I'm going to need liquor after this

9/27/2012

Yesterday was pretty boring. I had human anatomy in the morning and we started to go over the muscles of the upper thorax. I can tell this is a class I’m going to study hard for. After class Lousia, Caroline  and I went to Interval (a bar/restaurant in the union) for lunch. I had a delicious leek and potato soup that was perfect for the rainy day.  After lunch Lousia, and Caroline went to the biomedical lab for there human dissection practical. I headed to the National Health Service building so I could register for the doctor. All my medical expenses while I’m here is covered by the NHS, so this would be a really good time to get sick :p.

Today was much more exciting. I had my Human anatomy lab In the afternoon which I was really nervous for. We do our dissection on human cadavers, people who have donated their bodies to science. I've never really seen a dead body before, except at wakes or memorial services (and I wasn’t cutting in to them). We walked into the room and I immediately was freaked out. There are just rows and rows of bodies, some covered and some being worked on. We share this area with all of the biomedical students so they were there as well. All of the bodies are this ashen gray color and some are very sunken in. We went to the back room to put our coats and bags away and to put on our lab coats. We had to sign a contract with all the rules of the lab on them. It basically stated that if we ever compromised the dignity of the remains we would get kicked out and fail the class. This means no pictures, no taking unauthorized people into the room, and being careful of how we talk about the remains out of class. So I can’t really go into detail on what we did.

The actual dissection part was really hard for me. When our teacher pulled back the right side skin of the chest to show us what we would be doing I gasped and had to back up. I composed myself and listened to what our teacher was saying. Our individual had a lot of fatty tissue so we spent most of the class clearing it away before isolating the pectoralis major. It is pretty cool to see the actual muscle we learned about in class. During the dissection I did have to remove myself from the room because I was feeling light headed and a bit faint, but I wasn’t the only one.

After class I headed to Tesco and bought a much needed bottle of wine and headed home to make dinner.  For dinner I made chicken quesadillas, which were delicious if I do say so myself. At 7:30 Cindy and I went to a belly dancing class. It was really fun to do even though I wasn’t that good at it. I think it will be a class I do every week, maybe I’ll get some dancing skills out of it. 

It's like Christmas!!

9/25/12

So my first day of Grad classes was yesterday, and it wasn’t even that scary! It felt just like an undergrad class. My first class was Human Osteology with Dr. Pia Nystrom.  We went over the basics of bone biology, most of which I already knew, and got split into groups for lab. I’m in group 2 for lab meaning that I have a 2 hour break between class and my lab time. A few of the other students and I went to Moca, a café next to the department, for coffee. We hung out there until 3 then headed back to the department.

For lab we were split into groups of 4 given a box with an unarticulated skeleton and told to put it in order. My immediate reaction upon opening the box was “ It’s like Christmas!” because the bones were all wrapped up in tissue paper. We took all the bones out of the box and got started putting them in order. The larger bones were obviously easier to place and decide which side they go on. Two of us worked on the top half of the body, putting together the ribs and spinal column, and the other two put together the hands and feet. I got stuck with the feet. Oh lord did that take forever. There are so many bones in the feet and deciding which side they go on took forever. I ended up with an extra 3^rd metatarsal which had accidently been placed in the wrong box. Did you know you have two tiny bones under the joint of your big toe called seasamoid bones? Cause I didn’t. 

Today’s grad classes were a bit less exciting then yesterdays. I had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 7:30 for my 9am Funerary archaeology class. The class was packed when I got there, some people had to end up standing in the back. In the class we went over decomposition of corpses and the steps a body takes from immediately following death to skeletonization.  

Class got out early (10:30) and it was my only class of the day so I went and ran some errands. First I picked up my dissection tool kit from Blackwells book shop. For Human anatomy lab we are doing dissection on a human cadaver. So when we learn about the muscles in the arm, we will dissect the arm and so on. It’s really kind of worrying all of us; we talked about having a fainting couch available for when we all pass out. After picking up my handy dandy tool kit I met my friend Lisa for lunch at Toast, a sandwich shop.  I met Lisa during orientation and she’s from Germany. She’s really cool and a lot of fun to hang out with. After lunch I ran to the union to collect my new UK debit card, which means I can finally put money on my phone and be able to use it again, yay!

