Wake up at 2:30 EST, or 12:30 Mountain time. Fly to Salt Lake City for a 2 hour layover. Notice girl with black hair, wonder if she is going to Prairie. I wondered several other college aged looking kids. Fly to Calgary. Immigration is a pain. I have to wait in a long line waiting for other people who don’t have proper documentation to enter the country. Black haired girl sails through. Finally, it is my turn and I answer a ton of questions about finances and transportation. The immigration officer finally says I am ready and goes to print my student permit. Their printer stops working. She then tells me to go get my baggage and come back. I go look for my bags, but the conveyor belt for my flight is completely empty, and no one is hanging around that area.
After much frantic searching, I finally find my bags on the other side of the room about to be tagged to be taken away by the airline. I make my way back to the immigration office. Unfortunately, more people are there and I have to wait again. Finally my permit is printed, and I am on my way to find the meeting place.
I find Tim Hortans coffee shop, and the black haired gal is there. I then ask her if she is going to Prairie, and she is. Her name is Kimberly G. Brown, 18 from California. Her brother did the program 4 years ago. She wants to be a police officer. She has 3 brothers. We talk a lot because we have to wait 3 hours for our shuttle to arrive. We are the only ones on the shuttle. Peter Mal and his wife Mel are the shuttle drivers. Very nice people. Peter is the admissions guy. He met Mel at Prairie.
We arrive at the campus and eat a quick dinner, unload luggage into my dorm. Erin showed me around a bit, and told me some facts about the college. She was homeschooled also. We arrived too late to go to the first orientation session, so I use the time to unpack some. My roomate’s name is Nathan Smith, though I have not seen him yet. When I first get into my dorm I notice how well organized all his stuff is. All his bags were out of sight, and he has already put books on the shelves and stuff. His bed was made.
Shane comes and knocks on my door telling me that there will be another session for Explore students at 7. I make a note. I still don’t know where anything is on the campus. The session was taught by Pam Koop, the wife of Dwayne who is the Explore director. She really shared her heart about what the program is all about, and I really enjoyed what she had to say. She also had us do and interesting game. Basically, she would say everyone who likes football go to the right side of the room, and everyone who likes hockey go to the other. Oh, there are like only 6 girls in Explore.
I meet my roommate. He has earrings and a Mohawk. Really nice guy. He is an Okie, so we are at least from the same country. He is 20, and the oldest of 4. More later. Oh yeah, both he and I are on the “Red†team.