Today is the first day of our program, so the dorm has been abuzz with people registering and moving in. This evening we had our first meeting as a group. We ate supper together, then met for an orientation session. Matt, our program director, gave a brief history of TFAS and AIPES and then gave an inspirational talk on why we were in Prague.
When I officially registered this afternoon I received a booklet with bios of all of the participants. The students come from a wide variety of countries such as Slovakia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyszstan, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Romania, Georgia, and Moldova. We even have a student from Singapore.
Right now I am in information overload trying to take in all the names and nationalities of the people I am meeting. I hope to spend some time reviewing the bios now that I have met some of the people.I am always a little sheepish at how little I know about these students’ countries given their familiarity with the United States.
Tomorrow we will have some more orientation events. Classes start on Monday.