We had our first proper flat meeting today with all my roommates. I met the mysterious roommate in room A who couldn’t come until yesterday. Her name is Vicky and she’s from China, but she’s been living in the UK for the past 15 years.  We discussed chores like vacuuming and taking out the garbage, we ended up making a chore rotation chart. We also talked about communal stuff like silverware and pans.

I got an interview today for catering job which I’m pretty excited for. I hope I get it, I really need spending money! 

Notebooks, pencils, binders

9/23/2012

Yesterday Flor, Nathalie and I went into the city center to do some shopping. We went to Wilkensons which is as close to a Target as I’m going to get here. I finally bought pots and pans! I can make food now! Yay! I also got a hair dryer and hair straightener since mine haven’t worked since I’ve been here.  I’m excited to finally be able to straighten my hair! It’s been in a ponytail for far too long.

After shopping we dropped of our purchases and went to go find some dinner. We all had coupons for free personal pizzas at dominos so we went there. Free dinner is always the best dinner. It was pretty nice out so we went and ate at St. Georges cathedral, which has now been turned into a lecture hall. It’s a really pretty church and the grounds are nice as well.

My friend Lisa and I were planning on seeing Harry potter 7 at the union theatre that night so I got ready and headed to the union. I arrived and waited outside the theatre for her. I was waiting around for a while and was getting a bit concerned when the movie was starting and she still wasn’t there. After about half hour of waiting I went back to opal. Turns out that she had gotten stuck at the mall and was late getting back. So we’ve decided to go get coffee sometime this week to catch up.

Today Cindy and I ventured out on the hunt for school supplies. We went to WHSmith in the city center, which is kind of like a staples and a borders mixed together and then condensed.  We realized that no matter where we go notebooks were outrageously expensive. In the states you can get a notebook for like a dollar. Here a single subject notebook cost us like 3 pounds. So we sucked it up and bought our notebooks as well as various other school supplies. We walked around the city for a bit until heading back to opal.

I’m kind of nervous for classes tomorrow, it’s my first ever graduate class! Eek! I’m terrified I’m going to say or do something stupid and they’ll like kick me out of the country.  But I guess it’s normal to be nervous on the first day of school. At least I have my first day outfit all picked out J

existentialism in the shower...

9/22/12

Not a ton of interesting stuff happening in the last day or so. I went to the activities fair to sign up for some clubs (called societies here). The room was so crowded though I couldn’t really talk to people. I signed up for the archaeology society, Harry potter society (I know so geeky!) and the belly dancing society. I have always wanted to take belly dancing classes so I figured this was the best time to try. To further the correlation between archaeology and drinking, with my archaeology society membership card I get 10% off at the Red deer pub (the one closet to the department, we all hang out there).  After the activities fair I went to the bookstore and bought my lab coat for my lab work. I’m so happy that I have come to a point in my academic career where I can wear a lab coat. For my human anatomy class we do dissection on an actual human cadaver, how bad ass is that? My friend Caroline and I have decided that we will need a fainting couch to swoon onto.

