Now that our first week of the New Media course at MSU has
been and gone, there is plenty to fill you in on about what has been happening,
and the fun that we have all had so far…
After arriving in East Lansing at midnight on Saturday the 7th, and
after an incredible amount of mishaps with flights and delays, I was greeted
with the humid heat that is the American summer. Everyone had been slowly
arriving all day and most people were asleep already (it had been a long day
for all), but I met my roommate along with a couple of the other students that had
come from Canberra as well. Our rooms were incredibly hot and muggy but we
quickly solved this with a visit to CVS (a pharmacy that sells everything you’d
need) the next day.
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| My dorm door |
On Sunday, it was orientation day, and a chance for us to
meet each other and have a squiz at what East Lansing had to offer! After we
all met in what’s know as the ‘Gilchrist Pub’ on the lower level of our dorms,
we headed to the shops (which has now become an everyday occurrence, oops…) and
purchased our first bits of MSU Spartans merchandise! After the free time and
shopping we had orientation with Dr C who is going to be our professor for the
first half of the course, and then we did a scavenger hunt all around the MSU
campus.
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| Arabesque-ing scavenger hunters |
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| Figuring out the clues |
Post-scavenger hunt, Bess and Kellie took us to a department
store called Meijer, pronounced exactly like Australia’s Myer, which stocked everything from fruit and cereal to
letterboxes. There was even a whole isle area dedicated to pickles! Obviously
they are just as popular as stereotypically thought.
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| So many pickles |
After what felt like a massive day, we all headed to a local
restaurant called Harrison’s Roadhouse and everyone had massive meals that were
all under $10 each, it is insane how cheap everything is in the US.
The first week of class went quickly and we formed a routine
that involved breakfast, class, lunch, class again, free time, and then dinner!
The class is really fun and our professor is incredibly smart and you can tell
that he really loves what he is teaching us. The campus itself is absolutely
massive. We managed to explore quite a bit in our first week, but Dr C and
Kellie were quick to let us know that we haven’t seen anywhere near all of it
just yet.
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| Our class |
Friday brought a visit to the world-renowned office of Leo
Burnett in Detroit. It was an incredibly interesting day and we all left there
inspired about the industry that we all hope to pursue when we finish our
studies. We had talks from staff of all different sections within the agency,
including Skip Drayton the executive vice president, and it was an amazing
opportunity for all of us to be let in to the world of such a massive and
successful global business.
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| Skip Drayton imparting words of wisdom |
This weekend brings even more day trips (a shopping trip for
one, yay!), but for now that is all there is to tell. I think I speak for all
of us when I say that I am really enjoying this experience, and I look forward
to being able to write more about all of the adventures that we are having, and
going to have.
Natalie x
Natalie Miller is participating on our New Media for Business and Digital Marketing program at Michigan State University, USA. Natalie is in her second year of a Bachelor of Media and Communications at University of Canberra
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