First week

I am happy to inform you I survived the first week at Ball State University (BSU)! It was a long and interesting week, but it was a lot of fun. The easiest for me to do is just describe what I did per day. And don’t worry, I will not write endless long blogs like I did last year ;)


Friday, August 14 – 16:

This was the weekend that I arrived in the US and BSU. About this I already told you something in my first blog. I had a safe trip and to my great surprise I found out that I had an apartment instead of a double bedroom! Met nice people and explored the campus a bit.


Monday, August 17:

Monday was the first day of our orientation week. What we (Malta, Sweden and Ireland) found out that Europeans were a minority! For all I know I flew to the wrong continent and ended up in Asia instead! We are with about 200 international students of which 80% is from Asia! We got a lot of information and papers to fill out. We got a Student ID and had to go for a blood test for TB, which of course I did not had! (could have told them that, but anyways..). We also went on a bus tour through Muncie and to the mall, which was quite nice.


Tuesday, August 18:

This day I had to take an English test! Can you believe it? It sucked haha :D But I guess everybody had to make a test, either the TOEFL test or the one here, which was quite similar. I had to make listening, reading, grammar and writing assignments. It all went OK. However I still didn’t get my result back yet! If all is well, I’ll get the results back coming Monday. Furthermore we got a library tour and in the evening we had a social ice scream event, meaning: ‘Socializing with internationals and Americans while enjoying FREE ice cream’.


Wednesday, August 19:

More information was given on insurance, immigration procedures, sexual harassment (personal space, no touching and it is NOT ok to do sexual favors for a higher grade.., etc.), plagiarism (includes not copying books like what we are used to back home, no we actually have to buy them! DARN..), safety and American culture (if someone says hello, you are not immediately friends! Friendships take time.. Isn’t that obvious?). For the insurance I needed to open an American bank account, which was quite a hassle, but luckily it worked out! If anyone wants to sponsor me on my stay at BSU you are more than welcome to transfer money to the following bank account:

Att: LED van der Heemst
Bank account #: 074900657 9000546752


Thursday, August 20:

Yet again more information on registration, majors, paying for housing and we got a free t-shirt. SCORE! O yes, I also went swimming. The pool is right in front of our dorm, and even better, it is for FREE! All sports are which is perfect! Only thing was I was the only ‘non-professional’ going for laps. I was in the third lane, with to my left all the guys of the swim team, and to my right all the girls of the swim team. AWKWARD.. They all went very very fast, and I just went in slomo.. but fine.. I got my workout haha :D


Friday, August 21:

This was an off day, so no meetings. I will have a meeting on Monday with my personal advisor who will help me with classes, so unfortunately I won’t be able to start classes till Tuesday. And as for classes, it might become an issue, as not all courses are given this year, and others are full or at the same time. But more about this next week. Further we had a ‘picnic’ and in the evening an international party!


Saturday, August 22:

This day there were activities planed as in sport and a fair, which had information on all sororities, fraternities and other things. There was also another picnic, and in the evening another party which was very amusing! But as it was a party for the freshmen and internationals, no alcohol was allowed!


Sunday, August 23:

Today I got picked up by someone to go to church. Before the service there was a college group with whom we did a short Bible study, which was very nice. After that we attended the service. The church is quite big and even had a choir! So that was kind of impressive! Very much enjoyed it so will be going again next week.


OK, so I did right more than I firstly intended to, sorry bout that.. :D I will write another blog with some additional information and will add pictures to that one.
You’ll hear from me soon again.
Bye!