EXCHANGE REPORT(CHU HAO LUN COLIN)

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY FALL 2018

MONTHLY ACTIVITY LOG

12TH MAN SPIRIT

SEPT 2018-UNDERSTANDING THE CAMPUS I have arrived on the first day when the dormitory opened, one weeks before the orientation day. It gave me enough time to greet my roommate Christian who is Hispanic and a freshman from Larado. I have spent a few days with him to get ourselves familiarize with the classrooms, recreation facilities and restaurants. In the second week, I have to take care of all the holds in the student systems, such as banking information and mail box applications. There are a lot of welcoming activities in the third week, for example, movie gathering, board game night, pizza night, etc., which I had opportunities to meet with students from all over the world. As I am a Christian, I have also found a local church in order to have regular worshipping sessions in College Station.

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OCT 2018-JOINING SOCIETIES In this month there are the MSC open house which gives me the chance to join many interesting clubs, including Wakewell, International Student Mentorship Program(ISMA), International Business Association and Pizza & Philosophy. My favorite society would be Wakewell, they taught me how to balance, do tricks, since I have never tried wakeboarding before, also brought me to a local traditional barbeque restaurant; showing me the loving and welcoming Texan culture. I have also joined two road trips to Dallas and Austin, which is awesome; the cities are filled with artistic and energetic elements.

NOV 2018 First two weeks of November were where most midterms took place; I have spent less time participating in those societies. After the midterms, there is the Thanksgiving and Black Friday, I was luckily invited to a local family for dinner and experienced an authentic Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, sweet potato, cranberry sauce, etc. Later at night, me and my friends have driven all the way to Houston for the Black Friday sales and shopped till 3am. This experience is unforgettable, it is very similar to Lunar New Year Fair in Hong Kong.

DEC 2018 I had one week of Final in December. It is unforgettable that College Station became very quiet after the semester was ended as all the students went back home; up to 50% of the population in College Station is Texas A&M’s students.

FRIEND WHO TOOK ME TO BLACK FRIDAY(MIDDLE) BIG TEX- THE STATE FAIR FESTIVAL OF TEXAS

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GENERAL EXCHANGE INFORMATION

ORIENTATION ACTIVITIES

Three orientation activities are required by Texas A&M. The first orientation is an online International Student Orientation which gives you a brief introduction of Texas A&M as a whole. The second orientation is Incoming REEP orientation which gathers all the international student to have a networking session and an information session that goes over the American culture, teaching methods and basic facilities you could access to as an international student. The third one is the Business & Engineering Incoming Exchange Orientation; this orientation is mainly for course registration and pairing up with academic advisor. INTERNATIONAL SERVICES & ACTIVITIES International Student Service, Student Abroad Program Office are the two organization which are responsible for releasing important information and assisting exchange students to understand Texas A&M. International Business Association is a student society which organize weekly activities, for example cultural sharing, buddy dinner, sport contest, football gathering, road trip. Many business school students joined this society, so you might meet your classmates in these activities. ACCOMMODATIONS Accommodations in Texas A&M are fairly simple. In early May, you will receive a greeting email from Texas A&M, the email would include the instructions to apply on-campus housing. The important steps includes, visiting https://gateway.tamu.edu/activation/ to create your TAMU Net ID and password; applying the housing through https://oncampusaggiegs.tamu.edu. I would suggest you to pick a hall in the west campus area, since the Mays Business School is located in the west campus. Upon arrival, you would need to provide your UIN and identification documents to receive your keys. COURSES REGISTRATION Mays Business School has its own orientation day to assist international student to register the courses they would like to choose. Please remember to attend the orientation day, since the professors from different majors will also be present to answer any questions regarding the courses you would like to register, they would even help you to register the courses directly through their admin account, saving you a lot of time.

