Welcome Week

Hello once again! A week has passed since my last blog post in California, and so it only makes sense to pick up where I left off I suppose! Brace yourself, a lot went on during UCI Welcome Week...

Day 1: Monday 23rd

The University of California, Irvine's Welcome Week kicked off on Monday with the 'Anteater Involvement Fair' - yes, you read that correctly, 'Anteater'. For those of you raising your eyebrows and scratching your heads, you may know that American universities are often identified by their (usually) animal mascots - well, if you hadn't already joined the dots, ours is the anteater! Perhaps not the first animal you'd associate to a university mascot, but Peter the Anteater has his charms...

So anyway, I was heading down to the Involvement Fair - a showcase of all of the clubs, societies, fraternities and sororities that students are able to join. Expecting it to be pretty small (based on similar experiences at my home university) I headed down about an hour before my University Orientation. Boy, were my expectations way off! At the heart of UCI is a very large park called Aldrich Park (which walking around in my campus tour later that day took around an hour to complete); the Involvement Fair took over the entire park. The fanfare, music, and student atmosphere could be heard from far away, as hundreds of stalls and stages (with performances) filled the park. It was at this point that it really hit home how big this place really is.

A small overview of a small corner of the overwhelming Anteater Involvement Fair

Thankfully, the daunting size of the campus was overcome with a simple tour during my orientation. Our lovely tour guide, who God bless her must have spent hours learning her script of corny jokes and campus trivia, showed us where everything is and how to get about the campus - suddenly it didn't seem oh so big after all - but don't get me wrong, it's still freaking huge!

After the tour, me and a friend went and did some more exploring through the Student Centre and the University Town, or as I like to call them 'the biggest collection of restaurants and takeaways that I have ever seen!' The Student Centre alone has not one, but two food courts (yes, whole food courts!), and then just across the road from it is the University Town, which hosts God knows how many restaurants, takeaways and drive-throughs (but it's a lot!), as well as a gym, a supermarket, and a 6 screen cinema (yup, a 6 screen independent cinema on campus - I may never come home). That evening, I tried out Blaze Pizza - the best pizza restaurant I've ever been to: imagine a pizza restaurant, crossed with subway, and for just over $10 you can get as many toppings as you like, and a bottomless drink! Bellissimo!

Just one of the many many on-campus eateries, at the Student Centre

In the evening, with a few friends from the international transfer programme, I headed along to 'Late Night at the ARC (Anteater Recreation Centre)' - it's basically the university gym, but once again, everything is turned up to 11. With two massive rooms of gym equipment, a number of courts, a rock climbing wall and a large lengths swimming pool, it's fair to say that the free membership that they give students will be well utilised this year...

One of the many displays in one of the many courts at the ARC - these hip-hop guys were 'sick'...

Day 2: Tuesday 24th

Nothing brings together a body of students quite like beating a world record for the world's biggest water blaster fight, in an epic battle of over 3,800 people. I'm not sure that words will do justice to just how awesome this was (and I'm pretty sure you'll be tired of reading after the length of day 1 - sorry!), so here are the photos and videos that fully show off this one-of-a-kind experience...

Thousands of water pistols form the two front lines of battle...

A meeting with Peter the Anteater

Before...

...and after!

Pretty cool, huh?! B)

Later that day, after sorting out my student ID card (in the biggest university store - you will find pretty much anything with the UCI logo on it!) and a few other errands, I headed down to my accommodation's clubhouse for a Casino night. It was a fun night of poker and blackjack (not for money, alas, as I tripled up my monopoly money equivalent in a good game of poker) with good company, and with Vegas only a 4 hour drive away, perhaps this will serve as a nice warm-up for a potential trip someday...

Day 3: Wednesday 25th
Started off Wednesday in the best possible way that you can start any day... with a  free breakfast of course! Courtesy of the International Department, this was a nice way for current international students and returning students who have just completed years abroad, to mingle and make new friends. I met a load of cool people here, including my exchange partner and one particularly excited individual who was very happy to hear that I was from Kent, where she had just done her year abroad (of all places!) - it really is a small world, huh?! Afterwards I had an introductory talk in the Film and Media department, as the staff introduced themselves to everyone. They emphasised it a lot, and you always have to roll your eyes a little when they do, but the department really did genuinely feel like a little family during this talk - which can only be a good start! Unfortunately I had to skip the department tour to go to my international check in (or risk deportation for not enrolling!), which wasn't as fun, but entirely necessary.

In the evening, following on nicely from the free breakfast, my accommodation clubhouse was serving up a free dinner in the evening too! Although by the end of it, I really wish I hadn't joked about them running out of food when we got to the front of the queue, as about 3 people away from the front of the queue, karma did strike as the last taco was given away! Still, the free nachos and the ice-cream were an acceptable substitute nonetheless...

Day 4: Thursday 26th
Not a lot to talk about here, except for the start of classes (I know right, who starts the classes on a Thursday?!), both of which (The Western and Francophone Cinema) went very well. After this I went and picked up a free UCI hoody (given to all new students), which was worth $50 in the University store! Not bad going at all... In the evening I headed to Target with my roommate to get some food and other essentials for the flat - and so I finally got a pillow to sleep on!! *APPLAUSE*

Day 5: Friday 27th
Beach Day. To give a sense of just how big the university is, it has it's own bus system - exclusively for the university, and free for students. This system consists of about 8 different bus routes which run to all of the different accommodation areas and around the campus; each route running around 3-4 buses at all times! One of these bus routes, goes exclusively from the center of campus, straight down to the nearest beach: Newport Beach. So, grabbing a morning bus, a small group of us all headed down to check out what all the hype was about: check it out for yourself...

Damn...

Need I say more?...

