After International Orientation finished on the Friday, we went into Orientation on Saturday, which is where we are introduced to the university with the American freshman students.
The majority of the students moved in on Saturday morning, so we were given the opportunity to get on a minibus to the mall for the morning and early afternoon. The majority of us International students went to mall to do some shopping. They had some good shops, it wasn't to dissimilar to an British shopping centre, just with some American shops! We had Mexican burritos for lunch, before heading back to campus for the rest of the evening activities.
The first activity we had for Orientation was a welcome in the sports hall. Everyone was extremely enthusiastically welcomed in by the Orientation Leaders, and they played music, did some dances and games, which was then followed by a speech from the dean of students and a funny skits by the leaders. A skits is basically a short show that was performed by the OLs. After this, we were put into small groups, which were themed and this year the theme was the 80's. Each small group had one Orientation Leader, and there was around 10-15 people in each group. Everyone went off into different locations across campus. My leader was Sindi, who is also an international student, but she is a senior, and our group was called Sindi's Sweatbands. We first did some introductions and games to remember each others names, and then discussed our fears and what we are excited for during the year. This was a nice way to meet new people and get the chance to talk with them in a smaller surrounding.
The next day was Sunday, so they had the church open for anyone who wished to go. Then had another skits on in the afternoon. The skits was good and funny, they had put in a lot of effort for it! The evening included one of my favourite activities! They brought in a hypnotist who did some insane mind tricks and crazy stuff like that before hypnotising around 8 people, and accidently hypnotising 2 people in the audience. I was memorised by the whole show and sat with my mouth wide open for nearly the whole show!
On Monday, in our small groups, we were given a location to go to where we gave back to the community (volunteered). My group was sent to a clothing store where children from families who could afford clothes, could go and get some clothes and wash bags. Here, we were moving the summer clothe boxes to a location where they'd be taken somewhere else, then bagged some wash stuff into individual bags. It was fun to work as a group but very very hot! In the evening, we met up again as a group and discussed the community work, and linked up with another group for some games and introduced ourselves. We then went to a talk about sexual abuse and consent, which was interesting and the girl doing it was very engaging.
Tuesday was the last day of Orientation, and we were welcomed to the university with a ceremony in the church, before parading to the sports hall where the whole faculty came in and we had talks from the president of the university and some others. When we came out of the hall, the faculty were lined up and we walked through them as they welcomed us to the university. Through the day, they had some sport games on, but it was very hot again, so didn't stay too long! We then had our last small group meeting, where we put all our fears into a plant pot, which Sindi smashed and "destroyed our fears". This was followed lastly by ice cream from the president.
Orientation was a nice way to meet some of the American students, as well as getting a better insight to the university with some of the activities. It was interesting to go to some of the talks and learn about some of the things to watch for on campus.