Saying Goodbye

Well, this is it. The last blog. And I have no idea how to end. I could write about the struggles of learning an entirely new education system and how I had to force myself to write in passive voice after a semester of getting it beaten out of me......Or I could write about the crazy (literally) people I've come across over the semester. I just am not sure. So here goes an attempt to cover four months of pain, laughter, sweat, tears, and ultimately, change.
Since that dreadful evening of arrival on February 2, many things have changed. I feel like Anne of Green Gables. I went looking for myself outside of my town, and realized it was home all along. I love Scotland to death and would gladly return. I have learned so much about the people, the culture, the weather (;)), and the lifestyle. You know your Scottish if you have a dog you walk everyday and always have a pipe and a walking stick and an accent no one can understand unless you're a Scot too. If I use words like 'quite' or 'rather' or 'knackered' or even let loose a British swear word, do bear with me. Even being surrounded by Americans mostly, I have still been affected. You never go to the pub until after 10 and always stay for at least two drinks before moving on to the next one. Socializing is key. Whether in the pub or treading in on the polo pitch, it's all about communication. I think that's one thing that we can learn from them, especially outside the city. The weekends are for walking into town for no other reason than to be out in town. When the sun is out, you go to the beach and heaven forbid you bring an umbrella because who wants to block the sun! Take a book to the coffee shop when it rains, and take it to the beach when it shines. No hurry, no rush to a destination. The only running done around here is running for exercise! Scotland is a place I love, but I love home more. Oh yes, I am a traveler at heart, but I am a homebody heart and soul. I am an adventurer, that will never change. But I think being away in another culture for so long makes you miss things you never thought you'd miss. Currency for one thing! Half price appetizers at Z'tejas. Dad's Saturday morning breakfast. The Dollar Theater! Even school back at VU. Mom clutching a pillow over her face during a movie and asking what's happening :). One thing about the students over here, even the ones a part of the Christian Union: Once they have a group of people they hang out with, they don't really change. Sure we get invited to things, but there is no follow through of "oh we are leaving at 7 you should come with us" or anything. I miss the excitement of students back home when someone new shows up and there is a scramble to meet them and get to know them. This has been an experience I will never forget or regret. I am so glad I went through the crazy process of applying and freaking out about EVERYTHING so I could really experience a UK University. It was totally worth it.
So while this last post may seem a bit negative towards Scotland, don't believe it for a second. I don't think I believed such a beautiful place could ever feel like home, but it has been for the last four months. I can't wait to share photos and videos and stories because it really has been a once in a lifetime experience. But it's time to come home :) So start up the BBQ, let in the sun, and bring on the summer, cuz in four days this Scottish Cali girl is coming home!

Cheers for the last time!

