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Welcome to our International Student BLOG!
Tell us how you feel about our Blog! Dear Reader, Welcome to our newest feature on the International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS) office website! We have created a blog spot to provide Geneseo’s prospective students with more personalized information—descriptions and comments—on the different activities happening on campus. This, we hope, will give you a better sense of Geneseo’s student life inside and outside the classroom. In addition we have 2 other very friendly student workers: Britney and Stephanie, who answer e-mail questions sent to iss@geneseo.edu. You can direct a question to any of us 5 and we will gladly try our best to help. Blog by Miho Hi everyone! My name is Miho Shima. I am an international student from Japan. I am a junior, Business Administration major and International Relations minor. It has been two weeks since this spring semester started. I have been very busy with classes and club activities, but it is always great to come back to campus life! Today, I would like to talk about my winter break. I went to Biloxi, Mississippi for volunteer works from January 8th to the 14th with 28 other students through Livingston CARES. Livingstone CARES is a non-profit organization, and they send about 30 students to Biloxi every spring, January, March and May to help people there to continue rebuilding houses and communities damaged by the hurricane Katrina. I joined this program because I always wanted to do some volunteer work, and I found this program on their website. Also, I was very tired of this Geneseo's long winter weather (although the weather is not that bad compared to last winter), so I wanted to escape to down south for a while! As I expected, the weather was perfect in Biloxi! Can you believe that we wore just a t-shirt and short pants to hang out on the beach in January? The camp place we stayed at was very close to the beach, so we could go to the beach anytime. Also, we got to see the beautiful sunset on the beach every day! As the main purpose of this trip, we worked every day from Monday through Friday at 8am-4pm. Each group has seven members, and each group helped out one house for a week. My group worked on an elderly couple's house. They used to live at a very poorly conditioned house that would be completely destroyed if a hurricane were to hit Biloxi again. So they needed to have a new strong house. When we got to the work place on the first day, the project had been going on for three weeks. We worked with five older guys from Kentucky, and they taught us some house building skills. I learned how to use a hammer and a nail gun, and how to measure and choke boards. I had never done those things in my life, so everything was very new to me. I was so sore for the first two days from hammering, but I got lots of new skills. Now I feel like I am a hammer and nail gun master. We finished up all walls and roofs in five days. It was great that we could see the process of building houses every day, and I felt great after we finished our work. During these five days, we met a lot of people in Biloxi and got opportunities to talk to them and hear their stories about the hurricane Katrina. I learned so much from them. I got very emotional when one guy told us his story, and he really appreciates the volunteers and he started crying. I am glad that I met lots of great people there. Also, I cannot wait to see "our" house when it is completely done! (the guys whom we worked with will send us pictures of the house) Other than the work, we had a free time every day after work. Every night I had a lot of fun with trip members. We went to Casino for one night. Also, we went out for dinner, went bowling, and enjoyed bonfire on the beach. Also, on our last day, we drove to New Orleans and enjoyed shopping in downtown! I have more things I want to tell you about this trip, but all I want to say is this trip is just great! You will get to meet lots of new people, make new friend, help people, and enjoy the down south culture and weather! This trip was such a great experience for me. Miho Blog by Garry Hey everyone,
Blog by Ayumi Hey everyone!! I can't believe 2 weeks have already gone by since the fall break. The fall break was great; a lot of shopping and traveling. But as soon as the fall break was over, we were bombarded with assignments and our midterms. I just got done with my Accounting quiz and I have one Econ quiz tomorrow. But to balance out all the stress, the Resident Assistants in our hall organizes different activities at least once in two weeks so we don't always stay in the library or in our rooms, studying. I live in a suite style hall and the Resident Assistants are extremely friendly. Last week, they organized a fall hall festival in the main lounge, where we painted pumpkins and we got free food. It was fun and it brought back all the memories and it felt like home. Furthermore, a few days back, one of the Resident Assistants got henna from India so we were able to get our own designs on our hand. The designs came out beautifully but it was sad since it was temporary. So, living in resident halls is worth it because you'll hardly feel homesick. People are always ready to talk to you and keep you occupied here. Moreover, the College Union organizes different activities every weekend. This week is the Cultural Harmony week and this coming Sunday, they are organizing an Intercultural Night Dinner, where we will learn about cultures of other countries. I'm looking forward for the following week, because there are so many exciting activities coming up. Anyways, I have to head out and start revising for my quiz tomorrow. Have a good weekend everyone and Happy Halloween!!!!!
Blog by Garry
Hey everyone! My name is Garry and I am an International student from Winnipeg Manitoba, Canada entering my second year at Geneseo. This past weekend we had our annual fall break. It was a very good opportunity to take a nice break from the books and get some well deserved relax time with family and friends. I personally didn't have time to travel all the way to Winnipeg so instead I drove with a teammate of mine to Toronto Ontario, Canada. As well as being a student at Geneseo, I also play for the men's Ice Hockey team. Things have been picking up as we have been practicing every day so that we are prepared for our first home game on October 22nd vs Adrian University. Hockey definitely keeps me busy in-between classes and studying. The team usually spends up to three hours a day at the rink with either; on ice practice, off ice practice or even watching video to study the opposing team that were about to play on the upcoming weekend. Although It is nice coming back from fall break and having a mild three day work schedule, it is time to head to the library and prepare for upcoming due dates and readings so that I can be ready to get right back into the swing of things for the upcoming week. Have a fantastic weekend everybody! Yours in blogs, Blog by Ayumi Hey everyone
Blog by Ayumi Hey everyone!
I'm Ayumi and this is my very first post on the ISS blog. I'm half Japanese and half Sri Lankan, bus since I was raised in Sri Lanka, I'm more Sri Lankan than Japanese. I've always wanted to come to US- the land of opportunities, and here I am today, in one of the top 50 best public universities and colleges in the nation. It's been nearly 4 weeks since I came here and each day is a new experience for me. The very first day I landed at the Rochester airport, the ISS crew warmly welcomed me and they brought me all the way to Geneseo, which is around 30 minutes from the Rochester airport. I love the greenery and tranquil environment around here in Geneseo, rather than the hustle and bustle in the cities. The next three days was our orientation for the international students. We met new international students and got to know a few of our faculty members. On the first day, we were taken to the mall in Rochester to buy the necessary items for our room. We had a great time shopping and at the end of the day, we were exhausted. It was indeed difficult to adapt to an American life initially, for example, back in my country, when someone asks ‘How are you?' we always stop by and reply to that person. However, the situation is totally different here. If someone says ‘what's up', it is not at all rude to reply and then walk away simultaneously. As Mrs. Mary Hope said during orientation, the key to success in US is ‘Personal Initiative', which has helped me to settle down and reduce the cultural shock between my home country and the US. Even though, it has only been a few weeks since the semester started, the work load is tremendous. I'm majoring in Accounting and I'm taking five classes this semester- Accounting 102, Microeconomics, Geography, Art History and Calculus. The US education system enables us to take classes in which we have an interest as well, in addition to the classes you are required to take to fulfill your core requirements. Back in my country, during the first year of high school, we should declare our major- whether we want to choose the science field or the business field and you might be surprised to hear that I was a science major back in school. At the end of four years in high school, I completed my Cambridge Advanced Level, after which I applied to Geneseo, and sent my final high school results. I was expecting that those results would fulfill some of my general education requirements and receive around 10 credits. But to my luck, when I met with the registrar of the school, I found out that 31 credits have been transferred from my Advanced Level results. Within a few weeks in college, I've become a sophomore already!!! I was thrilled to hear about that and it has motivated me to work harder. I had 5 quizzes already within these three weeks and there is a midterm for Calculus coming up this Thursday, along with a micro economic quiz. The next few weeks are packed up with midterms and more quizzes. I can't wait for my fall break which is in another two and a half weeks, so I can finally rest and spend some time out without having to worry and stress about exams!! Blog by Britney Talty (student worker)
Entry by: Luciano Scala
At the end of this summer session, I finally find the time to communicate about my experiences to all of you. Taking a class or two during the summer is a good idea to move faster in completing undergraduate education. This summer, I took Financial Accounting 102 which was really interesting and thoughts provoking. I had only 9 classmates, which contributed to create a relaxed atmosphere in the class that permitted open discussions about the subjects we learned. The class went very well and I'm looking forward into taking more accounting classes. Another milestone of my summer has been my job. I have worked for the whole month in the Study Abroad office which gave me the chance to get to know awesome people. I want to thanks Becky, Que and Leanne for making of this job a fantastic human and professional experience! I wish to all of you a GREAT summer. Luciano
Entry by: Luciano Scala Hello friends,My name is Luciano and I'm from Naples, Italy. Coming to America have always been my dream and for me, attending University here in the United States is a privilege. This is my first semester at Geneseo and I'm going to tell you my first impressions about this fantastic place. First, what does make a place a great place? The people of course : ). I came to Geneseo four months ago and I already found fellows that are going to be lifetime friends. Speaking about friendly people, I have to say some words about the faculties. Yes, I'm talking about the professors. In my country it is difficult to even approach some professors. Here, things are different. Here at Geneseo, it is not unusual to be friend with professors and to meet with them regularly to ask for advice or speak about anything. Compared to my country, here at Geneseo, being a professor doesn't only mean to have status; it means to be a resource, a friend or a mentor. Furthermore, I believe that Geneseo is a great place because it offers innumerable opportunities to get involved in campus life at all levels: Clubs of all kinds (And you can easily start your own), events, presentations, seminars, job opportunities, personal development sessions, fraternities/sororities and much more! Also, getting involved is very easy. Personally, from the time a came here, four months ago, I got involved in a Geneseo personal development program called GOLD (Geneseo Opportunitites for Leadership Development, which I will introduce in my next post) earning the position of GOLD Mentor for the next semester. Also, in collaboration with a Japanese student here at Geneseo, we started a charity initiative called ‘'Together For Japan'' to support Japan after the earthquake of March 11, 2011. We organized a charity concert and sold t-shirt to raise money after the disaster. Furthermore, I had the opportunity to start working with the International Student Service which I really enjoy. You will be amazed on how much you can do here at Geneseo to enrich your knowledge and bring value to our community.
