Chapter 6 - First day

The morning sun spread its light across the land that was Minnesota, as the daily commotion resumed in the peaceful suburban community in Bloomington. Blake was already awake and making toast for breakfast, as he places condiments on the table along with coffee and milk for his son.

Speaking of Erik, today was his first day of classes at Bedrock University and the big young reindeer bull has expressed mixed feelings about it. He'll be able to learn English better than he ever could in Finland, but that involves going to school, which is a sour taste for any teenager nowadays.

The alarm rang on Erik's oPhone. With a groan, the young reindeer pushed himself off the bed and began to slowly get back into his routine. Push-ups, sit-ups, crutches and jumping jacks, to wake up and keep fit. He then pulled on a shirt over his torso and adjusted his Girvana boxers before opening the door and going downstairs, where his father was waiting for him.

"Hyvää huomenta, Erik." Blake greeted his son as he sat down. Erik nodded as he yawned out a thick "good morning." with his accent. The father sipped on his coffee as he dug into another piece of toast.

"First day of college, huh? Sounds like a big deal to me." Blake spoke as he looked over to Erik, who was gathering condiments and bread to began taking in breakfast himself.

"Y-yes, it's the first day." Erik replied, a little unsure of why his father began the day with an English lesson.

"I'm sure you'll be fine, Erik." Blake nodded, finishing his coffee as he pours himself a second one. Erik yawned and began to drink and eat. The two didn't say anything for a while, as they tended to their breakfast routine. After a few minutes, Blake stood up to leave the table and walked into his bedroom to change, while Erik was finishing up. He returned a while later, as Erik was cleaning up his dishes and utensils to put into the dishwasher. Blake followed his lead by grabbing condiments and putting them back.

15 minutes later, the two reindeer men were dressed well with casual shirts and denim jeans, ready to go and both went out into the back alley to get into Blake's new car. It was a silver 2008 Ford Escape. Blake found the car online and was immediately interested in getting it from a local salesman. He was able to acquire the vehicle a few days after he arrived.

Blake started the car and began the commute towards the Bedrock main campus. The two began to realize just how different America was compared to Finland. Traffic was a lot more congested towards the main cities. The older reindeer was aware of that, having lived near a city himself for the past decade, but Minneapolis spoke at a much bigger volume for him.

It took a good 20 minutes till Blake was able to turn off and take on the final stretch towards the campus. Stopping at the loading zone, he looked on as Erik climbed out of the car and looked back inside.

"Good luck today, Erik. I'm proud of you." Blake smiled reassuringly towards his long-haired son, who was beginning to look a bit anxious, but it was to be expected.

"Uh, thank you, papa. See you soon." Erik nodded as he swung his backpack over his shoulder. "Rakastan sinua."
"Minäkin rakastan sinua." Blake smiled as he looked to Erik one last time. The youngster waved with a little smile back to his dad as he made his way up the stairs towards the door. Soon, the silver Escape drove off, going back to the suburbs.

There he was. Erik Toivonen, the young Finn, who moved all the way from his home to study in America, is finally at the doors of his next chapter in life: College.

Erik approached the doors of the building, big letters spelling out "Bedrock University" highlighted the main entrance. With a deep breath, the reindeer went inside and began to look for the registration office. Students were hustling and rumbling the big corridor of the campus, talking to friends or walking towards their first class of the day. Erik looked around curiously, slightly overwhelmed by just how big this university was. It spoke true volume for him, as he remembered how his high school in Oulu was a dozen times smaller than Bedrock. Scanning for any noticeable signs, Erik saw one hanging from above pointed him in the right direction and Erik proceeded.

A minute later, he found the office down a busy hallway, and a line-up of new students was pushing the limit. His first class was in twenty minutes and from it looks of it, it would need the same amount of time to get to the front of the line. Nervously, Erik took his spot and waited. Several minutes passed and the line seemed to move as fast as expected, but that didn't exactly make Erik feel better. He moved down as the minutes passed. 10 minutes later, he was at the front of the line, where a pudgy beaver lady greeted him, wearing a formal sweater along with a long black skirt..

"Morning!" she welcomed Erik to the office counter as he approached it. "What's your name?"
"Erik Toivonen." the reindeer said as he could understand her English pretty well. The beaver stood up and began to scan over folders in a shelf near the counter. As she scanned the "T" section, she found the "Toivonen, Erik" file quickly and returned.

"Ok, Erik, here's your schedule and your course list for this semester." she acknowledged Erik as she showed him the contents of the neatly organized folder. Inside was a personalized schedule with the 5 courses he's taking this year, including music, a few english courses and a literature course he thought would be handy for him. Along with the schedule, there was a course list inside with all the information he needed, plus professor contact information and his list of books he needed for his classes.

"Have you pre-ordered your books, Erik?" the beaver lady asked nicely as Erik collected his folder.

