First Week at College

My first week of school was crazy. I had to figure out what all of my teachers were like and how stressful my schedule was and where I had to go and so on. Other than that, it has been pretty interesting. I have met several wonderful new people, and I have a lot more free time than in high school. At first, I didn't know what to do with my free time, so I was randomly wandering around campus trying to decide what I should do next. I finally opted to start hanging out in the Honors office until I have to go to work. This has been working out really well so far because it is normally quiet in the office, and I have a chance to do my homework. The first few days of school, I came to class dressed and ready to go to work. I work at a bank, so I have to look nice. However, the whole dressing up every day thing stopped happening very quickly. Instead, I bring my bank clothes with me and change when I get to work. I've decided that casual clothing is a must for college. The amount of homework I get in each class varies, but none of it has become overwhelming. Although, in one of my classes, we are supposed to write a 1,000 word essay, and I'm not exactly sure what is going on with that. Oh well, if the paper is the worst thing I have to worry about, then my first week of school didn't go too badly.

Freshman Survival Seminar

When I first found out about the role simulation, I started freaking out about possibly having to speak in front of an audience. However, as the simulation progressed, I realized that I didn't have anything to worry about. If the older students had not been a part of the mix, no one else would have known what to do either. I was portraying a terrorist girl named Amira who is supposed to be a registered nurse; I’m not exactly sure why a registered nurse was a necessary part of taking hostages. It wasn’t a situation in which the potential hostages were hardened criminals stocked with a wide assortment of guns. I’m assuming that I was there just in case someone on my team had a problem with their weapon. Anyway, the Hostage Crisis was much more intense than I thought it was going to be. It was extremely frustrating when the U.S. Government would not cooperate with my group. I hate any kind of terrorism, so it was a weird to be frustrated at the lack of effort from the U.S. in negotiating. I was disappointed that they didn't do more. During the debriefing, the U.S. people said the main reason they had not been able to meet our demands was their lack of communication with Needak. Even so, it would have been nice to have heard from the U.S. a little more. When they refused our demands, they could have explained their reasons for the refusal. Nevertheless, I thought that it was a very interesting game, and it was a unique opportunity to meet and interact with the other freshman Honors students.