Well that went faster than expected...

So I am back at John Carroll University. I haven't posted since I got back in August because I have been SO busy. So here's a quick run through on what I've done:

Sam and I took a trip to see Shelby in Loudonville before University started. It was just a short day trip but it was great to see her and catch up and the area looked beautiful. So here's some fun pictures of us that she sent me:

I had RA training for two weeks in August which consisted of long, tiring days and a lot of work. It was great getting to know the rest of the staff though and that has helped over the past month too. Here is a picture of the wonderful people I get to work with this year and a picture of my Campion staff:

Freshman arrived and had their Streak Week and I started being an actual RA. It was good getting to know the ladies on my floor but it took me a while to learn their names.

Then classes started and I discovered that I didn't like what I was doing. The Biology class I signed up for was not my cup of tea and I really didn't want to do the chemistry that went along with it. So I decided to meet my academic advisor and with discussion with them and my friends I decided to switch classes. So I'm now taking social psychology, statistics and leadership instead which means I'm on course for a psychology major. So we shall see how that turns out. But since switching classes have been fine. Sociology I have discovered is not exactly where my talents lie but that's ok, it counts as a core class so that helps.

I found a job at the Chemical Stores in the science center which is nice because it now means I have some extra cash and that's great. It does however mean a lot more paperwork because to get paid I need to fill out forms. Those forms require a social security card and to get that it is a lot more forms and a trip to the social security card center. But oh well, definitely worth it.

I also have a radio show on the Heights 88.7 WJCU still which is great. I'm now on on Tuesdays from 11am-12:30pm EST so feel free to listen in online during that time. It's a good way to have some time to myself and just chill.

Other than that I have been doing RA stuff, including roommate agreements, floor meetings, helping residents with other needs and just hanging out with them, which has been fun. I also did a program where I made cupcakes and we decorated them as a floor and got to know one another which was good.

Weekend wise I have done a lot. Earlier in September Sam, Mary and I took a trip back to Bowling Green for the Black Swamp Arts and Music Festival. I had been told so many good things over the last year about it and I was really excited about going. It didn't disappoint. The music there was great, one of my favourite so was a Calipso band called Kobo Town from the Carribean. There was also some really pretty art and I was very luckily bought some beautiful earring and bracelet from a jewellrey vendor. You can see one of the earrings in the picture below but this was taken of Sam and I at the festival:

It was also just really nice to get off campus for a bit.

Then last weekend we went to see a film at a local cinema. It was The Trip to Italy with Steeve Coogan and Rob Brydon, and it was hilarious. So that was really fun!

Hopefully I will be able to update again soon but I get the feeling this is going to be a very busy year.

SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!

Well I didn't go straight home, the USA had to deal with me for about a month more!  And I packed stuff in, well I did the first week. As soon as we finished Mary, Sam, their niece Ayla and I went to Disney, Orlando, and we drove the whole way down and back!

The first day we spent about 13 hours in the car and got to just north of Savannah, Georgia. It was tiring, so we took Ayla to the pool for a little at the hotel for behaving so well. The next morning it was up early and we headed to Savannah to have a look around, it was beautiful and hot! Savannah is one of America's historic towns and it was very pretty. So here are some pictures:

Then we kept driving until we reached Disney, and everyone was extremely excited! Thanks to my parents, we had a lovely room which could have fit a lot more than just the four of us. Regardless we loved every second. And the magic bands we were given were very fun, they had our names on the inside and were impressive.

Day one we spent in the Magic Kingdom, we arrived when the park opened and went on a lot of rides, but could still have spent so much more time there. Everyone enjoyed watching parades and seeing characters though. We left after the fireworks, which were amazing!

Day two we had a lie in, we stayed in bed until about 10:30am, which was really needed then headed to the pool at the hotel. Ayla, Sam and I had fun playing in the pool and with the slide! Then we went to Downtown Disney to take a look around, and then to the Boardwalk Bakery to get a cake. Finally we cooked dinner in the room and ate it in the pool area watching Tangled on a big screen.

