<p>this thread is for those of you who are already at a boarding school.</p>
<p>what was your first day like? how did it go? what did you expect?</p>
<p>this will be interesting to see.</p>
<p>My first day:
Walked inside, the people who work in admissions and some of the resident assistants and other tour guides were there, too. Got a folder in it with my schedule and some other information and my room key. One of the tour guides took me to our meeting room where there were tables set up for the nurse, athletics, academics and stuff and talked to each of the people at the tables. Then the tour guide person showed me where my room was and I moved all my stuff in and got my side of the room set up (my roommate was a returning student and didn't arrive until a couple days after me). Then all the parents went to a meeting and all the new students went to the gym with the resident assistants and did bonding stuff and such. The next day was more orientation facilities. There was also sports practices and stuff those days - I'm a rider so we had riding evaluations at the barn and that kind of stuff.</p>
<p>It went pretty well, I'm pretty shy and I didn't know anybody else so it was a little hard for me and stuff, but it all worked out well and by the first day of classes I knew where everything was and had met some other kids to hang around with.</p>
<p>I'm an RA so I helped out at Opening Weekend this year, too, and it was a bit different than my first day:
There was a table set up at recep (same as my first day) with one of the people who works in admissions and basically me and the other RA's and tour guides there to help sat around waiting for people to show up. There was a folder and stuff for everyone. When someone came in, one of us would take them around the school to some of the different offices (business, academics, sports, nurse, and stuff) and then take them up to their room...I think the reasoning was that they'd kind of get an idea of where stuff was if they went around to the different offices rather than having every person to see in one big room. Then they moved in (we all helped bring stuff up so the new kdis didn't have do it all by themselves). Then we had orientation stuff. Can't remember specifically, but there was one time where the RA's and other 'student leaders' all met with the new kids and talked about traditions of the school and what it was like and took them on a tour of the school. There was also a scavenger hunt at some point to get them more acclimated with school and such.</p>
<p>My first day we were driving up to the school, and on the corner there were a ton of orientation leaders (called blue keys) shouting and cheering. I went through registration, got my keys, and my parents and blue key helped move me in. Next the families went to the chapel to hear a speech by the head of school. When we went outside the blue keys were cheering and shouting, so the kids went with our clusters while the parents went off and did something else. We played some name games, learned the Andover cheers, and went on a tour of the campus in small groups. We went to dinner, said goodbye to our families, and our blue keys helped finish moving us in. That night we had a dorm meeting with our house counselors to learn who else we'd be living with. The next day we had more orientation and team building while the returning students moved in. The first couple days go by pretty quickly since you're trying to meet a ton of people, remember where everything is, and adjust to boarding life.</p>