Move-in, WOW, First Day of Classes, Baseball tryouts

Hi everybody,

As you can see in the title, it has been a very busy week. I moved into my campus room on September 2nd. I wrote a blog the next day, but couldn't get it online. So you'll see it underneath this one.

After the International Student Orientation on Wednesday, all the American students moved in. I got two nice roommates, Jacob from California and Ryan from Maine. We also have nine other guys in our suite. (Our suite has four rooms, two bathrooms, and a common room.) Unfortunately, we don't have a kitchen. So I'm eating mostly on my meal plan on campus.

In the WOW, Wentworth Opening Week, everybody was very busy. We had a lot of presentations, meetings, ice-breakers (getting to know each other) and fun! Because of the busy schedule we didn't have much time to settle other important stuff (like two vaccination shots on one day), or to discover the city of Boston. Luckily I already did that a little bit with my mother on the first days in Boston.

Yesterday I had my First Day of Classes! All of my courses seemed really exciting, and I can't wait to start calculating. (and proving, thinking, being creative, believe me; Mathematicians do a lot more than just calculating.) Here is a list of my courses:

- Discrete Math
- Methods and Topics in Applied Mathematics 1
- Integrated Engineering Calculus 1
- Computer Science 1
- English 1
- First Year Seminar

So I'm really excited about my three Math courses, but also Computer Science. I regret that I didn't listen to my brother Rik that much, when he was putting his computer together. He would probably do better in that course than me at this moment.

And last, but certainly not least, the baseball tryouts! They started just a couple of hours ago. Yesterday we had a team meeting, plus all the guys who were going to try out. The coach told us that the tryouts are going to be all week. So baseball from Tuesday to Saturday, every night. The first tryout today, went okay. I think if you ask any baseball player how his tryout went, nobody will say it went great. There are always things that could have gone better. I did a lot of running, throwing and outfield today on the Turf (kunstgras in Dutch) of Sweeney Field. Tomorrow we will be in the gym, in the batting cages, doing mostly hitting. I'm looking forward to it!

Oh, and obviously I have a ton of pictures. Maybe I'll put some in the next blog.

All the best,
Bram


WentWhat? WENTWORTH! WentWhat? WENTWORTH!! WentWhat?! WENTWORTH!!!
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Move in (September 3rd, 2014):

Well, I'm finally in my Wentworth room! Yesterday all the new international students settled in their rooms. I will be getting two American roommates soon, probably today or tomorrow. After mom and I got all my bags in the room, we put my clothes in the closet, made up my bed (I don't know if that's the right translation, but that's how we say it in the Netherlands) and went for lunch.

There was a nice welcome luncheon for international students and their families. As we were eating, we were welcomed by a couple of speeches, and introduced to some important people from Wentworth. Right after that, the families could go to the Museum of Fine Arts (which is next to Wentworth, so I'll certainly visit that some time), but the students had to take an English Placement Exam. It was a bit of a shock to have to make a test right on the first day I got there. We had to write an essay in 60 minutes, so it wasn't that long. Today we will get an email which says what English class everyone has to register for.

After the EPE, there was a bit of relaxation time, as we were shown around the campus. The campus of Wentworth Institute of Technology lays right in the city of Boston, but still it has quite some space. It is pretty beautiful, and I think I am going to like it here.

In the evening we went out with a couple of international students (and some supervisors of course) to get dinner. Some students still had to get bed sheets and stuff, so we went to Target after eating. I bought myself a nice traditional alarm clock, a desk lamp and a frisbee. Then it was 10 PM, so we went to bed.

Today, (I'm writing this in the morning, still have to get some breakfast) the International Student Orientation will go on with more tours and other activities. At the same time, most of the American students will move in, so the WOW can really start on Thursday. WOW of course stands for Wentworth Opening Week.

Hope you enjoyed reading my update!

Best,
Bram