My Life at the U of A!!!

Hey!!!!

My name is Ellie and I'm currently a freshman at the University of Arizona. I have lived in Tucson for ten years now. I love Tucson! I dont really know where to begin but it's so amazing to be able communicate with you guys.

I live off campus about ten minutes away. I'm living with my parents for the first year of college and saving up to move out into either an apartment or a house with a bunch of my friends. The hardest part about college, at least for me, is getting there. I usually drive over about a half an hour before my class starts. I have a parking pass so I get to park in a parking garage. The first weeks of college weren't as easy. I didn't have my parking pass yet and had to be put on a waiting list for one, so I would have to wake up extra early to go find parking in the neighborhood and walk a pretty good distance to get to class. I can definitely say with sincerity that I appreciate my parking pass.

My school schedule for the first semester was really easy. I had four classes for a total of 13 credits. I'm taking math, english, philosophy, and psychology. I'm currently undecided but I'm leaning towards majoring in physiology. Each semester we have to register for classes online through webreg (its a link that logs you in to all the classes). Everyone has a pre registration date and time where they can go online to register for classes. It's really good to do this because you have a better chance of getting the classes you want. When registration comes around the whole school has access to signing up for classes. This is why its so important to pre register. Instead of being in a pool of 40,000 people choosing classes you're in a pool of just 1,000 on your pre registration date. For the second semester I'm going to take a biology, math, english, and two other classes, INDV and TRAD. The INDV and TRAD classes are required to take to graduate but you can choose which ones you want to take. For example, I took phsycology for my INDV and philosophy for my TRAD in the first semester.

Once you get all of your scheduling and transportation out of the way you are basically left with college life and its definitely the best!!! For me, college is something I looked forward to my whole life, so to finally be in it is extremely exciting! The classes are full of material and the teachers are rich in knowledge. But college life doesnt just consist of the classes you go to, its more so what you do in your spare time. From getting food, to shopping on campus, to football games, and even just walking around on campus, everything is completly social. There are so many new faces around you. There are people from all over the world that come together. Walking around campus is like walking around in a different town. The Univeristy of Arizona is definitely a huge community. It's like a town inside of Tucson.

I'm extremely anxious to see where college takes me. So far, so good. The U of A is amazing and something im absolutley proud of being a part of.

ps!

this is a great link to lots of pictures of the U of A

http://photos.arizona.edu/

My Dorm Room Story By: Lauren Mais

My name is Lauren Mais, and I am a Freshman at the University of Arizona this year. Me and my best freind decided to be roomates together because we thought it would be fun. We have been best freinds for a long time and we lived together for about a month when we went to Europe so I thought it would not be to hard. Well on move in day, I moved in first. I really wanted the room to be neat and organized and just pretty. Laura, my roomate, on the other hand is very messy and sort of a hippy. She wanted to make everything very hippie like and retro. Needless to say, I was not very happy about that. Over the next week or so, it was a little difficult for us to find a happy medium of what our dorm should look like. We had things color cordinated but it was always cluttered. In the end, we ended up putting up some posters of Bob Marley, and a Love Peace poster and kind of organized the floor space. We get along for the most part except on day we had a big blow out fight. her boyfreind lives in Phoenix, and he was always coming up for the weekends. I thought that she was taking advantage of the fact that I let him come up so much and so that escalated. In the end, we ended up working it out and all is good with us. I also now understand more where she was coming from because my boyfreind lives in Phoenix as well. So, we usually alternate having one of our boyfreinds coming up for the weekend, and the other roomate goes back to Phoenix for the weekend. It works out great and I love rooming with my best freind.

Lauren Mais
Section 99

Welcome to the University of Arizona!

My name is Natalie Goodreau, and I am a freshman at the University of Arizona. I am eighteen years old, and am from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Currently, my major is physiology, and I am debating whether or not I want to declare Spanish as my minor. Now that you know a little bit about my background, I want to share with you my first, best, and toughest experiences thus far as I learn more and more everyday about life here at the U of A.
My parents drove me over to school at the beginning of August, and I remember that all of us cried at some point during the drive. I am the youngest sibling in my family, so my parents were quite upset when I decided to go away for college. As soon as we got to Tucson, though, my schedule was already jam packed because I was rushing for a sorority. I do not know if you all have sororities and fraternities there, but at the University of Arizona, Greek life is life. It is one of the most active extra-curricular activities pursued and practiced by students here. Every sorority and fraternity is different in the respect that they each hold different community services (called philanthropies), represent different concepts, and uphold various morals. The sorority I am in is Sigma Kappa (in Greek it is ΣK). I absolutely love it. To be honest, though, I was weary at the beginning of rush because I am the first person in my family to go Greek. The entire process for girls is very tiring (boys’ rush is much more laid back). But, all of the girls are required to meet at the University at seven in the morning. From there, we visit each house (or chapter) for thirty minutes each. During those thirty minutes, we talk with the members of each respective house in hopes of deciding which sorority will “fit.” My best friend and I rushed together, but ended up going different ways. She is in Alpha Phi, and she loves it – just like I love mine. It was definitely worth it because I met so many people and made so many new friends.
Aside from Greek life, I do have to study very often. As a physiology major, I always feel overwhelmed with biology and math homework. I am in many freshmen courses, but my science and math classes are not general classes, and are harder for me. Right now, we are studying human genetics in my biology class, and applications of logarithms in my math class. Both are interesting, but very time consuming to understand well. It usually takes me a few hours to complete all of my homework every night; but, I can get distracted easily because I live with three other girls in a dorm.
I live in Sky View Apartments, which are apartment-style dorms provided by the University. We have a kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms. But, there are four of us, and each room is not that big. So, being clean is always a priority for all of us.
I think that moving away from home and not having my own bed was one of the hardest changes for me to adjust to when I came to college. I walked in my dorm with my parents, looked at a tiny bed, and thought half of it was missing! Back home, I was fortunate enough to have four rooms to myself – an office, a television room, a room for my guests, and my actual bedroom. My sister and I had two rooms each, but once she left for college, I got all of them. So, going from being basically an only child to sharing what is the size of one of my rooms back home with three other girls was quite the adjustment. It has forced me to be courteous with my sleeping hours and tidiness, though. It has been one of the most beneficial experiences for me thus far because it has allowed me to grow in ways I never knew I could. I have formed such close bonds with each of my roommates that I know we will always stay in contact even when college is over.
Well, I hope I have given you a sense of what life is life at the University of Arizona. If you have the chance, please write back. I’m curious to know what you do for fun at your school, what courses you are taking, and if many of you move away for college.

Best regards!
Natalie Goodreau

PS - I am including a picture of my sorority at our New Member Presents Dinner! :)

My College Life - Katie Mackenbrock

Hey! My name is Katie Mackenbrock, and I am from Chicago, Illinois. I am 18 and a freshman at the University of Arizona. I chose to attend school so far from home because my dad went here when he was my age, and my older sister is currently a senior here. I love it here. The weather is so different here than in Chicago. If I were in Chicago right now, I would be freezing!! Here in Tucson, the weather is so nice. It is about 75 out right now, and during the days it is high 80s & low 90s. It is always sunny with blue skies. The scenery is beautiful here. From campus, you can look anywhere and see the beautiful mountains in the skyline. I live in the only dorm here that has three roommates to a room. I live all the way up on the 7th floor. The rooms are a lot bigger than I thought they would be. One of my roommates is from New Jersey and the other one is all the way from South Korea. My roommate from New Jersey and I have become really good friends. Our other roommate is kind of mean to us, so there is always awkward tension in our room, which isn't too fun, but I am always so busy with school that it doesn't matter too much. I am taking 5 classes here- english, spanish, and three gen-ed classes. The gen-ed classes are basic general education classes that you have to take to complete your credits. Those are the big lecture classes. I am not too fond of those, because I come from a very small high school. For the most part, though, I love my classes. I am a political science/pre-law major. I want to attend law school after I graduate and eventually work for the CIA. The only downside about living here is the food. Yes, there's lots of food to choose from, but very little of it is healthy. You can only eat so much grilled cheese and chicken fingers. :) When the parents come for family weekend, they take you out to nice dinners so you can eat all the food you've been missing. As much as I miss my parents being this far from home, I love living here. It helps that I get to see my sister almost every day, and because my parents have both of their daughters out here, they come to visit more than most.
I couldn't have chosen a better college for myself. I love it here.

