Rewind: Orientation

After exploring Chicago for 2 weeks, looking for an apartment, shifting and settling, I was excited to attend the International Student Orientation, which would be my first orientation at the school. I was curious to know about other students, meet students from different parts of the world, and share my experiences. The orientation was on 21st of August 2009. We had to reach at 9:30 in the morning. When I entered the reception counter I was pleased to meet Beth Tinkham, the international student advisor--a great support system for international students. I got to know her closely during the admission process and subsequent emails about visa procedures. She is amazingly empathetic, enchanting, and an exuberant person. She takes effort to understand students’ problem, will do her best to help students; and is extremely patient and approachable. And, she looked exactly the way I had thought she would--amicable, serene and pleasant person.

The orientation started with nice breakfast of pastries and hot coffee. After checking and breakfast, we went through an introductory round. I was thrilled to know that there were students from all over, and I was glad to meet couple of students from India too. The orientation was very informative. It covered all important-to-know topics for international students like: immigration rules, visa status, work opportunities and work rules for international students. I was very excited to interact with other students (second and third year students who were helping with orientation) and learn about their experiences in dealing with immigration issues.

I loved the presentation done my one of the senior students. She spoke about cultural differences between countries and how such differences can make it challenging in adjusting to life in the U.S. Overall, I found the orientation very interactive. It was a good experience as other students were warm and social. I made couple of friends too that very day. We were also taken for a tour of the campus, which was great since I hadn’t previously had a chance to tour the school.

At the end of the day, students had the option of going on a Chicago River/Lake Boat Cruise. What a great way to end the day and see the city. I was mega-thrilled by the sky-line view from the cruise. It was one of the most wonderful days of my life. I could not have asked for a better start to my experience at the school.

Rewind: Getting settled

Before coming to Chicago, I gathered lot of information about accommodation options in Chicago, going through Google maps
(http://maps.google.com/help/maps/transit/chicago/#utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=ha&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-sk-trs&utm_term=chicago). I had also discussed my accommodation options ahead of time with my friend, who lived in Chicago. She offered to let me stay temporarily at her apartment when I arrived, but also suggested that I move with her into her new apartment in a month. She tried to explain where it was located, but I was quite lost. I had lot of questions for her, but I knew that I will get my answers only after arriving in Chicago.

I reached Chicago on the 14th of August, about two weeks before classes started. My friend’s place was a good temporary refuge, but it was difficult to have to do without my own mattress, closet or a cabinet for the first few weeksL. I did not even unpack my bag for days. I had to share my friend’s mattress, which wasn’t ideal, but when you are left with no other options, you take what you can get. After a long tiring journey and overwhelming time on the Chicago airport, my friend’s room and her mattress was a transitory relief. It took me 2 whole days to adjust to the situation.

Looking for an apartment was a big challenge. Being an international student and unfamiliar with the city, I was completely incapable of selecting what was the best location for me to live. My budget was constantly on my mind. Like every other student, I wanted a reasonably priced, but decent place to live. Finally after running around to consider my options and checking out Craigslist (www.craigslist.com), I chose to move into with my friend in her 2 bedroom apartment on the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) campus, near Taylor and Ashland. I travel on the El via the pink line to my school, which takes me about 20 minutes to get there.

Since arriving in Chicago, I have found the city has very good public transportation--quick, safe and easy to use. The city has its own systematic arrangement using different colors to distinguish betweens different train/bus lines. Although Chicago is thought to be an unsafe city by many people, I have found through my experience of the last 2 months, staying and commuting in the city has been safe and pleasantJ. I think it is natural for us humans to be worried about mishaps. However, any corner of the world can be unsafe. We need to stay aware and vigilant and take charge of our own safety. This is one thing the city has taught me. Nevertheless, ever since I have been here, I have seen Chicago police 24-7 on patrol, which has been very comforting.

Well, I am sure every international student has his/her own experiences about this city. Some have a good start, whereas some have a tougher time in their initial days. We all learn from each others’ experiences. I benefitted because I had some guidance and support from the people who had directly/indirectly faced similar challenges. I am glad to have got this opportunity to pen down my experiences for future students.

Coming back to the Pink-Line reference: Well, The city, like any other cities is divided in to 4 main zones North, East, South and West. The CTA buses and trains are two main transits for commuting within the city. The CTA trains are color coded according to the direction. http://www.transitchicago.com/

CTA train color bars


F.decorate(_ge('photo_notes'), F._photo_notes).notes_go_go_go(3310631998, 'http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3625/3310631998_926e05ac6a_t.jpg', '3.1444');

I created this tonight. Each bar represents one of the train lines of the CTA. The width of the bar represents the length of each train line.

Rewind: Overwhelmed at O’Hare

After months of hard work, preparation and anticipation, just arriving at the Chicago airport felt like a big achievement--almost as if it was my final destination. However, I soon came to realize that it was actually just a starting point of much that I would have to learn. Although many international students have previously had opportunities to travel internationally and/or spend time in the U.S. before they begin their studies, I have never been to any other country before. As I was soon to find out, this would result in many unexpected, but not insurmountable, challenges.

When I first stepped into the Chicago airport, I experienced a state of mixed emotions. On one hand, I was feeling excited about reaching Chicago. At the same time I was feeling overwhelmed by a number of unanswered questions in my head: What will my school be like? What kind of people I am going to meet? Here I was surrounded by hundreds of people, but suddenly I felt all alone in this strange land. While Chicago was where I always wanted to come, I found myself constantly comparing it with my home town in India.

As I was walking out of the exit, I impatiently looked for my friend, the only person I knew in this country prior to my arrival. After 15 minutes, I thought I should try to call her and began looking for the public phone. I managed to locate a payphone, but quickly realized that I didn’t have the appropriate change to make the call. To make matters worse, I couldn’t find anywhere to make change. There was only one food counter, which had a big board hung outside stating that they didn’t give change for dollars. I felt helpless—I had no phone to call anyone and no way for my friend to get in touch with me.

Determined to get the necessary change, I chose one corner of the airport for my rescue, waited there for couple of minutes trying to look for an approachable person from the strange mob of people passing by me. I finally found one young college age girl. She was waiting few steps away from the corner I was waiting. I gathered all my courage and spoke to her. She took one dollar note from me and handed me lots of different looking coins causing me to panic as I had no idea which one was a quarter. I was too anxious to even think to read the coin and so I asked the girl. She smiled and pulled out two quarters from the handful of change she had given me. I eventually managed to get a hold of my friend, but from this silly experience I learned not to take such trivial things, such as familiarizing myself with local currency ahead of time, for granted.

Rewind: Navigating public transportation

Having never physically seen The Chicago School campus before, I planned to go visit the school the day after I arrived and got settled into my friend’s apartment. I inquired of my friend the best way to get there and she suggested that I buy a 3-day pass for the elevated trains (El).

Although she briefly explained how to use the ticket, doing so proved to be a challenge for me.
I was able to successfully make my way to the nearest train station, however, I could not figure out how to use my pass. After trying various ways of inserting my card into the machine, I decided it was better to ask then waste more time. Thankfully there was a CTA guide at my station, who was very helpful. He not only guided me as how to use the train pass but also handed me additional information about CTA routes.

While I was in my country, I hadn’t even thought of such small things. Well, I have come to know that every country has its own infrastructure and methods of doing things. It takes time to get use to the transition. However, if you know about the kind of difficulties one may face, it becomes easier to cope with it. And thankfully now, as I look back on this event, I can laugh.