Christmas at Carroll

Wow, there is so much Christmas!! There are decorations everywhere! The tower at the center of John Carroll is lit up red, and the doors to the Administration building are green. It's so pretty. And there is proper snow!!! It snows a lot, then it melts a bit, then it snows again but it just feels Christmassy here like this. A real white Christmas. So here are some snow pictures of campus, I especially like the lights around the street lamps!!

I decorated our room, so here is a picture of the tree, the paper chains outside our room, my best friend Sam making said paper chains, our gingerbread houses and the Christmas cake I baked and decorated using only a microwave and food bags. 

So one night on campus there was a naive nativity, with real animals and people!! And there was a camel there, so I went and met said Camel, he was adorable and very friendly!!

I had a lovely time just hanging out with my friends mainly. But then came Finals and I guessed I should study... To help my studying John Carroll had Stress-free zones throughout campus. This was one of them!

And an end of semester meant my wonderful roommate was leaving :( so we needed to say goodbye. We had already gone to see Frozen, amazing film and I loved it so much!!!! Our RA Mary, Sam and I took her out ice skating to the local rink to say farewell. It was loads of fun and we really enjoyed watching Sam, or at least I was amused until I fell over too...but oh well. 

This term has been mad, hectic, confusing at times, hard at times but all in all totally worth it. I am so glad I decided to come here to study and I don't regret it for a moment. I can't wait for the next couple of years. But for now, I'm going home for Christmas, which is a nice idea. Can't wait to see my family and friends again, relax, have a couple of drinks, then fly back and continue my adventure. So until then, Merry Christmas everyone, Happy New Year, and I hope you all enjoy the holiday we all deserve!!!

Thanksgiving pictures

Roasting Turkey on the spit outside

Thanksgiving food....well some of it

Plate 1 of thanksgiving food

Just Dance after the meal...so I cannot dance...

Catch up on what has been happening!!!

Hi all!

Quick thank you, if you are still reading this! I really love knowing that people do, and I hope it's interesting for you.

So I have finally graduated from my radio training so next semester I will have a WJCU show hopefully! The training was great, it's so much fun, and I've learnt a lot. I run the board on my own, answer phones and talk on air. There is a lot to think about but it's great fun anyway.

I still have a lot of schoolwork but it's going to get a little bit more over the next three weeks because we are gearing up for Finals Week, thankfully I only have 4 to get through as some of my subjects don't have one.

I will be going home for Christmas, which is nice and I'm looking forward to seeing my family again. Then I will be back in January to start a new term which is looking like it's going to be fun!

There is still clumps of snow around in Cleveland, but most of it has melted at the moment, but it is likely to snow again before Christmas. The weather is quite cold but it's not at it's coldest yet, that will be January and February.

I have been going to Mass with my friend every Sunday which is an interesting twist when you grew up in a Baptist/Church of England/Agnostic background, but I guess it's just one more I can add to the mix. I also go to something called CLC which are like Christian groups and are great fun to be part of.

Thanksgiving Part 2

I went to my roommates house for Thanksgiving, her family was lovely and really looked after me. So, because it's a big holiday, we left school on Tuesday and got to her house that afternoon. The next day her sisters arrived back at home too, so we spent most of the day meeting each other, then in the evening we watched Elf together, always a good one. One of her sisters made something called Puppy Chow, which is basically powdered sugar, melted chocolate, shreddies and pretzels, and it tastes amazing!!!!!!

Actual Thanksgiving Day was on Thursday and it was so much fun. We started off the day by watching the 'Macy's Day Parade' on the TV. It is televised from New York and is the most American thing I have ever seen. The first hour of the parade was watching Musical show cast doing some numbers from their shows, for example, we saw The Sound of Music and Matilda. The second hour is more floats and school/university marching bands, on the floats were a lot of different musical acts. After the parade we watched the Dog Show, which is apparently the other thing to watch on Thanksgiving. The dinner was being made all day, especially because my roommates family cook their turkeys by roasting them on a spit! Family started arriving soon in the afternoon, all her cousins and aunts and uncles came over.