Life at the U of A

Hey, what’s up guys? My name is Wesley Kwiecien and I am originally from Palos Verdes Estates, California. Palos Verdes is in the county of Los Angeles, but it is nothing like the city. I live right on the beach, and I could not ask for a better environment to grow up in. Ever since I first visited the University of Arizona I knew that I would eventually apply here, but who knew that I would be attending it! I love the U of A because of the amazing people you meet down here and especially the beautiful desert setting. As far as the courses that I am taking, they are extremely hard, and I had to make major adjustments in my study habits that I acquired in high school. As of now, I am a Physiology/Pre-med student and I thought I would eventually want to become a doctor some day. But lately I have been having some doubts, the science courses are really challenging here and I really do not want to take all the science courses. There is a possibility that I might change my major to business or go into law. Residential life is amazing here because you met many people from different parts of the country and even the world. I am in a dorm hall with a roommate that is from Sparks, Nevada. At first I really did not like him because he seamed like he wanted to use all my things with out asking, and it also seamed like we were two totally different people. As the year went on, we learned to live with each other and we have become very good friends. Our dorm itself is not the most luxurious or cleanest place to live, but the people in my hall make up for everything. We have grown to be great friends and we all hang out together all the time. We all leave our doors open so that our hall friends can come and visit whenever they would like to. In all, I am having a great time here at the U of A, making new friends and learning lots of new things.

my college!! =]

Hello!!
My name is laura, i was born in Colombia, i am 18 years old ,I am a FRESHMAN at the University of Arizona. it is my first time here in Tucson Arizona, it is a really beautiful town (the picture is from Tucson), Mexico is right next to us, so we have a lot of Mexicans here, one of my best friends is mexicans, they are beautiful people.
I am so happy to share my experience with you, i can tell you that i live of campus, i live in my apartment and is about ten minutes away from the university, it is a good experience living off campus because you have more privacy, but any ways living on campus is a wonderful experience too, you get to know a lot of people, here in this university we have people from alll aver the world, i know people from China,Korea, Idia,Mexico,Macedonia, and more, here and i believe that in any college you get to know people from different places and you get to learn different cultures , tradition, religions and types of food.
another thing about college is that we have to study a lot and some times we do not get enough sleep, living a college life make you realize that you are growing up and that you are not with you parents anymore, it make you think about how important life really is!
let me tell you about the education part here, we do have a really interesting programs here, we have dance, science, business, politic and more interesting programs that it might like you!!!

we also have a really fun football games, every time that we have one EVERYBODY in the university goes to them, it is a really fun time that we spend together, it is a really fun experience here in the university, and when we lose the games we do not care we steal celebrate!! =]
well i am really curious about how is your live over there!
and what do you do for fun!!!
well hope you like the pictures, one is Tucson and the other one is the football field
ok bye bye
laura <3

living off-campus(Bolivar)

My hometown is in Mexico, about four hours driving from Tucson, AZ. Before I came to study here, I had been many times in Arizona, but never for educational purposes. I always used to come here for shopping and it is very different when I am here and I live near to University.
When I was planning to come and study here, I wanted to live on campus, at the dorms, but they were full, so I had to look for some other options. I looked for a place to live with a friend that I met at an orientation program in August, so I had the advantage to choose at least one person that I was going to live with. We found a place near to University, so I am not as close as if I were living on the dorms, but it is good, I use my bicycle to go to my classes and it takes me about ten minutes.
I live in an apartment with other three guys; an Australian guy that I looked for apartments with, a guy from Hong Kong, and a guy from the north of Arizona. Each person has its own bedroom and we have two bathrooms, so we have one bathroom for each two people. Each person has its own door to get outside, so the rooms have two doors. That means that if you want to come home late or go outside, you do not bother anyone. Everybody have its own food on the fridge, but sometimes one people cooks all the people that we live here, and we have some fun, watching television, having dinner or just talking.
We live in a complex, there are four complexes here, so there are some parties on the weekend and you get to know a lot of people that live here, we go over to other apartments and we have some fun.
Living off-campus is different than on-campus, but I think I made the right choice, I have more privacy, my own room, I just share bathroom with one other people. But I do not live as close as the dorms from campus. But I like it; I think I will stay off-campus. Please ask questions if you have some.

Bolivar Peralta

My College LIfe....

Hello! My name is Ji yong Moon, and Im a freshman at the University of Arizona. I am student from South Korea. I came to America about 5 years ago and left everything behind in South Korea to immerse myself in English language. And, learning the new language was very tough for me. In my opinion, English is the hardest language in this world. The twenty-six English letters together comprise billions of vocabulary words. The vowels, grammer, and pronunciation are just complicated to everytone. And, English is a global language in these days. Everyone wants to learn and experience more English. I student English for about four years. But, I figure easy vocabulary words can sometimes go away from my head. THere are about billions of English words, sturcture, and other materials. But, I'm still learning this dynamic and important language in this society. And, I'm living in apartment with one roomate. The apartment is very nice around the school. All the good transportation, food, market are useful to everyone. I have been in Arizona for about 2 and half month now and I love it out here. The weather are amazing around here, the sky is pure blue and all cool winds make everybod happay and cool. And, Nightscene of our campus is just amazing and beautiful. All the lights of our campus and Tucson are admirable. And, all the people and firends around here are amazing and very kind. And, I'm taking 15 units in this year. All the classes are kind of hard to understand and complicated. But, all the friends and professor give me a lot of information and help to achieve my goal. I'm taking Management information system, Colonial Latin America, Race and Ethnicity class, English class, and Weather and climate class. All the class are very interesting for me. And, all the technology system around campus are so helpful to everyone. In our campus, there are over thousand computers and three libraries. And, all the fast access of internet are all over the campus. Around campus, the cactus and coconut of harmony makes our campus even better than any other school. In conclusion, coming to University of America changed my entire life. I will eventually face challenges and traps as I reach for my goal. I will dereat these trials throgh my passion for learning. The University of Arizona is great and awsome place to educate and live.

Hello from the U of A!!!!

Hey! My name is Taylor Grogg, and I am currently a freshman at the University of Arizona. I am from Columbus, Ohio which is about a 28 hour drive from Tucson, Arizona. I live with two other girls in the dorms here. My one roommate is also from Ohio (which is amazing) and my other roommate is from Texas. The roommate from Ohio is one of my best friends that I have in Arizona, my other roommate... not so much. Dorm life is pretty nice but it can be annoying at times. We have a nice sized room for only three girls. I have only been in Arizona for about 2 1/2 months now and I love it out here! Everyone I have met has been so nice. The scenery here is AMAZING. I have never actually seen mountains before I moved out here, but now all I have to do is look out of our dorm room window and there they are! One weekend a good friend of mine and I actually went to the mountains and went hiking. It was nice to get to the top and look down at the campus. It felt like I was on top of the world. Weekends here are pretty fun also. After a long week of classes it is always nice to let loose and have some fun. My friends and I mostly go out to parties. The parties here are always really fun. Sometimes they have themes and everyone dresses up(for example, there was a 70's party where everyone dressed up like hippies). As fun as the parties may be they can be kind of scary. There have been a few parties where the cops would bang on the door and everyone would have to run in order not to get in trouble. It does not happen that often, but when it does it is possibly the scariest things in the world. Other than going to parties, me and my friends go to the drive-in. The drive in is a giant screen where movies are played. The fun part is the fact that you are watching it from your car. It's really fun if you go in a pick-up truck because then you can put a bunch of blankets in the back and lay down while you watch the movie. Classes, parties, friends... that is the typically life of a U of A student!!

