The University of Tulsa: What should you know as an International Student? - Part 2

Hello folks,

This post will be the second part to my post "The University of Tulsa: What should you know as an International Student?". While the last post described the process of coming to TU (University of Tulsa), the application and the organizational part, this post will focus on the university and the experience of spending a semester at this university. Even though I am depending on my personal experience at TU, I do believe that there are some universal things you can "learn" from my experience that is true for any semester abroad.

The University of Tulsa is a beautiful place to study! The weather is nice and warm even through October and the campus is incredibly well kept. Apart from being pretty to look at, the campus offers quite a few options to spend your free time outside. There are tennis and basketball courts, fields to play soccer/ football/ lacrosse/ ultimate Frisbee, outside seating areas in front of the library, a pool and also beach volleyball fields. No worries though! If you just want to hang out in the sun, the new and old U, are perfect for a quick nap in the sun.

The new U and McFarlin Library

So while you're there you should take advantage of those opportunities and use them to make new friends. Just go ahead and ask people in you classes if they would like to hang out, play some ball or have lunch in the sun instead of in the Caf or ACAC (aka the Student Union). Equipment for soccer, tennis, football or volleyball can be borrowed with you student ID at the Collins Fitness Center.

The Collins Fitness Center (CFC) is another great place on campus. It is free for all students and also offers classes like yoga for a little money. They are pretty strict and you should check out their rules, but if you play along their few simple rules, it is a great place to stay fit or meet with friends. The CFC has three basketball courts which can also be used for volleyball or badminton and there is also room for table tennis tables. Also, all cardio machines can be hooked up to the media wall via head phones. This way you can watch your favorite shows and movies on TV while working on your cardio. There is a clue to it though. The audio only works, if you are actually moving on the cardio machines. After your workout, you can have a coffee or smoothie at the little smoothie bar in the lobby. Or if you prefer it, you can simply go for a smoothie and skip the workout. ;)

If you are reading this and you are not going to TU but some other American college, this specific information obviously won't help you much. However, you should check out your schools website to see what your school has to offer. American college is very much about having a community where the students live and learn together. Most likely your school has similar things to offer on their campus. :) 

Apart from all those great options to spend your time on campus, there are also lots of fun events. Above is a picture from one of the football games. At TU all sport events are free to students. You should definitely take advantage of that at least once. It can be a lot of fun to go to some games with your friends and feel the school spirit. In my opinion school spirit is something you need to experience when going to any school in the US. It's part of the American school experience and simply something new at least to German (college) students. :) For all the great events happening you should check out the Student Association homepage. I personally love that most events have free food. :) 

For all of you who made it this far through my post, I got one last piece of advice. Making new friends is rarely easy and it costs a lot of energy, but it is always worth it in the end. So put yourself out there, be a little pushy about getting together with new people and make new friends. I promise: "No Ragrets" ;) 

Thank you for reading!

Jenny Sch.

It isn't easy...

Dear readers,

It has been some time since I last posted on this blog, but I want to pick up the slack and start posting regularly again. Today's post will be a little less cheery than my posts usually are. I want to write to you about the part that is hardest for me about going abroad and coming back.

So far I spent a school year (my junior/ 11th grade) in Oregon, US and as you might know the fall semester 2014 at the University of Tulsa. Ever since my first year abroad, I left a big chunk of my heart there. I found a new family and I found another country where I feel at home. This truly is a blessing and I am more than grateful for this experience and this connection to the English language and the United States of American. It truly changed and enhanced my life.

This also holds true for this last time at TU. I found a whole house full of sisters and yet another place that feels quite a bit like home for me. I learned a lot about myself and friendship. Namely: building a friendship is hard work and it takes time.

So what is so hard and terrible about it? I am a person who does things with all her heart. When I do something I am usually all in. I also love wastefully. I don't actually believe that love can be wasted, but it paints a certain picture that I think very well describes what I feel like. This trade is the main reason that my host family in Oregon actually became my second family and why at least for me those 60+ girls at Tri Delta are like sisters. All of them! Because even though I might not have spent a lot of time with every single one, I see the potential and I just know that could have been and I see them for the beautiful women they are (becoming).