We ate at about 4pm, and there was so much good food. We had Turkey and stuffing, Green Bean casserole, Sweet Potato Casserole, Mashed Potato, Gravy and Bread Rolls. It all tasted really good, and I ate an awful lot. Then for desert we had a choice of Pecan or Pumpkin pie, personally I think Pumpkin pie tastes like baby food so I had Pecan but try it for yourself! Conversation around the table was hilarious, as all the old family stories started to come out and I was enjoying learning things about Shelby which were funny.

After that all the kids went down to the basement and played Just Dance, and due to the fact I cannot dance, it was very very interesting, but extremely funny. Then all the family went home and we went to bed, finally.

Friday was. Black Friday, so the day of shopping, and to be honest I didn't go, I did my Black Friday shopping online because I didn't want to deal with crowds. Then in the evening one of her cousins had a Birthday party so we went there and celebrated we her whole family again. Friday and Saturdays meals were then leftovers from Thanksgiving. Saturday afternoon Shelby took me to see Catching Fire, was hard trying to remember that Americans call cinemas Movie Theaters, which is a bit different. Then on Sunday we went back to school. It was a really fun week, and I enjoyed myself a lot! But fair warning, if you want American this is a good way to get it!

Thanksgiving part 1

I know I haven't posted in a long time but not much has really happened here recently. But now we are at Thanksgiving time so there is stuff to tell! Today I had a Thanksgiving meal at our school cafeteria. The line was so insanely long when we got started, the meal opened at 4:30 and some people had been queuing since 2! That's crazy!!!! We joined at 4. Having said that it was totally worth it!!

The food was fantastic and served by the teachers, which was fun. There was Turkey, stuffing, vegetables, Mac and cheese, and gravy for main course. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin roll, apple pie and some others for pudding. And then there was hot apple cider and hot chocolate. It tasted brilliant and everyone was so happy, it was a great atmosphere!!! It was really good to sit with my two best friends, Sam and Shelby, and have a good meal. I can't wait for the rest of Thanksgiving.

For Thanksgiving break, which starts on Tuesday I'm going to my roommate's, Shelby, house, thank goodness she took me in :) that's why I have called this part one, as there is so much more to come. But I will get to that later.

I'm still having the time of my life and enjoying myself so much!

Trick or Treat

Last night we had Trick or. Treat. It was so much fun, there were so many children and they all came into our corridor, smiling and looking cute in their costumes. It was literally the most fun I've had for ages. I was in the study room handing out sweets and colouring pages for them to colour, with my best friend :) what could be better :)

This is a picture of the wall where they all wrote their names, sooooo many people!!!!!

October

Ok, so apparently snow in Cleveland happens in October...

Last week it snowed a lot, well as much as a heavy snow in the south of the UK, which was fun. It has spurred me on to get some winter clothes, otherwise I'm going to get rather cold, rather quickly. It's gone now, but it won't be long until it's back again I'm sure.

 

This week we have been gearing up for Halloween, which is tomorrow. Tonight we will have Trick or Treat, kids from around us come and we give the sweets, my floor has somewhere they can colour pictures, etc. Then tomorrow there is a fancy dress competition, yes, I am taking part. I will show you how that goes next. But here are some pictures of our floor that we decorated.

 

So it may not be the most sophisticated, but we are college students and it's out of toilet paper and sheets of coloured paper, it's not that bad!!

We also got our midterm grades, which Freshman get to see how good they doing so far. I did well, which I'm surprised at, because I was expecting to do way worse. Academically otherwise nothing much has happened.

I will also be starting my WJCU training soon, the radio station, which I'm really looking forward to. I will let you all know how that goes too.

Thank you all for reading this!!!!!!

Fall Break

We just had Fall Break at John Carroll, which is basically just half term. I went to my friends house and just basically had a break from school work. But we also carved pumpkins, so I thought I'd post pictures of that.

So, it's almost Halloween and everything is mad!!!! There is so much stuff everywhere and this week there are loads of activities on which are Haloween orientated. Like a fancy dress competition, but I will write about that later.

Homecoming and retreat

A few weekends ago was homecoming at John Carroll University. Homecoming is basically a time where Alumni and current students and family and everyone get together on campus for a weekend. There is a American Football game, a dance, and other little things. At JCU we had a comedian come on Thursday, that was pretty cool because  he was one of the people in the TV show The Office, celebrity!! On Friday my roommate and I went to the Homecoming dance, our dance was in Cleveland Browns Football Stadium. That was amazing, it was so beautiful inside where the party was and they had the doors to the stadium open, so you could go out and see the completely empty stadium in all it's glory. It was an amazing experience.

