Orientation

I fell asleep around 8:30pm last night - then woke up at 3:00am.  Stupid jet lag.  I forced myself to go back to sleep but got up around 5:30am anyway.  I took a nice hot shower and enjoyed some coffee before heading off to school for orientation.

It turns out my dorm is much farther from campus than I expected.  The school website said it was a 30-minute walk - it's actually closer to 45.  With the wind and rain, it makes for a miserable start to the day.  Not to mention the enormous hills to climb (comparable to San Francisco).

The orientation for the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences began at 9:30am.  I thought it was just be a quick meeting, maybe one hour.  It lasted until 1:00pm and tomorrow we have another 9:30-1:00 orientation.  I'm a little overwhelmed by all of this immediate information, but it was really nice to meet the people in my program.  We were also introduced to the teaching staff and got to talk with some former students.  Then there was a lovely catered lunch for us after the session.  It was a really nice surprise.

Here's the breakdown of everything I learned today:

• The department has 4 sections: Masters of Public Health (MPH) - International Health; Health Management, Policy and Planning; Masters of Science (MSc) - International Health; and Hospital Management.  I am in the Masters of Public Health (MPH) - International Health.  There are about 65 people total in all of the programs - the MPH section is the biggest with 33 people.
• In all of the programs, I am the only American.  And there are only 4 students from the UK.  The over half of the students are from Nigeria.  For the MPH program:
• Nigeria - 17 students
• Saudi Arabia - 2 students
• Kuwait - 1 student
• Zimbabwe - 1 student
• Ghana - 2 students
• Kenya - 1 student
• Uganda - 2 students
• Taiwan - 1 student
• South Sudan - 1 student
• Thailand - 2 students
• Namibia - 1 student
• UK - 1 student
• USA - 1 student (They had me listed as "Uganda" but I explained to everyone that I'm American.)

• In the other programs, there are also students from India, Afghanistan, China, Italy, Pakistan, Sudan, and Vietnam. 
• The majority of students (in all the programs) are doctors.  Many of them got frustrated only treating one person at a time and have decided to go into public health to treat society as a whole.
• This year is going to be intense - classes run 9:30am-5:00pm Mon-Fri.  Yikes.  (But there is a 1 1/2 hour break for lunch.)  With this kind of schedule, there's not much time for a social life, working part-time, or even going to the gym.  (Of course walking 4 miles a day with all of these hills is a pretty damn good workout.  If only I wasn't a hot mess when I arrived at class.)
• The first semester for the MPH is only 2 courses: Foundations of International Health and Principles of Public Health.  The reason I chose this university is because of the way they present the core courses.  Other universities have separate classes for epidemiology, biostatistics, health systems and research methods.  The University of Leeds blends all of those into Foundation and Principles.  For me, it a easier way to learn and apply the concepts.
• So at this point, I don't have to register for my electives.  That will happen later and give me some time to think about my thesis.

I spent the rest of the afternoon running around trying to submit paperwork and get my student id, but there are a few hiccups in my account and I can't pay tuition yet, which means I can't register yet.  Hopefully it will all be resolved tomorrow.