First Night at Kent, Ohio, USA

On January 11th, 2008, around 10:30, I arrived in Kent, Ohio, to attend a semester-long academic program at KSU. The program includes auditing courses on teaching methodologies, curriculum development, and the use of technology for education. It also includes ESL classes and an eight week internship at Lakewood High School. I had to stay at the University Inn which is not very far from the White Hall where we take courses. For dinner, I had some juice, bread, and a yogurt provided by the Inn because I had forgotten my dinner on the plane . It was not snowy or rainy as we expected but it was cold outside. The room was heated and had all the necessary furniture in it: Bed, TV, phone, tables, chairs, a fridge, an electric cooker, a microwave, hot running water etc. I had a shower first, then I started to unpack. I did not sleep until 1:15 and I was dead tired. At 02:05, I woke up, startled by the sound of the smoke detector. I thought something was burning in my room and I looked all over but there was no fire, no smoke, no smell no nothing. I didn’t know what was going on and it was my first night there. Maybe I inadvertently did something wrong! I called the desk but James was not there. He does not work at night. I called Abdesalam, my Moroccan friend in his room but he did not know what to do either. I looked at the crazy buzzing thing for some time then decided to go back to bed and forget about it. Impossible. The sound was deafenning. I stood up and looked through the window and saw nothing but darkness. I went back to the paper James had given us on arrival and read it word for word. It read, “Our emergency number after hours is ### ### #### or extention 511”. I quickly dialed the three digits and could not believe my ears when a voice said “Hello.” The night guard soon came up to my room and used one of my towels to blow air at the crazy thing. Maybe he thought I was smoking or something though I had never lit a cig in my life. The obstinate detector went on buzzing. He then stepped on a chair and reached for it and opened it. “It’s the battery”, he said. “I’ll have it changed tomorrow.”