Day three we went to Epcot, and went straight to the big golf ball. We went on a couple of rides there and then looked at some of the Flower Festival plants, which were impressive! Sam and I went round the world at Epcot and then watched the fireworks which were beautiful.

The next day it was up early again and we started to drive back, thankfully we stopped in South Carolina for a night, making the first day not too long. We did however stop off at the beach in Florida, which was great and warm!! Then we decided to go see some of their family in Cincinnati, Ohio so we took a slightly different route and stayed at their Aunt's house. Finally making it home to their house a week after we left. All in all we were in 9 States over the whole week including Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee.

The next three weeks I spent time around Bowling Green, it was nice hanging around, doing odd jobs for people. Sam and I went on a couple of motorcycle rides which were fun too. We also took Ayla to the pool, which is outdoor and lovely. Another day Sam, his brothers: Tom, John and James, John's friends Jen and I went to a local lake and swam in that. Which was beautiful and warm. So much fun!

Sam and I took a day trip to Delaware, Ohio too, where we met our friend Emily for lunch and spent some time with her, which was great fun.

And all too soon and yet not soon enough it was time to head home! Which is always nice, just to see family. However, before I finish for this year I would like to say a huge thank you to the Weinandy family for looking after me all year long and making me feel at home with them. I have been very blessed to get to know you all and can't wait to see you again at the end of July!

And just like that we are done!

Well those last two months went past quicker than I realised...I feel like I've been running on overload the whole time, but I have had good fun with my friends.

Most of April and the first week of May were taken up with work for Finals and so on. The amount of work seemed to get a little more than before, which was annoying but that's what I'm here for so I can hardly complain. Thankfully I had some great people around me to keep me sane and not working ALL the time!

I continued on the radio, enjoying every minute of it, except once when I couldn't work out why the signal wasn't transmitting - problematic. I also went to the WJCU banquet, for everyone at the end of year and won a mug, exciting... Unfortunately our station manager was leaving so it was sad to see him leave because he was always very helpful and friendly.

My leadership friends are still my closest friends and they are the kindest people. The best thing is that there is a total of 13 of us, with some more from time to time and so no matter where you are, normally at least one other person is there too. Sam and I did another round of cookies and milk with studying just before finals, which was fun and made studying for my biology a little better.

I decided to take psychology online over the summer while I'm at home, which should be interesting but I'm looking forward to it, very thankful to Sam for letting me borrow his textbook from when he did it. This, by the way, is an excellent strategy for books, especially for intro classes because most of your friends will eventually take the same classes so passing around textbooks is money saving. I also have a killer schedule next semester, bio and bio lab 3, general chemistry and general chemistry lab 1, economics 101 and sociology 101. We shall see how that goes, right now I have a 3.87 GPA so as far as I'm concerned I just don't want to lower that too much (Chemistry really isn't my subject...).

My RA job looks like it's working out well, I seem to have a good staff to work with, some very close friends already, some newer faces but I'm sure that won't remain that way. Excitedly though I got told training was Disney themed which is perfect because I love Disney so that should be fun. I have been placed in Campion for next year, which will be great, just not looking forward to the extra walk in the snow.

I also had to pack, and that means finding a place to leave stuff over the summer which was interesting. Thankfully my lovely roommate Rachel offered some space and the rest went back to Sam's. So I'm very grateful to both of them and their families. This is probably one of the most annoying things to deal with so far because you are stuck begging for space from friends or anyone who could take anything. The next bit is to pack belongings in a way that you decide what items you are OK not seeing for 4 months, what you need to take home with me and what you may need access to at some point. It's strategical packing, which takes time, a lot of time! But I managed it in the end, even though I am convinced I mixed up some stuff, but never mind, it's only things, I have the important stuff!

So my wise words for the end of this year - Be grateful for the friends and family you have, make as many friends as you can (some may not stay but that's life), they will always be there for you and that is the most important thing to have in life.

As such, thank you to all those friends, fleeting or stuck with me, for all you do and my family for helping me be where I am today and having this adventure.