Today I went and officially registered for my classes. I was expecting a huge queue but it actually went by pretty fast.  I also got my new student ID! They let us choose our own picture so I used my current face book profile picture (thanks Paige!).  I stopped by Tesco on my way home to pick up a few things.  I discovered that Tesco only carries 3 different kinds of shaving razors, seriously I need a Wegmans.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I’ve come to be here at Sheffield. I’ve had kind of an unconventional path to archaeology. I feel in many ways that I came here by pure fate, that if a few of my choices had changed I wouldn’t be sitting here.  I originally went to school for International Studies. I wanted to work for charities in international aid, like the United Nations, and UNICEF.  By the end of my sophomore year I had burned out of it. After my internship with Intervol I realized how much actual desk/office work was involved in charity work, which is not something I wanted out of life. I was sitting in Paige’s room after a rough day at school and we were talking about classes for the upcoming year. She had mentioned she was going to take an archaeological field methods course.  The class was being taught by a professor, Dr. Ramsay, that was going to bring students to Jordan the next summer. I have always wanted to go to the Middle East, but Brockport never offered any study abroad programs there. I wanted to go on the trip badly, but I knew a trip like that generally the professor chooses who to take. To get to know Dr. Ramsay better I signed up for her class with Paige. I immediately hounded Dr. Ramsay with emails about the trip and how I could apply. I’ve noticed that once I set my mind on something, I pursue it almost single mindedly until I achieve it. And I had definitely decided on going to Jordan.  

I started the class in the fall and immediately fell in love. For the first time since I started college I was excited about my classes again. I loved learning about how archaeologists uncover the past.  I was speaking to my parents with enthusiasm about my course.  Archaeology reignited my passion in academia. I declared a second major in Anthropology and was assigned Dr. Ramsay as my advisor. I even joined anthropology club and would eventually go on to become president. I think going to Jordan was the tipping point for me though. Being there in the desert, actually applying what I learned in class in the field, cemented in my mind that I wanted to pursue archaeology.

Applying to graduate school was a battle in itself. There were a few  times during the process where I thought to myself “is this really what I want to be doing?”. Anyone who has ever applied to graduate school knows that it’s a terribly difficult process. From the personal statements to the GRE’s, it’s a wonder any of us get through.  But it’s difficult for a reason, the process weeds out those who aren’t committed. We fight for our place in programs, we go through tears, and sleepless nights, and all the doubt that comes with applications. But when you get that first acceptance letter in the mail (or in my case email) it makes it all worth it.

I’ve always been a big believer in fate. And as I sit here in my dorm room, in Sheffield, in effing ENGLAND, I am never surer of it. What if I hadn’t gone to Paige’s room that day? What if she had never mentioned Jordan? Or even further back what if I had never been such good friends with Paige? We grew close first during out time in drama club together, but I almost didn’t go because I was afraid of going alone. If we want to be really particular about it, what if I had never joined orchestra? Where I eventually would meet Paige. I almost played the saxophone instead of the cello. I’m finding that it’s in these little choices we make that I see fate most clearly.

Sorry for my little rant. I had an existential moment of wonder in the shower. What I’m trying to say is that we should all be looking for the little signs of fate and of our path in our lives. That, and I owe my academic career to Paige Doerner. 

If there's going to be wine, you know i'll be there....

 9/19/12

Yesterday was rather uninteresting. I went to the free shop at 11am to get some things. Basically people from last year donate things they no longer want or need such as utensils, pans, clothing etc etc and all of us new people get to take things for free. So I got a bunch or plates, cups, a baking pan, and a few knives. It’s really great that students do things like that here because most international students come over with nothing.

After this I went to the department welcome meeting. I went to Northgate house for the first time where our program is held. It was great seeing so many people interested in archaeology. The program isn’t huge, I’d say about 50-60 masters students, but still. The meeting was just a general overview of the program, who are the faculty and then a bit about lab and chemical safety for those of us working in the lab.

Today I went to my course welcome meeting and that had just human osteology students. There are about 17 of us so nice and small like I was hoping. We got a bunch of handouts about our modules which I have yet to read.  We got a tour of the department and the comparative collection which was cool. After that Caroline(the girl I met at the visa registration and another human osteo student) and I went to the union shop to pick up a few things. I found the elusive tape I had been looking for, seriously there is no tape in all of England. 

At 5 oclock there was a social for the new archaeology master’s students at Northgate house. I still have yet to get over the fact that it is perfectly acceptable for there to be wine at university events. It was a ton of fun getting to know each other. Archaeologists are some of the coolest people to talk to because of how much traveling we do. Met a man that worked at Çatalhöyük and some other people that had actually worked in Belize! A girl from Virginia and I got into a debate with a British student on gun control in the US. Dad you would have been proud of my defense of the right to bear arms! We all headed over to the Red deer after the party for some drinks and food. A Phd student gave me a lesson on British beers and was nice enough to buy me a pint.  We were joined by Dr. Hugh Wilmont the graduate student director and we discussed upstate New York and how our wines are much better than California wines.