Exams....Harry Potter style

Hello all,

Things are winding down as you know, and I have achieved the goal I set out to do: GET THROUGH A SEMESTER OF UK HIGHER EDUCATION ALIVE! Yes, I survived. However, being thrust into an entirely knew learning system, writing system, and exam system was needless to say a bit harrying. I won't lie, my face did NOT look good for a while during revision and exams. (don't worry mom, it looks great now :) ) I must tell you though, these exams are very intense. My first exam was for my Drama reading and performance class. It was held in the Sports Hall because it was a large class. I live literally a two minute walk from the Sports centre. I was good though, I said I would leave with 20 minutes to spare.....get there early and all that Jazz. Well, apparently I didn't get the memo about getting to exams in the Sports Hall 30 minutes early, so while I wasn't the only one walking in there quarter to two, I was taken aback at how full the hall already was with students, and they were already making announcements and such. I hurriedly put my bag at the back (the exams were all very AP style) grabbed my pens and ID card, and turned to face the hall. Ok, our class was not the only one there......there were actually three. So.....where is my exam? I thankfully found someone I knew going down one extremely long row of desks, and followed them. Phew! Ok, there is an empty desk with an exam with my module number on it. I quickly sat down before anyone could take it. Then I looked at the exam.....oh right, these kinds of exams come with pre-exam stuff. Little papers to fill out and numbers to right in and all that jazz. I quickly filled it out with two minutes to spare. The man on the microphone said 'Begin', and the enormous hall was suddenly silent except for the opening of exam booklets. I looked at the first question......then I looked at it again.....and again. I literally had to look at it three times before I understood what he wanted me to say! Golly, starting off well aren't we? After that rough start things went a bit more smoothly. Then a man came up to my desk and I almost jumped....oh right, collecting the slips and checking IDs.....good grief! So you know in Harry Potter 5 when they are taking their exams in the Great Hall....yeah that's pretty much what this was like. Old people watching you from the front, a clock on the wall (maybe not as big or cool as the one in HP, but still), hundreds of kids leaning over exams. I half expected fireworks to go off! Or something akin to that to happen.
After that first exam experience, the others went more smoothly. My second was smaller and NOT in the Sports hall. It was also Shakespeare so it was the one I knew the most about. The third was back in the Sports hall. Divinity......oh dear.....you see the thing is, they don't believe in study guides over here and all exams are cumulative.....like I said, completely different education system. I felt so unprepared going into my final exam, and felt horrible for it. Then I turned it over and realized that I'd actually studied all the right things! Who knew.....;) By the time there were five minutes left, I was ready and done. I read over my essays one last time, and closed the book. I was done!!!!!!!!
So while I don't think I did marvelously well on my exams, I believe I passed them all! (of course, we'll find out soon enough!) Thank you to all who were praying for me. It helped!

Cheers!

Scottish bonfires....

Just something fun for the end is near! Thank you all who've put up with my slacking off, and forgetting to blog and so on and so forth. We are in Revision week! (great, a whole week to study and pull my hair out....fantastic...)Anyways the end is nigh, and as I am holed up in my room surrounded by Shakespeare and theologians, I thought a fun blog would do. This weekend marked the beginning of the end and to celebrate, (mostly because I'm broke and couldn't go to May Ball which cost £70!) we headed to Waltzing on West Sands, the equivalent to the ball. At 7pm, we put on sundresses and sandals, packed up some blankets and sweatshirts, got a subway take away dinner, and headed to the beach! Of course, since we had some time to spare and the sunset was gorgeous, we detoured to the Weak Bridge on the Old Course for some more pictures. No golfers potentially endangering our lives this time....;) Once we'd had our fill of group pictures, solo pictures, and of course funny pictures, we headed down to the beach. We pitched our little camp (which consisted of Hailey's beach towel and my scottish blanket) and settled in for some food and a good time....that lasted about twenty minutes and then we started getting freezing! Hailey, Meg and I ran down the beach a bit to warm up and by the time we got back they had started a bonfire, so we moved our little gang to the heat. It was quite nice just standing around a warm fire talking with friends, holding a Dr Pepper (we chose to forgo the alcohol route). You know how back home when we have beach bonfires, they normally get to the point where someone pulls out a guitar and starts singing tunes.....well, in Scotland it's a bit different. Here, guys pull out their bagpipes and start a ceilidh! It was quite amusing to see people just shout out a dance and people running around to get in line. It really was quite nice. We were there until about 10:30, so we really didn't have a drunk people problem. It was genuinly a group of students just having a good time around some bonfires on the beach. It was lovely. A good way to end one period and start into another....the study mode.....super fun...My first exam is in four days, so start praying! This could be interesting...

Cheers!

What students do in a small town.....

