Dear new Chinese Students of University of Kentucky:

First of all, congratulate for your being admitted by UK!

Before the new semester starts, we (CSSA) used to get the email list of new Chinese students from OIA (Office of International Affair) or Graduate School, and then we contacted them all, talking about those common issues, such as airport pickup, housing, and so on. But this year something seems different, it turned out that both OIA and Graduate School can not provide the email information of new students. It took us about one month to wait for the email list from OIA and Graduate School, unfortunately we didn't make it. As a result, this message might be kind of late to some early comers, but we hope it is still in time for most of our folks.

We are going to talk about some commonly concerned issues including airport pickup and housing.

1. AIRPORT PICKUP

There are 4 possible solutions for airport pickup:
(a) Your relatives, your mentor, or senior students/scholars at your department/lab;
(b) OIA (Office of International Affair), please contact Karen Slaymaker (kmslay0@pop.uky.edu);
(c) CSSA, please contact or confirm your arrival to ukypickup@gmail.com ;
(d) The last choice is TAXI, usually there will be some yellow TAXI waiting outside the airport terminal, or you can call the TAXI company 231-8294.

In your email please include the following important information:
(a) Your name, email address
(b) Your flight number (!!!), arrival date and time

NOTICE:
Please DO NOT let both OIA and CSSA pick you up, you should choose ONLY ONE of them. It is just in the purpose of saving our limited resource and energy, thanks for your understanding.

Please keep these two phone numbers and call them when you need help after arrival (for example, you find that the person supposed to pick up you does not appear):
XU, LI: (859)317-3086 (email: lixuatuky@hotmail.com)
ZHANG, YU: (859)327-7282 (email: zy.brian@gmail.com)

2. HOUSING

The housing situation of the coming semester is much worse than before, currently it seems the waiting list for Cooperstown apartments (one of the most convenient on-campus apartment area) is about 200.

We have applied for 4 one-bed room apartments (2 in Cooperstown and 2 in Shawningtown) for new comers at the beginning of May, but haven't gotten the confirmation from housing office yet. At this point it looks like the 2 apartments in Shawningtown (a little bit farther than Cooperstown) are more likely to be available.

Once we get those apartments, the lessees will be determined by two rules, first come first serve and proportion of male and female. But the lessees must agree that he/she would like to temporarily accommodate other new comers for several days, and this situation might continue for about one month.

In case of we cannot get our apartments or the apartments are out of capacity, there are short-term rooms for rent on UK campus, which are called "Summer Conference Room", located in Blanding Tower. The short-term rates (30 days or less) are $12/night -- Double Occupancy, $16/night -- Single Occupancy; and the long term rates (31 days or longer) are $75/week -- Double Occupancy, $100/week -- Single Occupancy. Their phone number is 257-3189.

Next step (for those who doesn't get the on-campus housing) you need to find apartment, here is some approaches:
(a) Ask help from your mentor, senior students in your department/lab;
(b) OIA has a collection of apartment information near the campus, and OIA will also provide housing volunteers and phones to help new students;
(c) CSSA will try everything we can do to help you, including housing information, CSSA BBS and so on.

We wish you have a good trip! And we look forward to meeting you at UK!

CSSA
2009