My American adventure: First impressions

I arrived into San Francisco airport in the early afternoon to a nice, mild, low-twenties temperature, and after spending over an hour on the runway waiting for the plane at our gate to depart, we were able to get off at last. Border patrol, although not as friendly as some, was less scary than I was anticipating (turns out the school I'm at has been working pretty hard together with the airport to make things fairly effortless for us internationals), and I made it through unscathed. Everyone else in the airport was super friendly and helpful, and before long I was sitting in my rental car trying to adjust my brain to driving from the passenger side. 
After a few close calls and providing some mild entertainment for onlookers from my epic driving skills, I found a McDonald's I could scab WiFi from to load Google directions and off I went on my merry way. San Francisco, I've decided, is not much fun to drive through, particularly in their five hour long "rush hour", but somehow I made it through, and once out of the city, the rest of the drive was pretty low stress, including being treated to a beautiful Californian sunset. I arrived at my Airbnb at around 10pm, and after my 12 hour flight and 6 hour drive, I was feeling pretty exhausted and ready for bed!
The following morning I had to drop the rental car off, get myself a SIM card to join the world once again, then head to registration day for school. It was a bit crazy because I had nowhere to stay that night and had all my luggage with me, which they were kind enough to store under the registration table for me.
I went in, had my ID photo taken, met my pastor and some others from my RG (explained in my Return of the keyboard post), signed a bunch of forms, and was done. Not having a car, a house to go to or anyone friends to contact, I hadn't a clue what I was going to do next, so went and sat under a tree on my suitcase to ponder when a lady, also a new student, came up to me and started chatting. Realising I had nowhere to go, she kindly took me home with her and made me some food and offered to let me stay the night. I was so blessed by her generosity as she took me for a drive to show me around and prayed with me also about finding somewhere to live.

While we were at her place discussing potential options, I got a call from a lady regarding a house. Turns out my pastor, to whom I'd mentioned I had nowhere to stay, had happened to bump into someone who happened to sub-lease apartments and he happened to mention my situation to her. Even though all her apartments had been filled, she'd happened to have someone just move out of one of the apartments and happened to have one bed available. The lady I was with kindly took me around to have a look and two minutes later, I was moving in. 
The more time I spend in this town, the less I believe in coincidences, and this was one of those times that I knew there were too many coincidences for it to be coincidental! Looking back now, I'm so grateful that I trusted God and didn't jump into a housing situation but waited until I got here like he asked me to and let him take care of me. I know that I'm where I'm meant to be - I've already learned so much from my housemates and have such a deep love and appreciation for them - I can't imagine how different my time here would have been had I not ended up where I am. He really has taken care of me and I don't want to take any of this for granted.
The following day we met up with our whole RG for a barbecue, it was super fun, then finished off the week with an international orientation. I got to try the "best milkshakes in town" after which I decided I might just wait until I get home before I have any more milkshakes! 

Everything here seems to focus on quantity over quality, and, bar a few exceptions, my eating out experiences have left me feeling pretty let down, leading me to stick to eating at home as a general rule. With 1100 international students here, I'm fortunate in that I had already been given a bunch of helpful tips around food purchases, so didn't have to do much figuring out for myself.
With classes starting the following week, I'd found everyone I had encountered at school to be generous, open, and friendly, and was feeling pretty dang excited to get into the swing of things, a feeling that if anything, has only grown since.