Tales from life among the British

9/17/12

Yesterday I went to the mall with some friends to finally get a cell phone. We got on the tram (like a trolley) and headed to meadow hall mall. It’s a huge mall! Everything in the UK is small: stoves are small, bathrooms are small, and stoves are small. So I expected the mall to be not much bigger then Greece ridge mall. Oh no, this place is pretty big. And so busy! There were a ton of people there, granted it was Sunday afternoon. I went to Orange (a UK cell phone company) to set up a new plan. But half way through setting up a plan they told me I couldn’t because my credit card didn’t have a chip in it.

For all those that don’t know, pretty much every place in the world but the US credit/debit cards have a chip in them. They scan the chip instead of swiping a card. Since my cards don’t have these fabulous chips in them I can’t use my cards in many places. Such as Boots, a cosmetics store here kind of like a pharmacy and Ulta had a baby, when I tried to buy a hair straightener because mine won’t work. Or Argos when I tried to buy some pans, grrrrr. I ended up just getting a pay as you go Sim card for a pound from a company called three wireless.

But the rest of the day in the mall was fun. I finally was able to buy some essentials such as a plate, and a set of utensils. After the mall we hoped back on the tram and headed to Opal. I was planning on organizing my room but I my friend Natalie, from Venezuela,  came in crying because she had just found out her Grandma had died. I let her use my skype to call her family and then ended up hanging out with her for a while. I can’t imagine how hard it is to be so far away from your family when something like that happens. So Padalino’s none of you are allowed to be ill, or die, or have anything bad happen to you while I’m here. I just don’t have time for that J

Today I had a ton of running around to do. I had to go back to get my Visa and qualifications verified at Elmfield house. While there I met another girl that is doing my course and we ended up having lunch together. She’s pretty cool so I feel like we’re going to get along well.

After lunch I went to Santander (a bank) to set up a new UK bank account. I will get my new debit card next week and then will finally be able to set up a cell phone! Woo hoo! There are so many little things here that have to get done before I can really settle in. Like I can’t put money on my phone sim card till I have a Uk bank account. So I can’t text or call people till then.  

I went to Tesco to go get some food for dinner. I invited my roommate Bettie along from China and her, her friend Li-li and I headed off to Tesco. It’s been hard adjusting to how small markets are here. Growing up with Wegmans and Walmart has really spoiled me. For example instead of having a ton of frozen vegetables like I’m used to, there were frozen peas, frozen corn, and frozen carrots, and that’s it. I signed up for this really cool service online though were they will deliver groceries to my door so that will help with the really specific stuff.

I made dinner for Natalie, and Flor. After dinner we went out with my roommate Sophia from Argentina to a pub called Red deer. It was really fun finally getting to go to the famous English pub. They had a string band playing folk music which was great to listen to. We sat and talked for a while and we met a girl that had just finished her master’s in archaeology and she gave us some tips on the course. After a few pints we were starting to fall asleep at the pub so we called it a night and headed home.

Some of the hardest things to adjust to:

1)      Cultural norms that everyone knows but international students don’t, like how to open the tram doors or what a chip and pin is.

2)      How small and limited the food selection is in markets

3)      Having to carry everything back with me, like I can’t get a whole bunch of groceries because I can’t carry them.

4)      Metric conversions, I didn’t know how high to set the oven because it was in Celsius not in Farienhight!

5)      Even though everyone speaks English some people’s accents are really hard to understand. I swear the guy on the tram was speaking another language!

I never thought i'd ever miss Wal-mart..

9/15/2012

Yesterday I woke up and immediately knew something was wrong because I felt way to rested. Turns out I forgot to set my alarm which resulted in me waking up around noon. I quickly got dressed and went to catch up with everyone at the student union.

