So yesterday was by far the worst day I’ve had since coming to this country all thanks to the UK’s complete inability to deal with snow. After waking up at 6 so I could get a taxi at 7 to the train station for my train to York I arrived in London to some slight flurries. It did not seem to be sticking, but there was panic in the air so I called my parents despite the fact that it was about 5.30 in the morning their time to ask them to check if my flight had been canceled. I was told that it was still on time and my Dad reassured me that the snow would not be lasting into the afternoon so because my flight shouldn’t be effected. He was right about the snow stopping by about 1.30, but little did he know that because of 3ish inches of snow London would stop functioning. So I was pacified for the moment, and decided to kill an hour in the British Library because I had arrived much earlier than was necessary.
An hour later when I emerged from the library it was snowing harder in the nice, fluffy, romantic Christmassy snow it does when it the temperature is hovering just below freezing and there isn’t much wind so it is just gently drifting down. So I didn’t worry that much, took some Christmassy pictures, and made my way to the underground so I could travel up to Heathrow. There was announcement made in the underground station that people should call ahead to their airlines to check on the status of their flights because there were some cancelations or delays, but my Dad had checked with them only an hour and a half before then so I wasn’t that worried. The train ride seemed fine until it made an announcement halfway through the journey that we would be going a little slower due to the snow, but I had time so I thought nothing of it.
Then just before the last stop before Heathrow the train in a long tunnel we came to a sudden stop (like emergency break, I fell over, sudden), and an announcement was made that there was something wrong with the signaling and we would be waiting for some staff to walk down the tracks to us to fix it and not to worry. The train was also filling with smoke/dust and smelled of burnt rubber, but we were reassured that this was because of the sudden breaking. At this point I was starting to panic because this meant I would be really rushed once we actually got into Heathrow. We ended up stuck in the tunnel for two hours, and after some tears and a few false starts we were finally going again. We finally got to the last stop before Heathrow and we were told that it would be best if we got off because the train would not be continuing in the foreseeable future.
So I got off the train with a girl from Madrid who I had made friends with on the train, and we went upstairs to try and get a bus or cab. We were told at this point that everything in Heathrow was delayed or canceled until at least 4 so we need not worry about missing our flights, but we were now concerned that we would never actually make it to Heathrow. We waited in the snow for a while for a bus, but were eventually told the buses going to Heathrow terminals were closed due to the snow. There were no cabs around, so we tried calling some companies all who told us that they were either booked or closed. The girl from Spain even tried stopping cars in the street. Eventually we were told that the trains were running again, so we got on the train grateful to be eventually making it to Heathrow.
Heathrow was a complete mad house, with major traffic jams and giant masses of very upset people rushing in all directions. By now I discovered that there was nothing going out for the rest of the day, and after calling my Dad I was told I was booked onto a flight for Tuesday and had a hotel reservation back near Kings Cross station (all calls I’d been making to my parents all day had been in a massive panic that my phone would die at any minute because the roaming in the underground for 2 hours killed my battery and I forgot my charger).
I now needed to make my way back into London, and because of my bad experience with the underground and an announcement that the Heathrow express train into the city was shut down I tried to find a cash point so I could grab a taxi back. After wandering through the crowds with all of my luggage I gave up on this pursuit and resigned myself to a long underground journey back. I made my way back to the underground and took a very crowded train back to Kings Cross and finally made my way to the hotel. Finally at a little before 8.00 pm I was checked into a warm hotel room, with internet access, and a phone charger they let me borrow.
So the long day is finally over, and I’m now ready to spend some time exploring a Christmassy London because really with all of this snow, it really is just like Christmas.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Snow and Scottish Adventures
First off, if you didn’t know we have gotten a lot of snow here (at least for England’s standards and really for New England’s as well if you consider how early it is). Starting on Thanksgiving it literally snowed every day for a week, and I’m not sure the exact amount of snow we have received but I’m thinking near a foot. It has been really lovely and has led to much sledging (yes they pronounce that ‘g’ so it sounds like ‘hedge’), snowball fighting, and excitement amongst everyone here because apparently we got more snow in one week than is usually received in an entire winter.
The one down side has been that they really don’t know what to do with the snow once they get it. The roads become terrible and the paths around campus although sometimes sanded are generally pretty slippy (apparently it isn’t ‘slippery’ here) or full of slush. This led to the most ironic thing I’ve experienced here so far, a cancelation of a ski training because...wait for it...there was too much snow. I kid you not; we could not train because apparently if you get more than an inch of snow the roads are not easily traversed so the drive to Manchester was out of the question.
