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!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
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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