Spring Break...and more

OK, I realised I still haven't spoken about Spring Break, despite that being a while ago. But that's partially because I didn't actually do anything, except going to Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was really nice, it's a beautiful University city, and we spent a lot of time just looking around cute little shops. The other thing we did was that we, Sam's family and I, went to see a Bluegrass Band live in a little place called The Ark. It was lovely to watch, but please don't ask me what Bluegrass is, I have no idea... However, I can tell you it has a Banjo, Mandolin, Guitar, Double Bass and Fiddle as instruments.
Since then, I have been at school and just doing classes, this half of the semester is becoming more stressful. I have a lot of extra leadership things going on. But also, we are about the time of scheduling classes for next semester which is hugely stressful, especially if you have no idea what you want to do, like me. I keep changing my mind, and I don't know what would be best, despite the large amount of resources available to me. So we shall see how that goes...
The other thing I wanted to quickly touch on, because everyone always asks how I feel about not being able to legally drink here, was my social time with friends. I have a friendship group where we are very lucky that when we all hang out we don't feel pressured into drinking. Most of the times we spend time together we play board games, bake, drink milk, watch movies and dance. It's huge amounts of fun, and no alcohol is involved. Having said that, there is definitely drinking on campus, underage included. Especially with St. Patrick's Day just gone by. By the way, they are HUGE on St. Patrick's Day, large amounts of alcohol and partying. It was almost impressive. Anyway, I thought I would share a wonderful picture of most of the leadership kids I hang out with most of my time. So here it is:

I will update soon, hopefully, because I have a lot planned to be coming up soon.

My 40 things...(an amusing post)

A couple days ago I saw a list of things that international students studying in America feel. And I totally agree with all of them so here they are, but I have added some of my own too. So here is 40 things that International students studying in the USA have to contend with:

1)      Constantly checking the exchange rate to see how better off you are.

2)      Trying to work out the political correctness line.

3)      Discovering that there are topics which you just should NOT bring up in groups you don’t know.

4)      Finding out that shops always seem to have sales, so don’t go for every single one you see.

5)      Watching your diet move away from healthy vegetables and balanced diet to carbohydrate heavy.

6)      Waiting for what feels like years for a package to come in from home (sometimes it is years when the post gets lost…)

7)      Finding out big family news last because you have to wait until the next “Skype opportunity”.

8)      Wondering why they even bother having coins when nobody even uses them!!

9)      Having probably at least one sport from home that they don’t play and having to constantly try to explain it in terms of Basketball, American Football or Football.
10)  Dealing with everyone constantly saying, “Say (whatever new word they’re trying for the day)” and you have to repeat to everyone for a half hour.

11)  When other students talk about school in Grades, trying to quickly work out what year that meant you were in in school.

12)  Being considered rich and posh, even if the only reason you can be there is through a stupid amount of scholarships (thankful of them as you are).

13)  Discovering the size of paper is different and trying to keep changing the dimensions on your laptop so it prints correctly.