The football game at John Carroll was, honestly, boring. I didn't understand what was happening, and it seemed very slow, especially in comparison to Rugby.. Having said that the atmosphere was amazing and it was fun to be with everyone, so definitely go to one!!!!!

After the Football game there was a late night Bingo with Breakfast foods, and that was probably the best thing of the weekend. Food and free things, how could you go wrong...well I didn't win anything but still. I had an amazing time with my friends and RA (Resident Assistant), and met many new people too.

There were many other things going on too, but those were the ones I went to, and I had so much fun!!

The last 2 weeks have been mainly working though, I've had a lot of assignments due in quick succession. So that why it's taking me so long to post, I'm writing as I go along and then posting, because then it makes sense. Other than this I haven't done many new things, just socializing with my friends.

Last weekend though I went on retreat for the first time ever, it was called First-Year Retreat. That was a great weekend, I met completely new people and some I had classes with, but they all were similar to me and it was a great community to be a part of. I turned my phone off and had no electronic contact, it felt AMAZING!!! But it was just nice to stop and think about how much has already happened here and what I'm going to do over the next four years, not from an academic viewpoint. If any of you get the chance to go on any retreat it's a fantastic experience, just to slow done and think and take some time for yourself for a while. After the retreat we were given little notes from each other, and a letter. It just gives you so much more self confidence and a real feeling of self worth.

That's all I got for the past couple of weeks, will try to post more as soon as possible, miss all of you reading this from home!!

This last one is JCU football playing, the others are of cleveland browns stadium

A couple of weeks in...

Hi all,

So much has been happening, so I haven't had time to update my blog but I will try to say as much as I can now.

My lessons are pretty much as they were before. Fist Year Seminar is still boring but I'm getting there, there is still a ridiculous amount of reading to be done, which is taking FOREVER!! I think the biggest thing to tell you is about my English class, it's really hard. American kids do English all through High School so they are more advanced than me. I didn't do English A-Level, so I only have my GCSE to fall back on, and it's hard, possible just a lot of work. Therefore, I'm going to suggest if you're thinking of coming over here to definitely do Englsih A-Level if you can.

I also joined the women's rugby team. It's a great thing to do because you get a whole team of possible friends. It's also a great way to get rid of some of the stress of school :) there are loads of other ways to get to know people too, like I also joined a CLC group, which is a Christian group. Even without that though you can meet so many people through lessons, I regularly see people around. I haven't really been homesick at all, I'm thankfully feeling fairly settled in which is nice. Having said that I did really miss my brother for a bit earlier last week but thankfully there is a lot to distract yourself with so I wasn't too upset, which is good.

I've also been to an American Football game, the marching bands were great to watch and it was a good atmosphere. But I will be honest, in my opinion, the sport itself was fairly boring and monotonous.

I have a Communications Speech I'm doing on Wednesday, I'm going to talk about Wales, because a lot of people know nothing about it and that makes me sad.

I can't think of many things to talk about other than the above, most of my time I've been working so not all the much has happened, but I will try to write again soon. I miss all my family and friends at home, and I will try to get back to Kings in January when I come home, fingers crossed.

Please tell me if there is anything you want me to talk about but for those who were wondering, I'm not talking about my boyfriend, Colin, because I want to write about university not a diary. But he's doing well too.

Starting pictures

Pictures of me and my roommate Shelby at the Graffiti party and the chocolate lava cake we made in the microwave at school :) so much fun!! 

First week

End of the first week of school. It was long, tiring, had a lot of running around but really good fun too. Before I started university I was told that you learn so much about yourself, you change and learn and broaden your own perspective and understanding of the world around you. Well, I really think I'm already well on my way to doing that even after the first week, which is scary because it just tells me how much more there is to know! The other strange thing is that I can see it happening to other people around me too, as they grow and change as people. My point being, you learn a lot about yourself and others at uni, even after the first week!