Luciano
Entry by: Id Goh
Its three weeks to finals; the countdown's beginning. It's going to be intense, but its break right after, so finals week is something both to dread and look forward to. It was GREAT day on Tuesday (two days ago). Its basically a once a semester event whereby classes are cancelled in lieu of a day filled with numerous concurrent, consecutive presentations/events. I attended an early morning presentation and numerous poster presentations. Here is a link to the website if anyone's interested: http://www.geneseo.edu/great_day . The presentations were mostly student led (there were students from other colleges in the area too), and involved the sharing of research, work, programs among many other things. It was a massive event that involved most of the students and faculty on campus in its planning and execution; and from what I attended of it-it was successful! I attended a fed challenge presentation in the morning regarding an Economic Overview. Fed Challenge is a business related annual competition that involves representatives from numerous schools competing, and is as far as I know the largest competition Geneseo business students take part in. The SUNY Geneseo team is pretty big (20 odd people), and they placed second in regional's last year which was rather impressive. Two international students were involved in that presentation! I also visited the college union for poster presentations. As expected, the entire building was bustling with activity, and the hall was systematically embellished with poster stands and presenters and literally hoards of people walking around. My main focus was the psychology poster presentations, and there were so many of them it was pretty confusing. The posters were summaries of research done by students from Geneseo and other colleges, and most of them were studies done ON college students which made them especially relevant and interesting. Two especially memorable ones were studies on the Fluency Effect and victimization in college campuses. The fluency effect study consisted of having students recognize familiar words while chewing gum or tapping the table, with short term memory being more effective when able to physically repeat the words (you're unable to do so when chewing gum). The victimization study was also extremely applicable in our relatively small college community, and discovered direct and obvious correlations between various forms of victimization and emotional stability and academics. For more details: http://www.geneseo.edu/webfm_send/4276 --It's a 100 page long summary (hardly) of the events held on that day This post has been rather drenched in academic overalls, I'll mention something new and nonacademic related! I recently started swimming again after an approximately 10 year hiatus; never thought of utilizing the school's swimming pool until I knew a couple of friends from my dorm were swimming. I've been swimming everyday for the past six days, and hopefully I'll take a one day break soon. The pool's opening hours are queer at best; it's only open from 8-10pm on weekdays as far as I know. In any case, the water is relatively warm most of the time, and it always feels really refreshing after a swim, and it's a great work out!
Entry by: Id Goh
Feels like spring is finally here! The weather has gotten a lot warmer-its almost at the nice, breezy stage. The distinct smell of manure is very prevalent on campus too; it's a really recognizable yet unfamiliar smell, but yeah its not a particular smell and anyone would enjoy. Most of the days are nice enough to walk outside in shorts and a hoodie, and it's interchangeably sunny and cloudy on a daily basis. In lieu of Spring's advent, the campus is now much more active! People are skateboarding, rollerblading, cycling, and there are huge groups of people visiting the campus. The campus itself is really idyllic, and the view/scenery is especially gorgeous with clear blue skies and nice weather-that's probably the reason why so many people are visiting. I've recognized numerous tour guides as friends I know, and I see them leading large sauntering groups of people around campus. I just found the idea of people visiting campus really interesting; I've never visited a college campus before attending Geneseo. Its definitely a good opportunity to see the school campus grounds and get a feel of the buzz of classes. The huge visiting groups usually cover the college green, Newton, the Science Center, the library; which is why I always walk past them while traveling to and fro lectures. I spent some time attempting to think from the perspective of the visiting people (parents and kids), and they pre-visiting of the campus before enrolling would give a you a much better idea of whether you want to study here. In fact, I think there is a program for non-international students to live on campus for two days during the summer in order to gain a feel of life in Geneseo. I'm not sure if this applies to international students, but either way it would be really inconvenient to fly to America just for the two day program. It is a potential idea though; it is always a good idea to visit the campus and get a feel of things before deciding where you want to go for college. In other news-Ke$ha visited Geneseo last weekend! I am not a fan of her music, but I do admit it is rather catchy. I would have gotten a ticket to go to the concert with my friends, but the line was incredibly long and the minuscule amount of tickets sold out within hours. It was rather ironic; I think there were almost as many people not from Geneseo as there were studying in Geneseo. Many of my friend's friends came from other parts of New York just to see her; a good number of people from Queens (6 hour drive) came. I can only give a passer-by's description of the event though, but I saw numerous photos of friends on facebook and it looked like they had a blast. There were actually ambulances, numerous ambulances on campus on that night (I was walking from the basketball courts when it ended), and they were all blasting sirens in full glory-the sight was rather unnervingly hilarious.
Entry by: Id Goh
My midterm week ended last week, and oddly enough the weekend just passed by in a hazy breeze. I barely accomplished anything over the weekend; somehow so much more work gets completed when there are deadlines to be met, and when there aren't...well. I hope that I did well for my midterms! A good sign: on my three midterm Friday, the weather outside was 6degrees Celsius, which meant that all the snow melted, the green grass was showing all over the place, and it felt like winter was finally over! It was a great day to spend in the outdoors, and I saw numerous people cycling, taking walks beyond the school's premises into the distance, and jogging. I had my exams so regrettably I couldn't take part in any of it. I definitely enjoyed the multitude of walks to and fro from each exam location though. This week is a pretty busy week. I have a couple of meetings to attend, including a tax workshop for International Students, a mandatory school of business meeting in addition to the normal weekly club meetings. I have also begun planning for my summer break-being a three month break, it is the longest break I've had in my entire life (school holidays back in Singapore are 1.5 months at the maximum). I don't want aimlessly fritter about for the entire break, and have been searching for possible things to do this summer-summer classes, internships possibly among many others. My friends in both the United States and Singapore all have ideas about what they want to do during summer break, and are in the process of following up. I have numerous things I wish to do in mind, and hopefully I will accomplish them!
The campus doesn't sell Naked Juice anymore! CAS (Campus Auxiliary Services) used to sell them at every dining center on campus, but now it has been replaced by a newer, cheaper brand of juice called Odwalla. This isn't that much of a pertinent issue, but it is rather upsetting especially because I haven't been drinking them recently. I used to drink a bottle of Naked Juice every two days, and I loved it. A bottle of Naked Juice in Singapore costs around 7 or 8 USD, and it was priced at 3.95, which made it relatively cheaper and an essential part of my diet. They don't sell it anymore. I might have to get my own Naked Juice from Wegmans, and personally Odwalla has much less of that fruit blend edge than Naked Juice, but somehow it came to replace Naked Juice. It costs 3.35 USD, so that's a possible reason.
Entry by: Id Goh My schedule this week is horrible. I have four exams in the next two days. Psych on Thursday and Accounting, macroeconomics and statistics on Friday (all my business related courses have exams on the same day; what a coincidence). The exams are a nice mix of both multiple choice and open ended problems-psych and macroecons are both multiple choice exams and statistics and accounting involve problem solving problems. Statistics is the hardest course I've had so far, its both a completely novel topic and very practice-oriented as well (a different kind of math with data analysis would be the best definition I would have for it). Everyone I've talked to so far finds it incredibly tedious and boring, a sentiment reflected by the professor's repeated innuendos that Statistics is an essential but boring class. However, I actually find the class moderately interesting, and with definite business related applications-same thing is true for all my business classes, which is probably why I chose it as a major. I feel as though the previous couple of weeks have been rather bland in the sense that nothing particularly exciting occurred, and life in college has been mostly class and sleeping oriented. I also find that the spring semester in general feels much more repetitive and cyclic. It was Valentine's Day on Monday! And it was surprisingly mild for the most part, and a sweeter day than usual. I woke up not knowing that it was Valentine's Day till I saw my room door plastered with two really nice cards from some of my friends. One of them had my name written the size of an A4 paper in pink and my roommate's name as a tiny footnote-that was hilarious. The rest of the day went by in a slew of classes. Another one of my friends in Dante had his door spammed with tiny pink hearts (I wanted to check it out but have not had the time, but my mental image of it when he told me invoked immense laughter. Peace!
Entry by: Id Goh Hey guys, TGIF! It's been a really long week, and next week's going to be just as busy if not more. The first exams for most of my classes are arriving, and I'm not looking forward to them one bit. All I want to do right now is charge back to my room and fall asleep. Thankfully, only one more class separates my bed and me. On the other hand, spring break is 5 weeks from today, and I'm going back to Singapore for that week; that's something to look forward to! Dante House's basketball team's first game last week was against the soccer team, and it was pretty bad. Really bad. We've got another game coming up this Monday; hopefully that will turn out okay. There was another one-day basketball tournament that happened one and a half weeks ago (I forgot to mention it) ---the GeneseOlympics. It included a basketball tournament, a volleyball tournament, and various other intermittent games. I gathered a team and we actually won the 3v3 basketball tournament! I received a tiny trophy (still a trophy) and a nice little photo of me was published in the Lamron (Geneseo Newspaper). I attempted to contact them about the possibility of getting a digital copy of the photo for my Facebook profile, but sadly, I did not get any response. I might try finding the Lamron room on campus. Also, last week, I was part of a 4 international student presentation for the board of executives! It essentially entailed sharing of our different backgrounds and overall experience in Geneseo, which I've been blogging about. I was really nervous initially, but it was interesting to both share a portion of my life and listen to the various life experiences of other international students. An intriguing thing about having a different background than other people is that you never really consider yourself as having unique experiences until you hear about the experiences other people have gone through; and it strikes you that your own experiences vary by so much from others. Especially as an international student, the diversity proffered by having a range of students with various contrasting backgrounds in a school is enormous, and it is the cumulative overall international student population that really brings so much to the campus. Just some thoughts! The Super bowl was on last weekend, and my roommate told me if anything it was an opportunity to stuff yourself with food, and that's exactly what he did. It's a pretty big deal in America, I heard about it back home, but I've never watched it before. I know how American football works, but the game itself (it was the first game I watched in my life) was so long that I just couldn't take it after awhile. A group of us in Dante House ordered pizzas, chicken wings and proceeded to watch the Super Bowl in one of the common rooms. The personal highlight for me apart from the food was the advertisements-we spent a lot of time discussing the advertisements which were incredibly expensive-3million for a 30 second slot apparently. It was a really fun night but I didn't watch the game to its end. The Green Bay Packers won!.
There was supposed to be a winter storm this morning; I felt a definite amount of hype about it yesterday, and personally was looking forward to a snow storm bad enough for classes to be cancelled. My 9.30am statistics class got cancelled so I had a good sleep in. Apparently all the predictions and storm warnings were unfounded, and there was barely any more snow than usual as far as I could tell (I didn't take a step out of the dorm till 11.30).
For some reason, I can't recall much of what happened-it all just flew by in a mix of non-stop combinations of classes, meetings, work and basketball. There is this general feeling of temporal relief after having gone through a relatively stressful period, and I can completely foresee numerous weeks of such stress! Spring semester in general feels much tougher than the first fall semester I had-classes feel more difficult for some reason, and there never seems to be enough time. It's rather odd when you think about it: the first semester includes having to adjust to a completely new lifestyle in college, and by the second semester you should feel more comfortable and adjusted; it doesn't work that way, and many of my friends are feeling the same increase in pressure too! Stress is goodJ I don't think I've listed my classes for the semester, so I'll just do so now. They're more business oriented than the first semester, and simultaneously more interesting and vigorous as well.
