Orientation, Registration, & Exhaustation..

The past few days have been exhausting and busy with orientation. Orientation began Monday night and since then it has been a series of long, boring lectures. Some of the lectures have given useful study tips (such as How to Outwit, Outsmart, and Outlast Your Professors), some have been interesting and fun (such as Foods of Dominica and the History of Dominica), and then some have been a big waste of time. Of course, this is my own personal opinion. Regardless, we've learned a lot this week and we feel ready to begin class. Here are just a few things we've done this week:

1) Laptop Configuration - It is MANDATORY for everyone to bring in their laptops to Information Technology so that they can configure your laptop for the wireless internet on campus. They will also install a G drive (where professors post various documents such as notes, syllabus, etc.) and an H drive (which is your own personal drive for your documents). IT will also remove any existing anti-virus software you may have (no matter how expensive or up-to-date it is), and they will install their version of Norton, which never expires. They will also charge you EC$30.oo for the new anti-virus program. Also, it takes them a few hours to get to your laptop depending on how many laptops they have to work on. Therefore, it is my recommendation that you take your laptop to IT early in the morning (they open at 8:00 AM) and as early as possible before classes begin. I brought my laptop to IT on Tuesday and they had it ready in 4 hours.

2) Registration - Registration went a lot more smoothly than I thought it would. My registration time was at 12:30 pm on Thursday. Michael's was at 10:30 am but he opted to register at the same time as me. My boyfriend's registration time was 11:30 AM but he went at 10:30 AM to try to get it done quicker. It took him about 3 hours to finish the whole process. Michael and I went at 12:30 and were done in about an hour and a half.

TIP: People from the States are under the impression that you want to get somewhere right when it opens to avoid having to wait. That train of thought totally backfires here. Michael and I quickly learned that the longest lines and wait time is early in the morning. For example, everyone tries to be at the bank right when it opens. If you do this, you'll be in line for three hours. However, if you go at 2:00 pm or 3:00 pm, then you'll probably wait 30-45 minutes. Once people are done opening accounts, exchanging money, and depositing refund checks, I assume (or hope) that a trip to the bank will take less than 30 minutes. The point is: if you wait until later on in the day (whether it is to register, go to the bank, etc), then you'll probably cut your wait time in half. That's just a little something I've noticed here...

Going back to registration: you register in the ICM building. In the ICM building, there are a series of rooms (like stations) and you must go through each room to complete registration. There is the housing station, check-in station, IT sign-up station, photo ID station, registration station, and my personal favorite - the pick-up-your-refund-check station! You go through each station in order (the stations are numbered) and when you get to the last station (the refund check room), then you're officially done with registration.

3) Refund Check - If you have done all of your financial aid correctly and on time, you will pick up your refund check the same day you register (you cannot pick it up sooner!). The refund check is the money left over from your loans after tuition, health insurance (if you didn't opt out of the University insurance), and the student government fee. Once you get your check, walk your little happy self to the bank on campus to deposit it. Once you deposit, the funds are available to you immediately. You DO NOT have to wait any number of days for the check to clear. From your refund check, you can pay your rent, electricity, groceries and whatever else you need or makes you happy. That money is yours and you can spend it however you'd like.

TIP: Pictured to the right is the SGA building where the bank is located. In the SGA building, you will also find Cable and Wireless (where you get your cellphone), Subway, an ATM outside, and the SGA room. In the SGA room, there is a big screen TV, a DVD player, a pool table, microwave, refrigerator, and a few couches. This room is also where you'll go to sign up for any activities (such as Ross' free island tours at the beginning of each semester), rent DVDs, sign up for a free locker (you must sign up for one - no squatting!), purchase school T-Shirts, and more.

4) We took the time this week to orient ourselves to the campus and to eat at places besides Perky's Pizza and Brother's Restaurant.

The Shacks - On the left is a picture of the Shacks on campus. You can buy all kinds of food there and for 1/3 of the price you pay at Subway. We have bought fruit juices such as passion fruit juice, guava juice, orange juice, serrel juice, strawberry passion fruit juice, and orange strawberry juice. These juices are delicious and only cost EC$3.00 (~ US$1.15). The food is also good and inexpensive, as well as the fruits and vegetables for sale. Today we bought chicken burritos for EC$10.00 (~US$3.85). We have also bought some used text books students sold to the vendors at the Shacks. I bought my Grant's Dissector, Histology, and Biochemistry book for EC$130.00 total (exactly US$50.00). If you know
how much one text book costs in the US, then you'd
know that I paid practically nothing for all three.

5) The Main Campus - The campus here is really beautiful. Behind every building is a mountain or the ocean. Below are some pictures I took of the campus, as well as more pictures of the sunsets behind the deck next to Subway.

6) Maps and Schedules - I know I've thrown a lot of building names and locations around so I've uploaded the map of the school Ross gave us on our first day here. I've also uploaded a copy of the Detailed Examination Schedule, Academic Calendar, and Basic Science Division Course of Study. Someone on ValueMD took the time to map out the trails (where housing is located) on Google Earth. I've posted that picture below and edited it to show where we live. Our house is the one I've labeled "Coco Mango." My boyfriend's apartment is right next to it. To give you an idea of the distance/time ratio, from Coco Mango to the Annex is a 3-4 minute walk. From Coco Mango to the main campus is a 5-6 minute walk. Ideally, you want to live somewhere in between the Annex and the main campus. Lizard trail is located between the two.