"Pre... order? Oh, yes, yes I did." Erik remembered pre-ordering his books with his dad back in Oulu a few days after Erik got the ok to come and study at Bedrock.

"Ok, hunny. Bookstore is back down the hallway to your right. I suggest you go there this afternoon. And I see it's 5 minutes till classtime, so I suggest you go to class now." the beaver lady said as Erik put his folder away.

"Ok, thank you!" Erik replied briefly and darted his way out the office into the hallway. His first class was two floors up on another end of the building. With a few dodges and sprints, Erik managed to get to his class with one minute to spare. What a rush to start the day.

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Hours passed and Erik found it a bit difficult to connect to his professors and fellow students. The language barrier was still there for him, despite having studied hard during all of his high school years. He began to realize his knowledge needed practice and not just in the classroom. With a grunt, he continued onward to the last class of the day. While his classes were a bit tough, he managed to get his things done at lunch, getting his textbooks and acquiring a bus card for his daily commute. Now he was well prepared for a post-secondary student.

He even managed to meet his new basketball coach briefly. Erik signed up for the college basketball team before classes started, landing him a chance to try-out for the team during next week. The young reindeer was excited to shoot hoops again, just like his dad did.

Erik trotted around on the second floor, as he double-checked his schedule to see what his last class was. It read:

"English literature 1 - 3:35 PM - Room 2-023 - Prof. Koray Demir"

With a light chuckle, he saw the lit sign of room 23 right beside him and entered the class. It was a very classic-looking room, with wood finishing on the side, and the classroom was lit well with over-sized windows on the opposite wall from the door. Erik scanned the classroom and found an open spot in the second row beside a black timber wolf, who greeted him with a "Hello." The timber wolf was tall, but half a foot shorter than Erik. His short and styled hair were a good fashion statement, along with his grey polo shirt and denim jeans.

Erik nodded and replied with a "Hello." himself, as he settled into the chair, he looked on to see the professor on his laptop, seemingly preparing his next lesson.

The professor was a blended silver cross fox. He had a black muzzle with silver markings across his face, with the occasional orange fur, including on the inside of his ears. Small piercings accessorized both his pointy ears, along with a pair of stylish glasses. He was also rather well-dressed, with a vest covering his dress shirt and tie, along with a matching pair of dresser pants. He looked very spiffy for a university professor.

"I'm Troy, what's your name?" the timber wolf interrupted Erik's thought process as he looked back to Troy.

"Oh, my name is Erik." the reindeer replied firmly.

"Nice to meet ya, Erik." Troy went on to make a little small talk with the foreign reindeer. "Why are you taking this course, if I may ask?"

Erik thought about his answer for a bit before he replied. "Uhm, I want to improve my English, and understand it better."

"Oh nice, that's cool. Where you from?" Troy became a little more curious.

"Finland." Erik kept his reply brief.

"Scandinavia, that's awesome. Part of my family is actually from Sweden." Troy smiled as the fox at the desk stood up and took a marker to write something on the whiteboard.

"Nice. Nice." Erik replied briefly again. The two looked on to the professor at the white board. The vulpine prof wrote 'Professor Koray Demir' on the board as the clock struck 3:35 and the last few students entered the class before Mr. Demir walked towards the door to shut it. With a click and a thud, the door was shut and class started.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen!" Mr. Demir began to speak in front of the class.

"Welcome to English literature. My name is Koray Demir,” He indicated the board onto which he’d written it, “but I do appreciate it if you called me Koray, alright?" Mr. Demir cleared his throat softly after he’d finished speaking. Erik nodded, paying attention like the rest of the class was. Koray had a certain vibe to him that made his students ease up and pay attention easily.

“Now, I’m not going to lie to any of you. This class isn’t for everyone. It’s also NOT a sleeper course; if you think you’ll be able to snooze during class and still pass, you’re sorely mistaken.” Koray stated seriously, a slight frown on his features as he looked around at his students, trying to judge expressions and managing to spy a couple that weren’t too happy about that news. He knew his class would be shrinking by the end of the week. It always did. Students always assumed that English Literature would be an easy course; read a few books, write a couple of papers, get a passing grade. But there was a whole lot more to it than that. The cross fox smiled again, exuding his usual warm and welcoming personality.

“For those of you that stick with this, I promise you it will be a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. But, as a start, I want to get to know all of you. I will understand the way you interpret things better if I know YOU better. So! I want to go around the class and hear your name, where you’re from, and what you hope to learn here. We’ll start at the back there.”

One by one, each student went on to introduce themselves with a short verbal biography of themselves. Among them were many locals, like wolves, beavers, otters and deer, all hailing from in or around the Twin Cities. There was one brown mouse that came from near Liverpool, but the rest of the class made Erik feel out of place, being one of the only Europeans in the class.

Erik’s turn came up. He took a deep breath and unboxed as much of his English skills as possible. It sounded a little broken, but the knowledge was there and he told as much of himself as he could without breaking into Finnish. With a smile and a nod, Koray appreciated Erik’s efforts and carried on to the next one.