Intro to Macroeconomics Statistics INTD (writing class) Women in work Calculus II Intro to Psychology
Yesterday evening I attended a club meeting that I previously never attended-the Circle-K club weekly meetings. I could not attend any of the meetings last semester due to scheduling conflicts, but really wanted to give it a shot. It's a service-based student organization that literally organizes weekly service projects both within Geneseo and the general vicinity of upstate New York. Two major events were mentioned when I attended the meeting yesterday-a volunteer event at some Rochester soup kitchen(which was really interesting), and a upcoming fundraising concert involving the four A cappella groups in Geneseo(I've never heard them, but they're apparently really good) for donations towards Cancer-Rochester I think, which I definitely hope to be a part of. Last weekend, I spent 150 dollars at Wegmans on food and ice cream! I don't plan on cooking this semester, but the amount of money in the meal plan has to be used sparingly, so the best option I've hit upon so far is to amalgamate Wegman's snacks with the meal plan. It's working great, and hopefully the food in my room will last awhile.
Hey guys, I'm back! Winter break's over and it's the start of a new semester. Winter break was really nice-I went back to Singapore and basically just doodled for the entire three weeks. I definitely had a good time meeting up with my friends in Singapore; interestingly though I felt a disconnect between us in terms of lifestyle. Life in the America is starkly different from Singapore, and life in college generates a further distinction between the two. It took me awhile to get used to life back home in the tropics, and now I'm going to need a couple of days getting used to classes again! Thinking about it, most of my time back home was spent gorging myself-I really missed the food in Singapore having the chance to stuff myself with the local food, I didn't waste a bit of it. I notably recall the Chilli Crab I had during break, it's a dish unique to south-east Asia, and remarkably tasty as well. I was playing a lot of basketball with my buddies the instant I got back to Singapore, maybe too much--I sprained my ankle and spent a week just sitting around at home struggling to walk Now that I'm back on my feet, and back in school, I'm forming a team representing Dante House in the intramural basketball tournament! It'll definitely be an exciting venture and hopefully a successful one as well. Speaking about Dante House, it got bigger! Several students transferred dorms (yes you can do that) and the school in general had many transfer students. The fourth floor lounge, which is easily twice the size of any other room, received a makeover for two lucky students to live in. I haven't really gotten the opportunity to really talk to the new residents yet, but I might get to do so tonight at the Dante House dinner. Also, my roommate and I, for the first time, vacuumed our room in an effort to make it slightly more... habitable, and now I'm living in a clean room! The weather today was really nice though, it made the usually dreadful morning walk to classes actually rather enjoyable. I hope the sun lasts! I wanted to write more about winter break, but right now I can't seem to recall most of it; my mind is filled with thoughts about the new semester, the fact that I didn't recognize 70% of the people in the dining hall last night, and my first two classes which were moderately interesting and the one more two hour class I have in a couple of hours. It feels especially refreshing to see so many new faces in school, and I feel much older as a second semester freshman.
The Geneseo first-semester experience It's my last post of the semester, so I was thinking about writing a short list of things to take note of/ points to maximize your potential life-reorienting experience in Geneseo. It's just a series of things that I find are rather essential to living in Geneseo and in a completely new environment in general; so here goes... 1) Your room is the most important thing in your life (for most people). Bring/buy your most comfortable sheets and comforters, and please wash them at least once a month, please. 2) Ask for help the instant you need it. 3) Life pretty much revolves around your classes, most importantly, your class timings. Make sure that they're arranged to suit your preferences (early morning classes/late night classes/ 50 minutes three times a week/ 90 minutes two times a week). In my first semester, I pretty much just squeezed all I could fit into my schedule, and luckily it didn't turn out so badly. I had morning classes at 8.30 or 9.30am every morning, and a night class once a week that ended at 9pm which was pretty extreme. My schedule for next semester has been painstakingly planned out (maybe an exaggeration), but I think it'll be much more comfortable than this semester. 4) Make friends with everyone, especially people living in your dorm. They'll make the transition into college much more comfortable and enjoyable. What I've seen is that almost everyone hangs out with people from their dorms most of the time, and personally its people from my dorm I play sports, study, have meals with the most. 5) Sleep is important; all-nighters just don't work. 6) Take time off every day to talk to/call someone from back home. Sharing your experiences makes life chirpier, and they probably need it as much as you do. 7) Personally, music has and always will be an important part of my life. Even more so in college-it accompanies work, sleep and personal time. 8) Take time off for yourself, maybe an hour a day always works. (doing work and sleeping doesn't count) 9) Afternoon naps are the best thing that'll happen to you, embrace them. 10) Take pictures of everything! The view at Geneseo is great, both in fall and after it starts snowing-the sunsets are gorgeous (I've yet to see a sun rise). Make sure you/someone around you has a camera to capture those scenes, and of course the moments with your friends. Entry by: Aiwen Yang Hello everyone! The semester is just about to finish and everyone is working on the final papers and study for the final exams. I am of course one of them. The good thing is that Geneseo always offers great events that help students release their stress during the "final crunch". Every weekend, there are some interesting events going on. Last weekend I went to Japan Night. I was wondering why this time I would receive a "fly ticket" for Japan Night, and it all became clearer as I went to the event last Saturday night. My suitemates and I decided to go together. By the time we arrived, everyone was already sitting there. It was not really surprising since everyone knew that there was going to be good food and interesting performances. Like other cultural events, we started with the dinner that consisted of seven courses. They Included rice, teriyaki chicken, miso soup and many other Japanese traditional foods. For the desert, we tried green tea ice cream and rice cake with sweetened Soy Sauce. They were all delicious! When the clock marked seven, we were introduced to the show by a video clip. The show was very well organized that flowed smoothly scene after scene. It introduced us to different parts of Japan through megaphone announcements. As if we were at the airport or train station, we were travelling along with the performers to different cities and scenes in Japan. Different performances introduced us to different traditions of Japan. Shibuya Girls showed us that Tokyo was just as cosmopolitan as New York City and many Laido men displayed the traditional practice in Yokohama with a great concentration and patience. We also travelled to Kyoto, and we were introduced by a traditional fan dance. The last announcement from the megaphone, took us back to Tokyo, in which the show would end under the applause of the public. We did not need to go out from Geneseo and we could see a great presentation about Japan. A fly ticket for Japan Night was definitely a great idea to introduce us to different parts of Japan. After knowing so many interesting traditions of the country, I would not be surprised if I find myself in Japan in a couple of years! Entry by: Aiwen Yang
For the first one, we learned about different steps in a meeting that should be planned, and how it can result in the meeting being more effective and successful. It is definitely an aspect that we need to consider since that is something we would be doing once we step into the work market. The other workshop was offered by Robert C. Boneberg, an ex alumni from Class of '73. He shared with us about his working experience as a lawyer and his perspective on Pro Bono, which consist of nonprofit public service and contribution to the society. These two are only few of the workshops that are offered for the Gold Program, there are definitely many others that are very interesting and very worthy to attend. If you have the chance, I would definitely encourage you to participate on these sessions, I am sure you will learn a lot from them! Entry by: Id Goh The semester is ending in two weeks, which also means finals are approaching really fast. There is a general sinking, trepid feeling amongst most students, and it's not unwarranted. Personally, most of my finals are not cumulative, and only include materials from the last exam till the present. However the irksome part is that the magnitude of the exams are so much larger than the previous exams-the papers are 3 hours long compared to 1 hour for previous exams, there are now huge essay questions in addition to the previous shorter essays. My anthropology class suddenly jumped to become the highest-priority with the addition of a 15% of final grade essay, 5% of final grade essay in addition to the usual 70 MCQ questions and 3 short essay questions collectively ‘dumped' together in the 3 hour long exam-I am definitely not looking forward to that. Almost everyone I know is getting really serious about their final exams, and I would imagine the library being completely packed! Oh just a side note about the library-it has a really conducive environment for studying: there are three floors with tables and chairs nicely separated from each other by bookshelves and a no-noise rule on two of the three floors. The atmosphere is really... intense but I suppose that really helps with everyone's focus. I have only been in the library to study once-South Side is approximately fifteen minutes walk from the library; it's a distance I'd normally not like to transverse in most circumstances, and the turbulent weather only makes the walk longer. I'd pick the inefficiency of studying in my room rather than the 30 minute to-fro walks to the library! The end of the semester also means the end of the meal plan cash; at the end of each semester, the remnants of any cash you have left in your meal plan card is nulled. There is an interesting gap between two factions of students-those who have pretty much expended their meal plan and are ‘broke' and those with $300 left to spend in the remaining two weeks ($20 a day). Everyone's trying to find other people to sustain or use up their campus cash, and personally having spent tons of money at Wegmans earlier in the semester, I have a moderate amount of money left. I tried to use the campus cash to buy more longer-lasting objects-particularly the neat bottles and mugs offered at Starbucks, only to be rejected! Apparently you can only use credit cards or cash to pay for their non-edible products; it's really a pity, yet at the same time I can imagine tons of other people having tried to do the same thing hence their policy. It's snowing insanely outside! I keep turning towards the window every few seconds to be greeted with the sight of snow flickering about lightly right outside the glass. It was kind of raining/hailing when I left for class this morning, and I prepared myself for a tough day (it isn't nice to be walking in rain and strong winds. Over the past few days I've seen every umbrella being blown disfigured under the wind). However, in a period of barely 50 minutes the ground was covered with a thin layer of pure white snow and it was snowing. It's been a year since I last saw snow falling, and the first sight of it always brings a ton of happiness and genuine cheerfulness! The feeling will eventually subside; but right now I'm feeling aoristically ecstatic. I actually slipped and nearly fell when I took my first step in the open just now-my shoes probably are not going to last me the entire winter. Thanksgiving break just ended a few days back, and I feel like I'm gradually getting used to school again, with all the studying and work and incoming final exams. I've been incredibly busy the past few days, and the next few days are not going to slow down. I spent thanksgiving in NYC with my family, and it was nice to finally see them again; though oddly enough, after spending a day with them I felt like things had not changed at all. I had so many things to do in NYC that the five day break just flew by, and I vaguely recall all the things that I managed to do: watched the harry potter 7 part I, saw a theatre production (time stand still) for an extra credit paper, bought a few sweaters , a nice $20 jacket from old navy and several books for classes, met up with a friend from Singapore, ice skated for the first time in my life, ate tons of food (as usual). It is pretty cold up here, but I find that with a combination of a windbreaker, an inside jacket with a sweater maybe, the wind and cold becomes much less nerve-numbing! Ice skating was a painful experience, I fell really hard on the ice at least 7 times, and ended up with two huge bruises which still hurt a week after I ice skated. It was especially nice because I kind of got the hang of ice skating (yeah I'm that goodJ). Writing right now about ice skating and seeing the snow outside reminds me of the incoming skiing season. I absolutely love skiing, and will definitely find some time to take a weekend off to go skiing in nearby mountains-maybe after I come back after winter break. Its three weeks to the grueling final exams, and then its winter break! Thanksgiving felt really short; like a brief respite before diving back into the workload in college-something should be done to make it a little longer! Today is 1st December, the month of Christmas as well! I've seen a lot of people celebrating the advent of the month of Christmas, and some people I know bought mini Christmas trees for their dorm rooms. I'll be spending Christmas back in Singapore under the sweltering heat; we'll see how that goes! The snow hasn't abated yet, and judging from the thickness of the snow on the ground I'd say there is about an inch and a half of snow right now. I'm really looking forward to the walk back to Dante House. Entry by: Aiwen Yang, Transfer Student
Good thing I finally got into many courses that I wanted to, for which I need to show my gratitude to my teacher, and those people who gave me very good advices! I registered for five classes. A couple of history courses for my development world track, U.S. foreign policy, Arabic and HUM I! All the courses were pretty limited, however HUM was the only class that was offered in many timeframes. I checked KnightWeb before my registration day, and I found a couple of HUM courses that matched with my schedule. Therefore, I thought I would take professor Greenfield's class. However, by the time of my registration, all the seats were gone! Entry by: Aiwen Yang, Transfer Student Last fall break we had four days of vacation, so my friends and I decided to go to Toronto for a day! My friends had already been there once, but for me, it was the first time I got to step in the Canadian territory. My first impression about Toronto was exciting and impressive! We drove for almost three hours to pass the border and for my surprise, I did not feel that I was getting into another country. It took us for another hour to get into the city of Toronto. After being so wonderfully wrapped by the nature at Geneseo, I found it surprising to see such a cosmopolitan city. It was almost like civilization as we got into the high way, and seeing all the skyscrapers standing around the city. It somehow reminded me the first time I went to New York City by bus. Toronto reminded me of New York City, although it was much cleaner, and the smell was also different. Since the weather was very enjoyable, we decided not to take any transportation, instead, we walked around the city following a map that tourist guide gave us by the CN Tower. We thought that by walking, we would have a greater opportunity to see the city and appreciate its beauty. We followed all the spots indicated by the map. We walked around the city and there was so much diversity. There were people from everywhere. Of course, our presence in the city also added more international flavor to it! Toronto has so much to offer. It has a very tranquil around the University of Toronto and a lively side in downtown area. The greatest thing about travelling is always the food, so by the time we got to Chinatown; we could not wait to eat some dumplings in the "Dumpling House"! The taste of the dumplings was just like those from China! Surprisingly, walking around Chinatown after a delicious lunch, we met many Geneseo students in the street; it was just such a small world! We did not stop walking until the night fell. By then, my body was already destroyed. Of course, what I was going to expect after being walking for almost ten hours! We left Toronto when it was already dark, and Toronto was another magical city. Since we did not have the chance to stay overnight, it gives us another excuse to go back again!