Luckily this snow did not prevent me and X from taking a lovely trip with the ERASMUS society up to Edinburgh for the weekend. There were no fanny packs involved unfortunately, but we had a really nice time. The two of us decided that because we were traveling in a group of 50 people it would probably be easier if during our free time we went off on our own to do some exploring and because of this decision it was a weekend filled with some great adventures and ridiculousness that could only happen to the two of us. We arrived on Friday and decided to wander off down the Royal Mile into Grassmarket. Along the way we had our first amusing encounter of the evening with these two very drunk men came up to X while we were both taking pictures of St. Guiles and tried very enthusiastically to explain to us the history and importance of the Heart of Midlothian which we were apparently missing out on and wouldn’t understand because it was covered by the snow. They also tried to explain the source of human life and a few other entertaining things before moving on. We then enjoyed a lovely American style pizza (not actually terrible which was good) and decided to go on a little adventurous pub crawl.
The first pub we entered after first hearing loud music coming from inside and seeing a sign advertising a live band. We disregarded the fact that said pub was Irish and not Scottish and went inside. This first pub was nice and the band was good, playing a weird mixture of old school country music, traditional Irish songs, and a few Christmas songs thrown in for good measure. After a while we figured it would be a good idea to just go back to the hostel and we assumed that the others would probably have already turned in because we had a big day of touring ahead of us. We were wrong.
Upon arriving back at our room in the hostel we realized we were the first back. We decided that it was necessary to ‘not be lame’ and go back out and do some more exploring. This led to us first following a group of what looked like Uni students into a club that turned out to be a little too punk for our taste. So after looking around briefly we were about to head back to the hostel when we were approached by a group of students visiting from Ireland looking for a club ‘Dropkick Murphy’s’. Obviously we had no idea where this was, but we decided to follow this large group of students to this club they seemed really desperate to go to, because obviously that means it must be good. Wrong. Despite the fact that it claimed that it was a club, it was in fact a very large rugby bar (yes I would accidently wander into one, that’s just how my life works) that was in a cave under a bridge with a ceiling that leaked, but apparently this was the place where all the ‘cool kids’ went because it was soon filled with a large number of University of Edinburgh students. We ended up enjoying ourselves dancing to the live band that was playing a strange mix of some old school music and country. But all in all despite the randomness and occasional creeps it was a very good first night.
Saturday was extremely busy. We had a lovely full Scottish breakfast complete with haggis (nice) and black pudding (not so nice), and then went on a really great walking tour throughout the city and ended up our tourist experience with an audio tour of the Palace of Hollyroodhouse. We then found ourselves in the midst of another adventure.
With about two hours to kill before dinner time, I decided that we should wander into the park area right near the palace that our tour guide earlier said was lovely. I spotted some people climbing a path along this hill/rock formation and it looked like we would get a very nice view from up there. I was apparently not thinking about the fact that paths like these were more than likely completely covered in snow, but just saw other people up there and assumed I could get there as well. Wrong. X and I got about 200ft up this path which was snow covered but still manageable when we encountered a problem, neither of us were able to move in any direction because we had suddenly lost all traction and two guys were sledging down the path directly at us. Thankfully they swerved and missed us, but that did not prevent me from accidently sledging myself. We then decided to take the path less traveled (it seemed to have more snow and less ice) and made it far enough that we could get a few nice photos in of the sunset before slowly making our way down. After dinner the entire ERASMUS group went on an attempted pub crawl that was a bit strange, and did again involved me wandering the streets of Edinburgh looking for somewhere that looked exciting, but ended up being a really good time.
Sunday after another full Scottish breakfast (this time with no black pudding), X and I spent the day touring the Edinburgh Castle which was really amazing. I think by the end of it we were a little bit exhausted (I may be one of those annoying people that listen to every single thing an audio tour has to offer…not a big deal). We therefore spent the late afternoon doing some shopping (of the window variety mostly) and enjoying the German Christmas market where we did buy some chocolates and a pretzel. All in all it turned out to be a lovely weekend, and Edinburgh is a really amazing city which I could definitely tell last time I went, but can appreciate much more now.
Sorry for the excessively long blog post. I’ll post some of the pictures later, but for now I’ve got to get my academic hat back on, stop procrastinating and buckle down for the last two weeks of term.
