Day 2/3 (Part 1)

Once again, on a plane. The second day of our orientation in L.A. was wonderful. We had breakfast and a short bit of orientation stuff - oh. I just realized that I never wrote about arriving in L.A. I got off the plane and found my luggage and eventually made my way to the stop for hotel courtesy vans. I waited there for a while, very nervous, and then I saw a young man crossing over to the same stop and he was holding the 'What to do when uyou get off the plane in Los Angeles' paper that I have, and I called out to him. He was with AFS as well, and from Maryland. His name is Spenser.

We got to the Hacienda hotel and met Shamey, our orientation coordinator person, who automatically recognized my New Zealand necklace. We got nametags, etc, and then we just waited for the orientation to start. We could go to the hotel restaurant and get food and after Spenser and I did that, we sat and talked - for about three hours. Then, more people started arriving. We invited other students to come and sit with us in the lobby, other students spending a full year abroad (indicated by a red dot on our nametags). Eventually, we were assigned roommates and given a key to our rooms. I found out my roommate's name was Maria, but I hadn't met her yet. I took my luggage to the room and then we went to the orientation. We did several ice-breaker activities such as walking around and making eye contact with every person in the room for 2 or 3 seconds, and 'taking a stand' on several things (some political, some things like 'are your parents together' or 'were you born in this country'). Then we talked (and talked) about culturally adjusting, and we were prepared for not a completely sunshine and roses year.

We split up into our small groups (according to year program, summer community service, etc.) and I was so happy. Before, in the lobby when Spenser and I had found other people that were doing a full year, they were all guys. But in our group, there were several other girls, including Maria (my roommate). We were with a girl named Christina who had come back from a year in Hong Kong 2 days before our orientation. She was funny, intelligent, and very, very well spoken. Her stories and comments were motivational, and truly inspirational for me. At one point, I was very near tears.

We had dinner and watched several AFS videos after our small groups. Unfortunately for all of the east-coasters, especially those who got up at 3:00, 4:00, or 4:30 a.m., our orientation was to end at 10:00 p.m., or 1:00 a.m. our time. Coincidentally, I don't remember that much about the last part of the day. However, once I got to my room and met my roommate, we stayed up about for a half hour, showing each other pictures and eventually taking out our stuffed animals for bed!