Day 3/99: Needles, picnics and ancient Egypt

Nothing rabidly exciting today - started off by meeting Claire on the way to a talk on The Arts and Humanities at Princeton, which was more hilarious than I expected (like the Creative Writing professor making a joke about urine samples), got my meningitis jab (a steal at $102), went to the picnic that they held since the dining halls were freshmen-only tonight (got a bread roll, three chicken breasts, potato salad, two cookies and a whole bunch of grapes - though I refused the iced tea on principle).

I also decided to try and call on my next-door neighbour (we're adjoined by the bathroom corridor), and discovered why I haven't met him yet...

..nobody lives there. I now effectively have access to two rooms and my own bathroom, so win.

One of the main academic things I'm doing at the moment is selecting my course choices - I had the Student Advisory Fair tonight, where other people tell me about the choices they took, and I have a meeting with my Dean about it all tomorrow morning. I've pretty much decided on three of them - a Junior Seminar on views of history and geography in the first millenium BC (for which I'll write a 30-page paper), a seminar on Greek democracy and a 9am beginner's Latin course with a professor I had described to me tonight as "one of the best Latinists in the world". I could leave it there - Oxford only ask me to take three courses - but the normal Princeton load is four or five, and I did enough Latin over the summer that LAT101 should be fairly easy-going.

One of my two main choices for a fourth course is The Ancient Egyptian Body - basically an art history course - with a new, youngish professor, which is fairly undersubscribed, so I'll get lots of class time. The difficulties are that I don't know very much at all about Egypt, nor art history, so I can't tell whether I'll be qualified. Another one is Classical Roots of Western Literature: it's taught in the Comparative Literature department by something of a genius who apparently speaks nine languages, and consequently is a lot of work - 200 pages a week on top of everything else (compared to 60-90 for the Egypt course), and student reviews of it online talk of having to read Dante's Inferno in a weekend. That's 432 pages in the Penguin Classics edition.

There are a range of other courses I could take - introduction to art history, or a course on how the Queen of Sheba's been portrayed from Biblical times to today - but they don't grasp me as much as those two do. Hopefully it'll become clearer, as I get more advice from people, which one is best for me.

Day 2/99 - the evening

Just got back from a meeting in the International Office - found out a bit about what's required of me coursewise, but more importantly, found out about the events they put on - a weekly Chinese lunch for $1 (about 60p), a weekly game of Go (like chess but eastern), and trips - to see Hair on Broadway for about $45 (yes please), or historical tours of Philadelphia. It sounds really fun - I don't think I'm going to be short of things to do here at all. I also hung out a bit with the French exchange students, from Sciences Po, and they rubbished the Sorbonne as not being prestigious at all since it offers correspondence courses anyone can take - and also, two of them remind me spookily of people I acted with at Oxford...

Have also sent an email about the problem with my swipe card (I can't get into my building after 6pm, and have to stand around looking pathetic until someone takes pity on me and swipes me in), so hopefully that will be fixed tomorrow. Tomorrow also has a talk on The Arts and Humanities at Princeton, a third international students' meeting, a few other college meetings, my Meningitis jab, and my first meals in Wu Hall, so that should all be fun.

Finally, I include this photo only because it will bring great happiness to my long-suffering mother:

Days 1 and 2/99: The journey, 911 and the mall

I'm in America, after one or two points of hassle (not sleeping from 6am to 3am UK time, accidentally calling 911, trains not running) and quite enjoying it. It's really warm and sunny - about 28 degrees Celsius, almost 80 Fahrenheit - and I've spent the day out shopping with the other internationals. I met them all, and the Princeton people responsible for us, last night - though the boxes of Dunkin' Donuts they had for us were easily the best part of the evening, especially as they were all I had for dinner.

A few observations about the US:

On my NJ transit ticket, in the picture above, you may just be able to make out the phrase "Seating aboard NJ Transit vehicles is without regard to race, creed, color (sic) or national origin." I mean, obviously it's nice that they're making the effort, but how many other civilised countries need to make that disclaimer in the 21st century?

Speaking of train seating, it's really nice - 1930s and leathery - which is in stark contrast to the very weird unpainted steel outside of the trains.

As I say, today the Princeton international office ran a shopping trip to a local mall, for which they hired this:

 

Truly, I am in America.

Between my trips to Walmart, Best Buy and Target, I got bedding, another towel, a phone, a mug, and an alarm clock. I also got camera batteries on 2-for-1 at Boots at the airport, so I should be able to keep photographing away as long as I'm here.

At Best Buy, I take a photo to prove that the "it's going to be a New Jersey winter and you'll freeze to death" predictions of my friends and family were a little bit hyperbolic:

 

Also, a picture of my bed last night, complete with stolen aeroplane (I keep wanting to say 'airplane'!") sleeping materials:

 

And, more comfortably, today:

That's a fleece-like blanket on the bed, by the way: it was five dollars cheaper than a duvet ('comforter' here) and I don't need to wrestle to fit the cover over it.

That's pretty much everything - expect to hear more interesting things from me as my schedule gets busier over the next couple of days! As a quick taster - there's a 5k race next weekend to celebrate my college's redesign, which is a little bit tempting...

Introduction

I'm Rob, and this blog is a place where my friends and family (and, eventually, the Merton College travel fund and the Citi Foundation, who sponsor me and take reports on my activities) can keep up-to-date with the details and photos of my semester abroad at Princeton in New Jersey, from mid-September to late December. I won't publish my phone number, Skype name, or my US address on this blog for obvious reasons, but if you want any of them then ask me on Facebook, by email, or ask my parents.

I'm going to spare you the details of my visa applications, travel immunisations or the joy of packing, so my first real post on this blog won't be until I actually land in the good ol' US of A.

Rob