this will create a family gap.

I mean, I would feel a whole lot closer to my grandmother if I can speak Teochew perfectly. But I can't, and I guess half of us are probably in the same shoes.

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There was a rock concert on Thursday night, in the middle of Aldrich Park. Not very happening somehow.

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But Friday was awesome.

The international students went for a picnic at Mason Park around late afternoon 4pm, where we mingled and meet more people (yes what's new?), some American families and the likes, who's interested in helping being friends with new international people who come into US.

And at night, was the annual UCI Foam Party! In School!

Enough Said.

Welcome to the only UC in the OC.