Entry by: Id Goh It was Halloween last weekend, and it's a really big deal in America. I was pretty surprised and unnerved to be a part of the experience, especially since back home in Singapore I never celebrated Halloween, and the closest I got to seeing costumes live was through videos and television programs. Although Halloween technically was on Sunday; celebrations began on Friday night and people enthusiastically dressed up and went around the school! There were series of contiguous events, ranging from dance parties or costume making sessions hosted by the school's Activities Commission Board, to house parties in various dorms both in and off campus. I personally made scant attempt at generating a costume, and I wasn't the only one. The problem with not having a distinct or flagrantly designed costume is that people tend to have no idea what you are supposed to be dressed up as, and when people ask you; all you can muster is a stymied look that places everyone in a rather awkward situation! That happened to my roommate and me a few times, and looking back in hindsight the situation was probably hilarious.
Hello everyone!
Entry by: Aiwen Yang Hello everyone!
Entry by: Id Goh Hey there!
It is starting to get kind of cold, especially when there's wind-it just cuts right through you. I can officially say that the weather is intermittently insane. The temperature and weather conditions fluctuate on an hourly basis. There have been so many times whereby it is really cold in the morning even with a jacket on, only to have a warm afternoon where people are walking around in shirts and shorts, and then have a sudden downpour out of nowhere! Still, I need to buy winter clothing soon; I heard it's going to get freezing cold in upstate New York in the winter, so, better get prepared! The leaves of most trees around campus are turning orange/yellow and are dropping all over the place, the roadsides are lined with layers of fallen leaves of vibrant hues-it's a really pretty sight! The grass and some shrubs are still green though, and it is nice to have a mixture of both green and brighter colors all around campus.
Entry by: Id Goh, Freshman (Wed. Oct 20, 2010 ) It's been a really busy couple of weeks-I've had midterms for most if not all of my subjects. I have my second bio exam in two days, and I'm definitely not looking forward to it! Many events have happened on campus, especially the advent of multicultural week. There was a Ghana drum performance in my dorm's lounge last night, and a whole crowd of people flooded the relatively small room to watch the performance. To be honest, I actually did not know about it beforehand, and was groggily jerked awake by the drum noise that was heard even in the other dorms in the area! I went out to check out what was going on, and was treated to a whole explosion of drum sets, vocal sounds, ethnic costumes, various other unique instruments, and wooden structures reminisce of a museum. The performance was really invigorating-it was a mixture of dance and music and song; the sweat drenched performers were completely absorbed in their actions, bringing the audience with them. They were embellished with ethnic African costumes, and were extremely well rehearsed! There were even several points in time whereby some of the performers left the lounge and rushed to the common restroom to change their costumes, bringing freshness and allowing the audience to enjoy a wider range of their culture.
Also, in Geneseo, students are offered the opportunity to work closely with farm animals. I recently went to an orientation for members of the Fohr Club (Friends of Horse Rescue), whereby students volunteer to work at a nearby horse rescue center of previously mistreated horses that are now under the care of a group of volunteers. Members of the club go there on a weekly basis to help out the owners of the ranch with horse care, ranging from feeding the horses to cleaning up their poop and grooming them. The club itself is pretty big (tons of people volunteer!), so there are always people going there on a daily basis to spend time with the horses. While it definitely consists of manual labor and hard work, I think it would be a really fulfilling experience to help out with the horses and spend time with them (it's something that you would never be able to do in a city). It is also a good opportunity for pre-veterinary students to gain working/volunteering experiences with animals, because most of the horses require medication as well. Personally, I have not been able to find a block 2 hours in my daily schedule (they go daily either in the morning or the evening), hence have not taken part in the club's daily visits. However, it is an awesome opportunity and experience that is really worthwhile!
My fall break just passed by really fast, I think in part due to the long bus ride from upstate to New York City-it was a 6 hour bus ride each way! It wasn't the first time I've been to New York City, but it was so easy to just get lost in the never-ending streets and avenues. I was jolted awake in the bus at five in the morning, and most of us were just deposited sleepily and vaguely conscious at the Port Authority. I somehow found my way to my cousin's place at Union Square (I didn't really hang out with him previously so that felt kind of ‘new' to me). My two cousins were sleeping and not picking up their phones, so I was stuck walking around trying to stay awake for nearly an hour before they realized I was right below the apartment! The next three days literally just flew by, and I think almost all of our time was spent either on eating, or walking for 20 minutes to the place we were going to eat at. We all really enjoy good food, and my cousin who lives in NYC brought us to a wide variety of restaurants and cafes to eat-he spent the last 6 years in NYC hunting down and tasting all the good food places, before bringing visitors to those same eateries. In the 6 main meals I had in NYC (3 lunches, 3 dinners), I had: nice Italian pasta near Soho, the best seafood I've had in my life, one meal of pure steak, another with nothing but meat (beef, pork, chicken) cut marvelously, a new restaurant with a awesome tasting menu and SUSHI!! I actually didn't get to have Chinese food (what kind of Chinese am I?)! We sort of split the costs of the meals, but being the youngest I was treated to a few meals- yet I definitely spent more money in three days in NYC than 2 months in Geneseo! Apart from that, I also spent the later part of the nights at the apartment watching TV. Since coming to college, I have not watched television (some students bring television sets to college, but it was a pretty far reach for me), so it was really enjoyable to spend time sitting in front of the television like good old times. I remember watching a lot of iron chef and American football-the Vikings and Jets game was rather exciting! I also spent a few hours shopping (I personally do not enjoy shopping, so I try to get it over as fast as possible), and bought many things that I could not get in Geneseo: a entire suit which I bought in parts from various locations to lower the price (three shirts, two ties, a jacket, formal pants, black shoes, I forgot to buy a belt), a pair of basketball shoes and a hand carry luggage bag. NYC is a shopping haven, especially the Soho district-its lack of government tax makes it one of the most popular shopping hotspots in the city. Being in college, a suit is a really good investment, even if you're a freshman. For instance, being in the School of Business, I often get emails regarding professional dinners or meetings, whereby a suit is necessary to attend. I missed two accounting society meet ups with professionals already due to a lack of professional attire; I will not miss any more! I also might have an interview coming up hopefully, so I will need a suit for that as well.
Hey! I'd also like to bring up Wegmans (local supermarket with awesome cooked food). When I first came to Geneseo, many existing students said Wegmans was the best thing around here, and I can absolutely verify that! It has an extremely diversified cooked food section, including sushi, nearly twenty dishes of Asian food, as well as meat cooked in a variety of ways. In the previous week, I've been there twice for the cooked Asian food, which is pretty authentic and... comforting (one can only live off subs for so long), as well as tons of snacks and drinks to get me through the days and nights. Last night, I spent around a 100 bucks on food from Wegmans and I think it's going to be worth every dollar! The daily express service bus directly to Wegmans and Walmart shaves off around 20 minutes off the normal bus route (I recently found this out), and makes it extremely convenient to just take a quick 40-50 minute trip on any day of the week to buy a huge pile of groceries. I think I actually own nearly half of my dorm's common fridge with everything I've been buying so far. This coming weekend is going to be the fall break! It's really just an extended weekend (fri, sat, sun, mon, tues) in lieu of midterm exams, and many students are either going back to their hometowns, traveling around in New York, or visiting the major cities in the area-New York City, Toronto or other parts of Canada. The International Student Office is also offering an event for International students who would not be travelling around-Steeplechase races! There are multiple round trip bus rides scheduled to travel around New York, and the tickets can easily be obtained online. Personally, I will be taking an overnight bus ride on Friday night to New York City to spend the weekend with my cousins who are working there. I can't wait for the weekend to come!