My life...

Hi, my name is Venessa Gonzalez and I am 19 years old.. I am so glad I get to talk to student from another country. I know that college life can be very diverse and interesting anywhere you travel. I am from Tucson, Arizona, so it wasn’t too hard deciding that I wanted to attend the U of A. I am currently a freshman at the University of Arizona. I am taking 4 classes my first semester: English 101, Indv 102, Math 110, and Ecol 182. My major is pre-pharmacy, I want to be a pharmacist so bad, and I hope that I will get there one day. Pharmacists work at a pharmacy, where they give medicine to sick people. At first, I was so scared to come to the U of A, because I didn’t know anyone and I was used to a smaller high school this school is huge. The U of A is such a fun place to be at. There are many restaurants, a game room, and even a shopping center. The U of A is a wide spread area, one of my classes is a fifteen minute walk. I am finally starting to get a grasp of everything that it has to offer. My daily schedule is pretty busy. I have a job that I work at two days a week. On the weekends I am always hanging out with my boyfriend and family. I love to go shopping and out to eat. Right now I am getting ready for Halloween. Here in America, on October 31 people of all ages dress up as anyone they want and go to different parties. This year I am going to be a sailor. I went to a Halloween party yesterday at a nursing home where my mom works. A nursing home is where older sick people are taken care of by nurses and doctors. Anyway, the party was so much fun, I helped serve food and run a game booth. Today, it is my boyfriend’s birthday, he is turning 19, and we are going out to eat with friends and family to a restaurant called Texas Roadhouse. Also, later on there is going to be another Halloween party at a family friend’s house. This week I have two tests, so I will probably be studying for a couple of hours. College has been pretty fun so far, I can’t wait for the adventures ahead.

My life at UofA!

Hi! My name is Ashley Thibault and I am a Freshman at the University of Arizona. I live on campus in the dorms and I love it! I am living with my best friend from elementary school we didn’t go to high school together but we stayed really good friends so we decided to room together. They say don’t room with your best friend, but it is actually working out really well. We live in Apache/Santa Cruz and it is a smaller dorm and our room is quite small but it actually is not that bad. Everyone said I was going to go crazy living in the dorms because it is so loud and hard to study and stuff but really it is not that bad at all. I actually enjoy it! We live in an all girls wing with 15 other girls and our room is way cute. The worst part about dorm life is doing the dishes because we do them in the bathroom sink and neither of us ever want to do them so they just pile up! We got really lucky and we are in a wing that is pretty quiet and even if I want to go to bed way early I can because it is not noisy at all. It is so so nice.
The food on campus is pretty good, there is a pretty good variety but it still gets kinda old. I live about 2 hours away from school so when I do come home and have a home cooked meal it is the best thing ever! Do you live on campus where you go to school? What are your dorms like and what is the food like there? We have this place called Highland Market across the street from my dorm and it is so good. There is a deli and you can tell them how to make any sandwich you want, they have breakfast burritos every morning and night (which by the way are fantastic) they also have your basic groceries and best of all, Seattle Espresso which is a coffee place. I love it because you can use your meal plan card here. A meal plan is basically how you buy all of your meals here. We have a CatCard and you use it for everything (to get into your dorm, to do laundry, vending machines and meals) there is money that my parents on each semester and it just works like a debit card and you pay for all of your on-campus meals that way. Do you guys have something like this at your school, it seems like every university here does it a little different but it basically does the same thing.
I don’t have my own car on campus, but my roommate Lindsey does and out really good friend does and he gave me his spare key so I can use his car whenever (which is so wonderful and it is a really nice car I love it!). But you don’t really need to use your car on campus only when you would want to go somewhere else in Tucson. I usually bike or walk to get around campus. I love walking to class now that the weather is nicer, but sometimes I still bike. Unfortunately I have not exactly had the best luck with my bike. The first week of school I totally ate it in front of a bunch of people. I was trying to be all cool and go up the curb on my bike but, I made the mistake of trying to go up the curb while I was parallel to it (never try that) this obviously did not work out too well and fell off and hit another person on their bike and needless to say…it was embarrassing. To add the the bike drama I have hit couples walking a few times, almost blown over on a really windy day, I always forget where I locked my bike so I spend like 10 min looking like an idiot searching for my bike…ya me and the bike just have problems. Oh and to make matters worse my bike seat got stolen last week, I could not believe it. Who steals a bike seat? So now whenever I leave my bike I take my new bike seat with me because I am so scared that some rude person is going to steal it! How do you get around campus? Do a lot of people have bikes there? Has your bike seat ever gotten stolen?
Well, I hope this kind of gave you an idea about life here in Tucson, Arizona! I really love it here college is so fun, and classes are difficult and I really have to work hard but I still have tons of fun hanging out with friends, playing sports, and living in Tucson!

Hello. From Ji-soo Kim

Hello. my name is Ji-soo Kim from South Korean, but I graduated high school from New Zealand. I'm a freshman of UoA. I've heard you want to hear about how life is like a student in the USA, so here I am, but I'm a freshman of UoA and I've only been in the university for 3 months. Well, there are so many class buildings I'vs never even have chance to been to, but I will try my best to explain what it is like in here.
I was really surprised when I first came here!
There was an international Orientation day on the first day. Hundreds of students from all over the world gathered together in one place. It was interesting to know people from different countries all over the world. I was surprised that there were so many countries I've never even heard about. There were more exchange students than international students. I think UoA is well organized with exchange programs. You might want to try too!
Another thing that surprised me was the size of the class! One of my class have approximately 500 students. The class that big use the remote control called i-clicker to answer the questions professor asks and check the attandance. Sure I didn't have that for my high school :) Teachers just need to call names to check the attandance or ask a question.
Anyway I'm enjoying my university life. To be honest, I still get lost sometimes. Surely the USA is a big country. Hope I didn't bored you. See you!

Peter Somoza

Greetings, my name is Peter and I am a student at the University of Arizona, in Tucson, AZ, in the United States. My major is biochemistry and molecular biophysics. My experience here at the University of Arizona has been very positive. Life here is quite fun, but extremely busy. In the United States, college is seen as a quantum leap from high school, and during my time here, I have found that to be exceptionally true. College life here is filled with homework, studying for tests, reading, working, and just trying to make time for yourself. Time management is a very important tool to have at any university, no matter where you are. It just seems like there is never a dull moment and there is always something to do. Living in the dorms here at the University of Arizona has been an interesting experience. I share a room with another student, Josh. The room is somewhat small, but very manageable to live in. Josh and I have efficiently managed to get along with each other and share. That is not to say that we have never had disagreements or arguments because we have had several dozen. Josh and I are very different people and have different tastes in music, television, reading preferences, political views, and religious beliefs. For me, the most daunting part of dorm living is the lack of privacy. Everyone on my wing shares the same bathroom, which often times becomes very dirty easily. The food here is also not the healthiest. It is difficult to maintain a balanced diet here because of the large majority of high calorie fast food restraunts present at the university.

