downtown

First days and nights in Grand Rapids

I settled in pretty quickly and even though I'm still getting lost every now and then, I feel a bit like this is home already. My flatmates turn out to be nice but unfortunately also very busy with work, coaching or university. They have studied here for several years and are almost finished with their degree so it's natural that the interest of showing the new kid around isn't that big. It's fine though, we get along and that's really all that matters when it comes to living together. I have found my friends elsewhere by now, and what a surprise most of them are internationals! I talked about this in one of my Australian blog posts where I figured out how internationals always stick together because they are in the same situation. And yes same happened here, in my opinion this will always happen wherever I'll go as it has proven itself to be true so many times before. On the bright side it's fun to hang out with people from all over the world and you have reasons to travel the world afterwards. Furthermore we're only several weeks into the semester who says that it won't change, you never know what awaits you in a few weeks from now. At the moment I'm closest to Andrea, she is from Kroatia but has been raised and has lived in Germany for all of her life. On one of the first days the two of us and Tizi, a guy from Germany, went to a hockey game in Grand Rapids which was pretty fun although we were still a bit tired from the night before as we went out and had a pretty long party night with other internationals. Back to the game, all American style we decided to go for a hotdog, chips and a huge coke... I mean if you decide to see such a game, might as well go all in! Knowing very little about Hockey I cannot even tell you what happened in detail nor can I recall who won, but due to American's ability to entertain its audience it was never boring, not once!

 Andrea und Tizi in der Van Andel Arena nach dem Spiel

ready for the game to begin!

Going out in Grand Rapids/Allendale

The only places you can go out in Allendale is to house parties, off campus of course! As GVSU is a dry campus, students are not allowed to drink on campus, let alone have parties, however there are, as shown in American movies, always house parties off campus during weekends. We've only been to one so far because in winter time there aren't so many and the students who used to have the best parties got busted too many times last semester and will get kicked out if they would throw another one. Bad timing for us! But that's how it works, even if it's off campus, police and security often bust the events as many minors (under 21) go there because there is nowhere else to celebrate for them. Seriously America why do you let people own guns and drive cars at the age of 16 but are afraid of letting them drink a beer before they turn 21?! Did you know that Kinder Surprise Eggs aren't allowed in the United States because children could choke on the toys...Yeah because guns are that much safer! Oh well I won't go into that discussion now, I just wanted to let you know that I do not think that everything's one big perfect dream over here. Anyways, that one party we went to was fun as we were quite a group of  internationals, otherwise it would have been hard keeping up with the American style of partying!

The American way of partying basically means getting really drunk and dancing in a very inappropriate way. Have you ever heard of twerking? This is not just something Miley Cyrus does, unfortunately it is very common for ladies in the United States to dance that way. There are other forms of dancing that I'd also rather not explain in a detailled way, let's just say Americans like being close to one another when celebrating. And NO! I do not fit in to the American culture when it comes to this, and nope I'm not planning on ever adapting! You can be reassured Mom and Dad, I behave as well as I always do ;)

McFaddens on thursday...as always! 2 dollar drinks here we go...

Saturday at 'The Woods'

didn't we say funny faces?! Oh well...classy as always!

 

 

at Anthony's house before going to Rumors (the only place where people under 21 are allowed to go to party, and as there are quite a lot of those in our group we decided to join them sometimes)

All in all, Grand Rapids has a few fun places to go to and we haven't been everywhere yet, but from what I've seen I've got to say I prefer clubbing in Europe. I mean we had some really fun nights here but mostly because of the people not because of the location. Everything closes at 2am and the buses don't run until very late... However, I'm sure we're going to make the best out of it! We're internationals after all and know how to have fun in other countries.

<3

to a far away land

After an exhausting 16 hours journey I finally arrived in Michigan, and to be honest it felt like having arrived somewhere in Alaska! 

lucky I was wearing quite some layers and it still felt like I was about to freeze any second

