Day 20: Crashing faculty meetings

What went well?

1. Got my paperwork in for music lessons for credit 2 hours before the deadline.
2. Intro to Buddhism lecture. I think this is going to be a regularly recurring WWW, but seriously, it's that good. e.g. to illustrate the concept of "karma" as simply meaning chains of effect and causality, the professor suggested all the possible effects if he punched a student in the face: he'd probably get beaten up by his friends, get fired, students would post on twitter, it would get in the news, etc etc.
3. Caught up with a new friend for coffee today, had a lovely chat, and it turned out that I was going to audit the lecture she was also going to afterwards.
4. That said lecture was for positive psychology, and the professor was super efficient and absolutely clear even while talking super fast and going super fast in general. I think it'll be a great class to audit.

What did I learn?

• Double-check anything you're putting into your calendar. So I turned up to the Solomon building (where the Psychology department lives) this afternoon for a colloquium, found the room, and was about to take a seat when I was informed that it was a faculty meeting. Checked the event page and turns out it was on Monday. WOOPSIES.
• Religions edit their scriptures all the time to take out the bits they don't like, and Buddhism is no different. But with all the edits they did, they never removed the gruesome details about the Buddha's death - namely, getting food poisoning from eating rancid pig, getting bloody diarrhoea, and then dying from that. No wise and impressive final words, just deliriousness. Man, that is a depressing story. So why keep it? To show that the Buddha was a human - just like everyone else, he got old, got sick, and died. He was born a man, and died a man.
• There's a U-shaped distribution for life satisfaction, declining from 18 years, at its lowest at 50-53 years, and then life gets consistently better from then onwards! You hear that, mum & dad? You can expect good things from now onwards! ;)



Graph from Stone, Schwartz, Broderick, & Deaton (2010)

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Miscellaneous bits and pieces

Lecture hall for Sociology of Mental Illness.

Just FYI, it's ok to wear gumboots on campus. People do that here. I wasn't sure before I started seeing them everywhere, hence why I ended up buying better boots for the snow. But if you have tramping/hiking boots, you can wear those too! People do that too.

Day 5: Exchange Student Orientation Part 2

We started the morning with our immigration check-in, before a brief campus tour and lunch at a food hall, Houston Hall. Hey, the food wasn't as bad as people had made it sound. I thought the options were actually pretty good. I mean, this salad I got was probably the healthiest thing I've eaten since I've gotten here:

Although, I don't get why the walnuts were "candied" - who puts sugar in their salad?!

One thing that I've definitely noticed though, with regard to food, is that healthy food is significantly more expensive than unhealthy processed fast food. For example, that salad was $6.50, while a McChicken burger is about $1.50. This must be a big contributor to why poverty and obesity go hand in hand, and it's largely due to the messed up farmer subsidy systems here.

Here are a few more photos from the tour:

College House. The architecture here is breathtaking. 

The Broken Button. Legend has it, Benjamin Franklin broke a button here? And apparently, one of Penn's "traditions" is to have sex under the broken button before you graduate. #collegeshenanigans 

The Fisher Fine Arts Library, where you get stared at if you breathe too loudly. I'm so glad there's actually somewhere to study where silence is enforced by efficient librarians (compare to "silent" sections in libraries at UniMelb).

The oldest standing building in Pennsylvania.

The "Dueling Tampons".

After lunch, we had some more orientation sessions on public safety, sexual violence, cultural adjustment, and using the library. I actually learned a few interesting and reassuring things about Penn's public safety systems and programs:

1. Free walking escorts anywhere around campus, 24/7
2. Free transit rides at night around campus
3. Guardian, which you sign up for on your phone, allows Penn Police to use GPS to pinpoint your location if you call them. You can also set a timer where you call and set a reasonable amount of time for you to get to a location, and leave a voice message that describes where you're going, what you're wearing, etc. Then when you get to the location safely, you call the number and enter a pin code to deactivate the timer. If you don't deactivate it, they'll send the police out to find you.
4. Free RAD (Rape Aggression Defense) Self-Defense courses. I'm really keen to sign up for one of these.

The exchange student orientation leaders put on a hilarious skit that encapsulated all of the possible cultural differences we might come across, in completely stereotyped form:

"Frat party"

Other memorable moments in the skit included:

• American guys confusing the hell out of an Italian guy with frat language - "brother", "servant" (pledge), "Greek"
• An over-enthusiastic American roommate, keen to become "BFFs"
• American students eating in class and dying to contribute to the discussion, with no substance whatsoever in their contributions

It was really cute.