KMT
The one down side has been that they really don’t know what to do with the snow once they get it. The roads become terrible and the paths around campus although sometimes sanded are generally pretty slippy (apparently it isn’t ‘slippery’ here) or full of slush. This led to the most ironic thing I’ve experienced here so far, a cancelation of a ski training because...wait for it...there was too much snow. I kid you not; we could not train because apparently if you get more than an inch of snow the roads are not easily traversed so the drive to Manchester was out of the question.
Luckily this snow did not prevent me and X from taking a lovely trip with the ERASMUS society up to Edinburgh for the weekend. There were no fanny packs involved unfortunately, but we had a really nice time. The two of us decided that because we were traveling in a group of 50 people it would probably be easier if during our free time we went off on our own to do some exploring and because of this decision it was a weekend filled with some great adventures and ridiculousness that could only happen to the two of us. We arrived on Friday and decided to wander off down the Royal Mile into Grassmarket. Along the way we had our first amusing encounter of the evening with these two very drunk men came up to X while we were both taking pictures of St. Guiles and tried very enthusiastically to explain to us the history and importance of the Heart of Midlothian which we were apparently missing out on and wouldn’t understand because it was covered by the snow. They also tried to explain the source of human life and a few other entertaining things before moving on. We then enjoyed a lovely American style pizza (not actually terrible which was good) and decided to go on a little adventurous pub crawl.
The first pub we entered after first hearing loud music coming from inside and seeing a sign advertising a live band. We disregarded the fact that said pub was Irish and not Scottish and went inside. This first pub was nice and the band was good, playing a weird mixture of old school country music, traditional Irish songs, and a few Christmas songs thrown in for good measure. After a while we figured it would be a good idea to just go back to the hostel and we assumed that the others would probably have already turned in because we had a big day of touring ahead of us. We were wrong.
Upon arriving back at our room in the hostel we realized we were the first back. We decided that it was necessary to ‘not be lame’ and go back out and do some more exploring. This led to us first following a group of what looked like Uni students into a club that turned out to be a little too punk for our taste. So after looking around briefly we were about to head back to the hostel when we were approached by a group of students visiting from Ireland looking for a club ‘Dropkick Murphy’s’. Obviously we had no idea where this was, but we decided to follow this large group of students to this club they seemed really desperate to go to, because obviously that means it must be good. Wrong. Despite the fact that it claimed that it was a club, it was in fact a very large rugby bar (yes I would accidently wander into one, that’s just how my life works) that was in a cave under a bridge with a ceiling that leaked, but apparently this was the place where all the ‘cool kids’ went because it was soon filled with a large number of University of Edinburgh students. We ended up enjoying ourselves dancing to the live band that was playing a strange mix of some old school music and country. But all in all despite the randomness and occasional creeps it was a very good first night.
Saturday was extremely busy. We had a lovely full Scottish breakfast complete with haggis (nice) and black pudding (not so nice), and then went on a really great walking tour throughout the city and ended up our tourist experience with an audio tour of the Palace of Hollyroodhouse. We then found ourselves in the midst of another adventure.
With about two hours to kill before dinner time, I decided that we should wander into the park area right near the palace that our tour guide earlier said was lovely. I spotted some people climbing a path along this hill/rock formation and it looked like we would get a very nice view from up there. I was apparently not thinking about the fact that paths like these were more than likely completely covered in snow, but just saw other people up there and assumed I could get there as well. Wrong. X and I got about 200ft up this path which was snow covered but still manageable when we encountered a problem, neither of us were able to move in any direction because we had suddenly lost all traction and two guys were sledging down the path directly at us. Thankfully they swerved and missed us, but that did not prevent me from accidently sledging myself. We then decided to take the path less traveled (it seemed to have more snow and less ice) and made it far enough that we could get a few nice photos in of the sunset before slowly making our way down. After dinner the entire ERASMUS group went on an attempted pub crawl that was a bit strange, and did again involved me wandering the streets of Edinburgh looking for somewhere that looked exciting, but ended up being a really good time.
Sunday after another full Scottish breakfast (this time with no black pudding), X and I spent the day touring the Edinburgh Castle which was really amazing. I think by the end of it we were a little bit exhausted (I may be one of those annoying people that listen to every single thing an audio tour has to offer…not a big deal). We therefore spent the late afternoon doing some shopping (of the window variety mostly) and enjoying the German Christmas market where we did buy some chocolates and a pretzel. All in all it turned out to be a lovely weekend, and Edinburgh is a really amazing city which I could definitely tell last time I went, but can appreciate much more now.