Day 6: Saturday 28th
Today the University buses were taking students to the local shopping centre; The Spectrum Centre. So off a group of us headed, battling off the masses of students trying to get the buses there and back (with only one bus every half hour, there was student hysteria!) - the shopping centre itself was very, very nice, the highlight for me naturally being the 21 screen cinema (featuring an IMAX screen no less - oh yeah!).

Very cool fountain

My new home...

The neon was very understated inside...

This big sports bar (only half seen in pic) was very cool too!

Day 7: Sunday 28th

Well, technically Welcome Week finished yesterday, so today was just a day of catching up with some people at home and getting a start with the mountain of reading that I have to do for my classes this week (it's seriously A LOT! Seriously, who thought I'd have to do work at University?!...). With the jet lag more or less worn off now, my awareness of my surroundings known, and my flat decked out with everything I need, I'm now feeling settled in into my new home for the year, and I'm ready now for everything it has to throw at me.

University of California, Irvine; bring it on!

So 'til next time, this is Dave Startup signing off from sunny Califor-ni-a! ;)

And so it begins...

Hello all, welcome to my brand new blog! Many of you will probably know that this blogging malarkey is nothing new to me, with my Beyond Infinity Film blog being the home of all sort of film review goodness - but for now that will probably have to take a break, as I've gone stateside! That's right, for the best part of the next 12 months, I will be, as James Brown would put it...

Not bad, huh?! To be more precise, I'm living in a town called Irvine, located in the Orange County of California. Why? For a year abroad transfer from my home University, the University of Kent, to the University of California, Irvine. So for me, it's going to be a year of studying Film Studies, just an hour away from Hollywood itself - need I say more?! B)

Let's go back a little bit first though, to the start of my big, exciting adventure...

2 days ago, on Saturday 21st September 2013, after just 3 or so hours of sleep (I was too excited!!!) I picked up my suitcase (yes, just the one), said farewell to my family, and got on board a plane from London Heathrow, headed for LAX. The flight was long, around 11 and half hours, but fine, and it actually just flew by (sorry, I couldn't resist...). I flew with Virgin Atlantic, so in all honesty sitting down with a library of new films to watch whilst a crew of waitresses walked around giving out free food and drinks sounds like a pretty good day to me! If you're anything like me, at this point you'll be wondering what films I watched, and to satisfy your curiosity; The Great Gatsby (good, bar a few Lurhmanny tropes that I could do without), Populaire (who'd have thought a French film about competitive typewriting would be so stylish, sexy and cool?!), Love Is All You Need (Pierce Brosnan in a realist version of Mama Mia, minus the dodgy karaoke), Oz The Great and Powerful (funny, charming and well-done in parts, fluffy and unfulfilling in others), and parts of Monsters University (a reflection of the American university life I am about to begin... sort of...). I also managed to bag myself a window seat, resulting in some truly incredible views, as you can see below.

Mountains...

Deserts...

Vegas!...

...and Los Angeles.

So, after the long flight, which arrived at LAX at around 11pm English time, it was only 3pm American time, and so continued one of the longest days of my life. Getting through border control was fine, with the daunting queue turning out to be not quite as horrific as it looked, and once I got through that I was collected by couple of UC Irvine students who were taking a group of us directly to the campus and our accommodation in the university's mini-bus. The drive was good, taking us through some parts of Los Angeles and then down the highway straight to Irvine (during rush hour, no less). Upon arrival at the accommodation, I signed in, grabbed my keys and headed straight for my room (which naturally, was as far away as possible from the check-in desk). At this point, it was about 7pm CA time, and 3am in England; all I wanted to do was have a shower, grab a bite to eat, and to get into bed...

Arriving at the flat, I was quickly greeted by my new roommate EJ and his family, all of whom seemed very very nice, so any worries that I might end up living with some form of psychopathic flatmate were instantly dismissed (after all, you could be bunked with anyone...). After introductions were made, I quickly unpacked my belongings and jumped into the shower, ordered a dominos pizza (the true staple of any student diet) and checked out the place. The flat, situated on the ground floor, is lovely: spacious kitchen, a living room with sofas and a cable TV box (just need the TV...), a small patio, en-suite bathrooms, a spacey bedroom, air con (thank God!) and best of all, for the first time in my life a DOUBLE BED!!!

Bedroom

Kitchen/Living Room/Patio

View from my window

People of England, I'm sorry to say this, but at this rate I may never come back...

Yesterday I had a chilled day, walked around the accommodation area to find where everything is and to check it all out, handed in some paperwork for the flat in return for a free t-shirt (aww yeah!), and then I headed to the nearest supermarket (expensive, but just down the road) to grab some of the basics - you know, so I can live and stuff....

Yes, that's right, we have a pool and jacuzzi...

Later on I went down to check out the free gym at my accommodation, which is small and basic, but for the most of the time I was there, empty. Then after getting back to my flat and talking to EJ for a bit, we headed out to meet up with some people who he had met earlier that day. Chilling by the pool, with out feet in the jacuzzi and the BBQ going right by us, I got to meet a lot of people very quickly, all of whom, it must be said, were fantastic. It seems like everyone is so so nice here in the States, and on top of that, they go crazy when they hear a British accent - I've never had so many compliments about my voice in my life! Unfortunately the jet lag was kicking in pretty hard at this point, so I decided that I had to call it a night when they all went off for ice cream.

And now you're up to date! Today is the Anteater Involvement Fair (the Anteater is our Uni mascot) so I'm heading to campus in a bit for that to see what clubs and stuff are running this year, and after that I have my orientation, where I will get a guided tour of the whole campus (which is unbelievably massive, by the way).

So 'til next time, this is Dave Startup signing off from Sunny Califor-ni-a! ;)