Wow, one long orientation today. Half of it was stuff I already knew. I went off to a table alone at the beginning to look at the stuff in the packets. By the time it was over, my table was filled with Taiwanese MBA grad students. There's a LOT of Taiwanese people here. Most seem to be business or economics or in the English program. Oh, and I won a cup at the end (one per table). I guess I got lucky being the first one to sit there although I didn't know about it beforehand.
Random things I noticed about the ISS here: one of the ISS workers is Japanese, and one of them's lived in Japan for a long time. And there seems to be no males.
Afterwards, I decided to go check out the
SF Games group here. A bit far, two bus rides which took about 40 minutes + 20 minutes of waiting time. I arrived early so got a bagel there to eat, and they started trickling in. Played Star Traders, was *very* close to winning, but was foiled twice, while I foiled the second place guy once, which allowed the third place guy to win unimpeded. I think they were a little surprised at how quickly I grasped the rules, but the side effect of that is that I can tend to become a rules lawyer.
Afterwards, I brought out Category 5, but they didn't seem interested, except another new guy came called Albert, who I later found was originally from Canada. So I played with him for about an hour and a half, and I won every round except one.
Meanwhile, we talked a lot, and it was essentially networking. When he heard of what I was studying, he was about to ask me to apply for a job at his company, except that by the time I'm done with the program, the project he's on would have been finished (his current project is working on a MMORPG game, which is why what I'm studying would be relevant). Got his business card, and learned a bit about the industry too, based on what he's been doing in the past, and how he decides to switch jobs, etc. When we were done for the night, he even gave me a ride home. :D We talked about geocaching and some other stuff in the car as well, and he even lived in the same district as where I am now. In a nutshell, we hit it off rather well. Hopefully I'll see him again.
And who said playing games was useless.
Well, in a social group like this, it's probably better than playing games at home on a computer since you can actually interact with people in person, and most of these people are older folks too, which means the interactions and conversations may yield more useful information, like today.
As for the rest of the group, well, first of all it's a *very* large group. I think up to five tables in the cafe + many more chairs was taken over for gaming. It has been around for over 10 years after all. But based on that first game I played, I think some people may get a little too... emotional while playing the games. Or maybe it's just 'cause I'm not used to them yet.
I'll probably go by again in the future if I'm not too busy.
In other news, my dorm seems to have a Harry Potter theme going on (my floor's "Hufflepuff"). And I can't believe I forgot to bring plates! Although there are some paper plates in the kitchen here.
But it's definitely cheaper. Cheapest restaurant I've found now is $3.50 for their lunch special. Oh, one thing I noticed about the Farmer's Market is that it's almost all older people there. I take that as a sign it's probably cheap and better. 
And thank you everyone who made it today for being there. :D
