I’ve always though that I have the worst luck, and the eventful few days I have had since leaving England last week have proven this. Firstly, as I was approaching my exciting new life in Miami word had reached me via paranoid relatives that a huge hurricane was also heading towards Miami, and was due to arrive on the same day! A quick check on the Florida news website confirmed severe weather warnings for the whole of south Florida, and so the University of Miami helpfully closed down just as I was due to arrive there, jetlagged and bewildered.
After a turbulent and bumpy flight across the Atlantic, I touched down in the ‘Sunshine State’ amidst a hot and humid thunderstorm. Miami appears to shut down completely when rain comes along, so after driving through an eerily quiet city I arrived at a silent and empty Miami campus. Although my residence hall had been left open, all international orientation activities had been cancelled and so my first night in what is supposed to be the sunny, party university turned out to be somewhat rainy and silent!
Thankfully, since then the hurricane has moved northwards to wreak havoc at Disneyworld and thousands of loud, American students came out of their flood garages to move all their worldly possessions into our small, shared dorm rooms. Miami, it turns out, is one of the most expensive universities to attend in the US (over $45000 tuition fees per year!) and so the wealth of some of my floor residents is amazing – flat screen TVs in every room, as well as full size fridges and even running machines and exercise bikes! The students here also bring so many more comfort items; it is not unusual to find rooms decked out with huge fluffy rugs, office chairs, inflatable chairs and personalised shower curtains. All of a sudden my first-year Edinburgh dorm room seemed very bare – fridges were certainly not allowed there!
We’re half way through orientation week now, and already I have had about 50 conversations revolving entirely around my English accent. They weren’t kidding when they said that Americans love the English way of talking! I went to the most amazing opening ceremony for the freshman class, complete with cheerleaders and the ‘marching band’ – over 5000 people packed into our huge basketball stadium, where inspirational speakers came and got very excited about Miami! We were also told that the presidential candidates were coming to talk to us next month (!!!!!!!), at which point I almost fell off my seat in shock. This really is the high life…
The city where the campus is based is beautiful – a very posh residential area of Miami with plenty of palm trees, swimming pools and yachts! The houses here are absolutely huge, often with a yacht moored in a canal behind leading to the sea. I still can’t quite believe I’m here – I feel like I’m on holiday! It’s surreal to think that this is my new home for almost 5 months!
I’m going on for too long so I’ll sign off now, more later about some of the lovely Americans I’ve met…!
Kate xx
meiller
salut,je vous remerciez d'acceptez etre un ami
moi aussi j'aime bien tout qui concernant les etudes superieures,vraiment cette université à miami est excellente.
moi aussi j'ai une licence en sciences economie option economie financier de l'institue des sciences economie en algerie.j'ai bac05 ans .
et je travail autant que charge d'etudes financier depuis 07 ans.
mon reve toujours de suivre des etudes à l'univresité.