In the afternoon a few friends and I went walking around Sheffield to figure our way around. We returned to Stephenson around 4:30. We had our formal dinner later that night so I got ready then at.6:30 we loaded the buses to go to the octagon.

The party was lovely. So much nicer then anything I ever got at Brockport. They gave us wine! It was awesome. The lord Mayor gave a speech, he kind of looks like James earl Jones. After dinner there was a DJ and dancing. I hung around for a bit dancing with some friends before walking back to Stephenson hall with a few people.

Today we finally got to move into our residence halls! Woo hoo! I got to opal 2 with all my stuff and went to collect my key. Let me tell you, this place is swanky. I have my own room and bathroom which is pretty sweet. I share a kitchen and common room with 5 other people, a few of which I met. One of the girls is even in my Human osteology program! Opal 2 also has a gym, pool, hot tub, sauna, and a steam room. Since it’s located in my building (there are 4 buildings that make up Opal 2) I plan on using it a lot. The tram line actually picks up and drops off right outside my building and goes right to Northgate house where all my archaeology classes are.

After settling in and taking a much needed nap , Flor, Natalie and I went into the city center to pick up some things. I got a few essentials like toilet paper and a laundry hamper. We were starving so we walked around a bit before going to a restaurant/bar in the city. We went and sat down at the table and were waiting for someone to come over and take our orders. After about 20 minutes of no service we asked the person behind us what was going on. Apparently we were supposed to but our order in at the bar, pay, then go sit down. Whoops.  We hoped on the tram back to Opal and dropped off our purchases. We didn’t know that on the tram If you’re getting off you have to press the open door button at the stop, otherwise the doors will stay closed. So we missed our stop and had to get off at the next one.

We dropped off our stuff then headed to Tesco to buy some groceries. I got my regular staples of bread, PB & J, pasta, butter, milk and cereal. I don’t have any plates or bowls so for dinner I made myself a PB and J. Tomorrow we are going to head to the mall to see if we can get our phones working and to pick up the rest of the stuff we need. It's kind of annoying to have to go to several different stores to get stuff and to have to make so many trips because you can't carry it all. I'm so used to running to Walmart or target then loading up the car to bring it home. Having to buy enough food just for a few days is going to take some getting used to. 

A bond formed in Queue

9/13/2012

I was so cold all night. My heater isn’t on but no one else seems to be having such a bad time with the room tempture. I had to wear my jacket to bed! In the morning I found that my window wasn’t all the way shut and it was letting all the cold air in.

Today I wasn’t feeling to well. My head hurt and I had a bad stomach ache that I just couldn’t shake.  Our morning lecture was on British culture in which I learned that to line cut or queue jump in very offensive, and that it is never acceptable to sit next someone on the bus if there is another seat available.

After a morning of learning how to live with British people I went to Elmsfield hall with a bunch of other people to verify our passports and visas. Outside was a huge queue but we figured it would go pretty quick so we jumped in line. 3 hours later we finally made it to the desk. Since there were quite a few of us together we got pretty rowdy. We were sitting in a waiting room for a bit and whenever someone new walked in we would all yell “welcome!!”  When I finally got to the front of the queue and handed the man my passport to check I was informed that, I was in fact,  technically in the country illegally. My visa was never stamped at the U.K border because I went through customs in Ireland, not in the UK. They told me it wasn’t a big deal and to come back Monday to meet with the immigration officer. But after 3 hours of waiting in the queue I almost cried in frustration.  But I feel a bond was formed between myself and the other orientation students forced to wait. We even are all going to the mall tomorrow!

Wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy

9/11/2012

My first night in England was a rough one.  I fell asleep instantly but kept waking up not knowning where I was. I got up at 6:30, I was so tiered I sat in my bed for a good 20 minutes mentally willing myself to get up.  After getting myself pumped with some Kesha and got ready and went to breakfast. I met some other American students and a few other archaeology students, including one in my specific course. It was great meeting someone I would be spending my classes with.