Sorry for the excessively long blog post. I’ll post some of the pictures later, but for now I’ve got to get my academic hat back on, stop procrastinating and buckle down for the last two weeks of term.
KMT
Friday, November 26, 2010
Thanksgiving Pictures
Snow dusting...a wonderful thing to wake up to!
Thanksgiving chocolates from Massachusetts (aka Thanksgiving Land)
My Turkey
The dinner turned out well....
Alexandra and some YUSnowers in head dresses.Overall a lovely Thanksgiving!!!
Post Thanksgiving Blues
I usually spend Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, waking up absurdly early to go to the Manchester, VT outlets stores with my mom, sister, and grandma. It is a fairly typical Black Friday extreme shopping experience, which starts out fun for the first store (usually Betsey Johnson) but then becomes more and more tedious, especially when we are dragged to at least 10 different stores before 10am. I did not think that I would miss this tradition as shopping is definitely not on my 'Top 10 Favourite Things To Do List'. When thinking about Thanksgiving earlier this week, I definitely thought that I would suffer from some severe pangs of homesickness as I missed out on the Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Dog Show (I don’t understand why we keep watching that every year, but alas it happens and therefore I thought I would miss it), being around my family, and the Thanksgiving dinner/extreme pie fest of a dessert. I did not think that I would feel anything at all on Black Friday, honestly Black Friday didn’t even cross my mind until I saw people’s facebook statuses discussing waking up early to go shopping (some of these were posted before I woke up in England, and I didn’t even wake up late this morning….not ok).
As it turns out I was horribly wrong. I had a wonderful Thanksgiving here in England. It started with me waking up at 9 to look outside at a wonderful snow covered campus (only a dusting, but hey I’m in England and the people that informed me that that wouldn’t happen were sadly mistaken). I starting to cook by 10, and I spent the rest of the day preparing a Thanksgiving meal that ended up feeding 15 people (that is more than normally get fed when I’m at home…I felt so domestic). I put my Christmas music on in the kitchen as I spent the day making turkey, stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, roast potatoes, and green beans. Alexandra, who is also from Holy Cross, came over around 1.00 and we got to hang out and cook until a number of people from the YUSnow racing team came over at around 4.30. With all the craziness of making that much food, and then getting to eat a meal that did not turn out to be a disaster like I was afraid of and enjoying the company of some lovely friends I did not feel nearly as sad or homesick as I expected to feel (we even got to eat some cheesecake which I’d been craving for nearly 3 weeks).
This morning however was a different story. I woke up and there was again a nice dusting of snow on the ground and trees. It seemed like the beginning of a wonderful day, and after going on facebook to see I had crazy friends in America that were already up and shopping I felt good about my life. But there was a small and growing part of me that realized I really wished I was in New England rather than the old one. It started to manifest itself when I walked to the library and almost had a complete wipe out (salting capabilities are nowhere near as good as they are in Vermont or HC). Then a few hours into my library studying time an irrational desire to go shopping started to take over, and I was no longer able to concentrate history text I was supposed to be reading. I figured this irrational thought (I hate shopping as a general rule) could be kicked by planning a shopping outing for Sunday afternoon (I need to get legwarmers and some other things for an 80’s themed social on Monday). However, I found that this did not work and my need to go shopping turned into a general desire to be in Vermont. I knew I wouldn’t have dared to look at my school work and reading until at least Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend had I been at home. I had a plan however…a chocolate break, chocolate should make me appreciate the fact that I’m in England as it is much better than at home. Alas, this plan failed as well, so I’ve been stuck in the library contemplating shopping and now skiing on real snow. I’m realizing now that there is no exciting holiday between now and when I go home for Christmas to keep me distracted, instead there is an increasing work load and just enough snow to make me long for Bromley. And that is why your delinquent blogger decided that she would post today.
Later, when I’ve decided to give up on the library and I’m back in my room maybe you’ll even get some lovely pictures from Thanksgiving. Some of us were even wearing feather headdresses (I know this is only done by children under the age of 8, but with the fancy dress culture here I figured it deserved revival).