Weekends At the University of Arizona Can Be Fun As Well As Terrifying

My name is Roby Owsley, and i am a freshman at the University of Arizona. My first few weekends down here have been some of the best times of my life, as well as the most frightening. A few weeks ago, I had one of the scariest moments of my life. In this story I will tell you about one of my weekends at the University. As the last class on my precious Friday winds down, I can't seem to stop thinking about the night ahead of me. What are my friends and I going to do? Are there any parties to go to? And of the most important question, what am I going to wear to impress the ladies? I finally get out of my last class of the day, it was my History class, and I basically speed walk my way back to my dorm to hear the good news of the night to come. I finally arrive at my dorm, which is named Kaibab, and it is around twelve in the afternoon. I sprint up to my room 320, which is on the third floor. I bust open the door and I see my roommate on the computer looking for things to do on his Facebook. A Facebook is an internet site that almost all the kids at school have, and is used to message friends and to communicate about what is going on every weekend. My roommates name is Jordan, and he has been my best friend since kindergarden. But anyways, back to the story. I throw my backpack off, grab a cookie and a drink, and I ask for Jordan to tell me the good news. He tells me of a party that will be happening later tonight that we were invited to. I am so excited, I slam my drink down and smash my cookie into my mouth. I then lay in my soft bed to take a nap to ready myself for the night ahead. I wake up suddenly about two hours later, prepared and refreshed for the night. I quickly jump in the shower, and clean my self up. Our showers are in a community bathroom, which is a big bathroom that everyone in our hall shared. I dry off, throw on some fresh clothes, and put on some colone to make sure I smell extra delicious. For the ladies of coarse. I am finally ready for the night. I call all of my friends and ask if they want to role to the party with us. We all meet at my friend's car, and we're on our way. We finally get there, and the party is just getting started. We meet some new people, talk with some girls, and are having a great time. This party we are at goes for about three hours, and we decide to leave at around one in the morning, which is considered an early night for us. But while we are driving home, one of my buddies says he's hungry, and that we should stop by this burrito shack he knew about. We pull up and everyone orders their food. I order a steak and egg burrito, and go to sit down with my friends that already ordered. And just as my last friend is ordering his food, another kid that was already in there decides he is going to say something stupid to one of my friends. My friend comes to the table all of us are hanging out at and tells us what happened. Suddenly, a couple of my buddies jump up and walk over to the other kids table. They ask the kid why he had to talk bad about our friend, and the kid continues to talk trash to us. (talking trash means to say stupid stuff to someone trying to get them upset). Suddenly a huge fight breaks out. This goes on for only a couple minutes, and nothing serious happens. We all walk out of the place to go back to our dorm. We all get into the car and a huge white truck pulls up behind us. A big older guy gets out and walks up to one of the rolled down windows and asks my friend for some gas money. We all try and tell him we have no money and that we're leaving, but he isn't looking for any else but trouble. He reaches in and slaps one of my friends in the face screaming and yelling, and he pulls a gun out on all of us. My friend hits the gas, and we ramp over some parking blocks to get away. The guy gets in his truck and begins to chase us. He is on our tail, about a foot behind us with his brights on. Me and all of my friends are laying as low as we could get, heads down, fearing about getting shot. We hit a bunch of tricky manuvers, and we end up losing them. We finally make it back to the dorm room, and everyone is scared to death. Even though no one was hurt, it ended up being one of my most frightening nights ever. However the best part of this night was we were able to eat our burritos in the safety of our room. I have had some great nights here at the U of A, but this was by far the worst night i've had so far. So to conclude my story, weekends here at the University are amazing, and are always a good time, but this night, it seemed like someone was definately watching over all of us. This is one of my many stories from my time at the University of Arizona.

My College Life

Hi, my name is Thomas Daya. I am a freshman at the University of Arizona. I was born in raised in New Jersey so I am very far away from home. At home I have a great family, great friends, and the most amazing girlfriend (whom I’m going to marry). Its tough for me being all the way out here away from the people I love and things I love to do. I live in a dorm with a roommate that I met when I first came down here. My roommate and I get along, I guess, but there are a lot of things that bother me. Its tough living with someone you don’t know. I am actually having a tough time of adjusting here. A large part of college is partying and I’m not into that. That’s not who I am any more and I don’t like that. So I mostly workout, do my schoolwork, and play hockey. School to me comes fairly easy and everyday I am done with classes no later that 3am and start the earliest at 9am. Some days I start later and end later. Generally I have 2 to 4 classes a day. I am taking 17 credits. I have 5 different classes. Here in Arizona I am proud member of the Arizona Icecats, which is a club Division 1 team that plays in the ACHA (a league). The hockey I play is very competitive and the team is selected rather than anyone just making the team. I am currently the youngest member on the hockey team and am actually playing. Most kids on the team are between 20 and 24. Hockey is my life and takes up most of my time here in Arizona. If I didn’t have hockey I wouldn’t still be at this school, I would have went home. I am quite homesick and haven’t been home since August 14th and I won’t be going home till November 20th. Usually I’ll have practice almost everyday and from 4:45pm to 7:30pm. It takes up a large part of my day. I do my homework before and after hockey. Also, everyday I go to the gym to work out. On the weekends I have hockey games. So far we have traveled to Phoenix, Arizona, Rochester, New York, and Lubbock, Texas. To Arizona and Texas we traveled on a bus. For every game we must get dressed up in suits or dress pants, jacket, and tie. Its pretty cool traveling with the team because people often think that we are professional hockey players! It was a two-hour bus ride to Phoenix, Arizona and a long 12-hour drive to Texas. It was brutal. For the bus rides we take coach buses. However, going to New York we flew. It was awesome. I really enjoy the road trips because it is cool traveling with your teammates. I really enjoyed going to New York because my family, friends and girlfriend drove up to see me. I was so happy. This upcoming weekend is our first home games. I am so excited; the stadium we play in holds around 6,000 people. I hear a lot of people attend our games. Being a part of the team I got some free equipment and apparel, and everything with the team is paid for. As of right now our record is 5 wins, 1 loss, and 1 tie. We play about 30 to 35 games per season and hopefully this year we’ll got to nationals and possible win. I cant wait to go home to New Jersey I really miss my life there (my girlfriend, my friends, my family, my car, doing all the things I use to do).

Dorm Life at The University of Arizona

Hi, my name is Rachel John and I am currently a freshman at the University of Arizona. I am living on campus in a dorm with two other girls. I didn’t know either of them when I first came to Tucson in August. Living in the dorms was a major adjustment for me. Back at home, in Danville, California, I had my own room, which is about the same size as my dorm now and my own bathroom. The bathrooms in my dorm are community bathrooms, which means that our bathrooms are at the end of our hallway, and approximately 40 girls share them. This is sometimes a major inconvenience. If you ever want to wash your hands, brush your teeth or even take a shower you end up having to go down the hall in order to use the bathroom. Taking a shower in a community bathroom takes a lot of getting used to. We use shower caddies in order to carry all of our bathroom necessities such as shampoo and conditioner to the bathroom every time we want to take a shower. We also wear shower shoes most of the time because showering in a public shower can sometimes be disgusting.
My dorm room is basically a box. There are three twin-sized beds in my room along with 3 desks. There are also three closets, which have a decent amount of space, which is nice. Our beds are raised very high off the ground in order to give us more space to store things. We each have a dresser, which is also under our beds. We have a refrigerator and microwave in our room, which definitely comes in handy. Most of the time we only keep only snacks in our room, because there are many restaurants on campus where we can eat meals. The restaurants on campus are pretty good, but we get tired of them very quickly. Most of the time we either eat sandwiches, pasta, or salads. My dorm is also located very close to University Street, which has many restaurants and shops. Typically we eat on University about 2 times a week when we don’t feel like walking to get food on campus.
Most of the time I do my homework sitting on my bed or at my desk. I have a laptop computer, which is a major life savor. Without my own laptop I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. I do majority of my homework on my laptop such as writing essays or typing up assignments. A lot of my homework is actually turned in online, so I end up not having to use my printer as much. I am currently taking an online class, where I do all of my assignments and quizzes online. It is a fun class because I can do my work whenever it is convenient as long as I turn it in by the assigned due date.
My classes at the University of Arizona are not as difficult as I was expecting. I have a very good schedule. My earliest class is at 10 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and 9:30 on Tuesday and Thursday. I have math four days a week from 1- 1:50. I also have a general education class from 12- 12:50 on Monday and Wednesday and 11- 11:50 on Fridays. My day ends by 2 on most days of the week, which allows me to have plenty of time to do homework.
I hope this helps you to better understand what college life is like in America. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. Hope to hear from you soon!