After Breakfast we all went to the student union for some informational seminars. We got a tour of the union, which includes not one but TWO bars, 3 cafes, 4 floors, and a movie theater. It’s a pretty sweet place, I can tell I’m going to spend a lot of time there. We then took a short tour of the campus which did not help me at all in learning how to get around. After A few weeks I’m sure I will get used to it.

We walked back to the main hall and had dinner. The food hasn’t been too bad here which is nice. After dinner was quiz night. We split up between teams of 10 and the asked a lot of random questions about Sheffield, Britian, and other general knowledge stuff. Did you know that Ecuador uses the American dollar? Cause I didn’t. Amazingly my team won!! They said our team name (the wicked Kunals [Kunal is an orientaion leader]) and we all kind of looked at eachother like “is that us? I think that’s us”. We won free tickets to a big party during intro week which was pretty cool. This means that I am 2 for 2 on quiz night wins, go me.

I hung out some people in my hall for a bit before going on the hunt of power source. My laptop was almost dead but I couldn’t get my adapters to charge it. I was thinking “really? None of my stuff is going to work is it”. I was finally able to get the cord to work which was awesome. It’s not just me with these problems either, a lot of people from many different countries are having problems with their electronics. It's nice to .know that we're not struggling alone

This place is amazing, the campus is beautiful, and the people are unbelievably friendly. I’m so happy I choose Sheffield, I’m really loving it here. 

Ready for takeoff

The day of my flight was exactly as terrible as I thought it was. It was horrible waiting around all day for the taxi to pick us up at 2:30. I had such conflicting emotions. I was so excited to finally get to go to England. I have been dreaming about it since I found out I got accepted back in February.  On the other hand I was leaving my family, my friends and the only life I had ever known.

 We got to the airport around 3 and checked all my baggage. I am happy to announce that both my bags were both under 50 pounds. We sat around the airport and got something to eat. At 4 I had to go to security so I had to say my goodbyes. I was doing okay and then my dad gave me a big hug and I lost it. I balled my eyes out. The people around us probably thought I  was crazy. My brother hugged me and told me corny words of wisdom like “Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you’ll end up among the stars”. Thanks Jack really appreciate it. My mom was the worst. I’ve always had an amazing relationship with my mom. She is very much my best friend and having to say good bye was awful.  I was still crying a but while I went through security. As I went through I could see my family watching me, I couldn’t look at them because if I did the tears would come again.

I found my gate and then walked around the terminal for a bit. I went and got my favorite celebrity gossip magazines for the flight. I also went into the duty free shops and tried out a bunch of makeup.  My flight boarded at 4:50 and I found my seat and settled in.

I have come leaps and bounds with my fear of flying. After having to fly so much in the past few years I think I’ve just gotten used to it. The flight went by pretty quickly. Half way through the sound on the tv on the back of the seats went out, so I just listened to music and read some of my magazines. 

I got to Dublin and immediately realized that my phone wasn’t getting any reception. I have international calling so theoretically it should work. I called my parents on pay phone to tell them I’ve arrived safely and that my phone wasn’t working. My flight to Manchester took off at 6:30 and I was finally making it the England! Woo hoo! Nothing notable on that flight since it was rather short. But of course being me it wasn’t all that uneventful. There was a bus that took us from the plane to the terminal to get my luggage. It was pretty packed so I didn’t have any place to sit or to hold on to. The bus started moving and as it turned the first corner I immediately fell into three British old business men. My first introduction to British people and I fall. Also, because my backpack was so large ,I smacked another man in the face with it. Awesome.

I got my luggage no problem and made my way to the arrivals area. What surprised me was that I didn’t have to go through customs or border patrol or anything. I just grabbed my luggage and walked out.

I met the people from Sheffield that were picking me up. They had big signs that said University of Sheffield on them so they were hard to miss. After waiting about 2 hours for everyone else to arrive  we boarded the bus and made our way to Sheffield. It’s about an hour and half drive to Sheffield from Manchester. At first England didn’t look much different than Rochester, but as we got into the country side it really began to hit me that I was in fact aboard.  This country is beautiful,  all rolling hills and stone walls. I saw a ton of sheep and little cobble stone houses.