Hopefully a healthy dose of Christmas music, and possibly a Christmas movie will help sort me out later.
xx
KMT
As it turns out I was horribly wrong. I had a wonderful Thanksgiving here in England. It started with me waking up at 9 to look outside at a wonderful snow covered campus (only a dusting, but hey I’m in England and the people that informed me that that wouldn’t happen were sadly mistaken). I starting to cook by 10, and I spent the rest of the day preparing a Thanksgiving meal that ended up feeding 15 people (that is more than normally get fed when I’m at home…I felt so domestic). I put my Christmas music on in the kitchen as I spent the day making turkey, stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, roast potatoes, and green beans. Alexandra, who is also from Holy Cross, came over around 1.00 and we got to hang out and cook until a number of people from the YUSnow racing team came over at around 4.30. With all the craziness of making that much food, and then getting to eat a meal that did not turn out to be a disaster like I was afraid of and enjoying the company of some lovely friends I did not feel nearly as sad or homesick as I expected to feel (we even got to eat some cheesecake which I’d been craving for nearly 3 weeks).
This morning however was a different story. I woke up and there was again a nice dusting of snow on the ground and trees. It seemed like the beginning of a wonderful day, and after going on facebook to see I had crazy friends in America that were already up and shopping I felt good about my life. But there was a small and growing part of me that realized I really wished I was in New England rather than the old one. It started to manifest itself when I walked to the library and almost had a complete wipe out (salting capabilities are nowhere near as good as they are in Vermont or HC). Then a few hours into my library studying time an irrational desire to go shopping started to take over, and I was no longer able to concentrate history text I was supposed to be reading. I figured this irrational thought (I hate shopping as a general rule) could be kicked by planning a shopping outing for Sunday afternoon (I need to get legwarmers and some other things for an 80’s themed social on Monday). However, I found that this did not work and my need to go shopping turned into a general desire to be in Vermont. I knew I wouldn’t have dared to look at my school work and reading until at least Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend had I been at home. I had a plan however…a chocolate break, chocolate should make me appreciate the fact that I’m in England as it is much better than at home. Alas, this plan failed as well, so I’ve been stuck in the library contemplating shopping and now skiing on real snow. I’m realizing now that there is no exciting holiday between now and when I go home for Christmas to keep me distracted, instead there is an increasing work load and just enough snow to make me long for Bromley. And that is why your delinquent blogger decided that she would post today.
Later, when I’ve decided to give up on the library and I’m back in my room maybe you’ll even get some lovely pictures from Thanksgiving. Some of us were even wearing feather headdresses (I know this is only done by children under the age of 8, but with the fancy dress culture here I figured it deserved revival).
Hopefully a healthy dose of Christmas music, and possibly a Christmas movie will help sort me out later.
xx
KMT
Friday, November 12, 2010
Libraries, Cheesecake, and Back Buckle Boots
I apologise for my terrible lack of blogging for the past month. Ive been quite busy getting settled here and once I actually started to get assigned work it seems I have forgotten about blogging. I’ve gotten very well acquainted with the library here in the past few weeks, I almost feel like I’m back at Holy Cross with the amount of time I’ve been spending there (or "here" as that is where I am posting this from...just a little break from some lovely essay writing).
So since my last blog I’ve actually started to get involved in things on campus. At the Fresher’s Fair I did the usual sign up for a million things that you will never go to because they all fall on the same day. But I have now whittled my way down to a few main societies that I will actually participate in: Gilbert and Sullivan Society (we’re performing The Gondoliers in February), ERASMUS Society (basically the European equivalent of study abroad), and most notably so far YUSnow and their racing team.
Ski racing in England is definitely a different experience, biggest difference....the fact that there isn’t snow. It’s been really fun so far though, once I got over the first initial shocks that:
a) I’m basically skiing on turf which isn’t exactly the fastest of surfaces and is really hard to get an edge in.
b) Three words: back buckle boots....I feel like a 3 year old again.
So since my last blog I’ve actually started to get involved in things on campus. At the Fresher’s Fair I did the usual sign up for a million things that you will never go to because they all fall on the same day. But I have now whittled my way down to a few main societies that I will actually participate in: Gilbert and Sullivan Society (we’re performing The Gondoliers in February), ERASMUS Society (basically the European equivalent of study abroad), and most notably so far YUSnow and their racing team.
Ski racing in England is definitely a different experience, biggest difference....the fact that there isn’t snow. It’s been really fun so far though, once I got over the first initial shocks that:
a) I’m basically skiing on turf which isn’t exactly the fastest of surfaces and is really hard to get an edge in.
b) Three words: back buckle boots....I feel like a 3 year old again.