A Day in the Life by Summer Varin

Hello my name is Summer and I am a freshman at the University of Arizona. I live in a dorm with one roommate. My dorm room is about 230 square feet. We have community bathrooms that we share with the other girls in the hall. Living in the dorms has been a big adjustment for me because I am used to having my own room back home in Phoenix. It is also a big change for me to share a bathroom with twenty other girls. My roommate and I had never met before I came to school in Tucson. I lucked out because we get along very well. Even with the changes I have really enjoyed living in the dorms meeting people and having great freshman experience.
My day normally starts out around ten when I have my first class. I have to walk about 10 minutes to get to my classroom. The class is English and we meet only three days a week for fifty minutes. There are twenty-five students in this class. All freshman English classes are small at this University. In English class we each have picked a Television show to analyze and write an essay about. After class is over at ten fifty my friend and I normally go and get breakfast. They have a bagel shop right next to our dorms so we eat there. Then after breakfast I go back to my dorm and I have free time to do whatever I want until my next class, which is at one. I either watch television, catch up on my homework, hang out with friends, or go on my computer. Having this free time is really nice, but sometimes it’s hard to manage your time because you do have so much of it, and I am not used to it. This is because in High School we had a full day of classes that occupied my time.
My next class is called Life on Earth. This is a general education class that is needed in order for me to graduate. There are about three hundred people in this class. It is the biggest class that I have ever been in, but a normal size in a University lecture. This class covers the general ideas of sciences such as biology. In this class right now we are studying human evolution. We recently had to do a project on identifying the different stages that the human skull has developed from. This is not one of my favorite classes though.
I am a member of the University of Arizona Pomline. This is a dance team that cheers on the sports teams at the university. We cheer at all the men’s football and basketball games. The pomline is an auxiliary to the Pride of Arizona marching band, which has almost three hundred members. After class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at two fifteen we have practice. Our practices last for about three hours. We also have practices on Saturday mornings from eight to noon. During practice we go over all the choreography that we have been working on to refresh our minds. We also learn new choreography for half times and the sideline routines that we do. In the beginning of practices it is only with the team, but at around three thirty we have to go outside to practice with the band. While we practice with the band we have to figure our formations out on the field and put our choreography to the music and the different formations. Practices are very long, but it is definitely worth it to be able to be on the field cheering at the games.
After my practice I will normally get some dinner on campus with my roommate. Then after that I will come back to my dorm and work on homework or just hang out. Then around eleven I will go to sleep and start the day all over again!

Life in College

College in my opinion is one of those life-changing experiences. There is really nothing that compares to the experience that you gain during your time in college. I have been in college for about two and a half months and I have already made lifetime friends and I have an uncountable amount of stories that I will be able to tell over and over and it will never get old. In the little amount of time that I have been in college, I have already learned things that cannot be taught and can only be learned through experiences. Some main examples of this are living on your own for the first time without your parents to warn you what to do and what not to do. Another example is something that is almost unavoidable, drinking alcohol. This is one of element of college that few college students are able to avoid. Personally I haven’t been able to avoid it, but I make sure that it does become a big part of my life and most importantly, it doesn’t effect my performance in school. Personally I think I have been able to keep it to a minimum and it hasn’t been a problem, so the situation I am in is one that works and therefore does not need to be changed. This proves that despite what people say about drinking, I believe that it is not a problem unless you make it one.
One of the most important things that college students need to do in order to succeed in college is to make a list of priorities. People have to understand that you are in college for a reason and that reason is to go to school. There are many students who come to college and don’t care about their schoolwork and just drink and go to parties all of the time. Those are the students who you will not see back the following semester. Of course I think that it is important to be social during college, but you cannot let your social life take over your life. As mentioned before, school has to be the most important thing when you are in college. There is a reason why it cost so much money to attend college because getting a good education and a degree is important when it comes to being successful in life.

My college life by Sahil Arora

Hello my names Sahil Arora and I think its really cool how you guys are interested in seeing how our lifestyles are, and frankly I don’t blame you. Life here is different from anywhere else in the world, trust me. I was born in the country of Canada but my parents are from India. The most interesting thing about college in America is the lifestyle. Ill take you through my daily life and ill let you decide how different it is from your daily lifestyle. I wake up in my dorm room around 9:15 am because my first class is not till 10 am and the building is in short walking distance. I shower in a community bathroom which is shared by other people from my dorm building, and then get ready (usually without eating breakfast) and rush to class. On my way to class ill usually see thousands of other kids walking around. You’ll also sometimes see people playing sports in the grass area at all times of the day. When I get to class its either a class in which there are 300 students where it’s mainly the teacher just lecturing, or ill get to a smaller class with about 30 students in which all the students are required to participate, ask and answer questions. I have about three classes a day, which have at least an hour break in between them where I usually go home to rest or eat food. When my classes are done, usually around 4 pm, ill grab a bite to eat and go back to my dorm room. My dorm room is a pretty big room. I share the room with another student. Our room has a television, a microwave, a fridge, 2 beds, 2 desks, 2 dressers are three closets (I have included a few pictures so you guys can check it out! Are they bigger than your dorm rooms?). I believe we have an extra closet because originally our rooms were supposed to have three people to a room but we got lucky and only had two kids assigned to our room. I live in a building that is 9 stories high that has both boys and girls, with halls being either all boys, or all girls. This does not stop guys and/or girls from visiting each other, as it happens very often. I usually leave my dorm room after I get home to go to the gym and work out, or hangout with friends (hangout meaning spending time with friends while relaxing and having fun). When my friends and I hangout, we may grab a bite to eat at one of the many local restaurants all in walking distance, or we may go to someone’s dorm or house. There is not much to do in the city of Tucson for fun outside of campus and friends houses. After hanging out, its time to do homework. College students have plenty of homework from all their classes and must devote plenty of their night to completing their homework. Homework may take a short amount of time on rare lucky days, or a majority of the day, which requires you to sit at your desk and work. After the long strenuous week, it is finally time for some weekend fun. Weekends in colleges are very crazy. There are hundreds of parties going on and nearly 100% of them have alcohol in which kids get drunk and go crazy. Drinking in American colleges is an activity where most of the college kids take apart in during the weekends. Parties mostly happen on Fridays, Saturdays, some on Thursdays and a few scattered throughout the week. Saturday is the big day where kids can wake up late and stay up late to party. On some Saturdays, there are football games played on campus by the universities football team against other universities. We take these games seriously. Unfortunately, our team is not very good, but we still support them. Football games are usually Saturday nights, followed by many parties. Sunday is the time where students recover from the crazy weekends and do homework. Sundays can be relaxing days if students have moderate homework assignments due, or they can be stressful with a lot of work to do. When Monday comes around the whole week starts over again. This may sound repetitive, but everyday brings a new journey and a challenge. College life is very different from the normal life and a lot of fun. You guys should come check it out one time!

