Sorry about not blogging for such a long time, but life at U Penn is just so busy! I think I've managed to squeeze out some time right now to just let everyone know how things have been going these past few days. I really admire how the Columbia group is able to blog on almost a daily basis; the events and classes here just take up so much of our schedule that there is almost no free time for us to sit down and use the computer.
So, just a recap: we arrived in one piece on Saturday, and moved into our dorms on Saturday. Our hotel was great; the only con was that our room had some internet connection problems (eventually got resolved, but pretty late at night). The room was pretty spacey, and I think we all got a good night's rest at the Sheraton. That night we went to The White Dog Cafe for dinner, and although we were upset at first because of the horrible service, I think we felt a lot better after we went to a tea shop for awesome desert.
The next morning, we met with Mrs. Kronenburg at the Hilton for breakfast. We all chose the smoked salmon bagel and it was delicious! I think it's the first time I've had it, but I'll definitely get smoked salmon back home sometime. Next came the less fun part, where we had to lug our 37 - 49.5 lb suitcases from the hotel to our dorms. I got really tired, but I think I lost some weight from that trip, haha...
At the dorms, I met my room counselor, who is named Andrena. She's really nice and helpful, and told me a quick overview of the dorm's rules and basic information. I began to get the hang of using my door keys and Penn key (the trick to getting into our dorm is to twist the key and push it in at an angle and hold it there). I spent that afternoon exploring around the campus and city, and also trying to set up my laptop's internet access.
We had dinner at the Common's dining hall, which has basically a buffet system. The food was pretty good, but since people have been telling me that Houston's Market is much better, I probably will not be going back there very often. We had a few minutes of break time in our dorms, before we had to walk back out to orientation. There, we were welcomed and introduced into the program by the academics director. We the biomed students stayed for about half an hour to have our own special orientation, and picked journal clubs. Journal clubs are 1/3 of our academic program: we have lectures in the morning, labs in the afternoon, and journal clubs are scheduled either at lunch or at night. We will find our when ours is tomorrow.
After the orientation, we had a floor meeting where everyone in my dorm floor got together in the lounge and got to know each other. The other floors had meetings that lasted about 20 minutes, but ours went past 12:30, we and the RC just had so much to talk about. After all the meetings and showering and getting ready for bed, I was completely exhausted but feeling good about the day's events.
And, finally, today! This morning my room mate and I woke up early to get breakfast. Since we only have two meals a day on our PennCard, we went to the nearby "WaWa" (a 7-Eleven equivalent) and bought ourselves some food. At 8:30, we split up because she is in the Forensics program, and went to our relative groups by the gates to be led to our classes. The biomed building is only about 5-10 minutes away from my room, which isn't too bad. Our classes starts at 9 and ends at 4 (not including journal club). The forensic students, however, have class at 10, which is really nice!
This afternoon, I attempted to blog but ended up having to go back out. And, after that, we were taken on a walking trip around the entire campus. It is HUGE! I'm excited to explore the rest of it later on.
I've said this much and probably have only covered about half of whats really happened. I would continue, but I really need to shower and go to sleep! I plan to wake up a bit early tomorrow so I can sit down for breakfast, and not just run into WaWa again.
I will include some pictures and maybe movies in the next blog, keep checking for it! I will try to write more ASAP.
Susan
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1 comment:
There's no question, Susan--the Penn Team is doing the best job of blogging. We're learning so much just reading your postings.
It's easy for me to say to keep up the good work but then I'm not the one expected to go to classes all day and study at night. On the other hand, Some of us are reading ALL of the blogs and trying to respond to them all as well. It's almost a full time job.
The good thing, though, is that if we fall behind, there's no one to harangue us--no one but each other.
We're really looking forward to reading more about your wonderful adventures.
Keep up the good work and remember that a picture says a thousand words--and videos are cool, too.
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