<p>I was wondering whether anyone could shed some light on what happens at both the international and the regular orientations. My mom's convinced that the international pre-orientation is full of how-to-act-American (we've several kids that have already matriculated that have stories about schools teaching them what a birthday cake was and how to put candles onto it), but I'm not so sure. Is it mandatory? </p>
<p>Also, we're looking at the schedule for regular orientation and I was wondering whether anyone could shed any light on how the moving-in process is. My dad'll be flying over with me for a short while (he has some business) and will be helping me acquire whatever I need (such as sheets and what not); is there anything in particular that anyone thinks is an absolute essential that most'll likely overlook? (Or even not most; I'm sort of idiotic about these things...) </p>
<p>Any insight's appreciated; thanks!</p>
<p>Edit: I won't have a car/driver's license in the US; that's why my dad'll be around for the first few days. For Caltech students with no car, how do you normally get around and buy stuff? Is everything around Pasadena easily bike-able?</p>
<p>There's a Target that's walkable, though it can get pretty tiring if you're carrying heavier stuff. There's an Office Max (or Depot, I can never remember which) a little bit closer for any of your school needs. </p>
<p>No clue about international orientation, since I'm a domestic grad student here, but I will say that the international students that met during their week-earlier orientation definitely made a lot more friends off the bat and knew a lot more of what was going on during regular orientation.</p>
<p>Yes, there is a lot of how-to-act-American stuff. You may learn how to use an American toilet. (You laugh, but I swear to God that I have seen footprints on the toilet seats.)</p>
<p>My girlfriend's international student roommate didn't understand that you could flush the toilet paper here. She was stuffing it into the little "sanitary bins" they put in the stall next to the toilet. :(</p>
<p>There are a lot of shops that are nearby - Target is abous a mile. There are two grocery stores. Vons is just a couple of blocks, and a bit beyond that is Trader Joes, which has a lot of inexepnsive, easy to prepare foods. There is a new drug store about half way to Target. It wont have the selection (or prices) of Target, but it will be convenient. There is also a Borders Book store quite close, and lots of restaurants of all price ranges.</p>
<p>Having actually been to international orientation, it is not quite as odd as stories suggest, though admittedly I skipped out on a few events that didn't sound interesting. Mostly, you'll get a lot of the information that you'd hear anyway at regular orientation, hear international students talk about what their experience at Tech was like, eat free food, and socialise. (If they do the exploring LA thing again, it might be entertaining -- specifically, this involved a game of what was essentially tag on the LA metro.) </p>
<p>You probably won't hear a lot of the sillier 'how to be American' stuff -- I don't remember everything, but I think for the most part it's assumed you're competent! You will get free food, take advantage of it. You will also meet people, take advantage of this too.</p>
<p>ok let me clear something out. that stuff is definitely not mandatory. i went the first day and skipped the rest of it. therefore, i actually have no idea what they do in international orientation.</p>
<p>in the week that i had to myself, i hung out with students and preseason athletes and just got to know te place a little bit better. just think of it as having an extra week of rotation where you can do whatever you want. so if you have no clue as to what the us is like, then sure, go to international orientation, i'm sure they do great stuff. if not, then do whatever pleases you. ultimately, in one way or another, every house puts on a show for rotation. some more than others, but definitely all of them. so if you go before rotation, you're going to get a better feel each house. just keep in mind that the vast majority of people will not be back yet, so they will all seem a lot emptier then they usually do (again, some more than others).</p>
<p>Seems like what gambit said is true; I emailed my regional (well, the international) admissions counselor and he said that, at least for American citizens, international pre-orientation is not mandatory. </p>
<p>Anyone else in this gherkin, I guess that's the way out (we've already booked tickets and my mom's too lazy to change them). </p>