Moving on from the profound, I've had all my classes at least once now. Biology is good, the actually stuff we learn is very similar to L6th at the moment but the lab work is way more interesting, like next week we will be working with e-coli and testing antibiotic resistance to it. So I'm still enjoying that, which is nice. Speech Communication is still a scary concept to me, but it doesn't seem too bad and my professor seems very supportive and helpful so I'm hoping to be ok..we shall see how that turns out later. English comp so far is good, most of it at the moment seems to be reading about composition and then discussing it in class, which is fine by me because I hate essay writing. I doubt it will stay like that though. We also have to do 2 terms of a language as part of our core requirements (all of my subjects this term are part of my core requirements bar one), I chose Spanish. I'm not any good at languages, probably not helped by my Dyslexia, so the thought of doing this for 2 terms is terrifying but so far so good. For some reason it's easier for me to do a Spanish accent than anyone else in my class, so that helps too. I've never done Spanish before but they teach you from scratch so I figure I should be ok!! Practice makes perfect after all. Then my one non core requirement is a requirement of my scholarship so that is Leadership Development, and it's ok so far too. Haven't done much yet though so it will be interesting to see how it pans out.

Finally, my last class is called First Year Seminar (FYS), and honestly, I'm not a huge fan. Not because of the teacher or what is being taught I just haven't felt like its a necessary thing for me to do for the amount of work I'm having to put into it. My section is called social justice and responsibility. For it I will have to have read 3 books over the course of the term, listened to a couple of lectures and done a service learning component. I registered for my service learning on Friday, and chose to work in a Hospital, on Thursday afternoons, was a bit hectic finding a time I could do something. So I will do that every week and write a reflection on it for my course. Don't get me wrong, I think service is good and I'm looking forward to it, it's just the writing the reflection bit that I'm not a fan of.

So that's my classes, but there is so much socially too. My roommate is amazing and I love her loads, shout out to Shelby Snyder. She's a brilliant roommate and our room is awesome thanks to her, we get along really well which helps a lot so I'm happy (I hope she is too!!). We have made it to all the different eating places on campus, they're. All pretty good but we most like the little cafe places. Einsteins for the morning, the cubby for milkshakes and the inn between for other meals (make your own pizza!!!!). The only one we haven't got to yet is the library one, but I bet that's great too!

Also, on Monday we went to the Indians baseball game, which was way better than I thought it would be, all the internationals went (as well as the Seminary guys) and I had so much fun! The Nachos were amazing, and the game was way more interesting than I thought it would be. Was one of the best nights I've had!!!

There are loads of activities available on campus too but they haven't completely started yet so I will tell you all about that when it happens.

By the way, if any of you have any questions just add me or post a comment and I will try to answer it if I can.

I think that's all I have to say for now, I'm trying to keep these brief.

Streak Week

Streak Week is the first week for incoming Freshmen to just get orientated and to know each other. It has different talks and things about loads of different topics including diversity, sex, the Universities mission, etc. we also have fun activities that we can do in different to meet each other.
So my favorite thing by far was the Graffiti party. It was amazing, everyone got given white t-shirt, glowsticks and luminous marker pens. It was in the dark outside so that was really cool!! Basically everyone went round and signed each others shirts, even if you didn't know them and we all got to meet some really interesting people! And of course, there was food and drink there, which always helps. Shelby, my roommate, and I have some very amusing pictures now of us, if I can I may post them up at a later date.
We also had a Living the Mission day, where you do something to do with the John Carroll's mission. There was Leadership, Cleveland community service and loads more! I did the Leadership one, which I wasn't so happy about. I would have liked more to feel like I actually achieved something, but the Leadership one was just being in the gym and doing icebreakers with a leadership aspect. So I felt like I didn't really achieve very much. But there were ones where you went and helped the local community by gardening or cleaning toys. And then you feel like you have achieved something and done something good, which I think would be better.
We also had Convocation, which is like an official start to our education at John Carroll. Best bit of that was having a shout out for Wales during it, that was cool!!! So technically officially started my education without taking any classes which is so cool.
I have met so many fun people, people I would never think of getting to know. I didn't know I would have people that I know and get along with from American Football players to Seminary guys, science and communications, every kind! And it's so good. The best thing is finding out just how many people I can be good friends with, people like me.