14)  Always being at least a little bit jet-lagged for the first week of classes.
15)  Drinking legally* at home for years, but moving to the U.S. and suddenly being underage.
16)  Finding a friend with whom to go home for Thanksgiving or being literally alone on campus, while you scroll through everyone’s family-and-food Instagrams.
17)  Converting everything from American dollars to your home currency, and feeling abysmally poor or dangerously rich, depending on where you’re from.
18)  Spelling and pronouncing random words differently than Americans do and dealing with idiots who insist that your way isn’t just different, it’s wrong.
19)  Figuring out which ID to carry with you when you go out.
20)  Initially being overwhelmed and shocked by the humongous food-portion sizes And then, in a few months, being completely able to finish an entire portion AND order dessert.
21)  Having random gaps in your pop culture knowledge, and resorting to the smile-and-nod tactic to pretend you know what’s being talked about.
22)  Going days without talking to your parents because when they’re up and free to call, you’re not.
23)  The shock of realizing that your version of America was based on TV stereotypes.
24)  When you accidentally use slang from your home country and everyone looks at you like you’re nuts.
25)  Scouring the entire continental United States for someone who will cook your native cuisine as well as your mom. And eventually missing home food so much that you find ways to slip it through customs.
26)  Speaking of which: Having a constant fear that every tiny infraction will result in you being deported.
27)  Paperwork. So much damn paperwork.
28)  And maniacally scrambling to the international students’ office to get all of it signed in time.
29)  The awkward resentment you feel when people try to tell you they know how you feel.
30)  Navigating the weirdness of your slowly evolving accent… Especially when your mom calls.
31)  All the hours you’ve wasted standing nervously in airport immigration and security lines.
32)  The dread and fear you associate with the letters O, P, and T.
33)  And the fact that so many potential employers seem allergic to the words “visa” and “sponsorship.”
34)  The brief and horrifying moment when you seriously consider marrying someone for a green card.
35)  Figuring out what the holidays mean and how you should be responding to them.
36)  Your constantly buzzing phone, thanks to WhatsApp, BBM, and Viber And the fact that your friends across the world are awake when you’re trying to sleep.
37)  Telling people where you’re from and then having to deal with their questions and misconceptions.
38)  Constantly worrying about reinforcing stereotypes, and feeling a responsibility to break them.
39)  Relatedly: The horror of realizing you’re someone’s Token Foreign Friend.
40)  The fear that at the end of this crazy, beautiful ride, you’ll have to pack up and leave abandoning this golden land of freedom and opportunity for a future that is completely uncertain.
Hope you enjoyed them all, and a quick thank you to Suzy for bringing them to my attention!

Finally!!!!!

It's finally Spring Break!!!! Thank goodness, we are all so ready for this, and I'm so glad to finally have a break.

I haven't much to tell you really, I had midterm exams, which are not fun and are a lot of work. But they all seemed to go well so I'm glad of that. On Thursday my friends and I made cookies/cookie cakes and had milk whilst we all studied, and that was so nice. It's good to do things in groups like that, and baking home foods are always a good thing to do at university. Here's a picture of the cookie cakes we made:

I also found out about my RA position and I'm pleased to say that I was accepted, so I'm very happy about that. I still have to accept my place after spring break and then do some orientation sessions, also I have to keep up doing the good stuff I've been doing, but that's ok, I can do that. So hopefully I will get a good floor/building next year and I'm really looking forward to that. If the idea of an RA position is new to you, read my previous blogs, they will explain! Also, keep up!!!!

I will take pictures if I can and let you all know what I get up to over spring break which I will be in Bowling Green, Ohio for.

Is it spring break yet???

February has been an interesting month. For starters it has been snowing the whole time, which is lovely but I'm kinda starting to really look forward to seeing some green again!! I'm very impressed with my acclimatization though, I've always been a really cold person and have never done well in cold temperatures, but somehow, in this below 0Celsius, I have survived with mainly just a coat and scarf!

My classes are going well, which is good, but there is a lot of work, especially reading, so I'm having quite a few late nights. Having said that, 18 credits really doesn't feel as bad as most people make them out to be, but maybe that's just me. Not that I'm complaining.

Radio is going well, I'm definitely getting better and better at that. Last week we had Radiothon, which is basically a fundraiser for the station so we can keep running. I was very scared going into my show, I didn't want to ask people for money, but it actually became easier and easier. We did the shows with groups of people which made it much more fluid, and also helped me gain experience talking on air without reading from a script (I tend to write myself stuff to say before I go on air). Anyway, I got some great pledges, and I definitely think the British accent works, Americans really do love them!

Other things I've done....

Well, I cooked a meal for a group of friends, which was nice, it was really good to eat some "home-cooked" food. I made Pasta Peperonata (Jamie Oliver recipe) and my friend made chocolate chip scones. So that was amazing, and I took some pictures:

Making the scones, and the veg for the pasta (above) pasta done (below)

I went snow tubing with the internationals a couple of weekends ago too. That was so much fun, it is basically like going really fast down a water slide, but it's snow. It's best explained in a picture:

Then, last Saturday I went to Otterbein University to visit my, now ex, roommate, Shelby, with our friend Sam. We didn't really do much, just went out for lunch and went to a great Ice Cream place called Graeters. We also went to the most boring Catholic Mass ever, it means something when the Catholic Theology major who is in love with all things Catholic wants to run out of the service... But oh well, you live and you learn. Also I quick sarcastic thank you to Sam from Shelby and I for making us go up and give the gifts (bread wine and money) to the priest in front of everyone. All in all though, we had a lovely time and enjoyed seeing each other again.

