Operation Newbold: Day 1

It's 11:36 pm. I'm jet lagged, even if by only two hours, yet I dread climbing up the ladder to my top bunk for fear of spiders (there's said to be brown recluse's around) and lack of desire to wake up covered in sweat, as the room has no AC.

So far, I like England. The weather's great, of course. Spots of sun peak through the cloudy sky, and chilly winds rustle up the leaves on the trees. The people here are amazingly friendly. Especially at Newbold College. I've made more friends here in one day than I've made in an entire quarter at La Sierra. For goodness sakes, I met a girl today who was super nice, and we got along talking, only to find out she was at La Sierra last year. Have I ever even seen her before? No, she was an art major, and business majors don't associate with non-business majors. Wow. I'll take the blame for not knowing people at La Sierra. I didn't try. Yet, I think a lot of it has to do with the environment. At La Sierra, it's almost understood that people keep to themselves. The friendly ones are new kids who don't "get it" yet. Here, there's no harm in going out of your way to talk to someone, because they will always recieve you with genuine eagerness. Trying to talk to someone new doesn't make you weird. It's just a small school, so you pretty much have to know and get along with everyone to survive. I like it. :)

As for the school administration...let's not press that button quite yet. I've spent the whole day trying to wrangle down someone to help get me registered and signed up for classes. Up until today, all I've known is that I am accepted, and that I have a dorm room. Any additional details or directions have been withheld. There's no handbook, no rules to turn to. No guidance. You think the communication between La Sierra's different departments is bad, try Newbold when you get a chance. No ones really sure if someone else is going to decide to come in to work today. The admissions director didn't know if teachers were in class or at home. Don't they have a class list? If this was La Sierra, I know Cheryl up in the Business Department would be all over that. "Here, honey, you need to go talk to so and so after he gets out of his 3:00 class, then from there you need to sign up for A, B, and C. You should take these classes, they will transfer best, and theres no conflict. And don't worry about that hold, I'll clear it up." Here, I'm supposed to meet with my "tutor" to set up classes. Unfortunately, he only work on Mondays and Tuesdays. I need to sign up for classes by Friday. Admissions thinks this may be a problem, but they can't help me sign up for classes. This frustrates me because I asked a month ago if I could get a class list and sign up, but I was told to wait until I arrived, even though I'd be a week late (nearly). I spent a couple hours waiting for Finance to clear me, even though I had already paid in full (as is required before the visa letter can be mailed). The guy looked at my paperwork and said..."Oh, yeah, you've paid already, you can just go now." At least I walked out of the offices with a class list so I could figure things out on my own. No one knows if I will be able to register tomorrow, but I'm going to "my classes" anyway.

The cafeteria sucks.

Dorms are small, but boys are allowed in between the hours of 2 and 10pm (inside the rooms, mind you). The Student Center is the middle of the boys dorm. There's no curfew. No dress code. No rules. No required worship. I could definitely get used to this.

We'll see how tomorrow goes. Wish me luck!