I would never want to miss a single one of those experiences and I would never want to change that about myself. BUT: This also means that I am constantly torn between wanting to be there and wanting to be here. I constantly see a life in front of me that I could be leading there, because I have been actually living there. It is a little like having an alternate universe where I'm studying in America and where I'm in a sorority and where I live with my host family. I constantly miss a lot of people and that also brings a lot of sadness with it,

And there is nothing I can do about it. Even if I move to the US (for a while), I will be missing Germany and my family. I have two big hearts beating in my chest longing for two different things and I can't have them both. One is always aching.

Okay, enough with the sappy stuff. I just really felt like writing about it will make me feel better. And it does. :)

While this post turned a little sappy and it really isn't easy for me, I want to emphasize that I would not change the way I handled my times abroad. I made the most of it, because I was all in with all my heart and I loved wastefully and I wasn't afraid of tearing my walls down. If you are going abroad for some time, please try to do the same. It will be more than worth it, even the heart ache you might have at some times. You should really at least try your best!

With a heavy heart I will go to bed now. :)

Thank you for reading to the end!

Jenny Sch.

The University of Tulsa: What should you know as an International Student? - Part 1

Hey folks,

Today I want to talk about what you should know about coming to the University of Tulsa (TU) as an exchange student. Everything I will write in this first part and the following part describes my experience. Some things might have changed, are generally different for your country/ university or might just not apply to your experience. However, I do hope that this will help you with your decisions, preparations and expectations. 

In this first part, I want to address rather the things that play a role before you actually are in Tulsa. Some of this I already covered in my previous posts, but here I would like to present it to you in a more precise and direct fashion. So let's get started!

As you might know, I study at the University of Siegen. At the University of Siegen you have to apply for the program and once you are nominated to go to Tulsa, it is pretty much set that you are going. That is at least how I understood it. Sadly the information flow from the officials to me about the whole process was not too great. The next step is filling out the TU application. In this application they want to have various things that you most likely already have on hand - an English CV, letter of motivation etc. 

The next step of this application is more about TU itself and helps to prepare everything for your arrival. Here you get the information about the insurance requirements, your vaccination requirements, your course wishes, your arrival details and a few more things. I would strongly advise you to read through ALL of it thoroughly because these are mostly things you need to organize before leaving to the US. Get started on your vaccinations early and talk to your physician. Be aware that some of them might not be covered by your insurance. You should definitely check with your insurance provider. For the insurance: Don't sweat it too much. You do not need to present your insurance information until you arrive there and waiving the insurance of TU is rather easy and online. I personally was freaking out about it without a real reason to. The requirements might change for the upcoming years, but the insurance offered by the ADAC covers pretty much everything and has barely any limits. It is especially handy for members of the ADAC. I paid around 130€ for the 4 month instead of 600$ (whole academic year!) for the insurance for TU. 

Another thing you have to organize before coming is Housing and Dining. There are various options for housing. You can find all the prices and details on the TU website. I personally very much enjoy staying in an apartment compared to a dorm room. The dorm rooms are pretty small, you do not have a kitchen to cook ANYWHERE and you have barely any personal space because you usually share the small dorm rooms with someone else. If you go for an apartment you can just sign up for only the apartments and wait until you’re placed but I would highly recommend you to check out the roommate finder and maybe find an apartment through that. What happened this year, and I don't know if that is how it always is or if it was just his year, was that most of the exchange students ended up living in two bedroom apartments with four people. This basically means dorm rooms but with a kitchen, a living room and two bathrooms. I went on roommate finder and found myself a roommate and an apartment. I’m very happy with that choice. I have my own room, my own bathroom and my own walking closet (dream of every girl or woman!). Before you can be assigned to an apartment you will have to deposit 250$. I did not know about this when I signed up for Tulsa and did not expect this (additional) cost.

There will also be things you will need to buy for your room. Plan that in your budget. ;)

Now Dining is its own thing. If you live in a dorm room and don't have a kitchen you basically need a meal plan and dining dollars. The Caf however is not too fancy. It is decent. Most people are not too happy with it. The breakfast is great however. ;) When you live in an apartment and have your own kitchen, you will need groceries. There is pretty much no possibility to shop for groceries here without a car. So either save up enough to buy a car while you're here or find friends with cars. If you cannot manage either, your last resort is the CaneTransit. Those are shuttles that go off campus to stores like Target and Reasors where you can do your shopping. 