Life at the University of Arizona

Hello, my name is Natalie and I'm a freshman student at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. It is about my third month here in Tucson and I'm absolutely loving it here so far. I moved here from Scottsdale, Arizona which is about two hours away from Tucson. The weather is beautiful and every morning I wake up to sunny skies and fairly cool weather. I am studying to be a Nurse and I am a student majoring in Pre-Nursing. I am a member of P.A.I.N (Professional Achievements In Nursing) which is a Nursing Club here at the University of Arizona. I am taking 13 credits worth of classes and my classes include English, a Psychology class, a Chemistry class, and a Spanish class.

My day as a University of Arizona student consists of waking up at 9 AM on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I get to sleep in till 11 AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays because my Spanish class doesn't start till 12 PM in the afternoon! It takes me about 10 to 15 minutes to walk to my classes from my dorm. I live in a college dorm called Arizona - Sonora that has many many floors. Hundreds of students live in the dorm overall. In my dorm room, there is three of us; me and two other roommates. I have really great roommates and we get along extremely well! All of the people i have met since I've been here are very very nice and easy to get along with. I also have really wonderful teachers for all of my classes. My English class has around 20 students in it, but my Psychology class has over 400 students in it!! I have really enjoyed my time spend going to school at University of Arizona, and I have loved living in Tuscon so far! I can't wait for the next years of my life that I am going to spend going to the University of Arizona. I hope this letter has given you some great information about what being a student here in Tucson, Arizona is really like! I hope you've enjoyed learning about what our lives are like here! =)
- Sincerely
Natalie Matar
(Student - University of Arizona)

Life of a College Student

Hey! My name is Melissa and I'm a college freshman at the University of
Arizona in the sunny state of Arizona. I was born and raised in Tucson, AZ and
can't imagine my life without this beautiful city. Each morning I wake up to
the beautiful mountain view and roasting hot weather and I remember why I love
it here. It is quite common in American tradition for a college student to go
away for college whether that is out of state or out of the country even. But
honestly, I have a hard time leaving on a vacation so leaving for sixth months
is not realistic for me.
College Life. It has definitely been an experience for me and quite a change
from the comfort of my parents' home. I wake up each morning in my dorm,
force open my sleep deprived eyes, and make the usual bowl of oatmeal in a
paper bowl hoping each time that it doesn't catch flame. After filling my
empty belly, I wonder around my usually messy room in search of clean clothes.
After covering my body with anything I can find, I wonder down the hall to the
bathroom for my wake up shower. Once my seemingly boring morning routine is
complete, I begin the journey to class. I hop on my bike and make my way to
dance class which begins at what seems like 4 in the morning but is really
8:00am.
Dance is my favorite past time, workout, hobby- whatever you want to call it.
It has been my passion for over 8 years now. So as early as 8:00am may seem,
it is worth the struggle to wake up to get to dance first thing in the morning.
Who wouldn't want to frolic around freely first thing each morning? I love it.
After dance, the rest of my day is a few classes and then off to work.
I work on campus, so it is a convenient 5 minute walk from pretty much anywhere.
My office is called Room and Course Scheduling and I basically sit in front of
computer for 4 hours each day and process a bunch of memos. As not mentally
stimulating as this may seem, it is a job that helps pay my rent, so I don't
complain. I also get the opportunity to work with some of the nicest people I
have met here at the U of A, so I truly can say I enjoy going to work each day.
After the usual day of class and work, I try to find a little social time.
Usually this comes in the form of food and drink.
Meals here at the U of A seem to be more about socializing than they really are about eating. As everyone filters out of their various classes, they find their friends and make
their way to the Student Union for dinner. It is rare and quite uncomfortable, in my experience, to eat dinner alone in the Union or really anywhere on campus. If I do end up going alone, I usually take my meal to-go and head home to my dorm with hope that my roommate is around to hang out. Another interesting part of dorm life- The Roommate.
I really did get lucky when it comes to my roommate. I've heard my share of
horror stories about fights between roommates and even girls moving out. My
roommate has quickly become my best friend this year. When she's not home I
am actually quite sad. On weekends we tend to be inseparable and I absolutely
love her.
The Weekends. College weekend life is by far the most fun part of the college
experience. Friday nights begin with the usually cramming of homework (for
some reason teachers love to make things due on Friday by midnight). After
that, my friends and I usually head to one of our friends' houses. A few
lucky freshmen chose to live in a house off of campus instead of a dorm. This
decision ends up being very beneficial to those of us living in dorms because
it gives us somewhere fun to go on weekends. The nightly events can range
anywhere from watching a movie to throwing a 100 person party. And either way,
it ends up being a ton of fun.
Overall, the college experience is one that I have grown to love and I'm
really happy that I made the decision to stay here in my hometown of Tucson,
AZ. I hope the experience continues to be a positive one in the years to
come.

Matt Jehling

College life here is always an experience. There is always something to do. This year I have a dorm room with one roommate. The room is a pretty good size. We have two beds, closets, and dressers. Every dorm here has a TV and if they don’t it seems odd. When you walk around my dorm it is three stories and is shaped in a U. However every hall looks the same so it is very easy to get lost. The dorms are air conditioned and there are two bathrooms for my hall. My hall consists of sixteen rooms so about thirty two people. A lot of people here are from California and Arizona, but I am from St. Louis. Everyone in my hall is nice for the most part and a lot of people play videogames. This is mostly guys because the girls aren’t really into that. The weather here is always nice it has been in the 70s and 80s since I have been here. It hardly ever rains and if it does it only rains for about ten minutes.
I have five classes which translate to fifteen credit hours. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays I have three classes which are all fifty minutes. On Thursday I have four classes that are also fifty minutes and on Friday I just have one fifty minute class. The rest of the day most people usually work out, sleep, eat, and do homework. Most people complain about the homework. A lot of times it seems like all the midterms and papers come in the same week so some weeks the workload is a lot heavier than others. I have been playing on an intramural football team. We play once a week and have seven guys on a team. There are different leagues for different skill levels. My league is the most competitive one but nobody practices before the games. Some professors here are liked more than others and we never see them outside of class unless we go to their office hours for help. It is not that we avoid them but we have 35,000 people here so you hardly see anyone. However I must say that if we did see them we would probably just walk by wave.
On the weekends there are a lot of parties to go to. Many of the parties are thrown by frats and sororities. The parties start on Thursday and go until Saturday but some people party every night. Not a lot of people have cars here because they are freshman so people like to get off campus when they can. At least a few people will go home every weekend. Unless they live in Arizona most people only fly home once or twice besides Thanksgiving and winter break. On Sundays most of the guys watch football which consumes a good portion of the day. Our rec center is open until midnight so a lot of people play basketball, racket ball or just work out. It is not unusual to see a ton of people there between nine and twelve at night. That might even be the busiest time. People here are on their cell phones constantly because that’s the best way to communicate with people. Also we have wireless internet over the entire campus. Most people have laptops and if they don’t there are computer labs all over campus. The campus is huge and depending on where you live it could take up to twenty minutes to walk to class. We have class with people of all ages and we get to pick which classes we want to take. However a lot of classes fill up so the selection is limited. There are certain courses we have to take to graduate and we have to end up with 120credit hours for a business major. This school has a good business program so a lot of people here are majoring in that.