I then went on a library tour of the Van Pelt library, which is kinda the "main" library. It's got 6 floors and is incredible. It blows UniMelb's Baillieu, Law Library and Giblin Eunson completely out of the water. I can't believe I get to study there. Will take some photos next time I go. And there are about 11 libraries in total at Penn. Really excited to see all of them. I'm still in awe at how well-resourced this place is.

Bought some dinner for cheap ($4.50) at a food truck, but I will start cooking soon (a few times a week), once I schedule in a grocery run.

So in summary:

What went well?

1. I was really impressed by all the public safety initiatives in place.
2. The cultural adjustment skit was hilarious.
3. Learning about some of the history and stories behind some landmarks at Penn.
4. Being excited about the awesome libraries here.
5. The exchange student leaders are all really friendly, nice and helpful.

What did I learn?

• The dining halls are actually pretty good! There are plenty of options, and they are very very vegan friendly.
• There is way too much stuff to do here, it can get overwhelming. Too many events to choose from, too many possible clubs to get involved with, too many cool people to hang out with...#decisionfatigue. I think to be strategic with this, I'll set aside maybe 30 minutes at the end of every week to research and decide on what I really want to do and go to in the following week.
• Penn has so much more tradition, history and culture. There's a story behind everything here.
• There's a 30 day "grace period" after the J1 visa program end date, but if you leave the US before the end of that grace period, it automatically ends, so you can't re-enter the US unless you get another visa (or a visa waiver, in the case of New Zealand). That was a really important piece of information for me to learn, since I'll be travelling to Canada during my grace period, so I'll need to apply for that waiver sometime.

Class starts tomorrow and I can't wait!! I'm also going to audition for an early music ensemble, Ancient Voices. My voice isn't exactly in peak condition at the moment with all the talking I've been doing these past few days, meeting all these new people, but hopefully it goes ok!

Also, I'll go and update my post from yesterday now, since that was a bit sparse.

Day 4: Exchange Student Orientation Part 1

The day in a nutshell: we got talked at about how not to plagiarise. Seriously, if I haven't been kicked out of uni yet, I'm pretty sure I understand what academic integrity is. The rest of the day was much more fun though. The exchange students met at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown for a meal, and they brought me a vego option for everything that was ordered, which was much appreciated. Remember that I am blogging about everything within reasonable boundaries, so if you're wondering about something I haven't addressed, please shoot me an email (j.sun@student.unimelb.edu.au) and I am more than happy to meet up when I'm back :)

What went well:

1. Discovering the Magic Carpet food truck. It's fully vego and you can get a decent meal between $3-$6 basically.
2. Meeting more people from all over the place e.g. the Netherlands, Italy, Botswana...especially at the dinner.

What did I learn?

• I seriously need to catch up on some sleep! Jet lag is getting to me...
• They love my accent over here. I was at the bank, and the bank teller told me that she loved my accent.
• People self-segregate so much! Even amongst the exchange students, I can definitely see how easy it would be to not meet any local students, because all the French students have already bonded, the Aussies are all hanging out together, those from China are doing the same...and it's kinda funny and simultaneously disturbing to see how much I identify with the Australians over here, since I am representing UniMelb after all, and it's the closest to New Zealand, culturally, compared with the other cultures here. I really noticed this tendency in myself, to want to hang out with the Australians, but to combat this, I decided to just join a random table at dinner, and it was great to have conversations with people from other places.
• People don't have very positive ideas about the US. At the start of orientation, they asked us what positive stereotypes or ideas we have about the US. Slowly, we managed to list three: good universities; friendly, positive people; good service. Then when it came to the negative stereotypes, they came flying in, starting with guns. This is probably partially an illustration of the negativity bias, but it was really interesting to see.

Day 2: Move-In

Today, I entered University City, which really is like a city in itself. It feels a lot bigger and more sprawled out than UniMelb. I moved into my new residence, Stouffer College House, which is also much bigger than my old college in Australia, and has six sections (A - F) with a lounge and kitchen in each. One of the first things I noticed, which made me laugh a bit, was the number of posters about using alcohol responsibly, e.g.:

A hint at the culture at Penn?

So are smart drinkers "scientists" then?

And here's my room:

Yay for the single. Most people have at least one roommate.

So then I went and got my bank account set up (Wells Fargo) and a new SIM card (T-Mobile: $50/month, unlimited talk/text in the US & 500MB 4G data). I was going to make a trip to Target to get necessities like bedding, toiletries and cooking equipment, but then it started raining so I got lazy (since it was a 1.5 hour walk or 45 min bus ride away). Instead, I bought most of the things I needed at CVS Pharmacy (it was much closer) and decided that I could go without bedding for a night since my room's got heating anyway. Holding out for the Target trip organised for exchange students tomorrow.