“Alright, ladies and gentlemen.” Koray resumes his speech as the introductions finished. “I don’t like to push much on the first day, however, I AM going to give you your first assignment! And you can work on it for the remainder of class today. It’ll be due on my desk at the start of Friday’s class.” He explained, moving to write that information on the board for those that were more visually inclined.

“Your first assignment is a thousand-word paper about yourself. However, I want you to write it through the eyes of somebody else. A parent, sibling, friend, grandparent, employer...whomsoever you would like. But I want you to actually look at yourself! See yourselves how somebody else sees you! I’m not expecting to see a first draft of this, but please, try to keep your spelling and grammar accurate. If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to call me.”

A small rumble came across the classroom as many students took out their papers and began to draft something on paper, while others were fortunate to have their own laptops. Erik took out his notebook and wrote down the assignment before thinking about who he is going to write as. This was gonna be hard, he thought to himself, but it has to be done, and done well.

The clock struck 4:50 PM and class was over. As the students packed up and went to leave, Troy tapped Erik’s shoulder once more. “Hey, got a cell phone number?”

“Cell… phone? You mean like mobile?” Erik made sure he heard that right.

“That’s it, man.” Troy nodded. With a nod, Erik pulled out his oPhone and showed the black wolf his number. Troy tapped away on his phone and sent him a text promptly.

“Cool, man. You seem like a cool guy. We should hang out sometime when you can.” Troy nodded, grinning. With a nod, Erik approved the idea of having a friend in America.

“Yes, we should.” Erik said as the two made their way towards the door, but a familiar voice stopped them.

“Erik, mind if I had a talk with you?” Koray approached slowly as the two furs stopped in their tracks. Erik turned around and replied with a nod.

“Ok, then I’ll see you later, Erik.” the timberwolf waved back as he left the classroom and the reindeer stayed behind to have a chat with his teacher.

“First of all, Erik, this has nothing to do with how you did today, but I do want to talk to you about your current situation.” Koray assured him as the two took a seat at the professor’s desk.

“Ok.” Erik replied. He wasn’t sure how to go on.

“So tell me, how did you learn English?” Koray began the conversation with a simple question.

“I started learning English in school. I started in Grade 5 and continued. I wanted to learn more, since I have been travelling a lot with the Finland basketball team.” Erik began to formulate longer sentences, much to Koray’s approval.

“Good good. That’s great that you’ve been practicing outside of school.” Koray went on. Erik nodded slightly. He knew that wasn’t exactly the case. He’s been speaking English on and off, reverting to Finnish when he can, especially at home around his father. He has even tried to learn to sing Girvana songs, but the themes of their lyrics are still hard to grasp for the young reindeer.

“Listen, Erik, I just want to tell you something. I believe you can succeed in this class, but I need you to work hard and study a little bit every day.” Koray shifted in his seat, looking straight into Erik’s eyes, speaking in an encouraging tone of voice. “A lot of my students are from right here in Minnesota, who grew up with the English language. You on the other hand, has not spoken English that much outside of school and you just moved here from another country, as you told me in class.” the fox nodded.

“Yes, it’s true.” Erik agreed.

“But I’m thrilled that you have decided to come to my classes to learn and that means an awful lot to me.” Koray went on to reassure his student. “As long as you let me teach you the dazzling beauty that is the English language, I shall do my very… very best to make you feel more comfortable here. That’s how I want everyone in my class to feel. I hope you understand what I’m trying to say to you.”

“Yes, I do, Mr. Demir. You want me to feel comfortable in your class.” Erik repeated some of Koray’s words.

“That’s right, Erik. College can be a very stressful period in life for a young lad like you, but they don’t have to feel that with me.” Koray added on. “I only want the best for my dear students and that includes you. So will you promise me to study hard and in return, I’ll give you as much help as you need?”

Erik thought about it for a moment before he nodded firmly. “Yes, I’ll do it.”

Koray’s smile widened. “Excellent, Erik! That’s all I wanted to talk to you about. I think you have a bus to catch now though. I don’t want you to be late for supper.” the fox grinned a little bit as he stood up alongside the young reindeer.

“Ok, well, thanks for the talk, Mr. Demir. I will make sure I work hard.” Erik adjusted his backpack on his shoulders as he walked towards the door with his prof.

“Please, dear, call me Koray.” the vulpine professor nodded as he let Erik go out of the classroom. “Well, I’ll see you around, Erik. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too, Mr… I mean, Koray.” he waved back as he trotted down the hallway with the intent to leave the building and take the commute home. Koray waved back as he left. A happy sigh escaped his lips before he went on to clean his desk and return to his office briefly.

Koray had a good feeling about Erik. He was sure his English would excel far from where he is at now. The young reindeer has a good start, he just needs practice. The vulpine professor was going to make sure that his student would do just that.