Despite the exhausting flights and the sleepless days I had been through, I somehow managed to wake up early the next day. My 1^st morning in the states. I jumped out of bed and went straight to my laptop. The moment I got online, messages started showering me. Everyone was online and they all started writing at the same time. I spent some time telling them what happened with me and how things were so far. I was checking my watch because Jerry (my roommate) was supposed to be there at 9-something. It was way after 9 when he knocked on the door. I finally met the person I kind of knew already, coz we talked on Facebook a lot and we called each other a lot in order to get the dorm thingy set.
We met, we talked, we laughed, he seemed like a nice guy.  He was basically the only person I knew over here besides Moe.

I took my stuff and bags out of the room, and headed to the dorms with Jerry.  The dorms are like a 4 minute walk from the hotel and a 3 minute walk from the school. We started walking and I was feeling the hot sun for the 1^st time. It was really hot - so hot that the 4 minute walk felt like 1 hour. I was walking and looking around at the houses, the trees and the cars.  It was a quiet neighborhood. We kept walking and talking about the school and the people he already met.

We got to our room, and I got my first surprise! I was expecting dorms like a building with rooms, but that wasn’t the case. There were a bunch of houses next to each other bought by the university and given to students. We had a living room, a small kitchen, a small bathroom, and a bedroom. I put my stuff down, stood in front of the AC for a while, then started unpacking and putting everything in its place.

I took a quick shower and we went to the school. I wanted to see how it looked and to see Moe. We walked in and everything was still weird in my head. I’m literally in the middle of nowhere, and I know only 2 people through the phone. I saw Moe, and I talked Arabic again in person for the first time since I left Egypt. I met some other people as well, everyone seemed nice. I walked in the building and started looking at the classes, the offices and the stuff in there. It is a nice place.  “Let’s see how well I adapt!” I thought to myself.

That day went by sooo slow and boring. We went back home, and all I had to do was go online. There was nothing else to do in that hot weather, and with knowing nobody at all.
I checked online for the nearest phone shop, and me and Jerry decided to walk there since he told me it was nearby.

We walked and walked and walked until around noon. The sun was so strong, and we were just walking. I was complaining that it’s far, and we should’ve taken a cab or something. He kept saying “It’s here! It’s here!” Anyway, we finally got there and I got my phone, and then a great thing happened. I tried to text my parents, but Syria wasn’t listed on the company’s system. Well that’s not what they said, but that was the fact.  I tried and tried, and then I called the customer service line and they said it should work, but it didn’t. I sent a complaint but still nothing. I couldn’t send or receive anything.

So now I got my phone, and I just wanted to go home, cool down, and escape from this hot weather. But Jerry was wanted to go the other dorms see the rest of the guys.  It was nearby, but it never felt like it! And after we walked there, nobody was there at all! So we had to walk back to our room for like another 10 minutes. Nothing special happened that day, mostly online talking to people back home and boredom. 

We had an orientation day in the school the next morning.  We woke up and rushed there.  People were jumping all over the place. We had to sit and instructors, professors and the director gave us speeches and explained some basics. Then, we had the chance to get up and grab some food during the break.

That’s when I had my 1^st conversation with Massimo, one of the closest people to me now, but he can be a pain in the rear sometimes I’m just writing this here for him to read it. 
So we ate, we talked, and then back to the meeting. We got up in front of everyone and had to say our names, where we from and what are we majoring in.

After the orientation was over, we were sent to many desks in the hall to meet representatives for different companies. Banks, insurance companies, car companies, bikes, everything that a new person in the area could possibly need. I opened a bank account, bought an insurance plan, and headed back to the school with Jerry. I met some more people there then we went home.

We had to come back the next day for registration and some other things and then start classes. I didn’t have much to do in the afternoons but to hang around with my neighbors and new friends that I met in the dorms. They lived in the main house here.  Me and jerry used to go over, order food, watch TV or just sit and talk. Pure boredom, but I was hoping things would get better.