Manchester: Ski Rossendale
Edinburgh: HillendThe people on the team are so much fun, and really nice to me (despite the fact that I'm American...). Once a week we go skiing on Wednesday afternoons at a dry slope in Manchester. We’ve already had two races so far, one Kings race in Manchester that was dual slalomn and another one called BUDS in Edinburgh last weekend. The trip to Edinburgh was too much fun. We took a mini bus up on Thursday night and spent three nights in a hostel, raced on Friday and Saturday, and came back home on Sunday. There was a ton of silliness, rain (Edinburgh is cold), a stolen banner, a ball that got disbanded before dessert (think masses of college students chanting “Where’s my cheesecake?” as they are kicked out of the building), and general fun. Probably my favourite weekend so far, and I’m really excited to go back to Edinburgh in December to tour it properly (camera/comfortable shoes/optional fanny pack) after getting a glimps of it throughout the weekend. 
I’ll try to keep the posts more regular. Hopefully the fact that this is a lovely means of procrastination when I have two procedural essays to write will help.
Kat
Saturday, October 16, 2010
16 October 2010
So this week has been absolutely crazy. The UK kids moved in on Saturday and ever since we’ve been really busy with events, meetings with departments, and meeting tons of new faces. As of yesterday all of my flat mates have finally moved into their rooms. We have three people from China. One is a girl in her third year that is never around and doesn’t talk to us. One is a girl that only moved in yesterday and is a second year, but she had one of her friends who is a graduate student living in her room and “holding” the room for the week which was weird. One is a first year boy who moved in yesterday; unfortunately for him he is the only boy in our flat. We then have a very nice girl from Romania, who is very sweet but has mostly been hanging out with other Romanians. And finally, we have my friend Tasha whose parents are Irish but she lived for a number of years in the UK and then moved to New Canaan, CT and then finished up her high school in Denmark, but spent the past year as a gap year and was living with her family in Singapore.
My building (or Block G as we refer to it here) has been pretty amazing so far. We are one of the smallest blocks with only 32 people living here. About 17 of us have been going to all the events together and hanging out, while everyone else seems to be international students that are either having issues with the language barrier and only speaking their own language or they haven’t moved in yet and we haven’t seen them.
The academics started this week, which has been a bit intimidating and weird because it is nothing like at home. Because I’m enrolled in both the Chemistry and History department here I’ve been having a number of scheduling issues (mainly with the history department). I’m finally enrolled in all the proper courses after a week of running back and forth to departments and sending numerous crazed emails to my history advisor apologizing for not being able to read the timetables and causing yet another time conflict. My courses are a visiting students module in Inorganic Chemistry, Travel & Tourism in 19th and 20th Century Britain, and Home & Away: Global Aspects of British History 1750-1870. They all seem like they will be really good courses, and I’m excited except for the tremendous reading lists I was given in all three. I’ve already explored the library and have come to terms with the fact that it will be my place of residence while here in York.
Today we have two big events that I will have to tell you all about late. The first is the Freshers Fair where all of the clubs and sports teams have tables and you sign up and receive free stuff. Then tonight we have what they are referring to as the Big Bang which is a combination of a Freshers Ball and a big concert series. There will be a number of different venues on campus with different live acts playing, and there will also be fireworks, a light show and apparently laser tag. Should be a lot of fun!
So this week has been absolutely crazy. The UK kids moved in on Saturday and ever since we’ve been really busy with events, meetings with departments, and meeting tons of new faces. As of yesterday all of my flat mates have finally moved into their rooms. We have three people from China. One is a girl in her third year that is never around and doesn’t talk to us. One is a girl that only moved in yesterday and is a second year, but she had one of her friends who is a graduate student living in her room and “holding” the room for the week which was weird. One is a first year boy who moved in yesterday; unfortunately for him he is the only boy in our flat. We then have a very nice girl from Romania, who is very sweet but has mostly been hanging out with other Romanians. And finally, we have my friend Tasha whose parents are Irish but she lived for a number of years in the UK and then moved to New Canaan, CT and then finished up her high school in Denmark, but spent the past year as a gap year and was living with her family in Singapore.
My building (or Block G as we refer to it here) has been pretty amazing so far. We are one of the smallest blocks with only 32 people living here. About 17 of us have been going to all the events together and hanging out, while everyone else seems to be international students that are either having issues with the language barrier and only speaking their own language or they haven’t moved in yet and we haven’t seen them.