Well, it has been an eventful, yet not so eventful time since spring break ended and we returned home to finish our last weeks. I had an essay due the day we got back, so I jumped right back into the academics. However, it was not just school work waiting for us. With the end of April going by and May coming around the corner, the students get to have a little more fun. For one thing, we attended the CU (Christian Union) Ball on the following Saturday of our return, which was lovely. It was held in the building where we attend church on Sundays, and there was a wonderful sit down dinner that we were served by our fellow students. We then had a time of worship, and then we got down! We had a ceilidh, a bop (basically a DJ and dancing) and had the time of our lives, dancing reels, mixers, and other such fun dances. Hailey, Meg and I hung out with some of the other Baylor kids, and one of their roommates from Sally's, a British guy named Jaime who is the equivalent of a California boy. He surfs quite a lot, and unlike other English people, actually tans! He apparently takes a dip in the North Sea every month, which leads me to our next adventure - the pre-May dip.
Each year, the students of the university do what is called the May Dip. Basically, they all run into the North Sea at dawn on May 1st. I think they are absolutely insane, and do it because there is not much else to do. But anyways, we few decided we would do a dip before the big day. We woke up Monday morning, Hailey, Meg and I ran to Castle sands, and waited for our partners in crime to arrive. It was a beautiful day and I can safely say if we were going to dip any day, this was the day to do it. The rest of the group arrived, and we (That is, Hailey and I) decided to jump in cold turkey......that was interesting....it makes me realize now how quickly the Titanic people died.....the water was FREEZING! I kept thinking, why are we doing this?! We are cer-azy people! But it turned out to be a fun thing to start off the week, albeit cold....And it all led to the big day.....
April 30, 2010, 9:50 pm. I decide, hey I have to get up at 4 am tomorrow morning, I'm going to go to sleep early.....well, you see the thing is, students over here don't believe in going to bed the night before the May Dip. They stay up, drink, talk, and have a jolly good time at the expense of the few people actually trying to sleep. It felt like an afternoon, not the middle of the night, in my corridor, with doors slamming and people laughing. Finally at about 3:15 in the morning, I heard a few people enter a room a few doors down, and they must have been waiting for whoever it was because I heard a jubilant cry of "To the Beach!" and a mass of people heading out. I finally gave up after getting about two solid hours of sleep, and around 3:45 received a text from Megan asking me if I was awake. My reply: Unfortunately :/ I tumbled out of bed and threw some random clothes on, and made my way to our usual meeting point. As I arrived, we all asked ourselves the same question. "Who's crazy idea was this?!" But as a JSA, you just have to do everything.....So we arrived at Castle sands...to total mayhem. The cops were controlling the groupings of people going down, because the sands is a very small beach. I felt like I was at a concert, because I literally had no control over my body. I was moving and swaying with the crowd we were that packed together. When we finally reached the sand, we were surrounded by screaming people running into the water, a dozen little bonfires with shivering people huddled around them, and yes, the occasional nude male (thankfully nothing was seen by any of us) who'd gone in with his friends without any attire. Mhmmm. We quickly stripped to our bathing suits, and amidst the crowds, ran into the water. Meg was the bravest of all of us, running in and diving under. Nobody else made it that far. But we sure didn't stay in for long! We ran back out and found a spot by a smoking fire for a few moments to try to get some feeling back. Making our way back up the hill was a bit interesting, but we finally made it out, and made our way down the deserted Market Street. The sun had risen and the cool morning light was coming over the town. I parted ways with Meg and Hailey and made my way back to New Hall. I thought that since I was awake, it would be impossible for me to go back to sleep. It was about 5:30 am. I stayed up for about an hour, then thought "what's the harm in trying to sleep?" and so turned out the lights, and got into bed. about three hours later I woke up, saw it was time for breakfast, and didn't care one bit. I went back to sleep and finally got out of bed at 11:30! Oh yeah, it was good :) To finish the evening off, I met Meg and Hailey outside Uni Hall, and ended a good week with fireworks! Legit fireworks too, not pansy, stupid ones. It really was fantastic. And we were close enough that we actually saw the firemen setting them off. That was pretty cool. So while in the UK, at least in Scotland for sure, there are very few things to do in a small town that closes up at 9, the students make do, and make up crazy things like May Dips and other such health risking events.......gotta love it.....

Cheers!