Sorority Life

Hello. My name is Brittany and I am 18 years old. I am a freshman here at the University of Arizona. I was born here in Tucson, Arizona and have wanted to go to the university here ever since I heard about it. Now that I am fulfilling one of my many dreams, I continue to make more. I am in a sorority at the U of A (as we call it). Sororities are groups of girls that do things together to help make the community better. Lots and lots of girls go to the different sororities and talk to some of the girls that are already in the sorority. Everyday the girls pick the sororities they want and then go back to determine if that is the house they want. At the end of the process, they are given their sorority. My sororities name is Alpha Chi Omega. All of the girls are great and I love everyone of them. It is like we are one big family. We have fundraisers and do community service. We also just hang out with each other when we are not doing sorority events. When Homecoming comes around (it is a very big event for our school) we pair up with a fraternity, which is just like a sorority except with guys, and we build a float. All of the sororities do this and it is a big competition. There is also something called serenading. Serenading is when a fraternity sings and dances for a sorority and when a sorority sings and dances for a fraternity. As embarrassing as it sounds it is actually a lot of fun. Several of the sororities did a serenading competition as a fundraiser. My sorority, unfortunately did not win. A lot of the things we do in Greek life (the name for all of the sororities and fraternities) are for charity and benefit other people. We also have date dashes which are a lot of fun. date dashes are when we invite dates and get on a bus and go to a "secret location." We went on a date dash a few weeks ago and we just ended up going to a mexican restaurant, but there was food, music, and for those who are allowed to drink alcohol, a bar. The date dashes also have themes. My sorority's date dash next week is "Go Hollywood." So they said we could dress up like an actor or actress or like we are going to a "red-carpet event" with famous people. As a new member in the sorority, I get a big. Bigs are big sisters since all of the girls are your sisters. I am known as a little, short for little sister. It is a week long process of our "bigs" giving us presents and clues to figure out who they are. At the end of the week they give us one last puzzle to figure out who they are. Fraternities also like to hang out with the sororities. They have parties and most of the sorority girls will go. Some have themes and some don't. But they are just a lot of fun in general. Once a week, we have meetings called chapter meetings to discuss about future events and issues going on presently. We have to dress up and look nice since they are formal meetings sometimes. Because we are new members, in order to become actives we have to go through initiation. I am not quite sure what iniationis because it is a secret to us. The only thing they told us about it is what day it is on and what to wear. But I love it so far. I would definitely have to say it is the best decision I have made since I have been in college/ I will fill you in when I find out more. What is your school like?

Dear Pen Pals,
My name is Erin Hameroff, and I’m a freshman at the University of Arizona in Tucson. I grew up in Tucson, now living in a dorm about fifteen minutes away from my childhood house. I have an older brother who goes to school in North Carolina, and he is studying in Spain for the semester. Although I am not in a sorority, I am involved with the University of Arizona’s Hillel foundation, which is the Jewish foundation that supports Jewish college students. Hillel gives Jewish students a sense of community, a place to meet similar college students, and somewhere to just hang out between classes. I eat lunch their everyday before Hebrew with different friends.
The first word that comes to my mind when I think of my dorm is “noisy”. 24/7 there are people talking, hanging out and listening to music. It is very hard to study and get work done in my room, because the walls and doors are so thin, I can hear people down my all at all hours of the day. My dorm is made up of nine floors, with fifty rooms on each floor, and two people in each room. Each floor is a lot like a hotel room, it is always very clean, unlike most people’s rooms. In the picture above, is a bunch of my friends in the dorm I live in.
When you open the door to my room, there are two small closets on the right, and a bathroom that I share with another two girls on the left. Once you walk past the closets, there is one big desk on the left, with two spots for chairs. On my desk I put up a ton of pictures of my friends, along with all my school supplies and books. I also have my name in wooden block letters on my desk. Right across from the desk is my bed, and on the wall right next to my bed I have all my jewelry on a corkboard, and a collage of pictures that my friend made me before school started. On the border near the ceiling, my roommate and I decided to hang pink and purple string on each wall and then clip photos all around the room to give the room a border. All of my decorations along with my roommate’s decorations has made the dorm pretty cozy and “homey”. We have a television on top of the desks, so we can both see it. We have a very small refrigerator and microwave underneath my roommates bed, along with a bin full of all kinds of snacks.
My favorite part about living in the dorm and going to school is all the new people I get to meet. Not including the 900 kids living in my dorm, I have tons of students in my classes, at Hillel, and around campus as well. It has given me so many options of what kind of people I choose to hang out with, and there is so much more variety in kids. So far, college has been a blast.

What is your school like? How many students? What do you do for fun there? What is your favorite part about school? Where do you live and what is it like?

Hope this gives you a glimpse of college life in America!
Erin

A Little of my Life

Hello!
My name is Angelica Chavira and I am a freshman at the University of Arizona. I am from Sonora, Mexico, but I have three years studying in the United States. In reality, came to the United States was very hard for me. When I first came, I found diverse borders that I never imagined. The biggest one was the language. I didn’t know how to speak English. It was very hard to communicate with my teachers, classmates or simply people. The United States have cool people who helped in my learning. One was my Government teacher in high school Juan Rojas. Since the first moment I met him he gave me advices about how to do better in school. Between some others is Ms. Wakamatsu, my English teacher also at high school. She helped me to apply for college and scholarships, and thanks to God I am accepted at the U of A and I have my Wildcat Excellence Scholarship.
As I am new at the U of A, I am just learning where the buildings are and where are the nearest places to eat between classes. The first day I came to the U of A, I felt as a stranger because the school is too big. I have classes three days per week and the others two I work as a tutor in a middle school. Once per week I go to practice mariachi because I sing and play vihuela (a little guitar) with a mariachi called San Juan. I love mariachi!
During weekends sometimes I have tocadas (times that we go to play), and others I go with my boyfriend and friends to parties. In reality school is hard and most of my free time I do homework, projects, and essays.
Hope you have fun!

Jimmy's daily life

Jimmy Bevell
October 24, 2007

The life of a college student in the United States is very demanding. My life here in the University of Arizona is very full of walking and practicing my sport. The university here is very large and it requires a determined person to walk from one class to another. If this doesn’t make you want to quit school the teachers will. They give us loads of homework, but we students like to call it busy work. The teachers are not very student friendly, or not caring for the students they only want to finish what is on the curriculum for the class.
Therefore, studying is the key to success. If you don’t have your nose in a book then you aren’t going to make it very far. I like to have a balanced breakfast in the morning to get things off right. I believe that it is impossible to work without something in my stomach. Then I get to school around seven thirty in the morning. I have two classes everyday, and they usually require homework every night. Then I go lift weights for my football team here in the University. This way I can be successful on the field and also have a healthy strong body.
I then have a small lunch because I have been snacking all day. This is so my mind can handle all the walking from class to class and the workouts for my sport. Then I have to go to practice to become better at my sport. It is important to be sharp here so you can always keep the starting job.
After practice I have the opportunity to finally go home around seven at night and eat dinner. After dinner I start my homework and try to finish it by ten o’clock. My mind and my body begin to fall asleep around ten so I have to get into bed. I get to bed early because I have to get up early and do all of this all over again. I enjoy my life as a college student because you are finally away from home and you can start your life. After about two months you begin to miss your parents and your family. It is a hard transition from high school to college but it makes you more aware of how important your family is to you.
The people here in Tucson Arizona love the sports. I love being an athlete because people want autographs and you get recognition when you do well. This is all nice but when you are doing poorly in your sport it ads more stress to your life and it begins to affect your grades and your relationships with your friends and family.
It is really a blast here in the University of Arizona because there are so many parties to go to and the girls are just too fine!

College Life at The University of Arizona

Greetings from hot and dry Arizona!

My name is Gillian. I am a freshman here at the University of Arizona. It is my 3rd month here, and the college life is treating me well.