The academics started this week, which has been a bit intimidating and weird because it is nothing like at home. Because I’m enrolled in both the Chemistry and History department here I’ve been having a number of scheduling issues (mainly with the history department). I’m finally enrolled in all the proper courses after a week of running back and forth to departments and sending numerous crazed emails to my history advisor apologizing for not being able to read the timetables and causing yet another time conflict. My courses are a visiting students module in Inorganic Chemistry, Travel & Tourism in 19th and 20th Century Britain, and Home & Away: Global Aspects of British History 1750-1870. They all seem like they will be really good courses, and I’m excited except for the tremendous reading lists I was given in all three. I’ve already explored the library and have come to terms with the fact that it will be my place of residence while here in York.
Today we have two big events that I will have to tell you all about late. The first is the Freshers Fair where all of the clubs and sports teams have tables and you sign up and receive free stuff. Then tonight we have what they are referring to as the Big Bang which is a combination of a Freshers Ball and a big concert series. There will be a number of different venues on campus with different live acts playing, and there will also be fireworks, a light show and apparently laser tag. Should be a lot of fun!
Saturday, October 9, 2010
It's a Quacker!
9 October 2010
Over the past few days I have discovered among other things that there seems to be an obsession with ducks on this campus. I have seen more different types of birds on the lake than I have ever seen in my entire life. Some are identifiable while others I have never seen before. Our student ID cards have a picture of a large duck on them, and the students that have been working the international student orientation all have green t-shirts with a picture of a duck on them.
I’ve had a few funny encounters with birds so far, and I’m sure there will be more. On the first day of our orientation when we were on break from all of the informational lectures I was walking around the lake and looking at a group of birds that I think may have been a strange duck when we found a duck that had two legs but only one foot. It was a sad disabled duck, and I really felt quite sorry for it. The poor thing would sort of hop and then flap its wings a little to walk around, but it kept plopping over on its side in a sort of defeated manner.
Later that day in one of the lectures, the subject of ducks was actually brought up and it was recommended that we take a look at a website run by a staff member on campus called Duck of the Day that documents our campus ducks every day. (Here is the link in case anyone is interested: www.duckoftheday.co.uk).
The campus also has a number of black swans that are pure evil. I was sitting on a bench with two other international students after exploring the campus, and one started to approach us making us slightly nervous. It actually got all the way to the bench and we had to run away. I’m not sure I like being chased around by birds.
Life in York has been very busy for the last three days. We have done whole range of lectures on information from the cycling laws of the UK to the UK study methods. We do these lectures for a number of hours during the day and then are given some down time in the afternoon to explore campus and run the various errands we need to do like food shopping and getting cell phones. They then feed us dinner, which has been an assortment of odd sandwiches like pickled beets, cheddar and mayo on white bread. Thursday night I went to a pub in York that was just off campus with a group of ERASMUS (I believe it is an EU funded visiting student program) and other visiting students. It was a lot of fun, and I’ve met so many really nice people from all over the world. I think I’ve definitely met more people from Germany and Norway than anywhere else. Last night, there was a “disco” where a number of different university music groups and DJ’s performed in one of the campus pubs and social halls.
Everyone is getting excited because today we just finished the last of our orientation, and the UK students are starting to move in. The next week is completely packed with “Fresher’s” events and introductory meetings with departments and societies. It should be a very busy week.
Over the past few days I have discovered among other things that there seems to be an obsession with ducks on this campus. I have seen more different types of birds on the lake than I have ever seen in my entire life. Some are identifiable while others I have never seen before. Our student ID cards have a picture of a large duck on them, and the students that have been working the international student orientation all have green t-shirts with a picture of a duck on them.
I’ve had a few funny encounters with birds so far, and I’m sure there will be more. On the first day of our orientation when we were on break from all of the informational lectures I was walking around the lake and looking at a group of birds that I think may have been a strange duck when we found a duck that had two legs but only one foot. It was a sad disabled duck, and I really felt quite sorry for it. The poor thing would sort of hop and then flap its wings a little to walk around, but it kept plopping over on its side in a sort of defeated manner.
Later that day in one of the lectures, the subject of ducks was actually brought up and it was recommended that we take a look at a website run by a staff member on campus called Duck of the Day that documents our campus ducks every day. (Here is the link in case anyone is interested: www.duckoftheday.co.uk).