I finally went to the Irish shop near John Carroll and found Cadburys chocolate and a couple of other British items that were so very exciting! So I have been eating cheese and pickle sandwiches a lot too. The only problem is, it's really expensive. But well worth it when feeling a little homesick or too Americanised.

I've done loads of other stuff too, but there are just many little things, like going out to dinner, but that's college life. However, there is one thing I have yet to tell about. I did, over the last couple of weeks, apply to become an Residence Assistant (RA) here for next year. If you have been to a boarding school then it's somewhat like a Head of House and a Housemistress combined. If you haven't, it's a person in charge of the floor who kind of looks after things. I submitted my application, along with two references. Then had a Group Process interview, which I can only describe as team building excercises in small groups whilst being observed and assessed. Then finally I had a personal interview, in which we did a personal expression piece, so naturally I took in Cadburys Chocolate to discuss comfort and diversity and many other things, it's amazing what you can make chocolate represent! Anyway, I think it all went ok but I will find out the decision next Friday, so fingers crossed.

So yes, it's been a busy start of the semester, a lot has happened and will continue to happen, there is a lot of work and loads of fun. But I can't wait for Spring Break, it will be nice to have a holiday for a bit!!

Snow, school and DC

The past few weeks have been really really snowy. It's beautifully white and bitterly cold, many layers are being required!! Having said that it's still possible to get around and have fun. Also, we had a snow day on Tuesday, which made me happy because I could catch up with work and hang out with my friends/get to know my new roommate. So here are a few photos of the snow:

In front of the chapel and student union (above) view of the admin building over the quad (below)

It isn't foggy, it's just snowing so much you can't see very far (below)

So yes, it's beautiful and majestic and cold. The coldest place though was when I went on a trip to Washington DC. The monuments were a lot closer to each other than I thought and the White House was a lot smaller than I expected (but films can be deceiving...). So here are some photos from some of that, but I couldn't take many because it was so cold that taking my hands out of my gloves and pockets for more than 5 seconds hurt, a lot!!!!

Part of the Lincoln Memorial (above) the White House (below)

Me stood in front of Lincoln (below)

Then everything else...

Well, classes are going well, it's a lot of work because I'm taking the maximum 18 credits but that's ok, it's still fun. I really like my first aid course because it's interesting and it's neat that I get a qualification at the end of it. Philosophy is messing with my mind, as philosophy does, but it's interesting at least.

I have a new roommate, and she's lovely, she's relaxed and doesn't mind my terrible sense of humour and childness so that's good! And I bought a fridge and a microwave, finally... So I can make stuff for myself again, happy days. My radio show on WJCU is going well, slowly getting more confident, and thank you to everyone who encourages me and listens in. If you want to I'm on Mondays 1-3:30pm EST.

Will check back in soon, I'm sure something else fun will be happening within the next few weeks!

Here we go again...

I have just started my spring semester, I got back about four days before the start of the semester to get over my jet lag, glad I did that!!!!! I loved being home though, was nice to see everyone, especially my little brother.

This semester I'm taking the next level of biology, Spanish and English, as well as education, first aid and philosophy. And all my teachers are very nice, my philosophy teacher in particular is really funny and, despite not being massively into philosophy, I think I'm going to love this class!!

On top of that, yesterday I had my first ever solo radio show, I'm on WJCU every Monday 1-3:30pm this semester. I was terrified but it was so much fun and I loved doing it once I got into it, which was nice.

My room is feeling very empty, which is sad, and I very much miss my roommate but it is nice having the extra space in the room now. And I just have tried to decorate the room even more and I hope that will help stop it feeling so empty.

Anyway, there are so many fun things to do this semester and it's going to be great, and I will endeavor to do my best to keep you up to date with it all. Spring break is going to be interesting too!