We arrived in Sheffield and started to go through registration. I got my room keys and all my information packets.  It turns out that I can actually open a bank account here pretty easily which I didn’t think I could. They had a bunch of local banks there to talk to us about signing up for an account.

After eating my bagged lunch, and the driest chicken sandwich I have ever had, I grabbed my bags and moved into my room for the week. I spent a good hour in my room kind of decompressing. I read through all the information they gave me and washed up a bit. I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and put on a fresh face of makeup and felt 10x better.

I went back to the main hall and started to meet and hang out with people.  The amount of countries represented here is astounding. I met a ton of people from China, Japan, all around Europe and South East Asia. I have yet to meet another American but I am told there are about 7 or 8 of us. I think I’ve answered the question “ Where are you from?” about a million times.  After dinner, and really delicious cheese cake, a few people and I walked around the area for a bit. The houses here are so cute, stone with little walls and ivy, some even have little towers.  I want to live in one, they’re adorable. We returned to the main hall and I just sat and talked with a bunch of people.

At around 9 I got really tiered and went back to my room. I took a much needed shower and plugged in my computer to check my email. To my surprise I couldn’t get the internet to work. Turns out I had never done a part of my pre-registation stuff that would give me acess to the internet. So I have to go to what’s called the Information commons and register. I went to bed around 10pm.

It's the final countdown...

So this is it. Tomorrow I leave for England. I keep going back and forth between absolute terror at the aspect of leaving and super excited to go to Sheffield. I guess that’s normal when starting a whole new chapter of life. A part of me still doesn’t believe I’m going. I mean this time last year I would have called you crazy if you said I would be moving to England for my Master’s.

This is hard; it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I’m starting completely over; I literally don’t know a soul over there. The support system I’ve built over the past few years at Brockport aren’t around anymore and that’s scary.

Before flying out my family and I visited my brother in New York City. Jack moved to Queens about a year ago and I still have not been up there to visit so it was nice to have time to visit. We headed up Thursday morning and got in around 3pm. I met Jack’s roommate Kevin who is pretty cool.

Friday my Mom, Dad and I went to central park while my brother was at work. We walked around the park for a few hours. I finally saw strawberry fields and the Alice and Wonderland statue. It’s such a cool park, I wish we had had more time and energy to walk around. After the park we walked to Times Square and hung out there for a while.

Saturday we all went to the Museum of Natural history. It’s my favorite museum so I was excited to get to go again. While we were there we met up with my two cousins Mike and Jimmy. We walked around the museum for a few hours till we got hungry. We then went to the shake shack and had one of the best burgers I’ve ever had. If you get the chance the Shake shack is awesome. After that we took the subway to the World trade center, but it was raining really bad so we didn’t go see the memorial. That night Jimmy and Mike came over, had dinner and played cards for a little while.

My plane leaves tomorrow at 5:40 pm. The taxi is picking us up at 2pm then taking us directly to the airport. I’m flying out on Aer lingus, I have a layover in Dublin before flying to Manchester.  People from the university are picking me up at the airport and taking me to international student orientation. It’s going to be a busy day. I move into my actual room on September 15^th. I’m living in Opal 2 which includes a full gym, sauna and a pool! Sweet deal!

So off I go. I leave you with the immortal words of John Denver:          

                                                                    

All my Bags are packed I’m ready to go
I’m standing here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breaking it’s early morn
The Taxi’s waiting, it’s blowing it’s horn
already I’m so lonely I could die

So Kiss me and Smile for me
Tell me that you’ll wait for me
Hold me like you’ll never let me go
cause I’m leaving on jet plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again
Oh Babe I hate to go

All my bags are packed...

