First Week in Hartford, CT

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Hello subscribers this is my first blog about my experience in Grad School. The trip started with Brian, my mother and I all packing into a vehicle and driving down the Hartford, CT. The drive was great and we even got to see Emily Cain driving down the high way. Brian was a great navigator (must be the eagle scout skills). We got to see the destruction from the Mass tornado. I have never see anything so destructive in my life.

We finally arrived at the Crowne Plaza on Saturday June 4th, 2011. The hotel was beautiful and we spent our first night out on the town at the City Steam in down town. The restaurant was very old and showed get history. Sunday the 5th we drove around CT getting some last min supplies. We ended up at one of the biggest movie theaters I have ever seen. We watch Xmen with 100,000watts of sound! We heading back to the hotel to have our first Rensselaer group meeting! We meet one of the program directors Lorraine Kammerer. She was a excited and informative about the trip. She made my mother feel comfortable leaving her daughter in a different country all summer. We had a quick orientation and then ate our first meal in the hotel. Everyone is very intelligent and we have students from RPI, Cornell, Smith, UMaine, UConn, Syracuse, UAlbany, BU, UBuffalo, and Virginia Tech. Most of us are engineer as well. RPI assembled a great group of kids to travel to Rome and Shanghai together. There are a total of 18 students.

My most memorable experience so far was meeting Chelsea Andrews. We introduced each other and asked where each other was from. We both answered Bangor, ME!!! I was then love at first site. She ended up being my long lost sister haha. (I hope your reading this girl!!!) We have so many friends in common among other things. We are also rooming together in Rome! Its great bringing a little piece of Maine with me these ten weeks. Everyone was excited to get to know one another so we went out to the City Steam. They had beer tubes you could shear with the group. We stayed out all night and had a memorable first night out.

The students in the program are...
Chelsea Andrews
Jerome Carter
Grace Conklin
Anthony DeMaio
Stacey Gomm
Thomas Grosskurth
Matthew Hibbard
Daniel Hildebrand
Jorge Jimenez
Cameron Lee
Christopher Maher
Scott Moffat
Claudine Phaire
Thomas Ragsdale
Ryan Scott
Perry Slack
Alexander Updegrove
Samantha Wilcox

Professors...
Sudha Bose (Engineering)
Lynn Chipperfield (Business)
Lou Gingerella (Business)
Norberto Lemcoff (Engineering)
John Maleyeff (Advisor and Professor)
David Rainiey (Professor)
Jim Stodder (Professor)

Administration...
Lorraine Kammerer
Angie Buonannata
Carole Charles

Monday June 6th started a day of hell. For those of you that didn't know UPS lost my passport on the way to shipping it to my house. I had only three days to get a new one. That meant I had to skip orientation and class on Monday. We drove 1.5hrs away to this cute little town Norwolk. We found the building okay but once inside started the hell. Security was rude and they rushed you into line. The lady informed me that I had the wrong application so I had to fill out a new form then get back into line. Once completed I had to get a number. Hours later we got to the window only to be rudely told I needed to be in the exception line. I needed to wait at a different window! Why does this have to be so difficult! Luckily while we where waiting we has a rent-a-cop telling children to shut up, yelling at older women, screaming at his own co-workers, to entertain us. I have never seen anyone take and abuse power the way this man did. Hours later we made it to the second window where a man just decided my pictures where not good enough for my passport. He keep giving us important information but whispered it through bullet proof glass. After asking him six times to repeat, we finally understood. We went to a different store, took pictures, went back through security and finished the application. We then had to wait a few more hours for them to make the passport. Luckily this part was a quick pick up. With passport in hand we headed back to Hartford. Thank the lord!!!

There I had to say my goodbyes to Brian and Mother. This was going to be the first time officially away from home. I am not going to lie and tell you that I was okay with it. Luckily they both support me on this trip. Later Monday night we complete a team dynamics workshop. I have completed workshops like this before and found out more about my personality traits. They choose our projects based on these results. Monday night we decided to keep the party in the hotel. It was great to loosen up and just relax for a night. There may have been a toilet lid missing at the end of the night?!?!....
Tuesday was my first official class. Classes start at 9am and are done at 4pm! Long days. Tuesday I had Macroeconomics & Int'Env of Business with Stodder. It this class we did an exercise to understand different cultures. Beta group had to make animal noises and use note cards to trade while Alpha group sang and danced through there trade. You can see how this represent other countries. We also served as a great ice breaker. The best part of Hartford is they provided us with breakfast, lunch and dinner!!!! In the second half of the day I had Financial Statement Analysis with Gingerella. I could not stop thinking about my mother during this class. I finally understand how I attained my love for numbers. It was cool understanding what my mother does on a day to day basis. The scary part of this class was we need to read a 140 Annual Financial Report on IBM and present it to the class and business professionals on Saturday morning!!! This would be fine if we didn't travel 12hours in one day. Later on Tuesday night we found out our group members and company. I was very lucky to be in the IBM group. I will be working with IBM all summer helping them with current business models!

Tomorrow marks our official travel to Rome, Italy! We leave at 1:00PM! Words can not describe how excited I am to start such a new adventure in my life. I am sad to leave my family but this opportunity could not fit me any better. I have never imagined studying abroad but I know it will change my life. Stay toned from my next blog!

Cia,
Stacey Marie

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