Even with an apartment it is smart to have some dining dollars on your TU ID which works like a credit card. On campus you can use those dining dollars to pay for food. At the Allan Chapman Student Union you can find various fast food accommodations like Pizza Hut, Baja Jacks (Mexican), Sushi, Chick-fil-a or Subway. When you use your TU ID to pay instead of cash or your debit/ credit card you save the sales tax. Sales tax is about 8% in Oklahoma and is generally NOT included in the prizes you see. My guess is that you will eat quite a few times on campus during your stay and not always alone in your apartment. Do not worry though. You do not have to choose an amount of dining dollars before you come. You can still arrange that once you're there or during the semester. I only just recently added some dollars on my card. 

Okay, I think this is already quite a bit of information! If you have any more question regarding these things, please feel free to email me or simply comment. Maybe your question is also interesting for someone else. ;) 

Thank you for reading this post.

Jenny Sch.

P.S. Remeber to get all your prescriptions in order before you leave. You cannot buy contact lenses without a prescription in the US, for example.

Homecoming Week at the University of Tula 2014

Hey everyone :)

Since I'm a little behind on blogging, I will give my best this week to write a few more posts. Let's start with Homecoming Week! We don't have that in Germany so let me explain the concept a little to you. It is called "Homecoming" because the Alumni, the former students, are coming "home" to their Alma Mater, their university. This however is not just a tradition at universities and colleges but also at High School. Traditionally, there will be a football game on that weekend and lots of celebrations throughout the whole week. So let me walk you through TU's Homecoming Week 2014!

The festivities already started on Sunday October 12th with a Kick-off Party. You also need to know that Homecoming week was a competition where different organizations on campus competed against each other. Tri Delta competed together with Kappa Alpha Order (KA), one of the fraternities on campus. The organizations could collect points for participating in the different events which the Student Association (SA) organized, 

Monday, it sadly rain, so the color run planned for that day had to be pushed to Thursday. Tuesday was street painting which was quite a bit of fun. Liz, one of our Tri Delta girls, made a great design for our street painting. With our painting we actually made 2nd place. Woohooo :) 

Wednesday was my favorite activity and I actually participated in it. It was a PIE EATING contest! One of the KA guys and I had to eat a gigantic cherry pie. We only got fourth though. :( I really wanted to win... But check out me eating the pie!

So now Thursday was the color run where people in white t-shirts ran across campus and were hit by color bombs. I was busy and missed it but there was another, even cooler event that night - The "Drop".  The Drop is a tradition SA brought back from the 80s. They dropped a piano on the old U. It was pretty spectacular but also simply crazy. The piano was filled with ping pong balls and on some of them were numbers that stood for different prizes. Once the piano dropped, everyone just stormed towards that dead piano. It was mayhem. 

Friday morning was an Alumni breakfast but the food was gone super-fast. It must have been good! I missed the food, but could still check in to help get points for participation. In the evening we had a big bonfire, music and a ceremony where the Top Ten Freshmen, Top Ten Seniors and the Homecoming court were announced and special Alumni were honored. Homecoming court is also a tradition which can be found at High Schools. You might have seen it in movies. It is in a way similar to prom queen. Different people from different organizations were nominated to become homecoming king and queen. Friday night the homecoming king was announced. 

Saturday was the big game day. The game was a little bit of a disappointment... We lost. However, during the game the homecoming queen was announced which was no other than our very own Sarah Hartley. Go Sarah! :) 

Homecoming week was a lot of fun! The only thing weird for me was not having any family there that weekend. Most people had their families come to TU and visit them and spend time with them. Now my family obviously was a little too far away to come for this weekend. It made a little homesick to be honest. Especially, because I did not know whom of my friends would have family there and who would not. I really did not want to disrupt their family time too much. 

Thank you for reading this post!

Jenny Sch. :) 

P.S.: If you want to see more pictures from Homecoming Week 2014 @ TU, go and check out the facebook page of the Student Association of the Universitsy of Tulsa. :) 

Get it all done!

Hey y'all! 

Can you tell I've been living in the Midwest for more than a month now? ;) 

Now that I'm a month into the semester, I had the first two weeks where I was just swamped with school work and events! I had my first papers and a few article reviews due last week and this week, let alone the reading that I had to keep up with. Now it is a little better but I definitely need to keep up with all the homework. Yes, there is actual HOMEWORK in American Universities. Today I want to give you a little overview over the work load of courses at TU. This is overview however will be limited to English and Education courses. I don't have an idea on what is happening in business courses or science courses. TU is actually a very big engineering school. So if you are interested in chemical, petroleum, physical or any other kind of engineering, TU is the school for you.

Check out what was happening last week! 