First Impressions It's been five and a half weeks since I first came to Geneseo, and since then it has been a near polar change in both living style and academic life. Interestingly, I welcome this change, and find it to be fast paced yet smooth. I am now much more comfortable and open with student life here as a whole. A few weekends ago, I took the school's bus to Rochester, a nearby city, for a Vampire Weekend(Vampire Weekend is a band) concert. It was my first live concert and an awesome experience! I enjoyed the chance to be back in a city. I also plan on going to the local automobile center to take a driving test soon (I'm too young to take driving lessons at home). I try to find many new things I was unable to do back home. The unique and novel experiences are extremely gratifying-I feel as though I've been opened to a complete new set of experiences and opportunities that I never actually imagined to be a part of my life. In the weeks that I have been here, I have: overspent my meal plan budget, attempted to live off Wal-Mart frozen food and salad (still in progress), staggered around 4 club meetings a night for a week, gotten comprehensively bedridden for a couple of days from flu, seen cows and horses in close proximity, wished for many things that have yet to come true... the list is still growing. Another intriguing change that I've faced is the different education system here in the US. I really enjoy the flexibility that a liberal arts education provides: the possibility of taking and doing multiple contrasting subjects that interest you. For instance, I can major in business administration; simultaneously take classes in psychology that I'm interested in, and also take classes that fulfill the basic requirements for graduate medical school, something I am seriously considering. A cross-subject combination of courses would not have been possible at most universities in any other part of the world. Also, the education system in college actually shifts away from a predominantly exam-oriented structure, but focuses on a continuous acquirement of knowledge for individuals that culminate in test and exams. My Biology class has a 25% focus in class quizzes and assignments, my American Politics class has 15% accredited to a paper on the state election this year, my Microeconomics class places 15% of the final grade on online quizzes, my Theatre class has 40% dependent on review papers on theatre productions. Therefore, an important part of grades stem from a continuous dedication to the subject, rather than an intense focus on final exams (the final exams here are worth slightly more than any in-class exam). While I came from an education system that focused largely on end of year exams, I do not find it difficult to adjust to the change presented-there is of course an adjustment window that everyone has to overcome-its college! It is essential to constantly be emerged in the subject, something that I find myself slowly edging towards. Hey guys, TGIF! It's been a really long week, and next week's going to be just as busy if not more. The first exams for most of my classes are arriving, and I'm not looking forward to them one bit. All I want to do right now is charge back to my room and fall asleep. Thankfully, only one more class separates my bed and me. On the other hand, spring break is 5 weeks from today, and I'm going back to Singapore for that week; that's something to look forward to! Dante House's basketball team's first game last week was against the soccer team, and it was pretty bad. Really bad. We've got another game coming up this Monday; hopefully that will turn out okay. There was another one-day basketball tournament that happened one and a half weeks ago (I forgot to mention it) -the GeneseOlympics. It included a basketball tournament, a volleyball tournament, and various other intermittent games. I gathered a team and we actually won the 3v3 basketball tournament! I received a tiny trophy (still a trophy) and a nice little photo of me was published in the Lamron (Geneseo Newspaper). I attempted to contact them about the possibility of getting a digital copy of the photo for my Facebook profile, but sadly, I did not get any response. I might try finding the Lamron room on campus. Also, last week, I was part of a 4 international student presentation for the board of executives! It essentially entailed sharing of our different backgrounds and overall experience in Geneseo, which I've been blogging about. I was really nervous initially, but it was interesting to both share a portion of my life and listen to the various life experiences of other international students. An intriguing thing about having a different background than other people is that you never really consider yourself as having unique experiences until you hear about the experiences other people have gone through; and it strikes you that your own experiences vary by so much from others. Especially as an international student, the diversity proffered by having a range of students with various contrasting backgrounds in a school is enormous, and it is the cumulative overall international student population that really brings so much to the campus. Just some thoughts! The Super bowl was on last weekend, and my roommate told me if anything it was an opportunity to stuff yourself with food, and that's exactly what he did. It's a pretty big deal in America, I heard about it back home, but I've never watched it before. I know how American football works, but the game itself (it was the first game I watched in my life) was so long that I just couldn't take it after awhile. A group of us in Dante House ordered pizzas, chicken wings and proceeded to watch the Super Bowl in one of the common rooms. The personal highlight for me apart from the food was the advertisements-we spent a lot of time discussing the advertisements which were incredibly expensive-3million for a 30 second slot apparently. It was a really fun night but I didn't watch the game to its end. The Green Bay Packers won!. Entry by: Id Goh There was supposed to be a winter storm this morning; I felt a definite amount of hype about it yesterday, and personally was looking forward to a snow storm bad enough for classes to be cancelled. My 9.30am statistics class got cancelled so I had a good sleep in. Apparently all the predictions and storm warnings were unfounded, and there was barely any more snow than usual as far as I could tell (I didn't take a step out of the dorm till 11.30).
Entry by: Id Goh For some reason, I can’t recall much of what happened—it all just flew by in a mix of non-stop combinations of classes, meetings, work and basketball. There is this general feeling of temporal relief after having gone through a relatively stressful period, and I can completely foresee numerous weeks of such stress! Spring semester in general feels much tougher than the first fall semester I had—classes feel more difficult for some reason, and there never seems to be enough time. It’s rather odd when you think about it: the first semester includes having to adjust to a completely new lifestyle in college, and by the second semester you should feel more comfortable and adjusted; it doesn’t work that way, and many of my friends are feeling the same increase in pressure too! I don't think I've listed my classes for the semester, so I'll just do so now. They're more business oriented than the first semester, and simultaneously more interesting and vigorous as well. Intro to Financial Accounting Intro to Macroeconomics Statistics INTD (writing class) Women in work Calculus II Intro to Psychology <I especially enjoy the business classes, which makes me feel that I made the right choice in choosing business as a major. The weather. I remember vividly the temperatures last weekend falling to a lifetime low of -22F!! That was incredibly cold and everyone I knew staunchly refused to leave the dorms for anything more than a 30 second walk to the nearby dining hall. After those two days, the temperature outside feel nondescript in comparison, and it’s great. Yesterday evening I attended a club meeting that I previously never attended—the Circle-K club weekly meetings. I could not attend any of the meetings last semester due to scheduling conflicts, but really wanted to give it a shot. It’s a service-based student organization that literally organizes weekly service projects both within Geneseo and the general vicinity of upstate New York. Two major events were mentioned when I attended the meeting yesterday—a volunteer event at some Rochester soup kitchen(which was really interesting), and a upcoming fundraising concert involving the four A cappella groups in Geneseo(I’ve never heard them, but they’re apparently really good) for donations towards Cancer-Rochester I think, which I definitely hope to be a part of. Last weekend, I spent 150 dollars at Wegmans on food and ice cream! I don’t plan on cooking this semester, but the amount of money in the meal plan has to be used sparingly, so the best option I’ve hit upon so far is to amalgamate Wegman’s snacks with the meal plan. It’s working great, and hopefully the food in my room will last awhile.
Entry by: Id Goh Hey guys, I'm back! Winter break's over and it's the start of a new semester. Winter break was really nice-I went back to Singapore and basically just doodled for the entire three weeks. I definitely had a good time meeting up with my friends in Singapore; interestingly though I felt a disconnect between us in terms of lifestyle. Life in the America is starkly different from Singapore, and life in college generates a further distinction between the two. It took me awhile to get used to life back home in the tropics, and now I'm going to need a couple of days getting used to classes again! Thinking about it, most of my time back home was spent gorging myself-I really missed the food in Singapore having the chance to stuff myself with the local food, I didn't waste a bit of it. I notably recall the Chilli Crab I had during break, it's a dish unique to south-east Asia, and remarkably tasty as well. I was playing a lot of basketball with my buddies the instant I got back to Singapore, maybe too much I sprained my ankle and spent a week just sitting around at home struggling to walk Now that I'm back on my feet, and back in school, I'm forming a team representing Dante House in the intramural basketball tournament! It'll definitely be an exciting venture and hopefully a successful one as well. Speaking about Dante House, it got bigger! Several students transferred dorms (yes you can do that) and the school in general had many transfer students. The fourth floor lounge, which is easily twice the size of any other room, received a makeover for two lucky students to live in. I haven't really gotten the opportunity to really talk to the new residents yet, but I might get to do so tonight at the Dante House dinner. Also, my roommate and I, for the first time, vacuumed our room in an effort to make it slightly more... habitable, and now I'm living in a clean room! The weather today was really nice though, it made the usually dreadful morning walk to classes actually rather enjoyable. I hope the sun lasts! I wanted to write more about winter break, but right now I can't seem to recall most of it; my mind is filled with thoughts about the new semester, the fact that I didn't recognize 70% of the people in the dining hall last night, and my first two classes which were moderately interesting and the one more two hour class I have in a couple of hours. It feels especially refreshing to see so many new faces in school, and I feel much older as a second semester freshman.
Entry by: Id Goh The Geneseo first-semester experience It's my last post of the semester, so I was thinking about writing a short list of things to take note of/ points to maximize your potential life-reorienting experience in Geneseo. It's just a series of things that I find are rather essential to living in Geneseo and in a completely new environment in general; so here goes... 1) Your room is the most important thing in your life (for most people). Bring/buy your most comfortable sheets and comforters, and please wash them at least once a month, please. 2) Ask for help the instant you need it. 3) Life pretty much revolves around your classes, most importantly, your class timings. Make sure that they're arranged to suit your preferences (early morning classes/late night classes/ 50 minutes three times a week/ 90 minutes two times a week). In my first semester, I pretty much just squeezed all I could fit into my schedule, and luckily it didn't turn out so badly. I had morning classes at 8.30 or 9.30am every morning, and a night class once a week that ended at 9pm which was pretty extreme. My schedule for next semester has been painstakingly planned out (maybe an exaggeration), but I think it'll be much more comfortable than this semester. 4) Make friends with everyone, especially people living in your dorm. They'll make the transition into college much more comfortable and enjoyable. What I've seen is that almost everyone hangs out with people from their dorms most of the time, and personally its people from my dorm I play sports, study, have meals with the most. 5) Sleep is important; all-nighters just don't work. 6) Take time off every day to talk to/call someone from back home. Sharing your experiences makes life chirpier, and they probably need it as much as you do. 7) Personally, music has and always will be an important part of my life. Even more so in college-it accompanies work, sleep and personal time. 8) Take time off for yourself, maybe an hour a day always works. (doing work and sleeping doesn't count) 9) Afternoon naps are the best thing that'll happen to you, embrace them. 10) Take pictures of everything! The view at Geneseo is great, both in fall and after it starts snowing-the sunsets are gorgeous (I've yet to see a sun rise). Make sure you/someone around you has a camera to capture those scenes, and of course the moments with your friends. Entry by: Aiwen Yang Hello everyone! The semester is just about to finish and everyone is working on the final papers and study for the final exams. I am of course one of them. The good thing is that Geneseo always offers great events that help students release their stress during the "final crunch". Every weekend, there are some interesting events going on. Last weekend I went to Japan Night. I was wondering why this time I would receive a "fly ticket" for Japan Night, and it all became clearer as I went to the event last Saturday night. My suitemates and I decided to go together. By the time we arrived, everyone was already sitting there. It was not really surprising since everyone knew that there was going to be good food and interesting performances. Like other cultural events, we started with the dinner that consisted of seven courses. They Included rice, teriyaki chicken, miso soup and many other Japanese traditional foods. For the desert, we tried green tea ice cream and rice cake with sweetened Soy Sauce. They were all delicious! When the clock marked seven, we were introduced to the show by a video clip. The show was very well organized that flowed smoothly scene after scene. It introduced us to different parts of Japan through megaphone announcements. As if we were at the airport or train station, we were travelling along with the performers to different cities and scenes in Japan. Different performances introduced us to different traditions of Japan. Shibuya Girls showed us that Tokyo was just as cosmopolitan as New York City and many Laido men displayed the traditional practice in Yokohama with a great concentration and patience. We also travelled to Kyoto, and we were introduced by a traditional fan dance. The last announcement from the megaphone, took us back to Tokyo, in which the show would end under the applause of the public. We did not need to go out from Geneseo and we could see a great presentation about Japan. A fly ticket for Japan Night was definitely a great idea to introduce us to different parts of Japan. After knowing so many interesting traditions of the country, I would not be surprised if I find myself in Japan in a couple of years!Hello everyone! Entry by: Aiwen Yang
For the first one, we learned about different steps in a meeting that should be planned, and how it can result in the meeting being more effective and successful. It is definitely an aspect that we need to consider since that is something we would be doing once we step into the work market. The other workshop was offered by Robert C. Boneberg, an ex alumni from Class of '73. He shared with us about his working experience as a lawyer and his perspective on Pro Bono, which consist of nonprofit public service and contribution to the society. These two are only few of the workshops that are offered for the Gold Program, there are definitely many others that are very interesting and very worthy to attend. If you have the chance, I would definitely encourage you to participate on these sessions, I am sure you will learn a lot from them!
