A New Chapter

As most of you know at this point, my return to the US was imminent... and, actually, it just happened yesterday. After a fabulous friends' wedding on Saturday where much was drunk and much fun was had, I boarded the plane on Sunday and landed at Newark International Airport sometime around 10 pm. My cousin was picking me up, which made everything so much easier. And, if it weren't for him, I might still be walking around in the rain somewhere trying to locate the entrance to my dorm. We made it to Princeton pretty quickly but of course, one could never have it that easy. I was supposed to call Public Safety once I arrived on campus who would have my packet of keys (since all other offices would be closed at that time). I did and was told that they had no keys for me. I was like, "OK, so what do I do?" (As I was talking to her, I thought... man, it's good I at least am familiar with the US and have friends here, but imagine someone who was arriving here for the first time...and they couldn't get into their room. Now that would be quite a shock.) Finally, somehow my keys appeared from somewhere. And off we were to the dorms. I thought this part would be easy, but the way the dorms are situated, there are many entrances to different buildings. So first you have to find the right building, and then the right entrance. All this with a significant lack of signs. So we spent a good 45 mins looking for the right building/entrance, which involved my cousin stopping the car every once in a while and me then going on an investigative mission in the rain. To add to all this, there wasn't a single person around that we could ask for directions. (It was already almost 1 am at this point and I hadn't slept in almost 24 hrs.) Finally, I found the right place, entered my room and all I could do was drop my bags before crashing.

Day 1: For the next three weeks prior to the semester I will be refreshing my math and econ skills, getting to know my classmates and the school, and hopefully, little by little, settling in. A couple of things worth noting so far.

1. I will be living in a dorm room that is something like 4mx3m in size. This is a big transition for me after residing in our family apartment in Sofia by myself. And, yes, I will also be eating my meals in the cafeteria. Wish me luck and patience!

2. My classmates are a pretty interesting and diverse group of people and have done some amazing things. From introductions today I recall that we have an FBI officer, the Secretary General of Doctors Without Borders, a number of foreign service officers, a number of Peace Corps volunteers, a few military guys, a lot of people who have worked in NGOs all around the world, and a class full of people who have lived and worked abroad at some point, including Darfur, Afghanistan, Iraq, Burundi, China, etc. In terms of international students, there is another Bulgarian ("surprisingly" named Ivan :) ), 3 Australians, 1 Belgian, 1 German, 2 UK citizens, 1 Pakistani, 1 Japanese, 1 Chinese and probably a few other people that I am now forgetting.

Well, that has been Day 1 so far, and it continues. I even have math homework already. Remember functions and logs? I had sort of forgotten about their existence. But I promised I wouldn't talk about school work. More impressions coming soon, I am sure.