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Advice for new UESL students

Have you ever lived outside of your country by yourself? No matter if your answer is “Yes, I have” or “No, I haven’t”. Let me tell you, life at CWU is very different from life in your country, because this is out of your country, it’s a new place and everything is different. If you will be a new UESL student, here is some advice that you should know. Three of the most important pieces of advice are about personal supplies, food supplies and school supplies.

The first advice is about personal supplies. I think that personal supplies are the most important things, because they affect your life. There are several things you need to bring from your country, like your personal items, such as medicines, computers and electric equipments. You may want to ask me why you need to bring these things from your country. It is because some items you can easily to get in your country, but sometimes you can’t easily get or even find them in the USA. Let’s talk about medicines first. I brought some medicines from my country because I usually take Chinese herbal medicines when I don’t feel well. And in the USA, it’s hard to find Chinese herbal medicines here. So I bring them from my country. Besides, maybe you have special medicines that you need to take, that you aren’t sure if you can buy in the USA. You must bring them from your country, too. Secondly, you need to bring a notebook computer or a laptop from your country. In the school’s library, there are many of computers. No matter if you want to use Apple system computers or Microsoft system computers, you can use both in the school’s library. But the most important thing is that all the computers on campus are English systems. I think sometimes you will use your country’s language when you use the computer; especially if you use the chatting programs like MSN, Yahoo message or Skype. So, don’t forget buy a notebook or a laptop in your country before you come to USA so you can use the computer in your own language. In the finally, I will tell you about electronic equipments. For example, you can not buy an electric dictionary over here, particularly if the electric dictionary uses in your first language, so you probably need to bring one from home. Especially, since you are learning a new language, you will need to have a bilingual dictionary.

The second advice is about food supplies. At the beginning, you may live in a dormitory, so you will need to get a meal plan. You must want to know what a meal plan is. The meal plan is your meal payment which means the school will provide your meals when you arrive here. There are three different meal plans, including large, medium and small. The school will put your payment in your student ID card which we call “Connection Card.” You can use your Connection Card to buy food in the school’s dining room. Besides, you can use Connection Card to shop in the school store—C store—and you can buy some supplies over there. For example, you can buy drinks, snacks or daily supplies. But, after a while, you may want to eat some meals out of the school. There are several restaurants near the campus. These restaurants include Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, and American food. So, if you want to eat the meals that are different from those you can eat in the school dining room, you might go off campus and around Ellensburg. In addition to this, there are four supermarkets in Ellensburg, which are Safeway, Albertsons, Fred Meyer and Super 1. If your dormitory has a kitchen, you might go to the supermarket and buy some provisions to cook by yourself. It sounds very good, right! However, when you come to the school don’t worry about the meals because you can get the food easily.

The third advice is about school supplies. In this part, I will tell you about the textbooks. There is a placement test after arrival. After the test, you will know which level you are in. Usually, if your English level is normal in your country, I think you will be in the level three. There are five levels in UESL program, so level three is the middle level. Regardless of your level is, in every level you will need at least four books. You can send an e-mail to ask which books you will use in the class, and than you can buy these books in your country before you arrive. After you come to America and you want to buy these books, you can also buy them in the school book store, but the cost is maybe double from what it is in your country. If you want to get lower price books, you can buy the books over the internet or buy the used books from the previous students who have studied in here for a long time. And you must have the dictionary which will be used when you are learning in class. In fact, you will need two or three dictionaries; one from English to your first language, the other from your first language to English, and one from English to English. You can buy an English-English dictionary, but you need to buy dictionaries which use your country’s language in your country. In Ellensburg, I can definite you say that you can’t find these dictionaries. Actually, dictionaries are important because when people learn a new language, they usually need dictionaries to help them.

As you can see, you don’t need to be afraid to apply to UESL at CWU. You should consider my three main points in this essay which are personal supplies, food supplies and school supplies. Then, you should begin to prepare. I think that you are ready to become an international student. I hope you have a happy time while you stay in Ellensburg.

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