I am an on-campus resident here. The rooms in my hall are a bit small, but not uncomfortable. I am so fortunate to have such wonderful suitemates. My roommate and I get along well. We go grocery shopping together, stay up late and talk about our personal lives, and we even hang out on the weekends together sometimes. I got very lucky because so often I hear horror stories about roommates that don’t get along at all!

I am a nursing major here at the UA, so I have to take many science courses. Currently I am taking chemistry and biology along with a few other classes, including this English class! Biology has been my toughest course this semester, but I believe in myself and I know I will succeed.

A typical weekday for me would be to wake up around 7 am for my 8 am class. This semester I have two back-to-back morning classes. After I am finished in the morning, I go back to my dorm room and take a two hour nap. I get up around noon, eat lunch, and do homework before my afternoon class at 3 pm. In the evenings I usually attend optional class discussions which are helpful if I do not fully understand the material. Other nights of the week I go to club meetings or events for the UA pre-nursing club. Once my day is over, I stay up and study. I usually don’t get to bed until around 1:30 am. It’s late, but I always have a lot of studying to do! My schedule then repeats itself the following day.

On weekends, usually I sleep in, of course! Then I get some of my homework done so that I can get a head start. Afterward, my suitemates and I usually run errands to places such as the grocery store or the drug store. Then, we spend the rest of the afternoon doing fun stuff. We enjoy shopping at the mall, seeing movies at the theater, or taking walks around campus. In the evenings, my suitemates and I get dinner at local restaurants or just on the UA campus. Later, we will all get dressed up and primped to go out and party! The late night is when the day gets fun! I think my favorite part of college is the social aspect. I am a very friendly person and I enjoy talking to and learning about new people. Going to social events such as parties is a great way to make friends!

In my opinion, the most difficult part of college is the exams. Typically, a course has little homework, so there are not many points to be earned, but the exams are each worth 100 to 200 points. This is why it is so important to know and understand the class material thoroughly. The work is stressful, but it is imperative to keep a positive outlook. I think some essential characteristics to have in college are motivation, determination, and independence. They will surely lead you down the path to success.

Macedonian in Tucson:)

Hi, my name is Ivana Cardieri and I’m a junior at the University of Arizona. I transferred from my school in Macedonia and I’ve been living here in Tucson for 8months and I like it A LOT:)

As far as school goes, it is different than education in Europe. It is very dynamic and the professors are very collaborative and opened for communication. We all know that for a non-native English speaker is very important to have that understanding from the professors. Being involved in the educational system here in Tucson, Arizona is a challenge that I’ve happily embraced.

So, people are friendly and helpful, even thought nightlife in Tucson is a little bit boring:) You know, in the USA the legal age to go to bars is 21. But hey, don’t think that kids don’t party here. There are a lot of house parties, and I personally don’t see what the fuss is all about…. I’m 21 and can go anywhere I want- there are couple of cool European style clubs in town!

Now I will tell you something about my country;
Macedonia is a beautiful, small country located on the Balkans and it is the country of Alexander the Great (in translation Alexander Macedon)
Our national jewel is Lake Ohrid, that was formed between four to ten million years ago, is Europe's oldest lake, and is amongst the oldest in the world. It lies in the valley between Ohrid and Struga, in the border region between Macedonia and Albania. It is filled with exotic fish and the best-known Ohritska pastramka.
My people are well known for their hospitality and all the traditional food that you can’t find anywhere else in the world.

Moving away form home is really hard, because my entire family is still there. But being here is not so bad. In the last couple of months, here at the University I’ve met so many people from different ethnicities. It is exiting to be surrounded with so many cultures and languages.

I like this college life a lot, because it gives me feeling of independence and prepares me for everything that awaits me in the future:)
Hey I would love to know what is your life in general like and what is your school life like?

Hope you are safe!
Your friend,

Ivana C.

Hi from Tucson!

Hello, my name is Jessie Frank, I am 18 years old, and this is my first year in college at the University of Arizona. The picture of the A is the University of Arizona ‘A’, which is usually found on shirts and sweaters here. The cat is a wildcat, and is the school mascot.
Going to college was a big change from my high school. One major difference was all the time outside of class I had. In high school I went to class from 8am until 3pm, and had very little free time during the week. However, in college, I go to class for 3-6 hours per day, with the rest of my time spent outside of classes. During my free time, I usually relax and watch TV shows or read books. I also surf the internet a lot. However, most of my free time is used studying. I will study about 2-3 hours per day for my hardest classes like Biology.
Of course, college isn’t just about studying! I also joined a club that I was interested in, it only meets once a week so it fits into my schedule very well. I am meeting new people through this club, as well as in my classes by forming study groups. I was lucky enough to have a few friends come to the UA with me, so I hang out with them a few times a week. We will usually go out for lunch or dinner, or just hang out, watch movies, and chat. My weekends are either spent hanging out and working on homework, or visiting my parents in my home city of Phoenix. Since I only live two hours away from home, I will usually carpool up with friends and spend a weekend there. While I’m in Phoenix, I will meet up with some of my friends that are still in high school and catch up on events. I also tell them about college and what they should expect.
At first, I thought college would be a little overwhelming, but I find it really manageable and a lot better than high school! I really like the idea that you can pick your own classes, class times, and professors! Because of this, I make sure that I have time in between my classes so I can relax, and that I don’t have classes too late on Fridays!
I also thought that living in a dorm would be really horrible. The experience I have had so far in living in a dorm has been great. The people in my hall are really courteous to other residents and don’t really yell and scream all night. The worst part about dorm life, that I expected, would be the community bathrooms. However, they really aren’t that bad! The showers are small, but there’s always hot water! All in all, college, for me, has been an awesome experience!

Hello, Greetings from Tucson.

My name is Mona Damdinjav. I am 17 years old and a student at the University of Arizona. I am from a far away country of Mongolia. Mongolia is located between China and Russia. I came to the United States about 4 years ago and went to high school. I graduated from high school last summer and decided to continue my education at the University of Arizona.

Mongolia is not as rich or developed as the United Stated, so for some time it was very difficult for me to adapt to living in Tucson. The surroundings and environment were completely different from what I was used to see in my native country. There were many houses and not many apartment buildings. The weather was so hot and humid compared to the dry and cold weather of Mongolia. The food was completely different than in Mongolia, I tried my first McDonald’s and pizza. Even the shops and supermarkets were different. But slowly I was able to accustom to the lifestyle here.

My typical day starts off as I wake up at 6 o’clock in the morning. My apartment is far away from the university so I take the bus to school. I take the bus at 7 o’clock and arrive at my school at 7:30. Then I go to my math class, which starts at 8 o’clock. My English class then begins at 9 but I often almost run to that class because the buildings are too far from each other. I don’t have any other class until 1 o’clock so I go to the library to do my homework. At 1 o’clock, I have my language class, which has over 400 students in this really big lecture room. After my language class, I go home and do some more homework and then everything start all over again. On Saturdays and Sundays, if I’m finished with my homework I go to the movies with my sister. My sister is a college student at the community college. I really like to go to the movies because it is lot of fun and the screens are really big and sometimes you even feel like you are in the movie. My sister always begging me to go shopping with her on the weekends, but I hate shopping.

The tuition of University of Arizona is very expensive for me because dollar is very expensive in Mongolia. My parents work really hard to let me get a better education and I am thankful for them. I am trying to get a job to help out my parents but I don’t think I have any time because of lot of homework. But when this semester ends in January I think I will be able to get a job.

Even though I live in this great country I always miss my country.

I wish you guys the best of luck in everything and hope to hear from you all.

I posted some pictures of my hometown, but I couldn’t find any good pictures of Tucson.