Today also felt a bit fuzzy and slow due to tiredness from travelling/sleep deprivation, so I'm hoping I'll be more awake tomorrow.

Some more pictures from around campus:

I just got told that people pee on this bench. DO NOT sit on it!!!

What went well:

1. It wasn't nearly as cold today as it was last night. It was about 16°C during the day.
2. It only started to really pour down when I was about 3 minutes away from my college house.
3. Managed to connect to the university's wifi with no trouble on my phone (will figure out how to get my laptop connected soon…)

What did I learn?

• My boots are really, really not waterproof! Hence, I'm going to buy a pair of (vegan) Doc Marten's tomorrow. I've heard good things about these shoes.
• I feel really vulnerable without internet/mobile data in a new city. It felt so good getting connected again at T-Mobile, because there's a certain security of having Google Maps always at hand.
• I need to get a unit-converting app for my phone. People still talk in Farenheits and imperial units over here!
• I'm not really sure what to do when I'm directly asked by a person for money. This happened twice to me - once outside a corner shop, and once inside CVS. Normally, I would give when directly asked, but just judging by the number of times I was asked today, it looks like it would be a daily occurrence? At a loss. That's two marks against my "kindness manifesto"...
• They don't include tax in the prices here, so it only appears on the final bill (8%). Totally weird.
• It pays to pack an umbrella/rain jacket, just in case it is raining the first day you get to a new place. Woops.
• If you're planning on buying a lot of stuff, bring a better shopping bag. The plastic ones from CVS were super-flimsy and one broke as I was walking back (holding about 6 bags, with more stuff in my backpack).
• Don't wander around after dark. I don't mean to scare my parents (who are reading this), but I'm pretty sure I just heard a gun shot.........#staysafe

Immunisation & Health Requirements

Ok, so I'm a perfectly healthy person, but have had to visit my family doctor four times in the past five weeks. This is because I've been scrambling to fulfil Penn's immunisation requirements for students living on campus. This includes vaccinations for Hepatitis B, MMR, T-Dap, Meningococcal (A, C, Y & W-135), and chickenpox. 

Seriously! I'm going to the US, not sub-saharan Africa or India!

Anyway, I've had to get three shots - two for chickenpox and one for meningococcal. No biggie, except it is definitely a cost to take into consideration in your budget - the chickenpox ones were $78NZD a pop and the meningococcal one was $62NZD. I'm sure they would be more expensive to get over in the US though! Well, at least I am now officially immune to most bad things!

[Edit 08/01/14: It turns out that my immunity had expired for T-Dap, so I got another shot today. Yay, 4 shots in 5 weeks.]

Cheaper Health Insurance

One of the mandatory requirements for studying at Penn is health insurance that meets their very high requirements, which includes coverage up to $2,000,000, and for pre-existing conditions and mental health conditions, just to name a few. You have to either buy Penn's own insurance plan, the Penn Student Insurance Plan (PSIP), or buy an alternative plan that's approved by Penn, and apply for a waiver. I thought the PSIP was pretty damn expensive - $1,677 for the Spring Semester (January 1 - July 31) or $1,196 through May only. (And obviously, if you're staying for a year, it'll be even more expensive.) Surely there had to be a cheaper alternative to the PSIP!

So I Googled "upenn health insurance alternatives" and found this CollegeConfidential post that pointed me to PSI International Student & Scholar Health Insurance. It's only available for international students (F1 or J1 visa holders and their dependents), and you just select which school you're going to and it finds the appropriate plan. Their Diamond plan is tailored to Penn's requirements, so I promptly bought coverage for 5 months (January 10 - June 10) which will cover me for the Spring semester, as well as my travel afterwards. It came to $625 with a $0 deductible (it's $50 cheaper with a $500 deductible, but I didn't think that was worth it). And in the unlikely case that Penn rejects my waiver application with this insurance, PSI will provide a full refund.

Message: Do some basic research, save nearly $600.

Disclaimer: I'm not saying that PSI insurance is superior to Penn's insurance. All I'm saying is that it's a cheaper option, which already has very high standards (as set by Penn) and will probably cover anything that could conceivably happen. I am also not being paid by PSI to write this, I just wanted to make sure that students on a budget (by definition) like me are fully aware of the more affordable options that do exist out there.

[Edit 08/01/14: Got an email from Penn yesterday, and this insurance has been approved! So it works!]

[Edit 17/01/14: Another exchange student said that this plan also works, and is about $85 a month...]