Americans love the British accent, the amount of people who love it is crazy. The only annoying thing is that some of the time people just talk to you to hear your accent, but that happens all around the world so I guess I can't complain. It's still amusing to watch their reactions though. Especially, when they aren't expecting it!!!
Tomorrow will be interesting though, still getting used to the idea of extra holidays at odd times of the year, like Labor Day. I don't even know what on earth Labor Day is about!! But can't complain of extra holiday time! :)

Pictures of campus

Above and Below are pictures of the main social outside area on Campus

Flag in the center of campus

My Hall Pacelli

Dolan Science center

John Carroll Tower

One of my favourite pretty spots on campus

New Student Orientation

Hey!

So, I have just finished a full on 2 day new student orientation. Honestly, some of it was kind of boring but it makes sense why we had to do it I guess. So had loads of talks about how college was going to be like, the typical drinking, sex talk, but that's pretty normal. Having said that I've met some amazing people! It's so nice knowing I have loads of people that are similar to me. And it's hard to feel like you don't know anyone that's the same, which is great :) Having said that I do miss the people back home - apart from anything else it means that I don't have to repeatedly saying things which are "cool in a British accent". I feel like Mary Poppins. Just get them to do Tongue Twisters, it's amusing for all!
Today we got our schedules though, which is neat because its so nice to know what I'm doing and what is going to happen, definitely calms me down a lot. I'm doing Biology, English, communications, leadership development, Spanish, first year seminar and a purpose and place course. I'm not so sure about the purpose and place module so I'm going to try it out for the first week and then if I don't like it drop it because we can drop classes without any problems in the first week. So all together I'm doing a ridiculous 17 credits, another reason purpose and place might be one credit too many. Normally freshman only do 15-16 credits.
Socially though, it's been great! I can't wait to start living with my new roommate tomorrow (I went to boarding school when I was younger so for me that will be fine). Tomorrow when we finally have our room together I will see about posting some photos up for everyone to see as well. The only thing thats annoying is that we dont have a kitchen. i mean i have a fridge and a microwave in my room but would still be nice to have a kitchen for more cooking. Miss making cakes!!!!! I've met people from other residence halls too though and it's so good to meet people from so many different backgrounds. I've already had some great fun and met some people I can see being great friends for a really long time.
From now until Saturday is Streak Week at JCU and that's going to be fun too, it's basically a social time to get to know other Freshmen and our way around campus. Having been here since about the 23rd I feel like I know my way around an OK amount but I'm still not sure about classrooms... But I will learn.

I will say though that although we are very similar countries it can still be a bit of a Culture Shock, more than I think people on both sides realize. It's odd, it's like we are so similar in most things but the tiny things we are different in make a huge impact. They are things which we just wouldn't think of in day to day life!

By the way, one thing I should probably mention is that I don't actually know what I want to do with my life, which is fine and part of the reason that I came to the USA, it's good to know that it's fine to not know. I'm ready to explore and the liberal arts system helps with that. So I've so far had a thought of Teaching, Health Professions, Biology something, Radio, Flying planes or Helicopters. So yer, hopefully that shows that I'm pretty unsure and need a bit of guidance. That's why American Universities are better, in my view, than British ones, because you get the ability to explore!

TTFN

Intro/first bit

Hello, my name is Jenny and I have just got to the USA to go to University at John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio. I have just finished the first part of International orientation and am getting settled. My room is finally sorted and thankfully feels like a home a bit. Should have remembered to bring more homely things but Target is the best for things you need.
I wanted to start this blog for everyone who is thinking of going to the USA for uni. I come from the UK, so it's probably the most useful for people from the UK.
Anyway, so far so good. Cleveland is a great city and the transportation here is really good. Having said that its still a bit of a Culture Shock moving into the USA. There are a lot of things that are slightly different and that can be a little overwhelming at first. But if you end up going, then just talk to as many people as possible, having friends and keeping busy is the best thing you can do.
Also, I have an American roommate, that's useful because she has brought all the big things which saves me money and is super helpful, if you can do that then do. As if you go anywhere, saving money at uni anyway you can is the best thing to do. It may take some time searching for cheap deals but still a good idea. Just be proactive!!!!