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TEACHING & ASSESSMENT METHODS Of all the classes I have taken, they are lecture-based. The teaching style of different professors varies, same as HKUST. All the assessment methods are listed clearly on the syllabus and most of the courses use absolute grading and state the formula used to calculate your grade. Personally, I think it is a great way to protect student’s interest, since you grade would not be affected by curving or performance of other students. SPORTS & RECREATION FACILITIES As visiting exchange students, we are permitted to use the Recreation Centre. The Recreation Centre is usually called “The Rec”, similar to UST they also have gym room, swimming pool, badminton court and etc. There are also basketball court and volleyball court near the hall areas. It is highly recommended to watch a football game in the Kyle field, the forth largest football stadium in the United States, known as the “Home of the 12th Man”. FINANCE & BANKING (INCLUDING CURRENCY / EXPENSES) Wells Fargo Bank is a partner of Texas A&M. Despite having a Citibank account, I have chosen to open a Wells Fargo Bank account, as Wells Fargo’s ATM have higher accessibility compare with that of Citibank. Having a debit card and a credit card will be very helpful, since we are not familiar with the tax policies and coins of USD; paying with debit card and credit card will save you a lot of trouble. For expenses, compare with other states, Texas has a lower cost of living, the net living cost are around USD7500.

LECTURER TED AND MY CLASSMATES STAND UP PADDLE BOARDING IN REC

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SOCIAL CLUBS & NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES There are up to 3,000 social clubs in Texas A&M, which you could get to know more during the MSC open house. Most clubs have regular gathering events and special activities during festivals. I have joined Wakewell, International Student Mentorship Program, Oasis, Gaming Club and Chinese Church fellowship. They all have respectful and friendly members who are more than welcome to introduce you into their culture and activities. CHINESE CHURCH FELLOWSHIP HEALTH & SAFETY Tuberculosis Screening and Evidence of Vaccination against Bacterial Meningitis are required during the online application. For these two requirements, you could complete them in Hong Kong or when you arrived. However, I chose to complete them through Quality HealthCare Medical Services Limited in Hong Kong. In addition, if you are a non-US citizen, Texas A&M will require you to pay for the health insurance included in their tuition system. FOOD In Texas A&M, dining plans can be purchased to trade for fixed meal provided by the restaurants. SIBISA dining hall’s meal trade has a buffet option, which provides a wide range of food, including pastas, rice, fruits, burgers, etc., their menu would be different for every two to three days. Other than dining plans, there are lots of restaurants in College Station, they might not be close to the campus, but you could always get there with uber or lyft. TRANSPORTATION On campus shuttle bus services are provided in Texas A&M and they are quite convenient. Texas A&M also provide off-campus shuttle services from campus to H-E-B (Grocery Store). In terms of travelling outside of College Station, I uses ground shuttle to get to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, megabus to travel between cities and Google flight to travel to different states. Personally, I didn’t tried carpooling since I have made a number of nice friends in Texas A&M who are very helpful and willing to give me a ride to different cities in Texas. But I have heard that the matching system is simple, and the pricing is economic. CLIMATE Unlike Hong Kong, a coastal area, College Station is an inland area, causing College Station to have a greater temperature difference between day and time. The temperature range is 15 to 40 degree Celsius in fall and is -5 to 20 degree Celsius in winter.

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COMMUNICATION The most used language in Texas will be English, but there are quite a number of students in Texas A&M speak Spanish. My roommate for example is Hispanic, he often taught me some common Spanish phrases. For social media, they usually use Group.me and Facebook messenger.

WATCHING FOOTBALL GAME WITH MY ROOMMATE CHRISTIAN’S FRIENDS CAUTIONARY MEASURES Texas A&M has a safe campus and it has a very low crime rate. However, to protect yourself, always remember not to follow strangers and notify your friends who you are going to be with when travelling to different cities.

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ITEMS TO BRING

• Money (Cash, Credit Card, Debit Card) • Portable Charger • Electrical Converter • Medicine • Water bottle • Sunblock & Sunglasses • Backpack • Hat & Gloves & Scarf • Summer Clothes (Temperature can be up to 40 Celsius) • Winter Clothes (Temperature can be down to -5 Celsius) • Raincoat • Suit

USEFUL LINKS AND CONTACTS

• Howdy Portal: https://howdy.tamu.edu/uPortal/f/welcome/normal/render.uP • Class catalog - http://catalog.tamu.edu/undergraduate/course-descriptions/ • Class syllabus - https://compass-

ssb.tamu.edu/pls/PROD/bwckschd.p_disp_dyn_sched • Student Abroad Programs Office - http://studyabroad.tamu.edu • Printing Service: http://oal.tamu.edu/Printing/#0-PrintRates • A&M Blackboard: https://tamu.blackboard.com/webapps/login/ • Hong Kong Student Association- Christ: Whatsapp: 98375469