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"The Honeymoon Stage"

September 24, 2007

I have never witnessed a college that gives as much attention to details as Rollins. From the minute you arrive on campus the Explorations team is determined to make you feel like a Tar. It has been a bit over a month since I’ve been at Rollins, and orientation week feels like a distant memory. I was not ready for the culture shock I experienced during my first couple of weeks, but ever since, I’ve found myself more than once calling Ward Hall 300 home.

Airport goodbyes never do go well. Having to let go of my family, of my home, of my country at 5 a.m. made my day seem so much longer than it needed to be. It was not the first time I was flying without my parents, but it was the first time completely alone. I thought I had it all under control, I wasn’t going to experience ‘culture-shock’ because I’m from Venezuela and going to study in Florida—state which some consider an extension of Latin America. During International Student Orientation I found out that psychologists have categorized the stages people go through when experiencing a new culture and they call it the four H’s: honeymoon, hostility, humor and home.

The length of each varies for everyone but my honeymoon stage lasted for about two weeks. The food, the people and the details were so romanticized that I wanted to do everything then and there. After international student orientation, I had Camp Alliance for two days before new student orientation. At first I did not know what to expect, but they were the best two days I had had in a long time. We were about 45 new students, each paired up with an upperclassmen mentor, and we went to this off-campus retreat where I met lots of new students and several upperclassmen with whom after a whole month since Camp Alliance I still keep in touch.

There was rock climbing wall, zip-line, catwalk and many other team-building exercises. The highlight of the weekend was being able to move to Ward finally after being assigned in a temporary room. With carpeted hallways, parquet floors in the room, brand-new furniture, doors that open with my R-Card, ping pong and pool tables in the 4th floor lounge, and the building’s laundry room in front of my room, a walk-in closet for my triple dorm room, I could not feel any happier.

New student orientation started Tuesday and by then I had known my way around campus and had met a ton of people between Camp Alliance and international students. I was glad I went early because all 500+ students swarmed into the campus center for the information session, free shirts and laptop computers for those who got it as part of their acceptance packet. One thing Rollins does really well is giving out free shirts, within my first week; I had received 9 shirts between Camp Alliance, Orientation, and the involvement fair where clubs and organizations gave away all sorts of free stuff. I was recruited by both the International Student Organization (ISO) and the Latin American Student Association (LASA) where I met two Colombians who ran both organizations.

Orientation week was 007-themed and I was surprised by how many people called me by my first name, I mean there were 540 other freshmen and here was Doug Little from the Explorations team and other upperclassmen that already knew my name. I finally got to meet my two roommates Artie from Key West and Brett from Philadelphia. It was awkward at first because we were all in the same situation for the first time. It was not hard getting along with them, we went out several times together to get to know each other. We have not found a common ground in many subjects but I could not have asked for better roommates.

The most memorable moment from orientation is when we as an RCC class had to get together and perform the theme song of Friends at Karaoke night for points towards the RCC cup. We tied for first place that night after a choreography and act that involved every single one of our 24 students. The other great time was when all international students went bowling, and out of three rounds I won one of them. We had the Hispanic group and played with Jenifer Leon, the international students’ advisor. Ed Bustos, the former director of international admissions, was able to drop by that night and I had not seen him since he recruited me from back home in September of 2006.

Although I was still in the romanticized first week at Rollins, I was ready to start classes after the hectic orientation week. Waking up at 7 a.m. and going to bed at 2 a.m. for a whole week made my class schedule look so much better.

First Picture: My Camp Alliance peer mentor and I at Olé Olé restaurant
Second Picture: My roommates Brett (left) and Artie (right) at Winter Park Village

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