For my semester here I chose three literary classes: Contemporary Literature & Politics, World Literature and Film by Women and a Jane Austen Literature & Film course. I also have an education class and a fun class, Jazz Dance 1. First of all, I really do enjoy all of my classes. BUT three literary classes mean a whole lot of reading, which is similar to literary classes in Siegen. However, there are SO many papers to write during the semester. All assigned papers of the classes combined, I will have to write at least 48 pages of response papers and essays/ papers. And that are only the literary classes. There are written assignments in my education class too. Basically, by the end of the semester, I will have written essays and papers that add up to the length of a Staatsarbeit.

For those three literary classes I will get 3 credit points, for the education class I will get 4 credit points and Jazz Dance is only worth 1 credit point. In order to be considered a full time student, you need to be enrolled into 12 credit hours total. The maximum of credit hours you can take without paying extra at TU is 18 credit hours. I have the greatest respect for people who take 18 credit hours and still manage to have a life outside of school. While in Siegen it is quite possible to have more than 10 courses and still kind of get along and have a life, it is much harder here because he professors tend to keep you on your toes with Homework, test and pop quizzes (quizzes without a warning beforehand).

I really don't want to make this a super long and super boring post so I will stop here for now. I also do not want you to be afraid of going to TU because of the workload. It might have been a good choice to take one literary class less, but being the nerd I am, I couldn't have decided on which of the three classes to drop for an "easier" one. Right now I'm just really happy to have handed in my first written assignments which will be graded. I have all my fingers crossed that I did well on them. Even though my grades back home do not really matter within my course of study, I really would like to do well in my classes here. 

You made it through the whole post. Congratulations and thank you for reading :)

Jenny Sch.

What a RUSH!

Hey guys! :) 

It seriously has been a rush since classes started. They definitely keep me on my toes with a lot of reading and quite a few papers this semester! Today however, I want to talk about a different kind of rush I had the chance to experience. I'm talking about "rushing" the sororities on campus. 

Let me start by answering some basic questions you will most likely have right now.

What is a sorority?

Sorority is the term for "women fraternities". The general concept of sororities, women fraternities and fraternities is similar to the German "Studentenverbindungen". They are organizations which intend to create a network (and brother/ sisterhood) for students. The members of these organizations generally strive to excel academically and be the best person they can be. Since we live in a world with a very patriarchal history, there first were only fraternities. Women weren't allowed to study yet. When they finally were allowed to study, the men would not allow the women into their fraternities. What the men can do, we most certainly can do too! The first women fraternities (the term sorority didn't exist yet) were founded towards the end of the 19th century. The different organizations gave themselves names which were made up of Greek letters. These head organizations generally have chapters at different universities all over the US.

What is "rushing"?

The official and correct term is "Formal Recruitment". Every year the sororities and fraternities hold a formal recruitment to find new members for their chapter. This process is a mutual selection process. It is what?? This just means that during this process you meet the different sorority chapters at the campus and as you might prefer some sororities, the sororities also meet all the recruits and might like some of them better than others. This process focuses on finding the group of girls in which you best fit in. The chapters are not allowed to reveal their costs for example to keep the "Potential New Members" from making their decision a financial one rather than one based on personalities. This process is very important for the sororities (and fraternities but at least at TU it is way more serious apparently than at the fraternities) because they are looking for "sisters" to join their inner circle, become live long friends and share the history and secrets of their sorority and chapter with. 

Sororities with chpaters at TU

I hope you have a basic understanding of what a sorority is and what it means to "rush". If not, feel free to comment, email me or just use the world wide web. ;) 

Now let me tell you my personal story real quick:

I decided to rush just to meet people, get the real American college experience and because I was curious to get a glimpse at this unfamiliar world. Little did I know how the recruitment process would influence me. The first day of recruitment my group and I went to the six houses located at TU - Chi Omega, Delta Delta Delta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Kappa Delta, Delta Gamma and Kappa Alpha Theta. We would go into the houses (alphabetical order was super important) and chat with two or three girls of that chapter before leaving the house again and moving on to the next one. At the end of the day we were asked to "rank" the chapters based on which we liked better than others into our top four (equally ranked) and the two which we didn't like as much. The sororities would do the same and decide which girls they would rather see again the next day of recruitment and which they thought might not fit into their chapter as well. 