Entry by: Id Goh The snow has been getting so much heavier, especially at night when any water on the ground simply freezes up and snow keeps piling! The snow management is incredible though-how the pathways and roads are nearly completely devoid of any snow during the day, while snow piles up by the inches on the grass. The snow sort of gathers up during the entire day, and by nightfall (4pm), the pathways are pretty much completely covered with snow shavings or ice, which incidentally simply disappears overnight (it's like magic).The semester is ending in two weeks, which also means finals are approaching really fast. There is a general sinking, trepid feeling amongst most students, and it's not unwarranted. Personally, most of my finals are not cumulative, and only include materials from the last exam till the present. However the irksome part is that the magnitude of the exams are so much larger than the previous exams-the papers are 3 hours long compared to 1 hour for previous exams, there are now huge essay questions in addition to the previous shorter essays. My anthropology class suddenly jumped to become the highest-priority with the addition of a 15% of final grade essay, 5% of final grade essay in addition to the usual 70 MCQ questions and 3 short essay questions collectively ‘dumped' together in the 3 hour long exam-I am definitely not looking forward to that. Almost everyone I know is getting really serious about their final exams, and I would imagine the library being completely packed! Oh just a side note about the library-it has a really conducive environment for studying: there are three floors with tables and chairs nicely separated from each other by bookshelves and a no-noise rule on two of the three floors. The atmosphere is really... intense but I suppose that really helps with everyone's focus. I have only been in the library to study once-South Side is approximately fifteen minutes walk from the library; it's a distance I'd normally not like to transverse in most circumstances, and the turbulent weather only makes the walk longer. I'd pick the inefficiency of studying in my room rather than the 30 minute to-fro walks to the library! The end of the semester also means the end of the meal plan cash; at the end of each semester, the remnants of any cash you have left in your meal plan card is nulled. There is an interesting gap between two factions of students-those who have pretty much expended their meal plan and are ‘broke' and those with $300 left to spend in the remaining two weeks ($20 a day). Everyone's trying to find other people to sustain or use up their campus cash, and personally having spent tons of money at Wegmans earlier in the semester, I have a moderate amount of money left. I tried to use the campus cash to buy more longer-lasting objects-particularly the neat bottles and mugs offered at Starbucks, only to be rejected! Apparently you can only use credit cards or cash to pay for their non-edible products; it's really a pity, yet at the same time I can imagine tons of other people having tried to do the same thing hence their policy. Entry by: Id GohIt's snowing insanely outside! I keep turning towards the window every few seconds to be greeted with the sight of snow flickering about lightly right outside the glass. It was kind of raining/hailing when I left for class this morning, and I prepared myself for a tough day (it isn't nice to be walking in rain and strong winds. Over the past few days I've seen every umbrella being blown disfigured under the wind). However, in a period of barely 50 minutes the ground was covered with a thin layer of pure white snow and it was snowing. It's been a year since I last saw snow falling, and the first sight of it always brings a ton of happiness and genuine cheerfulness! The feeling will eventually subside; but right now I'm feeling aoristically ecstatic. I actually slipped and nearly fell when I took my first step in the open just now-my shoes probably are not going to last me the entire winter. Thanksgiving break just ended a few days back, and I feel like I'm gradually getting used to school again, with all the studying and work and incoming final exams. I've been incredibly busy the past few days, and the next few days are not going to slow down. I spent thanksgiving in NYC with my family, and it was nice to finally see them again; though oddly enough, after spending a day with them I felt like things had not changed at all. I had so many things to do in NYC that the five day break just flew by, and I vaguely recall all the things that I managed to do: watched the harry potter 7 part I, saw a theatre production (time stand still) for an extra credit paper, bought a few sweaters , a nice $20 jacket from old navy and several books for classes, met up with a friend from Singapore, ice skated for the first time in my life, ate tons of food (as usual). It is pretty cold up here, but I find that with a combination of a windbreaker, an inside jacket with a sweater maybe, the wind and cold becomes much less nerve-numbing! Ice skating was a painful experience, I fell really hard on the ice at least 7 times, and ended up with two huge bruises which still hurt a week after I ice skated. It was especially nice because I kind of got the hang of ice skating (yeah I'm that goodJ). Writing right now about ice skating and seeing the snow outside reminds me of the incoming skiing season. I absolutely love skiing, and will definitely find some time to take a weekend off to go skiing in nearby mountains-maybe after I come back after winter break. Its three weeks to the grueling final exams, and then its winter break! Thanksgiving felt really short; like a brief respite before diving back into the workload in college-something should be done to make it a little longer! Today is 1st December, the month of Christmas as well! I've seen a lot of people celebrating the advent of the month of Christmas, and some people I know bought mini Christmas trees for their dorm rooms. I'll be spending Christmas back in Singapore under the sweltering heat; we'll see how that goes! The snow hasn't abated yet, and judging from the thickness of the snow on the ground I'd say there is about an inch and a half of snow right now. I'm really looking forward to the walk back to Dante House. Entry by: Aiwen Yang, Transfer Student
Hello everyone!
Good thing I finally got into many courses that I wanted to, for which I need to show my gratitude to my teacher, and those people who gave me very good advices! I registered for five classes. A couple of history courses for my development world track, U.S. foreign policy, Arabic and HUM I! All the courses were pretty limited, however HUM was the only class that was offered in many timeframes. I checked KnightWeb before my registration day, and I found a couple of HUM courses that matched with my schedule. Therefore, I thought I would take professor Greenfield's class. However, by the time of my registration, all the seats were gone! I was wondering why would he be so popular, and everything became more clear this Friday when I went to the grand opening event at Starbucks. I knew that Starbucks was invading the planet, but I never thought that it would also invade Geneseo. It is located right in the College Union. Once you get into Starbucks, you would forget about all your papers and exams but not coffees and Muffins! However, since we are in a university, there will always be someone who will remind you about your studies and works; above all that "everyone has to take HUM!" Guess who that was? Professor Greenfield of course! You would not think that he was teaching HUM in Starbucks! Of course he was not! He was wearing a Starbucks apron, and singing and playing his guitar in Starbucks! I spent a good time there just listening to his songs; I should say that his songs were very interesting and entertaining. No wonder his class filled so fast! If it wasn't that I had a class at the time, I would have stayed till the end and asked him to accept me in his class. I would also like to have a HUM professor who can sing in the class; that would be so inspirational for a Humanity course, wouldn't it? I guess I will have to wait for next semester's registration; then I will be able to register for professor Greenfield's HUM II.Entry by: Aiwen Yang, Transfer Student Last fall break we had four days of vacation, so my friends and I decided to go to Toronto for a day! My friends had already been there once, but for me, it was the first time I got to step in the Canadian territory. My first impression about Toronto was exciting and impressive! We drove for almost three hours to pass the border and for my surprise, I did not feel that I was getting into another country. It took us for another hour to get into the city of Toronto. After being so wonderfully wrapped by the nature at Geneseo, I found it surprising to see such a cosmopolitan city. It was almost like civilization as we got into the high way, and seeing all the skyscrapers standing around the city. It somehow reminded me the first time I went to New York City by bus. Toronto reminded me of New York City, although it was much cleaner, and the smell was also different. Since the weather was very enjoyable, we decided not to take any transportation, instead, we walked around the city following a map that tourist guide gave us by the CN Tower. We thought that by walking, we would have a greater opportunity to see the city and appreciate its beauty. We followed all the spots indicated by the map. We walked around the city and there was so much diversity. There were people from everywhere. Of course, our presence in the city also added more international flavor to it! Toronto has so much to offer. It has a very tranquil around the University of Toronto and a lively side in downtown area. The greatest thing about travelling is always the food, so by the time we got to Chinatown; we could not wait to eat some dumplings in the "Dumpling House"! The taste of the dumplings was just like those from China! Surprisingly, walking around Chinatown after a delicious lunch, we met many Geneseo students in the street; it was just such a small world! We did not stop walking until the night fell. By then, my body was already destroyed. Of course, what I was going to expect after being walking for almost ten hours! We left Toronto when it was already dark, and Toronto was another magical city. Since we did not have the chance to stay overnight, it gives us another excuse to go back again! Entry by: Mike Forgione, Senior, Ice Hockey Captain
Entry by: Id Goh It was Halloween last weekend, and it's a really big deal in America. I was pretty surprised and unnerved to be a part of the experience, especially since back home in Singapore I never celebrated Halloween, and the closest I got to seeing costumes live was through videos and television programs. Although Halloween technically was on Sunday; celebrations began on Friday night and people enthusiastically dressed up and went around the school! There were series of contiguous events, ranging from dance parties or costume making sessions hosted by the school's Activities Commission Board, to house parties in various dorms both in and off campus. I personally made scant attempt at generating a costume, and I wasn't the only one. The problem with not having a distinct or flagrantly designed costume is that people tend to have no idea what you are supposed to be dressed up as, and when people ask you; all you can muster is a stymied look that places everyone in a rather awkward situation! That happened to my roommate and me a few times, and looking back in hindsight the situation was probably hilarious.
Entry by: Aiwen Yang Hello everyone!
Entry by: Aiwen Yang Hello everyone!
Entry by: Id Goh Hey there!
