Getting to Oklahoma State University from the Great White North

Temperatures fluctuated between -43C and -30C before I left. The day before I left it was -38C outside my window.
Fort Nelson seems so far away as I sit here in my dorm room at Oklahoma State University. Even as I type these words, I feel like I'm in a dream. Leaving the Muskwa behind ... 2nd set of mountain ranges - the coastal range
Good old BC Ferries!
It is a long way to come and it involved 2 flights with Central Mountain Air, a ferry ride on a day that started at 3:50am, a taxi ride to the airport, 2.5 hours of time getting through the airport, a flight to Denver, Colorado where my luggage stayed for 4 days, a flight to Oklahoma City and alas, a trip with Sam back to Stillwater.
A family send-off at 4am!
The adventure at the airport began!
I got caught in the flight issues that happened over the christmas season so carry on was not allowed and that made my life rather challenging. Needless to say that my bags had been taken apart and my briefcase got smashed up as it had to be checked through with the luggage. No further comment.

I think I signed more papers last week and filled out more forms than I have ever done even working for the Provincial Government for the past 3.5 years! Visas, health forms, declaration forms, international student forms, the list goes on and my signature got worse! My transition to living in the USA was made very smoothly thanks to the very wonderful hospitality of Sam and his awesome wife Jane. They literally clothed me for a while when my bags were missing, fed me and gave me shelter from this rather chilly temperature. I learned in the international student orientation that this cold spell was the coldest in the history of Oklahoma! It was warm in comparison to Fort Nelson!

I moved into my dorm room 6 nights ago. That was interesting. I am on a floor with all the girls in their 1st and 2nd year - some of them I'm sure it's their first time away from home. The memories of life at boarding school and living in Quebec have been floating back to me! My humble abode consists of a twin bed and a desk with a window and some storage space. It is everything that I need and had asked for. The bathroom is communal and I believe there are 48 of us on this floor! It has been a good reminder in how much I appreciate having just got my own home. I will appreciate it even more when I am home and the only water passing over me is from my own shower water source!

I am proud to be Canadian and I have actually thought of myself as a North American and not a foreigner, but going through my international student orientation, I realized that I am different. Even though the border is just a line on the map, it does signify a lot of different things. There are slight differences in language, large differences in religion and culture but more so what I realized as I was walking away from the customs officer and looking at my passport with my visa in it, that this is the first time in my life that I will be gone from my home land for 4 months. It all started to hit me then. I guess I had been so busy working twice as hard to make sure everything would run smoothly at home that I didn't completely over analyze the situation inside and out as per normal for me. Regardless, for the past 10 days I have been asking myself what it is that I'm doing here. I thank all my years of rowing and of the education I've had to date because without it, this transition would be a lot more challenging.

I know this is the right thing to do and definitely with the right people - I just feel like I'm out on a limb and have quite significantly extended myself outside my comfort zone. That's the way to go though, once a week be more scared than I've ever been scared in my life and I've been living like that for the past 2 years. It's proven to be an interesting ride thus far!

In case you want to check out Oklahoma State and where I'm at, I am in the Natural Resource Ecology and Management Department (http://nrem2.okstate.edu/) and am specifically in Rangeland Ecology and Management. The mascot for the school is Pistol Pete and the Cowboys and Cowgirls or Cowpokes are the official team titles. How fitting for me!!!!