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! :)