On Day 2 we would receive a little card which said which houses of the four houses we ranked as our top choices wanted to see us again. I only got asked back to two houses - Theta and Tri Delta. By the end of day 2 and meeting even more genuinely nice girls and learning more about the sororities philanthropies (big, big part of Greek Life!), I realized two things. The sororities were mostly looking for long time commitments, meaning that their recruits would be at TU for the coming four years of college. This actually was at least one big reason why I only got asked back by two houses. The other thing I realized was that I was actually deeply sad about this fact and that I actually started enjoying this world and wanting to be a part of this world. 

Day 3 was a very emotional day. I was nervous if any of the two houses of day two would ask me back for the final day. I was relieved and happy when I learned that Theta as well as Tri Delta had asked me back. This final day of recruitment is the most serious day. It is the last recruitment day for the seniors (last year of college) and the chapters often have little ceremonies which honor the seniors. Being the emotional person I am, there was quiet a bid of crying on my part. I was touched by the ceremonies and the women I met. After going to the houses you were asked back to, we were asked to rank the (max. 3) sororities again and decide from which two sororities we would accept a bid (invitation to join) and also which is our favorite one. I was positive that I would enjoy being a part of both sororities and let my gut decide on which one was my favorite.

The most exciting part of the final recruitment day is when everyone receives their bids! All the "Potential New Members" would get an envelope with a bid card from a sorority. In this process it is possible to end up without a bid but that barely happens. Once everyone got their enveloped we opened them together at once and ran to our houses to meet our new sisters. It was exhausting! But so worth it. :)

Are you wondering where I ran to? If you checked up on my Facebook page, you will definitely know already. For all the others: 

TRI DELTA!!!!

Thank you for reading this gigantic post! :)

Jenny Sch.

Long Days & 1000 New Experiences

Hello everyone! :) 

I've been wanting to write a new post since I arrived but two things got in my way: The Wi-Fi at TU hasn't been too reliable and TU had us exchange students busy every day from the morning until the evening. I will tell you all about it now.

Let me start by telling you about how I got here. Sunday morning I said goodbye to my family and my boyfriend, swallowed down my tears and got on a plane to Atlanta. I had a really nice couple from Bonn sitting next to me whom I chatted with once in a while. Other than that I tried to enjoy a few movies (sadly the movies would keep breaking off and you'd have to forward to where you were) and did my best to sleep a little. In Atlanta I had an immense layover of I think EIGHT hours. It got really lonely by the end. I also was really tired by the end of the layover because it has been a really long day so far. My last flight from Atlanta to Tulsa however was rather quick and I really enjoyed it. Since we were flying east we were chasing the sunset on the horizon. Flying at night has this beauty to it - seeing the lights of the cities sparkle. Another beautiful to watch bonus in that flight was that we flew right by a thunderstorm and you could watch the lightning within the clouds. Since the sun hadn't set completely yet the clouds also had a beautiful red-orange-purple color. I'm pretty sure though that I was the only who noticed that spectacle. 

At Tulsa airport

Once in Tulsa my new roomie came and picked me up, I actually unpacked the same evening and then fell into my new queen size bed and passed out. Monday was full of running around campus. Getting checked in with the Center of Global Education (CGE), finding something to eat, shopping at target for bedding and all the other stuff one needs, arranging our rooms and finally we free dinner on campus. After that I was seriously exhausted and went to bed early. There wasn't too much time to rest though! Tuesday our "New to the US Orientation" started. Tuesday and Wednesday were full with long talks and a billion information (important stuff like how to shake hands ;), but also some fun activities like a scavenger hunt. And then finally we were integrated into the "normal" orientation for all the new students coming to TU - the freshmen. 

Shopping for my room :)

Let me just tell you about the craziest part: the play fair. OMG! This was the craziest thing ever. All the new students were waiting in the entrance hall of the Collins Fitness Center when the Orientaion Leaders (OLs) started screaming and yelling to get excited. Eventually we were let onto the basketball court where the first needed to line up left and right and high five the people who were coming after. My arm hurt after all the people went by. After that we played crazy games where we needed to form groups, sort ourselves according to number of siblings and other stuff. We switched groups a thousand times at least and had to do all sorts of silly games. It was a lot of fun though. After that we had a glow in the dark scavenger hunt. I really enjoyed the glow sticks. 

Friday I went for formal sorority recruitment but I will tell you all about it in my next post. :) 

Thank you for reading!

Jenny Sch.

P.S.: Let me just tell you real quick: You get SO many free shirts at orientation. I love it. :)