Orientation Day

This morning I had my first meal in the Selleck Dining Hall. It reminds me a lot of Cobo at Union, but the food is much better and there are a few more options. All in all, I was very impressed! After breakfast, everyone had orientation in the Multicultural Center at 9:00. After going over the things in our packet they gave us last night, we talked about a bunch of common sense logistical stuff. After the orientation, we divided into groups and went to get our Ncard, which is the student ID card. Then we had a tour of campus, which is huge! They have about 22,000 undergrads here, I believe, and UNL has many summer programs too, so the place is pretty bustling.

The Rec Center is wonderful. It has a pool, a large indoor turf field, and everything else you can think of including massages. How much I will use it, since I live off campus, I don't know yet, but if a gym can make you want to work out in it, this is the one!

After the tour we had lunch (also great) and then a break. Then at 1:15 we met in front of the dorm building everyone is staying at and divided into program specific groups. We were then shown to our lab buildings and where we would be doing our work. We met with the staff and our program mentors. I will be working under Dr. Peterson and a grad student named Tanner who is about to get his Ph.D. in August, I believe. There is another math program working on wave mechanics and partial differential equations, and both that group and my group have about 5-6 people.

After meeting the faculty and such, we were done for the day! My program group will be meeting twice a day for Monday-Friday at 9:30 and 1:30, I think. So tomorrow we will actually get some lecture. Dr. Peterson lectures in the mornings, and Tanner lectures in the afternoons. We were told the first three weeks will be a lot of learning and preparation for the problem-solving side of the research. The rest of the eight weeks will be busier then working on problems and producing work. I am excited, and the faculty as well as the students seem really nice to work with.