BRUNETTANS

WARNING: LONG POST

 

Finally I have arrived! It feels so unreal, still can't believe it... Let me tell you a bit about our journey. I left Skellefteå last Thursday at noon and was picked up by my friend Felicia at Malmö Airport a few hours later. She has just gotten this adorable puppy so we spent a lot of time with her. I stayed at her place overnight and the following day I met up with Nellie and Gustav around 3 pm to catch the train to Kastrup. Once we arrived we found out our flight was 1,5 h late! It was supposed to leave at 7 pm but we couldn't do much so we just checked in our luggage and waited. The flight was about 7,5 h and the journey wasn't to bad, we watched movies, slept and read.

 

Once at JFK Airport we had to cross the border, I have to admit I was a bit nervous! The officer asked a few questions and looked at my papers. I had brought with me a banana and an apple but I was not allowed to bring them, so for those of you who are planning trips here, don't bring fruit ;) My bags had to be scanned to ensure I didn't bring any other food and then I was good to go! We'd booked a hotel but unfortnuately the shuttle service to the hotel closed at midnight and it was now about 1 am. Tired and hungry we caught a cab(a yellow one!!) and arrived at the Howard Johnson Inn shortly after. The temperature was about 30 degrees celsius and super humid so it was a relief when we came into the chilly room. We fell asleep around 3 am and woke up only three hours later! Then we had 15 minutes to eat breakfast before the shuttle left for the airport. The airport was ENORMOUS. I think we walked for about 15-20 minutes to gate to our gate! Insane! The flight to Rochester left at 9.30ish and took only about an hour. After collecting our bags we were picked up by a student and a staff member, Gustav went with another person since he is staying on the other side of campus. Marianna, the student, helped us check in and get our keys and RIT IDs and showed us our room. The room consists of two beds, two desks, a large shelf/storage and some boxes underneat the bed. It is a decent size and the beds our comfy. However, we don't have any aircondition so the room has the same temperature as outside! Last night was the most sweaty night I've ever had probably haha! We're aiming on buying atleast two fans in the coming days. After seeing our room Marianna bought us lunch at a place called Grazie's where you either swipe your RIT ID card or pay a sum of money and you get to eat how much you want from a huge selection of food. There were pizza, mongolian barbeque, fruits, waffles, vegetarian buffet, vegan food, wraps, ice cream and a whole lot of other things. So American!!

 

After lunch Marianna left us and we, including Gustav, took a bus to Walmart. I bought four things and got eight plastic bags for it, what a waste! When we came back Nellie and I shared some food I brought from Sweden and fell asleep in front of the TV around 7pm, woke up an hour later and went to bed. 

 

Today, Sunday, we had a too expensive breakfast.. At 10 we went to some info sessions for the international students about immigration, RIT in general etc. This place has about 300 different clubs you can join! On Sathurday there will be a fair where you can discover all of them, exciting! Also, there is a free gym and swimming pool, awesome :D After all the information we went to see Gustav's place. He lives in an apartment with three other people but they will arrive on Tuesday. It was a very nice place but it had no kitchen gear so they will have to buy everything. We were then planning on going to a mall nearby but the bus schedule was not to be trusted so we didn't make and ended up at an activity for the international students instead. Free dinner and some sports. At the end of the activity a guy named Marvin came up to us and started talking. He was from Bronx in NYC and the same age as me and Nellie. The four of us went to a movie night arranged by RIT and watched the new Jungle book movie, it was good!