Packing is stupid. Try packing your entire life into two suitcases, it’s fucking hard. I didn’t even know where to start. I looked up online for packing lists from people that had previously studied abroad. They gave me a ton of good tips. There’s a bunch of stuff that’s common sense: bring underwear, pack a sweatshirts, etc etc. But there were also stuff I didn’t think about, like electric converters and to by most of my toiletries in the UK.

Since my brother is moved out I used his room for packing central. Looking at all the stuff I had to bring was pretty daunting, how the hell was I supposed to fit all this stuff? The answer, SPACE BAGS. Seriously best things on earth, gift from god. I was able to bring twice the amount of stuff. I packed my entire bedding collection, including my comforter, sheets, two pillows and my heated blanket, into a 1 ½ ‘’ cube. It was great for all my clothes, and jackets. I never travel without space bags.

Instead of using luggage I used rolling duffle bags. These things are lighter then luggage and you can fit more stuff in them. Also after everything is taken out they flatten down really well and can be stored easily. I got mine from Sear’s for $40 bucks each and there awesome.

After I figured out what I had I made a list of all the stuff I needed. Which included rain jacket, boots, sneakers, converters, and about seven hundred other things. Me and my mom went to the mall and did some marathon shopping. I got the cutest boots that I can’t wait to wear with my new skinny jeans!

I was so happy when I finally finished. It was such a relief to be packed and ready, but also kind of sad. I had packed up my life into two bags. It was the first time it felt real that I was going, that it was actually happening.

Some tips of packing for a year:

1)      Space bags, seriously get some.

2)      Pack enough toiletries to get by for a week. I bought little 3oz bottles from Wegmans and filled them with shampoo, conditioner, body wash and face wash. Then I got travel size toothpaste and was set. Unless you’re really picky about toiletries you can buy them all in the country you’re heading to. Saves a ton of room in the luggage.

3)      Duffle bags instead of upright luggage.

4)      Bring decorations! Nothings worse than a dorm room with nothing in it to make you homesick. I had a ton of money left on my printing quota at Brockport so I took a bunch of pictures off of pinterest and photos off of facebook and printed them out. I think I have a like 100 pages of pictures to hang up. Since there just paper there flat and can be easily put into luggage without taking up as much room as posters.

5)      Once you have your campus address you can order things off of Amazon or Tesco and have it sent to your room.

Getting there is half the battle

Getting a student Visa was the most ridiculous thing ever. First of all we ended up doing my financial stuff wrong and my parents ended up having to redo all of it because I was at camp the whole summer. After that we finally got my financial declaration from Sheffield (basically a document that says I will be able to afford to attend school). Then I couldn’t figure why I wasn’t being sent my CAS number, which is a number that basically tells the consulate that I am confirmed as a student at the university. Turns out that the university wasn’t sending me my number was because my offer of place was not yet unconditional. I had two conditions that going to Sheffield were based on: 1^st that I had to graduate college, 2^nd that I had to get at least a final GPA of 3.2. Both of which I did of course. I thought I had sent all this information in but my application was never changed to unconditional.

I finally worked all the kinks with my offer and I was sent my CAS number. Turns out for my Visa I also had to get my biometrics done. Which is a fancy word for getting my finger prints taken. But I needed to do this at an immigration office, the closet of which is in Buffalo. So my dad and I hop in the car and go get my fingerprints taken. My life of crime is officially over.

So my Visa was finally finished (woo hoo!) and I had to expedite the process because I had about a week and half left before I flew to England. It takes about 10-15 business days for a Visa to be processed  so I needed to pay extra ($150) to get it done in time. Visa came in time and I can now legally reside in the United Kingdom until January 14^th 2014.

Some tips on getting a student Visa for England:

1)      It’s expensive; it cost $489 dollars to get the Visa plus the $150 to get it done in 3 days.

2)      Start early! Don’t be like me and do it less than a month before.

3)      You have to get your fingerprints done at an immigration center, which sometimes is a bit far away.

4)      If you live in the NYC area you can actually pay about $100 dollars and go to the consulate to have your application processed that day.

5)      The priority service and the consulate appointment can be booked through a site called worldbridge which is associated with the UK consulate.