Pre-Departure Orientation: Day 1
I left Boston in the mid-morning, arriving in Chicago at about 1pm Eastern time and 12pm central time. After wandering the truly massive airport including a moving walkway with flashing rainbow lights, I finally made it to baggage claim, found my bag, and was met by Alexey, a soft-spoken Ukrainian man, who worked for the organization that is implementing the scholarship. A group of students were already there. We then took a shuttle to the hotel were our orientation is taking place. There was a lot of waiting around for the second half of the group to arrive. We are twelve in total--some interesting demographics: 2 redheads, 2 Minnesotans, 2 from Massachusett, and 2/3 girls matching the nationwide trends in the gender of those studying abroad.
The orientation kicked off with a lot of discussion of the rules, including the classic making our own group rules/expectations ("confidentiality" and "be respectful" came up a lot). We also were reminded of the drug and alcohol policies, which I am sure you can guess. The importance of not making memes of each other was also stressed. I wonder what incident in the past prompted that rule. We were also encouraged to not have a new rule made in the name of our behavior next year. Should we break the law of our host country, we were informed that there was nothing the embassy could do and we would be in the same prison and terrorists. Our rule-induced stupor was broken at one point by the arrival of the project manager for all our implementing organization's sites. She regaled us with the stories of how she came to work in international education and how she accidentally ended up managing a Russian casino.
After a solid three or so hours of rule orientation, we broke for dinner, which involved a ten-minute walk to a nearby mall of which a solid five minutes was just waiting for the light. The hotel was too far from the city proper so w were stuck at the mall. After genuinely terrible Mexican food, we headed back to the hotel, where we horsed around in the pool and I (of course) made a fool of myself.
Tomorrow we settle in another a long day of orientation before heading back to the airport for a 13 and half hour flight to Dubai. While another day of rules might not be how I imagined spending my summer, I honestly couldn't be more excited. We are one step closer to heading off on this crazy adventure. Everyone seems great and I am excited to be able to share this journey with them. Tomorrow will bring may firsts (time in Asia, longest flight, seeing the gulf, being in the middle east, etc) and it's almost here.
Sorry for such a boring post. Enjoy some even more boring photos.
An amazingly clear view from the plane leaving Boston (/s)
A clearer view as we head in for a landing outside of Chicago
Orientation begins!
The orientation kicked off with a lot of discussion of the rules, including the classic making our own group rules/expectations ("confidentiality" and "be respectful" came up a lot). We also were reminded of the drug and alcohol policies, which I am sure you can guess. The importance of not making memes of each other was also stressed. I wonder what incident in the past prompted that rule. We were also encouraged to not have a new rule made in the name of our behavior next year. Should we break the law of our host country, we were informed that there was nothing the embassy could do and we would be in the same prison and terrorists. Our rule-induced stupor was broken at one point by the arrival of the project manager for all our implementing organization's sites. She regaled us with the stories of how she came to work in international education and how she accidentally ended up managing a Russian casino.
After a solid three or so hours of rule orientation, we broke for dinner, which involved a ten-minute walk to a nearby mall of which a solid five minutes was just waiting for the light. The hotel was too far from the city proper so w were stuck at the mall. After genuinely terrible Mexican food, we headed back to the hotel, where we horsed around in the pool and I (of course) made a fool of myself.
Tomorrow we settle in another a long day of orientation before heading back to the airport for a 13 and half hour flight to Dubai. While another day of rules might not be how I imagined spending my summer, I honestly couldn't be more excited. We are one step closer to heading off on this crazy adventure. Everyone seems great and I am excited to be able to share this journey with them. Tomorrow will bring may firsts (time in Asia, longest flight, seeing the gulf, being in the middle east, etc) and it's almost here.
Sorry for such a boring post. Enjoy some even more boring photos.
An amazingly clear view from the plane leaving Boston (/s)A clearer view as we head in for a landing outside of ChicagoOrientation begins!
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