It is starting to get kind of cold, especially when there's wind-it just cuts right through you. I can officially say that the weather is intermittently insane. The temperature and weather conditions fluctuate on an hourly basis. There have been so many times whereby it is really cold in the morning even with a jacket on, only to have a warm afternoon where people are walking around in shirts and shorts, and then have a sudden downpour out of nowhere! Still, I need to buy winter clothing soon; I heard it's going to get freezing cold in upstate New York in the winter, so, better get prepared! The leaves of most trees around campus are turning orange/yellow and are dropping all over the place, the roadsides are lined with layers of fallen leaves of vibrant hues-it's a really pretty sight! The grass and some shrubs are still green though, and it is nice to have a mixture of both green and brighter colors all around campus.
Entry by: Id Goh, Freshman (Wed. Oct 20, 2010 ) It’s been a really busy couple of weeks—I’ve had midterms for most if not all of my subjects. I have my second bio exam in two days, and I’m definitely not looking forward to it! Many events have happened on campus, especially the advent of multicultural week. There was a Ghana drum performance in my dorm’s lounge last night, and a whole crowd of people flooded the relatively small room to watch the performance. To be honest, I actually did not know about it beforehand, and was groggily jerked awake by the drum noise that was heard even in the other dorms in the area! I went out to check out what was going on, and was treated to a whole explosion of drum sets, vocal sounds, ethnic costumes, various other unique instruments, and wooden structures reminisce of a museum. The performance was really invigorating—it was a mixture of dance and music and song; the sweat drenched performers were completely absorbed in their actions, bringing the audience with them. They were embellished with ethnic African costumes, and were extremely well rehearsed! There were even several points in time whereby some of the performers left the lounge and rushed to the common restroom to change their costumes, bringing freshness and allowing the audience to enjoy a wider range of their culture.
Entry by: Id Goh, Freshman My fall break just passed by really fast, I think in part due to the long bus ride from upstate to New York City—it was a 6 hour bus ride each way! It wasn’t the first time I’ve been to New York City, but it was so easy to just get lost in the never-ending streets and avenues. I was jolted awake in the bus at five in the morning, and most of us were just deposited sleepily and vaguely conscious at the Port Authority. I somehow found my way to my cousin’s place at Union Square (I didn’t really hang out with him previously so that felt kind of ‘new’ to me). My two cousins were sleeping and not picking up their phones, so I was stuck walking around trying to stay awake for nearly an hour before they realized I was right below the apartment!The next three days literally just flew by, and I think almost all of our time was spent either on eating, or walking for 20 minutes to the place we were going to eat at. We all really enjoy good food, and my cousin who lives in NYC brought us to a wide variety of restaurants and cafes to eat—he spent the last 6 years in NYC hunting down and tasting all the good food places, before bringing visitors to those same eateries. In the 6 main meals I had in NYC (3 lunches, 3 dinners), I had: nice Italian pasta near Soho, the best seafood I’ve had in my life, one meal of pure steak, another with nothing but meat (beef, pork, chicken) cut marvelously, a new restaurant with a awesome tasting menu and SUSHI!! I actually didn’t get to have Chinese food (what kind of Chinese am I?)! We sort of split the costs of the meals, but being the youngest I was treated to a few meals— yet I definitely spent more money in three days in NYC than 2 months in Geneseo! Apart from that, I also spent the later part of the nights at the apartment watching TV. Since coming to college, I have not watched television (some students bring television sets to college, but it was a pretty far reach for me), so it was really enjoyable to spend time sitting in front of the television like good old times. I remember watching a lot of iron chef and American football—the Vikings and Jets game was rather exciting! I also spent a few hours shopping (I personally do not enjoy shopping, so I try to get it over as fast as possible), and bought many things that I could not get in Geneseo: a entire suit which I bought in parts from various locations to lower the price (three shirts, two ties, a jacket, formal pants, black shoes, I forgot to buy a belt), a pair of basketball shoes and a hand carry luggage bag. NYC is a shopping haven, especially the Soho district—its lack of government tax makes it one of the most popular shopping hotspots in the city. Being in college, a suit is a really good investment, even if you’re a freshman. For instance, being in the School of Business, I often get emails regarding professional dinners or meetings, whereby a suit is necessary to attend. I missed two accounting society meet ups with professionals already due to a lack of professional attire; I will not miss any more! I also might have an interview coming up hopefully, so I will need a suit for that as well.
Entry by: Id Goh, Freshman Hey! I'd also like to bring up Wegmans (local supermarket with awesome cooked food). When I first came to Geneseo, many existing students said Wegmans was the best thing around here, and I can absolutely verify that! It has an extremely diversified cooked food section, including sushi, nearly twenty dishes of Asian food, as well as meat cooked in a variety of ways. In the previous week, I've been there twice for the cooked Asian food, which is pretty authentic and... comforting (one can only live off subs for so long), as well as tons of snacks and drinks to get me through the days and nights. Last night, I spent around a 100 bucks on food from Wegmans and I think it's going to be worth every dollar! The daily express service bus directly to Wegmans and Walmart shaves off around 20 minutes off the normal bus route (I recently found this out), and makes it extremely convenient to just take a quick 40-50 minute trip on any day of the week to buy a huge pile of groceries. I think I actually own nearly half of my dorm's common fridge with everything I've been buying so far. This coming weekend is going to be the fall break! It's really just an extended weekend (fri, sat, sun, mon, tues) in lieu of midterm exams, and many students are either going back to their hometowns, traveling around in New York, or visiting the major cities in the area-New York City, Toronto or other parts of Canada. The International Student Office is also offering an event for International students who would not be travelling around-Steeplechase races! There are multiple round trip bus rides scheduled to travel around New York, and the tickets can easily be obtained online. Personally, I will be taking an overnight bus ride on Friday night to New York City to spend the weekend with my cousins who are working there. I can't wait for the weekend to come!
Entry by: Id Goh, Freshman First Impressions
Entry by: Ale Hi
Entry by: Ale The fourth annual G.R.E.A.T. Day was held April 20, 2010.
Entry by: Vishal There are several cultural clubs on Geneseo campus that represent various countries and their culture. These clubs give an opportunity to students at Geneseo to learn foreign cultures through personal experiences of mostly international students. One such club is called Shakti; it's a South-Asian cultural club that represents cultures of countries such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Recently, Shakti had their cultural night where they performed some Bollywood dances and acted out a play. They also served traditional South Asian dishes like naan, chole, biryani, and beef kima to the attendees. The audience thoroughly enjoyed the performances. The plot of the play revolved around a cricket match played by villagers against British officers; the taxes were put to the stakes. After the performance, some students asked me if I play cricket, and would I be able to show them how it's played, if I played. I have played cricket back in India for pretty much my whole life. I am planning to invite the interested students this weekend to play cricket. If I see a lot of interest, I might start a Cricket club on campus in fall. This would give an opportunity to pursue my interest in cricket and teach American students a new sport.
Entry by: Ale Members of Orchesis are all of those students who have a particular enjoyment for dance-whether they have previous dance experience and wish to continue to pursue dance, are pursuing a minor in dance here at Geneseo, or have no experience and are interested in exploring dance as a hobby, as a way to meet people, or for the pure enjoyment of dancing. I have been in Geneseo for almost four years now and have attended Orchesis' performances since I can remember. Although I have never participated in a dance myself, many of my friends have. Therefore, knowing the dancers and being able to see them perform on stage makes it that much more fun to attend the show!
Entry by: Ale As a Communication major, Geneseo has given me the opportunities I have needed and wanted to really explore my interests within the field. I have been able to explore my creative potential through a couple internships in public relations and graphic design. But I still felt like I was lacking experience in one of the most integral areas of Communication: writing. As a last semester senior, I realized I did not have any writing experience or samples (aside from class assignments, e.g. essays) for my portfolio and hence, decided to pursue an internship at Roemer House, one of Geneseo’s Communications and publications office. Although the internship was primarily for writing, I am still involved in graphics and in helping with some of the art needed for the Geneseo website and to promote campus events (e.g. posters). So far I have written two articles for the ENCompass Weekly, a weekly publication, which informs the Geneseo community—primarily faculty and staff—of current events. The first article talked about Live Green, a campus-wide, long–day event organized by Geneseo students informing the campus community about sustainability methods and the very popular “green movement”. The second article, called Real World Geneseo, was about a program Geneseo faculty and staff have been organizing for the last couple years and which were finally able to carry out this past January, 2010. I have copied the link below to this second article. Feel free to not only read the article but also to browse through the Communications website for a couple more publications that cover other events that have been happening on campus. Entry by: Janelle As everyone is finally getting settled into their second semester routines, Spring Break is already on my mind! Spring Break generally falls the second week in March, marking the halfway point of the semester. This year, my friends and I plan to travel to Panama City, Florida on the trip organized by the school. The Undergraduate Alumni Association (UAA) hosts a Spring Break trip every year at a very reasonable price; the trip costs include transportation and hotel accommodations for a 9-day vacation! In past years I have taken this vacation to visit with family and friends and simply enjoy a relaxing week without schoolwork, which I think everyone will need by the time Spring Break comes. There are still plenty of options if you do decide to stay in town, but once in awhile a change of scenery can be refreshing! This trip is something that you should keep in mind for a future vacation opportunity; planning a trip either by yourself or with friends can be stressful, but if you choose to travel with the school all you need to do is show up! Because the UAA works with Breakaway tours, a reputable travel agency, it also ensures that your accommodations in Florida will be both reliable and comfortable. This trip also provides a great chance to meet new people, both from Geneseo and from all over the country. After talking with students who have gone on the trip in previous years, only positive things were shared about spending the trip with other college students. Because we travel by bus, you have a fairly long ride to get to know the other people on your bus and potentially make new friendships. That is why, whether you are traveling with a large group or just one good friend, you will most likely spend the week with lots of different people (or at least I hope so). If nothing else, you can enjoy a lovely break from the snow while relaxing on the beach. So stay tuned for a blog entry about my personal Spring Break experience in Panama City when I return around mid-March! Entry by: Vishal We all sympathize with the people that fall prey to natural calamities. The recent earthquake in Haiti has brought a severe grief in Haiti and around the world. Everyone wants to help these people, but how many of us actually do something to help? Unfortunate incidents have occurred in the past where I wanted to help but I didn’t know how to. At Geneseo, I found amazing ways to fund raise and help the society. Students are doing their every best to fundraise for the people in Haiti. Last Friday I was in Dante House, where the hall council held an event called ‘Dante Bachelor and Bachelorette Auction’. The purpose of the event was to raise money by auctioning off each other for a date. You could bid on anyone: a friend, a stranger, someone you liked. The money raised went to Haiti relief. On Saturday night Black Student Union (BSU) had their annual cultural dinner. The event turned out to be a big success since all the tickets were sold out. The food served was delicious which was accompanied by various cultural and spectacular dance performances. The club worked extremely hard to put this event together, and all the money raised is going to Haiti relief cause. Shakti, a south Asian cultural club did Henna tattoos a couple weeks ago to fund raise money for the people in Haiti. Amnesty International, another organization on campus delivered flowers for people on Valentine’s Day for a small fee. The raised money is going towards helping people in Haiti. There are many more upcoming events in the college union this week to fund raise even more. These are some of the events I have participated in, but I am sure there are tons of other events and things that students are doing for Haiti relief that I am not part of. In short, Geneseo is a great community that is aware of societal responsibilities, and I am glad to be able to contribute to the society through it. Entry By. Ale In addition to fall break in October, students at Geneseo look forward to the end of November for Thanksgiving break. While the majority of students go home to visit their friends and family, our international students look at a variety of options. Some students visit their host family, some go to their friends’ houses, and others take advantage of short breaks like these to travel to exciting places around the state or country. The most commonly visited place is by far New York City! Throughout my four years at Geneseo I have been able to do a little bit of everything. For the first couple years I visited a friend in the Albany, NY area and my host family in the Buffalo, NY area. My junior year was particularly exciting! I met my parents in L.A. and we were able to travel to Las Vegas! And this year, for my senior year of college, I visited two of my friends in the Rochester and Syracuse area. Every year has been a different, yet very fun, experience. While my host family is my home away from home and therefore, a very relaxing and comforting place to visit, spending some time at friends’ houses is pretty cool. I always find it fun to see where they come from by meeting their close friends from home and of course, their families.
