Columbia by Night
Inden min afrejse til Columbia købte jeg et kamera med en intention om at tage en masse billeder fra min hverdag, så I derhjemme kunne følge med i, hvad jeg gik og lavede. Desværre har lysten og de rette øjeblikke manglet, hvorfor antallet af skudte billeder er meget begrænset. I dag besluttede jeg mig for, at det var på tide at ændre på det kedelige faktum, så da mørket faldt på, begav jeg mig ud i Columbia for at tage nogle billeder. Det kom der nogle få, udmærket billeder ud af, som jeg nu har smidt på mit galleri. Jeg har stadig lang vej endnu hvad angår håndteringen af et kamera, men min plan er, at tage mig tiden til at fortsætte på en “Columbia by Night”-serie og forhåbentligt tilegne mig nogle skills hen ad vejen.
Billederne kan ses via følgende link: Galleri – Columbia By Night
Kort update
Jeg skal beklage, at jeg ikke har postet på bloggen før nu. Jeg har været optaget med at prøve at finde mig tilrette herovre. Tingene har desværre ikke levet op til mine forventninger, som formentlig også har været naivt høje. Mine fag er desværre ikke specielt spændende. Enten er de for lette, mangler min interesse eller en ordentlig lærer. Jeg var skoletræt da jeg forlod Danmark, og mit håb om at dette ville ændre sig i et nyt land og skolesystem blev desværre ikke tilfældet. Jeg er derfor i gang med at undersøge mulighederne for at teste ud af matematik og skifte til en anden antropologi klasse med et anderledes fokus.
Jeg synes det har været svært, at finde venner, som jeg føler jeg reelt har noget tilfælles med. Om det er kulturen, sprogbarrieren eller blot mig selv, som ikke har været åben nok, skal jeg ikke kunne sige. Det er formentlig en blandingen af flere ting. Jeg savner at kunne gå ud i weekenden, jeg savner at kunne ha’ det sjovt over et shot eller to. Inden jeg rejste hertil, bekymrede adgangen til alkohol mig ikke, men i mangel på en spændende faglig hverdag, ville jeg ønske det sociale kunne løfte humøret lidt.
Det mest interessante, der er sket for mig so far, er at jeg er ved at blive optaget i et business fraternity. Det er et broderskab, hvis mål kort sagt er, at ruste deres medlemmer til bedst at kunne håndtere erhvervslivet samt skabe et globalt netværk for ligesindede. For at blive optaget, må man først “rushe”, hvor man lærer de nuværende medlemmer at kende. Derefter, hvis de kan lide en og ser potentiale, bliver man tilbudt at være en del af deres “pledge class”. At være en del af deres pledge class består i, at man skal udføre en række forskellige opgaver, som først og fremmest har til formål at gøre en bekendt med de nuværende medlemmer samt broderskabets historie. Det er hvad jeg er i gang med nu. Processen tager ca. 8 uger, hvorefter jeg, såfremt jeg har “indtjent” tilstrækkeligt mange point for mine opgaver og såfremt de nuværende brødre godkender det, vil blive et fuldbyrdigt medlem.
Jeg skal forsøge, at holde bloggen opdateret, men der er desværre lidt mangel på ting, der er værd at skrive hjem om, herovre. Jeg vil dog bestræbe mig på, at smide nogle af de billeder jeg har taget op i mit galleri snarest. Jeg håber I alle sammen har det godt derhjemme!
I’m now officially a Gamecock!
I’ve finally received my letter of admission from the University of South Carolina, which confirms my acceptance for the Fall 2009 semester into the Moore School of Business with a degree of Pre-International Business. Yay! Now I’m just awaiting word from the Carolina Alumni Association on my scholarship application, fingers crossed.
Next on my todo-list is applying for a I-20 visa. Hopefully there will be no complications. I’m starting to realize that my departure is just around the corner and that I’m actually going away for a long time. Sometimes it’s a bit scary to be honest, however, I have no doubt that I’m going to love my stay and enjoy USC! When all comes to all I actually can’t wait to take off. If you could just fast-forward a couple of months …
I’ve started looking into various ways of getting involved on campus, as current and former students pin this out as crucial to the college experience! So I’m looking at perhaps applying for the Pre-Law community as well as some sort of community service. I’ve still not decided and I’m going to check out the various projects when I arrive in August.
If you want to see more of USC I urge you to check out this video at YouniversityTV.
So long, Alex!
Smith & Roberson’s Business Law
A friend of mine was so nice to lend me his copy of Smith & Roberson’s Business Law (Amazon link) a while ago, for which I’m very grateful. He used it himself while attending a Business Law course in the US. It’s an introduction to the very basics of the American Business Law and includes several selected cases. I’ve just begun reading it and so far it seems very interesting. I have had an idea for a while now, that I’ll someday end up pursuing a degree in Law, most likely Business Law, so this is the perfect opportunity for me to get an honest idea of what that’s really about. I’ve got at lot of stuff going on in my life and taking up my time at the moment, but I’ve promised myself to take the time off to read it.
SAT scores
I took the SAT Reasoning Test on December 6th at the Copenhagen International School in Hellerup and I finally got my scores this last week. My goal was to score at least 1200 on critical reading and math combined, as that would allow me to apply for certain scholarships. Considering that my preparations were far from optimal and that I could have worked way harder I should be satisfied. But I’m not. Well, I did reach my goal, but my math score is bugging me and I know I can and should do much better. For those not being familiar with the SAT test it’s divided into 3 parts: Critical Reading, Math, and Writing. The maximum score of each section is 800, making the perfect score 2400. Many colleges disregard the score of writing though, for reasons I don’t know. The national percentile tells how you did compared to other test takers. Say it’s X% then you did better than X% of last year’s college-bound seniors. Anyway, here they are:
I must admit that I found the critical reading part rather difficult, and I doubt I will be able to improve it significantly. At least not until I’ve been in the US for some time and gotten used to the language and all its facets.
Prior to receiving my scores I signed up for the test in January and I’m now considering if I should take it a second time. In the end it all comes down to whether or not I’ll take the time to prepare properly, as I don’t see any point in taking it again without putting a bigger effort into preparations.
On another note I can add that I’ve also got my TOEFL scores (which is actually quite a while ago). The minimum required TOEFL score to apply for the University of South Carolina is 550 on a 310-667 scale. I did 650 which is okay, though it definitely wasn’t the hardest test.