Dear Reader (you, who know who I am),
I arrived in Eugene on the 2nd January, at 1:00 am and needed rest and relaxation after that travel (more than 16 hours on board, delayed aircraft, horrible headache during the flight etc.). Until Saturday evening I slept off all the inconvenience of the journey and got knowledge of the most important points of interest (the university, supermarkets and bus lines, hiking opportunities).
On Saturday we took a walk with Maggie on the campus and had lunch in a Chinese buffet. The University of Oregon is one the most important employers of the city, it was established in… khm, perhaps… 1876, as far as I remember. (To get some impressions of the campus see the photos.)
The Testing and Orientation Week at AEI begun on Monday. First we checked in, got the schedule for the whole winter term and in the afternoon we wrote the English placement tests /reading, vocabulary, grammar and writing/. For me it was weird that only pencil was allowed to use to fill the tests, and I did not have pencil, of course… I have not used pencil since I left the secondary school. However my new Chinese friends could lend me two.
Our listening and oral skills were tested on Tuesday morning, and after that we attended the New Student Orientation Luncheon which was organized by the AEI. The director who greeted us told that there were students from 24 countries and four continents were represented in our group.
That lunch was a beginning of long-standing friendship between Hungary, Pakistan, China and Saud-Arabia… I guess. In that afternoon I also met the ELAW staff, informed them of our activities at EMLA as well as my plans for the next ten weeks I will spend in Eugene.
On Wednesday my case against a power station was discussed in details with Meche and Mark who – as scientist – could give some useful arguments to oppose the given investment and offered their support to me and to the scientist of our client.
In the afternoon we, I mean, the new AEI students met the Student Health Center staff and went on a tour to get to know what and where to do if we need their service.
On Thursday Jen – staff attorney at ELAW – introduced me to the law system of the U.S. and on the following day we set some deals of our work for the coming week.
On Friday I attended the Immigration and Safety Meeting at UO, which was rather useful than exciting.
The efforts of ELAW and of AEI staff to keep me busy are successful; I am never bored and always have something interesting to do. Today (on Saturday) I was skating with another AEI students… later I will upload some photos of my first “steps” on the ice-rink. One of my classmates, Nassar from Qatar took more than 500 photos of us today (including my first falling down). I tried to keep the balance, but the force of gravity always won… after I fell to my knees I finished my career as a skater… but don’t worry, I’m fine!
… and I did not mention yet, that I have twenty English lessons a week… so I hope I can improve my English skills and hopefully I also will be able to correct later all the mistakes I made on this blog.
To be continued…
