The journey from the airport was quiet. I sat tired and mesmerised by the size of the roads, the size of the cars and the amount of places to eat. My first impressions of Evansville weren't as I had imagined in my head. The surroundings were completely unfamiliar, which was to be honest quite scary! The only thing I really wanted to do was get to my dorm, tell my family I had arrived, and go to sleep! The time difference was a big shock, I arrived in Evansville around 5pm, but back home it was 11pm, which was very weird and hard to get my head round!
Once we arrived at the University, I was met by another International Orientation Leader called Pam who took me to my dorm, gave me my bedding bundle (this included a pillow, pillow case, duvet, sheet, towels and a laundry bag) and she gave me a folder which contained information about the university and things we would be doing over the next few days. She also took me for a quick tour around the hall and showed me where all the social areas, kitchen, study areas and washing rooms were. She offered to take me to somewhere for something to eat, however, I wasn't very hungry, and was very ready to sleep!
Once Pam left, I texted my family and rang my boyfriend, Sam who had stayed up to make sure I was alright! Then by 7pm was in bed! My room mate Sophia arrived around 10pm, she is from Austria and had a much longer way to go then I did! I was glad she arrived on the same day as me because it made the whole experience a whole lot easier! we had been in contact before so it was nice to finally meet her.
I woke up the next day at around 5am, trying to adjust to the timings was tough! Sophia was awake not long after that as the time difference for her is also quite big! We both rang our families in the morning, before heading out to a café called Honeymoon café, for breakfast. I had a delicious waffle with strawberries and blueberries and the café was lovely.
We then managed to get a phone sim to use in America, which was good to be able to communicate back home a bit easier. I then went to the bank with Sophia as she needed a bank card, she asked if I could help her if she didn't understand, but her English is great so she didn't really have any problems!
We then we able to get a mini bus that the university provided, to Target so we could buy some extras for our rooms and make them a bit more homely. Me and Sophia got lots of items that we could share and use together. We bought a kettle, which was a great decision! As well as some other things.
The University offers mini fridges to rent in our rooms. We decided to rent one, however, it would come until the week after, but that was fine as there was a fridge in the kitchen we could store things in for the meantime.
The first couple of days in Evansville were tough. Adjusting to the time zones and being away from my family was hard to get my head round, but we had lots of activities put on by the International Orientation Leaders, which was a good distraction, and I've been able to talk to everyone back home on facetime and messages, which definitely helps a lot. I was also lucky to have Sophia who is also an international student, which has been nice as were both going through the same thing together.