The campus also has a number of black swans that are pure evil. I was sitting on a bench with two other international students after exploring the campus, and one started to approach us making us slightly nervous. It actually got all the way to the bench and we had to run away. I’m not sure I like being chased around by birds.
Life in York has been very busy for the last three days. We have done whole range of lectures on information from the cycling laws of the UK to the UK study methods. We do these lectures for a number of hours during the day and then are given some down time in the afternoon to explore campus and run the various errands we need to do like food shopping and getting cell phones. They then feed us dinner, which has been an assortment of odd sandwiches like pickled beets, cheddar and mayo on white bread. Thursday night I went to a pub in York that was just off campus with a group of ERASMUS (I believe it is an EU funded visiting student program) and other visiting students. It was a lot of fun, and I’ve met so many really nice people from all over the world. I think I’ve definitely met more people from Germany and Norway than anywhere else. Last night, there was a “disco” where a number of different university music groups and DJ’s performed in one of the campus pubs and social halls.
Everyone is getting excited because today we just finished the last of our orientation, and the UK students are starting to move in. The next week is completely packed with “Fresher’s” events and introductory meetings with departments and societies. It should be a very busy week.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Tiger Dreams and Connect Four
6 October 2010
I’m finally in the United Kingdom, and thankfully unlike in the crazy anxiety dreams I’ve been having lately the University of York actually exists. This is going to be my attempt at blogging about my year abroad. Hopefully it will progress better than my other travel writing endeavors that seemed to taper off rather quickly. I’ll try to post at least once a week (hopefully more but I make no promises) so I can keep people posted on what I’m doing over here.
The trip has started off on an exciting note with a celebrity sighting before even leaving the US. I ended up standing right behind Mike Tyson while on line waiting to check bags at JFK. He unfortunately did not have his tiger with him, but it was still pretty cool. The rest of the traveling although exhausting went smoothly. We arrived in York at around noon so there was time to get settled and take care of all the little tasks that seem to have accumulated. We also were able to wander around York and walk some of the medieval wall which was great.
At night there was supposed to be a movie and game night for the international students to meet and hang out to start off our orientation. It turns out the movie was actually planned for tomorrow night instead (there are rumors it will be either Mamma Mia or James Bond…not exactly what I’d picture watching at an orientation but I guess that’s fine), but there was at least an attempt with the game night. But unfortunately it was pretty much a failure because the only games present were an unused twister board on the floor and a giant game of connect four that actually came up to my waste and had checkers larger than hockey pucks. I did get to meet a lot of different students from all over the world, which was very fun and interesting. Everyone seems nice and very eager to make friends. I feel like a freshman all over again which is a little disconcerting. I’m really excited now about the idea of studying in York because it is definitely one of the prettiest and most interesting cities I’ve ever visited. I’m ready to start exploring!
I’m finally in the United Kingdom, and thankfully unlike in the crazy anxiety dreams I’ve been having lately the University of York actually exists. This is going to be my attempt at blogging about my year abroad. Hopefully it will progress better than my other travel writing endeavors that seemed to taper off rather quickly. I’ll try to post at least once a week (hopefully more but I make no promises) so I can keep people posted on what I’m doing over here.
The trip has started off on an exciting note with a celebrity sighting before even leaving the US. I ended up standing right behind Mike Tyson while on line waiting to check bags at JFK. He unfortunately did not have his tiger with him, but it was still pretty cool. The rest of the traveling although exhausting went smoothly. We arrived in York at around noon so there was time to get settled and take care of all the little tasks that seem to have accumulated. We also were able to wander around York and walk some of the medieval wall which was great.
At night there was supposed to be a movie and game night for the international students to meet and hang out to start off our orientation. It turns out the movie was actually planned for tomorrow night instead (there are rumors it will be either Mamma Mia or James Bond…not exactly what I’d picture watching at an orientation but I guess that’s fine), but there was at least an attempt with the game night. But unfortunately it was pretty much a failure because the only games present were an unused twister board on the floor and a giant game of connect four that actually came up to my waste and had checkers larger than hockey pucks. I did get to meet a lot of different students from all over the world, which was very fun and interesting. Everyone seems nice and very eager to make friends. I feel like a freshman all over again which is a little disconcerting. I’m really excited now about the idea of studying in York because it is definitely one of the prettiest and most interesting cities I’ve ever visited. I’m ready to start exploring!
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