Entry by: Vishal When I graduated from high school, I was planning to go to engineering school in India. I wanted to pursue my bachelors’ degree in computer engineering but I wasn’t sure if that was the path I really wanted to take. At the same time I was looking into American universities. I came across Geneseo, and I was attracted by the idea of liberal arts education where you are required to take certain number of classes related to different academic fields along with classes for the major you sign up. I came into Geneseo as a computer science major. I took three computer science classes my freshman (first) year. I did well in all of those classes but I realize that I didn’t want to work with computers my whole life. During the same year I took couple business classes, and the things I learned in those classes fascinated me. I could relate the material I learned in the class to the real world. I decided to be a Business Administration major then. The curriculum for Business Administration here at Geneseo requires you to take some Accounting classes. I took the necessary classes, and now I am leaning towards Accounting as my major. Wow! It’s crazy I have been changing my majors like I change my hairstyle every so often. The best part of going through all this transition is that I am still on track. I don’t have to start over; I can still graduate in four years. If I were in a disciplined engineering school in India or the United States, I would have to start over. The liberal education at Geneseo gives you an opportunity to try different academic fields as part of the General Education requirements. The computer science classes I took will be counted as part of the GenEd requirements, not to mention that I gained knowledge in those classes as well. Along with a major, here at Geneseo, you can also do another major (commonly known as double major) if you are really interested in two different fields. A friend of mine is doing double major in Biology and English. How cool is that! One can also do a minor or two if they decide too. For example, I am planning to minor in either Economics or Intenational Relations. The point I am making is that Geneseo has given me an opportunity to explore my interests, which I could have not had in many other colleges I applied to. Now, hopefully, I won’t regret after I graduate that I didn’t get to experience other fields or I made the wrong decision. Geneseo is place where you can do what you like, not a place where you have to like what you do!
Entry by: Ale It is the end of October and the academic advisement period for current students started this week. The first time I met with my academic advisor, I have to admit I was a little nervous. I didn’t really know what to expect…how was I to prepare for our appointment? What was I to say? What was I to ask? But as I walked into his office I quickly found out how friendly and welcoming my advisor was! During our first appointment he really took the time to try and get to know me by asking questions like where I was from, what my interests were within the Communications major, and most importantly, what my goals were as a student. Even though all students are assigned to an academic advisor, ISS also helps its students prepare for this time in the semester by holding an Academic Advisement and Registration Workshop. Kris, our Admissions Intern, is in charge of carrying out this workshop. He equips the new incoming students with the necessary information to know what the general education requirements are for SUNY Geneseo among other guidelines and regulations concerning academics. From my personal experience, an academic advisor, like any other faculty member, can become a friend on campus. I know I meet with my advisor a few times throughout the semester sometimes to just chit chat and other times to actually discuss my current academic plans and, now as a senior, my post-graduation professional plans. I believe that getting to know your advisor helps students to make the best possible decisions regarding their future (both immediate and long term), is an important step to becoming a successful Geneseo student!
Entry by: Vishal I am part of the model United Nations (MUN) club on Geneseo campus. In the club meetings we talk and debate on current issues and events in the political world. In addition, few selected members of the club get the opportunity to attend various conferences at various places through the Student Association funding. I was fortunate enough this semester to get selected as one of the 16 delegates for the National Collegiate Security Council XXXVII held at Georgetown University in Washington, DC from October 8 until October 11, 2009. The conference hosted 16 different committees with more than 500 delegates. I was assigned to the largest committee at the conference, Lok Sabha the Indian Parliament. It consisted of roughly 90 delegates. Being an international student from India, I was really excited to be a part of this committee. I was hoping that I would fit best into this committee since I belonged directly from the Indian culture that the simulation intended to focus on. I imagined myself the highlight of the committee but all of these dreams where fell apart when I went to the conference. Among the 90 delegates who attended the Indian Parliament committee, ten delegates were international students from India who go to different colleges in the US; about 60 other delegates were Indian Americans and few other American delegates had been to India in the past as exchange students or visitors. Wow! I should have imagined the diversity in America. Among the other schools who participated were Harvard University, Columbia University, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Florida State University, Bard College and many other well known institutions. The Indian Parliament had roughly 90 delegates (Members of Parliament, or MPs), with each seat represented by an individual. Since states in India have many seats, sometimes with political parties having multiple seats for the same state, each delegate was given an assignment that read “State, Party, Specific Seat”, for example: “Uttar Pradesh - BJP - Seat B”. Our simulation sought to put the world’s largest democracy and its institutions to the test. We focused on the issues India still faces domestically while it stages internationally as a global economic power and an emerging diplomatic voice. The debates involved current policies in action in India; how we need to amend them to benefit Indian people as best as possible. I represented a radical Hindu extremist political party from Maharashtra – Shiv Sena. Although, in real life, I don’t quite agree with their views, I had an intriguing experience supporting the views of the party I was representing and opposing the current government in India at the conference. The main topics that were debated in the committee were the national security and the socio-economic development in India. This being my first MUN conference, I had an amazing learning experience at Georgetown University. Although there were other good schools participating in the debate, I believe that I did well. Geneseo being a small school is often not recognized for its high value education. I competed against Harvard students in debates, and I feel like I was equally good at debating. In fact, in some instances I was able to effectively oppose their comments. Geneseo definitely is keen on students’ all-round development. I learned that SUNY Geneseo absolutely can compete at any level!
Entry by: Ale, FALL BREAK: Hi guys! We just got back from a nice 4-day weekend which we have every fall semester around mid-October. The ISS office always plans a field trip for its students to visit nearby tourist sites. But this year we planned a little something different. We decided to visit the Wadsworth Haunted Mansion giving our students the opportunity to experience the very popular American tradition of Halloween! They had a couple different activities, among them the haunted hay ride, in which you ride on a wagon; a tour of a haunted barn; and scenes through the haunted mansion. All of these involve many actors that role-play as frightening characters with the intentions of surprising people in the dark. These terrifying attractions not only had some of the students shaking in their boots, but a few screams and shouts could be heard from the ISS staff members as well. The Halloween experience was a great time for everyone involved and has surely left some exciting and scary memories with all students who dared to enter the Wadsworth haunted mansion.
Entry by: Ale One of the many things Geneseo prides itself in is its active role in the community. The college does this by providing its students with many community service opportunities through a number of its student-run and affiliated organizations. A couple examples of these community programs are: 100 Volunteers, in which Geneseo students work on Labor Day (an American holiday) and help out in the community. They do anything from cleaning the streets, to painting houses, to even serving a senior citizen. Habitat for Humanity, a non-for-profit, nationwide organization, is also a very popular program among Geneseo students. With the help of volunteers and monetary donations Habitat for Humanity is able to build and repair houses throughout the country to reduce housing poverty and homelessness. I, for example, am a member of a social service organization called the Royal Lady Knights (RLK) through which I am able to make my mark in the community. We have fundraising events where we raise funds for different causes such as buying school supplies to donate to underprivileged schools in the Rochester-city area. This is something I have really enjoyed doing for the past three years in Geneseo. I hope that if you do decide to come to Geneseo that you get the opportunity to give back to the community through service events and enjoy them as much as I have!
Entry by: Vishal Last Monday, September the 28 th, Wyoming hall hosted a program called Celebrate YOU. As the name indicates, the program was about celebrating one’s own beliefs and cultures. Six different cultural clubs took part at the program. Tables were set up for individual clubs, and the program was open to all the students on campus. The cultural clubs talked about their cultures to the attendees. In addition, they also had activities to showcase their cultures. Latino Student Association did Merengue music and dance show which many people tried and had fun. Merengue is a type of music and dance from Latin America, most famous in the Dominican Republic. Two students of the Black Student Union step danced for the audience first and then asked the interested attendees to dance with them. Japanese cultural club and Shakti, the south-Asian cultural clubs brought ethnic food. Every one enjoyed the delicious “real” Japanese sushi and Indian samosas, small spicy tortilla filled with potatoes. Other clubs were more interested in just talking about their culture and shared their stories on cultural differences. The RAs who hosted this program had set up a projector screen in the main lounge showing short clips of different cross cultural movies. The attendees got the opportunity to cut pictures from the magazines provided; pictures that they thought best described them and their culture. The pictures were all pasted together on a collage. It was great to see how the collage came out in the end. I had a great learning experience at this program. I was aware of Geneseo’s diversity but this was the first time I actually was able to see it first hand on display. Now, I am truly aware that I am not the only international student who is from a non-American culture. I also heard American students appreciating the differences in the international community.
Entry by: Ale In addition to fall break in October, students at Geneseo look forward to the end of November for Thanksgiving break. While the majority of students go home to visit their friends and family, our international students look at a variety of options. Some students visit their host family, some go to their friends’ houses, and others take advantage of short breaks like these to travel to exciting places around the state or country. The most commonly visited place is by far New York City! Throughout my four years at Geneseo I have been able to do a little bit of everything. For the first couple years I visited a friend in the Albany, NY area and my host family in the Buffalo, NY area. My junior year was particularly exciting! I met my parents in L.A. and we were able to travel to Las Vegas! And this year, for my senior year of college, I visited two of my friends in the Rochester and Syracuse area. Every year has been a different, yet very fun, experience. While my host family is my home away from home and therefore, a very relaxing and comforting place to visit, spending some time at friends’ houses is pretty cool. I always find it fun to see where they come from by meeting their close friends from home and of course, their families. |
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