Life at EIU - Charleston, IL
Charleston, IL
Welcome to Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois, located approximately three hours of Chicago.
Goodbye Europe, hello America
I left London in the very early hours of Tuesday 13 August, with a 14 hour day of travelling ahead of me. After spending the last seven weeks together, saying goodbye to Laura and Lisa at Kings Cross St. Pancras was awful. So much so, I spent the entire 45 minute train ride to Gatwick Airport crying. I had been sick with the flu in the days leading up to leaving for America which made the day feel like it dragged on forever. The majority of time on my flights - London to Dublin, Dublin to Chicago - was spent with my head in my hands trying not to cry as every single inch of my body was in pain (not to mention the fact that I had only had two hours sleep in the 36 hours prior. Even when I landed in Chicago, I still had a three hour wait at O'Hare Airport to be picked up by EIU, followed by a three hour drive to Charleston. It was just an absolutely horrible day.
Orientation week
The first couple of days on campus were spent participating in orientation activities organised for us by the International Students Office. Unfortunately because I was sick - so sick that the health clinic on campus made me wear a mask while I was in there - I missed out on a lot of the activities and outings planned for us. In spite of this, the first week wasn't completely awful. I was asked by the college newspaper to do some writing for them, I was assigned to the residence hall I wanted, had my first experience at Walmart, and managed to drag myself out of bed (even though it was only for an hour) to attend a pep rally in the quad.
Living in a dorm
EIU has 12 residence halls available for students to live in. I was assigned Stevenson Hall, home only to students who are 21 or older and/or have 60 credit hours completed. The closes thing I can compare my living situation to is Rory's dorm at Yale in Gilmore Girls. I share a suite with three other ladies, Rachael, Jessica, and Marie. This means that we have a joint living room and bathroom, however get our own bedroom. I initially had a roommate, Emily, but we had some changes to our room so I now have a bedroom to myself. Living away from home for the first time ever is definitely an interesting experience. As part of our accommodation, we get a certain number of meals provided for us at the dining hall each week. I could get very used to having a custom omelette made for me each morning (although Mum was less than enthusiastic about it when I told her to start practicing her omelette making)! Even though I'm not cooking for myself, I do do my washing every Friday morning. That's enough responsibility for me right now, I think.
Classes
Let me start out by saying that the last two and a half years of my degree have been an absolute walk in the park compared to the workload expected of students here. I am currently taking four subjects - JOU2001 Journalism and Democracy, JOU2901 Introduction to Copy Editing, JOU3000 Advanced Research/Reporting, and JOU3002 Introduction to Multimedia Journalism. In addition to this, I am taking a Journalism Practicum which coincides with my work at the Daily Eastern News. There are so many differences about studying here as opposed to in Australia:
I have to attend two ~100 minute classes per subject, meaning I now have about 14 contact hours per week. Compared to other degrees, this might not seem like much, but the most amount of contact hours I've had previously is eight. I've been really lucky with my schedule though as I don't start classes until 11am and am finished before 3pm, plus have my Friday's completely free.
Attendance is mandatory. Pretty much the only way you can get out of class is if a) you have to attend an official university event, or b) you're dead. Even if you're genuinely sick, you still have to have a note from the health clinic. It also doesn't help that very little of the class content is put online, unlike at home where all the PowerPoint presentations, lecture notes, and sometimes recordings of the lecturer are uploaded.
In-classes and pop quizzes are a daily occurrence. From what I can understand, there is a greater focus on being able to demonstrate that you understand what you've learned from class/assigned reading than there is for completing assignments that you have weeks to work on. While I do like how the system forces me to do work outside of class so I can get good marks when I complete assessment, I do miss having the opportunity to leave 2000 word essays until the week they're due.
As opposed to at home where we called our lecturer by their first name, you address the staff here as Professor [Insert Name Here]. It's only something small, but I feel it makes a big difference in your relationship with them.
Everyone turns up to class so early. At home, if I have a class at 11.00am, I'm walking in the classroom at 11.59am (11.58am if you're lucky). Here? People are sitting in the classroom waiting at least 10 minutes before lectures begin. Plus, rather than just answering the lecturer's question by calling out the answer, everyone raises their hand. This is something that I'm still trying to get used to.
Homesickness
The hardest part of being here has most definitely been adapting to knowing absolutely no one around me. Suffice to say, I've been pretty homesick. It's a concept that I still don't quite understand and I can never pick when it's going to hit, but there have been nights where I have cried myself to sleep because I have missed my normal life so badly. In some respects though, I am lucky to live in an age where 14,287km is irrelevant thanks to technology. Being able to Skype my Mum and Dad, grandparents, Nic, cousins, and friends makes life easier. It can sometimes be the difference between going to bed happy or feeling completely overwhelmed because I'm so far away from them all. I'm in the process of trying to change my flights to come home a little earlier... turns out I miss everyone and everything way more than I anticipated (well, that and the fact I am low on $$$).
Everything else
I'm sure there are a thousand other things I could write about, but when I try to reflect on my time here so far, it all just seems completely overwhelming. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I'm in a whole new world.
I'm still not used to driving on the other side of the road or the fact that the passenger being where an Australian driver would sit. Every time I'm in a car it takes a second to remind myself that what we are doing is correct even though it feels completely wrong.
American food makes me hate myself. Taco Bell is amazing, that I will admit, but I can't get over how massive the portion sizes are, nor how oily it is.
95%2525 of people who ask where I'm from are surprised when I say Australia. Apparently I sound like I'm from the UK. In addition to this, I get asked about kangaroos at least 34293847 times a day.
Everything is so fabulously cheap. Clothes, shoes, food, books, movies, music... I really have to stop online shopping otherwise I'm not going to have any room left in my suitcase.
Every so often preachers stand in the quad and tell us that we're all going to hell. While I'm all for freedom of speech and having your own beliefs, I don't think that it's right for them to criticise people based on their skin colour, lifestyle choices, or sexuality. Regardless, it's always entertaining to watch the debates that go on between the preachers and students.
There is so much school spirit on campus. Everyone wears EIU shirts, literally half the bookstore is dedicated to EIU paraphernalia, there are always events happening on campus... it's kinda like the movies.