Hi everyone! My name is Riya and I am a freshman at the University of Iowa! Before I start talking about my first two weeks on campus, I would like to introduce myself and what I want to accomplish as an Experience Iowa Ambassador.
So again, my name is Riya and I am a freshman. I am a microbiology major on the Pre-Med track and I am SO excited that I am officially a part of the Hawkeye family. I am originally from a small town in Illinois called Forsyth. Coming to Iowa was a blank slate for me to be whoever I want and not be judged for it. Going to a high school of 300 people, it’s no surprise that everyone knows each other and their backgrounds. In high school, until about the end of junior year, I was known as the shy girl. I never really talked or did anything out of my comfort zone. One day, I don’t know why, I woke up and decided to be the most confident version of myself and everyone from school thought I’d “switched up”, when really they just were comfortable with me being shy. But now that I’m here and I’ve worked on myself all of quarantine, I feel super confident and hope that I can radiate that confidence onto incoming students!
FIRST WEEK OF CLASSES
My first week of classes was pretty laid back, but it’s only syllabus week so that’s no surprise!
So on Monday I started my day by waking up at 8 am and went to Hillcrest dining hall to get some breakfast with my roommate, and then came back and ate it in my dorm. I then called my family and talked to them until my Principles of Chemistry lecture at 9:30. These lectures are pre-recorded so I could technically watch them whenever, but doing them at my scheduled class time keeps me more organized and in-routine! That was my only class for the day so I just relaxed the rest of the day because I had no other homework! :)
On Tuesday I did nothing because my TA for Math for the Biological Sciences canceled our discussion because we hadn’t had our lecture yet. It was a nice day to sleep in and catch up with my friends at home through FaceTime.
Wednesday was a busy day for me! I had chem discussion in the Chemistry Building at 9:30am. Since I live on the West Side I woke up super early so I could shower and get some breakfast and be on my way to the East Side by 9:00. The walk was so beautiful! Something about the morning sun shining in my face as I’m walking just makes me so happy :). After my Chem discussion, I had to go to the Van Allen Building for my Spanish class. Not as pretty of a walk because I only have 10 minutes to get there and I was running and couldn’t admire my surroundings. But my class was super fun and I really enjoyed it! I then went back to my dorm to do my Chem lecture as well as my Math lecture. Then I spent the rest of my day doing homework.
Thursday I was originally supposed to have a lab, but because of coronavirus we have it split up into 4 sections so I don’t actually have lab until week 3 of classes. So I did my case study! Then I had Math discussion which I had to go to the East Side for, we didn’t really have much to talk about so I got to come back 20 minutes later.
On Friday I had my Sociology discussion on Zoom. We got to know each other and what we would be learning about in the course. I think I am the most excited for this class! I also had another Chem lecture. I spent the rest of my day finishing homework and then my roommate and I spent the rest of the night filming TikToks and watching Love Island!
I hope you enjoyed reading about my first school week at the University of Iowa!
