First Days at Davidson

So, as you have probably all suspected, I've been at Davidson for over a week now. International Pre-Orientation and Orientation were so full of exciting stuff that I really found it difficult to sit down on my computer and blog (seems that everyone else here had the same "problem", too).

A picture of the (sort of) middle of the campus during the evening

Everything is so different here; even nature itself! The sounds I heard around were completely different to what I was used to at home; there were squirrels everywhere and - oh gosh - the cicadas here are so much bigger... Actually, everything is bigger, cars, roads, food servings...During orientation we visited places, met people, already came closer to some of them, discussed our summer reading book, played games, ate, partied, got excited, got terrified... And here we are now, first day of classes, gazing in awe at how much work college actually involves.

I ended up dropping Physics for a writing class for this semester, as my advisor suggested. Not long ago I finished with my Monday classes; Calculus III, Ancient Greek Philosophy and Introductory Organic Chemistry I... This will most probably sound nerdy, but I got really excited about the content of the courses. I was initially terrified about taking Calculus III on the first semester, but, at least as I could figure out from our introductory class today, it is built on a level my high school maths prepared me for. Philosophy felt more than common ground to me, but very stimulating, and Chemistry did neither seem too easy or too hard. HOWEVER - don't think that this will be a smooth and easy semester! A couple of studying hours per day, five to six days per week, per subject, times four subjects.... I'm already facing difficulties with time management, and I've not even taken up any activity nor started my work-study (I work at the Communications Department btw, possibly doing something among photography, web-designing, photoshopping, blogging etc.)!
But let's leave the depressing topic of time-management for now... Here's some fun pictures from the past week of orientation:

Me and Luna at the Library (the nerdiest place to take a photo)!

We had a little library tour, during which we also got to see the "rare books" room, with original old books. The atmosphere was unique up there and the most exciting thing for me was that we were actually allowed to flip the pages, touch the books, inspect them and get a real feeling of them!

One of the highlights of Orientation were the "Freshman Olympics", which concluded with a huge dance-off between residence halls. This is a happy picture of me, Lin from China (at the center) and Beza from Ethiopia (left)...

Sloan Music Center