I usually start my day off with a light breakfast of hot chocolate and some pastry. After going through my emails, planner, and skimming through my class notes, I head out to campus. I have about half of my classes in the CCI (College of Computing and Informatics), which, I believe, is the furthest college on Drexel’s campus. The journey to class is about 20 – 30 minutes, depending on how briskly I walk. At first, this felt like a very long walk, but one gets used to it. Moreover, the fact that walking is an efficient form of exercise became motivation enough for me.
My earliest class is at 10am and most classes are about one and a half hour long. My classes at CCI are consecutive, so I have only about 10 minutes to locate my next classroom. At times, when I have some spare minutes, I head down to the lobby to get a cup of coffee. My classes in CCI are on the 10th floor, and it offers a beautiful view of the campus. When I have the time, I would often go over to these windows to take in the view before my classes begin.
One of my favorite CS courses this semester is CS430 Computer Graphics, and this is mostly because it is an entirely new side of computer science for me. For most of my college education, I have mostly been involved with software/web development and creating applications. Therefore, venturing into this new aspect of graphics development is interesting to me, and I always look forward to the class. Fun fact: I once asked the professor of this class an assignment-related question after class and, in the process, mentioned that I was an exchange student coming from Germany and therefore, new to Drexel and CCI. After providing the answer, some small talk ensued from which I eventually figured out that he knew my school and was in fact colleagues with a professor from my school with whom I had taken a couple classes. What a small world, right?!
I am usually done with class well into the afternoon and have the rest of the day to myself. Usually, I either go to the library or Rush building to do my assignments and readings, grab a to-go box from one of the food trucks all over campus or go back home to make myself lunch, or if I have no assignments, I hang out with friends. Although I am new to Drexel, I have been privileged to meet a lot of nice people here, both Drexel students and fellow exchange students, and make acquaintances with them. Attending Drexel events, joining an organization, and networking have been helpful for me in meeting new people. As a rather introverted person, I understand the need to move out of my comfort zone in order to form some sort of camaraderie or to just fully experience a place and its culture.
On one of these days, I had the Inbound Exchange welcome back party to attend at Drexel Park. It was amazing to converse with all these people from all over the world and share experiences with them. Soon after that, I went to the Drexel’s NSBE welcome back meeting which was an interesting experience as well.
Usually, at the end of the day, I would head back home and afterwards, go grocery shopping in center city with my roommates. On other days, I just stay in, talk to my family, catch up with friends back home, make some preparations for the next day classes and then finally head to bed and get well rested to tackle the events of the coming day.