I remember stepping out of the plane and walking through a hallway past an opened window, and even though it was only a second, my whole body was shivering. Right there and then I knew that no matter what I've been told and how many warnings I got...it's going to be worse. I had to wait quite a while in a queue before finally getting to the people who controlled passports and visa and of course I was nervous because even though everything should be okay with my visa... from what you hear abouth American immigration philosophy you just have to worry. When I finally got to show my visa, J-1 papers and passport, all the woman asked me was where I would live and how long I would stay, then she took my fingerprints and I was allowed to enter American ground. I made it! I arrived in my new 'hometown' for the following 5 months. I stepped out and took a cab to get to my hotel which cost me around 50 dollars but I didn't feel like taking a bus in a city I didn't know to get to a place I had no idea of during night-time. The hotel was more than okay, a nice room, huge bed, television and clean bathroom, what more do you want for two days, what more will make you happy as a 'poor' student!! I fell asleep the minute I sat on that comfy queen size bed and slept through the whole night, well I woke up really early but I planned on doing that anyways. On the brightside: NO jetlag!! Next morning, I got up and got ready for my first trip to Grand Valley State University as all international students were supposed to meet that day (9am!!) to take a trip around the campus and get to know each other. As google told me that the hotel and campus wouldn't be too far away I was confident of finding the place I needed to be at 9am. Well as most of you know I am a hopeless case when it comes to orientation, I even get lost driving around in Luxembourg City, so I should have expected to get lost in the first place. I left the hotel at 8am but the way was longer than expected and when I finally arrived at the campus, I didn't know where to go from there. I thought once I was there I'd probably just know where to go and on top of that I had a map, a quite detailled one actually. So you might have figured out by now that I cannot read maps and that the campus is huge! Add the freaking cold to that and out comes a desperate Catherine. My legs were aching so badly from the cold, my hands felt like they were non-existant and my nose could easily be compared to Rudolph's (you know Santa's helper). Anyways, I started to worry about freezing to death and missing the whole conference and tour, when I saw a guy in the distant. As desperate as I was, I started running or sliding for that matter towards him and asked him if he knew where Lake Ontario Hall was and if he could point me in the right direction. As it turns out I have been walking into the wrong one for quite some time and needed to go back from where I came from, the good news were that the guy offered to accompany me even though he wasn't planning on going anywhere near that hall. And that was when I found out that most Americans are very outgoing and helpful when it comes to international people. Finally there, I bursted in, the presentation had already begun and I was the last one to join. Well I'm used to arriving late so who cares, first impression: chaos queen. We then learned about uni, took a tour around campus and went to a few shops to get basic stuff for our dorms. To be honest I didn't pay attention during the tour because a) it was freezing cold b) everything looked the same under the snow and c) getting to know the people from the tour seemed more important

                                                   GVSU at its best : snow storm

After the tour, we all went to a mongolian bbq which was amazing, the food was great and we all got to know each other a little more. Unfortunately I found out that all the other students have been picked up from the airport and moved in on campus, which I was told was impossible at that time. Of course I was angry because I had to spend money on a cab and on the two nights at the hotel but it was a good day and I got to enjoy one more free breakfast and a night in a queen size bed before moving in with my flatmates.

Next day I gathered my stuff, called another cab and got myself to my new home: Laker Village. I found out that my new flatmates were all Americans and best friends, which kind of frightened me because it meant that they stick together and I didn't know if a new member was exactly what they were looking for. When I moved in only one of them was already back from the winter break but I shouldn't have worried, she was very friendly and after talking for a while I knew that we would get along just fine. After having unpacked, two internationals I met the day before, and I were off to that big supermarket (Meijer) to get basics and food to survive the first days. The trip was one of a kind!! The bus system is a bit f*cked up, during the week it's okay but on the weekend the buses don't run late and only every hour. Of course ignorant as we were, we picked out a sunday to go shopping so after having missed the last bus, because there was just too much stuff to discover in that huge American supermarket, we decided on taking yet another cab. And the expenses just kept piling up!
Basically, I realized that we were living out in the sticks! Don't get me wrong, I think Grand Rapids isn't too bad but where I live, in Allendale, 20 minutes from downtown there's really nothing to do as there's only our university and a few restaurants (which you can only get to by car). To get to the next shopping mall you'd have to take the bus downtown (20 minutes) than change buses at central station and take another one to the mall (40 minutes) all in all it's a day trip if you want or need clothes. You see I'm really experiencing different lifestlyes during my overseastudies. But even if not everything turns out as imagined, that's life and that makes you grow and makes you realize that sometimes you have to deal with things you don't like, but you'll manage and that's what counts in the end.

                                                               discovering downtown

more of my first impressions and activities in the next blog post!
I know I haven't been posting new entries regularly but it's really hard to keep up, there's so much to do and I'm not only talking about fun stuff here. University turns out to expect a lot from its students, more than the Australian or English one, so most of the time I spend my days studying, writing and running from one class to another. I'll try to write about everything more often though, because recapping all of this is harder than just writing it down once you experience it. I don't want to sound scatterbrained but somehow with all the new things and people you start forgetting details, jokes or simply interesting events so easily and quickly.

have patience I'm telling you it's going to be worth it in the end! xxx

let's talk about...

YEAH! After almost 5 months of writing blog entries I finally figured out how to activate the comments' section so if you have anything to say or to add to what I wrote or will write, as in now: you're officially allowed and welcome to do so!!

The next blog post will follow soon, I know that I haven't updated you about my trip to America and how my first month over here has been so far, but there was and is so much to do that I need to find the time to write it all down. I hope to get some time on my hands soon so that I can keep you posted about my life overseas (at the latest after midterms...uni comes first) ;-)

Love, Cathy xxx