WEEKEND!

It's my first full weekend here in Charleston and boy was it busy. It started off having class Friday morning (a first for me as business students in Canada don't have Friday classes), but was finished at 9:50am. Then the procession of homework followed. There were readings and other things that had to get done (such as take a picture of the rain and update my blog). But I got a lot done.

Friday evening we got a group of people together to go eat at the cafeteria. Our group seems to be about 10 people every night. Mainly Canadians and the Dutchies.

We then had our first international meeting of the year. It was in the Tate Center (Business Building). I have pictures of that building for a later post. After the meeting, we went for a party at the president of the International club's house. It was pretty fun to get to talk to everyone who I don't see daily. There is a large group of International students, about 70. It was a fun night all in all.....
Then Saturday morning came....it stopped raining, the sun came out and was about 32 degrees celsius. It was a beautiful day to go to the beach. So about 45 or so International students filled a bus and went. We were at the Beach from 11am-3pm. The beaches here are awesome, the sand is nice and the water is warm.

Most know I don't enjoy going into the ocean, and never go in. But I tried it, and the waves were nice and big. The water was so warm, I didn't want to get out. It was a lot of fun. The International Director had Subway Subs, Cookies, Chips, Pop, Water, and other food for us for lunch.

I got burnt at the beach, the sun is very strong here. I borrowed Katie Cormier's sunscreen and put it on. I got her to put it on my back, but it was a spray sunscreen. I asked her to rub it in and she said it didn't need to be rubbed in......Needless to say, I have a burn on my back with a bunch of white circles from where the sunscreen got sprayed on....I'll know better for next time that it does need to get rubbed in. Other than that, the day was awesome. We then went back into Charleston and grabbed a snack at Einsteins Coffee and Bagel Shop (Where we can use the meal plan - Lots more selection than just the cafeteria), and cleaned up for supper where all of the International club went to a Mexican Restaurant, Casa Grande. It wasn't bad, the company was better than the food, but all in all a good time. We had a good time talking to everyone. It seems this has been an International weekend, we were the same group of 50-70 all weekend.

Today I have just been hanging out doing a paper and other homework. Going for supper in a short while. I will have more pictures for tomorrow from the beach and the restaurant. I haven't taken my camera too many places, so most of the pictures I have are from other peoples cameras. I'm going to have to start taking my own pictures. I'm out for now

Pictures of the rain...

I went outside and took a picture of the rain. It's worse than the picture looks, but there it is. I'm just waiting and hoping it clears up before the meeting tonite and the beach tomorrow.

Rain: Day 2

So today it's raining again. I'm finished with classes for the day, and luckily managed to get an umbrella which is somewhat of a help staying dry. The rain here reminds me of something I would see in a jungle on the Discovery Channel. The only good thing I can think about it is that it's warm, and not cold like PEI rain. Anyways, I'll be trying to stay dry today. I hope it doesn't cancel our beach day tomorrow.

Not much has gone on in the past few days because of the rain, I've laid low, read for class, and done some homework. I'm going to try and get some pictures of the rain, I just don't know how much it would show up. Anyways, other than the rain everything has been going good. They have a selection of newspapers at the residence desk, so I've been reading two or three per day, always making sure I get a copy of the New York Times and USA Today. When it stops raining I need to venture out somewhere and find a rain jacket, one that's really waterproof.

So the rain begins...

So, today was the first day of rain since i've been here. It's pretty much a Tropical Storm. I was soaking wet going from my residence to the bagel shop (about 20 feet away). The streets are flooded with water, the sidewalks are flooded, everyone has umbrellas. I also found out today, that one of my pairs of shorts turn see through when wet......(Note to self - Don't wear them in the rain).

I need some serious rain gear, my school bag got so wet that I had a NY Times in it, and it's mulch, my books were soaked, and so was everything inside. Apparently it rains like this three times a week. It's all dark and cloudy.

We had a fire drill in residence this morning at 6am, wasn't a fun way to start the day, I am really tired, and then had to sit in class for an hour and fifteen minutes soaking wet. I hope it doesn't rain as much as they say it's going to.

Schools been good so far, classes haven't been too bad, I went and got all my books yesterday at the bookstore. We've also been hanging around the other international students.
For those who don't know, to make these pictures larger, you can just click on them, shows more detail. You can notice in these two pictures, the sidewalks are all brick and cobblestone, it's really cool. So far everywhere in the city I've been is like this, some of the streets are brick as well.

College of Charleston Campus

We walked around the campus after classes today and took a bunch of pictures. The campus is a lot of fun and really old. Below is the oldest building still in use in the United States. The College of Charleston is also the 13th oldest College/University in the United States and was founded in 1770.

The top picture is right in the middle of the campus.

Church Bell

This is a church that is pretty much right beside the residence. It rings every hour on the hour starting at about 7 or 8am. It has woken me up everyday that I've been here, and can see it doing the same until I leave.

Charleston is a fun city to just walk around. The area where the College Campus is, most of the sidewalks are cobblestone/brick, and I've tripped on them a fair amount, they're not all even, so it makes it kind of difficult to walk. I will get some pictures of the sidewalk and post them later.

I started classes today. This morning I had International Marketing. Seems like a fun course. I have Financial Analysis and International Management this afternoon.

We're going to do some more exploring after class this afternoon, should be interesting. I'm waiting to get down to the waterfront - the Battery as they call it - and see the old old historic houses and the ocean. We were told that the water is very warm here, and the International Club is taking us to the beach this Saturday. Should be a good time. Anyways, I'm out for now, have to get ready for the next class.

First post

I got to Charleston alright, the plane rides were pretty good. But the bus station in Raleigh (had to take a bus from Raleigh, NC to Charleston, SC) was probably the sketchiest neighborhood I've ever been in. It was interesting to say the least. Charleston is an awesome city, what i've seen so far. The picture here is the quad in our residence. The residence is set up like a sqaure, and this is what you see when you enter the building. I live on the third floor.

The weather has been wicked. So nice. It's going to be good to get away from the snow for a winter. Everything in the city closes down if they get an inch of snow, completely different than PEI.

I've had international meetings and met a lot of other people from all over the world. There is an excessive amount of Germans and Dutch people. We had a trip to Wal-Mart last night, and it was their first time there. A lot of fun.