Ruminations in the airport

12/17/12

As I sit here in the Manchester airport waiting for my flight to Dublin I’m starting to reminense about my first semester at Sheffield. I went back and reread some of my old blog posts and realized how glad I am that I made them. It’s great seeing where I started from and where I am now.

The beginning of the semester was indescribably difficult. Starting over in a brand new country; literally on my own for the first time ever. I was so lost the first few weeks. Having to plan out meals and time to do laundry and all of those adultish things I had never really done. I’m proud to say I can now cook a multitude of dishes, as long as they only have 3 or 4 ingredients. I have mastered the art of getting on and off the Sheffield tram. I now look the correct way for cars when crossing the road. Standing in a long queue is nothing to me now. While I still don’t consider myself an adult (and hope I never do), I’m beginning to full grown up for the first time in my life.

I think for me the hardest part of this is going to be going home.  It’s kind of like reverse culture shock. I’ll miss being able to walk where ever I need to go, or hopping on the tram. On the plus side I can now legally drive a car, so that’s nice! I’m planning on a Christmas drinking game where I take a shot every time someone asks me how England was.

I have met such amazing people this semester. Some of my good friends are from all over the world, well Europe mostly but it counts. I love hanging out with all of them and hope we can go traveling next semester.

And yes the classes were hard, harder then I honestly expected it to be. I look back on how much I’ve learned this semester and am honestly amazed. Hopefully next semester will be less intense, so I can you know, breathe.

I have loved every moment of my time abroad. There were some hard times, but I expected there to be. It was sad leaving my apartment this morning knowing I wouldn’t be back for a little over a month and a half.

So Sheffield, thanks for the memories and see you in the new year . 

A New Yorker in old York

12/10/12

On Thursday the 29^th a few of the girls and I went to York for the day. A friend of mine, liz, lives in York and was nice enough to show us around. We got to the train station around 9:30 for our 9:47 train, only to find out it had been delayed about an hour. While waiting for the train I met a pigeon that was not suitably afraid of humans. I thought it was going to jump up onto my lap! We finally got on the train and headed off to York.

I had never been on train before (not counting subways or the tram) so I didn’t know what to expect. It took us a lot longer for us to get there then normal because the trains were running slow due to flooding.

It was beautiful when we got to York, albeit a bit cold. We got of the train and immediately saw an old wall of the city. We all decided that it was the wall in the north from Game of thrones and started quoting the show. I even took a picture of me as a watcher on the wall. Liz took us to the medieval abbey first. I have a bunch of pictures of it up on facebook if you want to look. It was really cool because you could see where the Roman part of the abbey stopped and the medieval part started. There were also a few empty stone coffins, one of which Caroline planked on.

Next we walked on the wall of the old roman fort. It’s a long wall that used to enclose the city. We walked into several of the towers which was pretty cool Now I want to live in a place with towers, and castles. Next we did a bit of shopping. We immediately found the fudge shop where I got white chocolate fudge, yummy. Liz went to go meet up with her parents for lunch and we headed to a pub to get some food. I finally got my English fish and chips! Only took me a semester.

After lunch we went to the Christmas market. It was really cute, they had a ton of booths set up and food stands. People were selling holiday crafts, toys and of course food. Instead of normal booths they had little sheds that looked like houses. I bought a little penguin ornament that I immediately had to have after I saw it. I think I have a strange obsession with penguins, I don’t care there adorable. We stopped and got hot spiced apple juice (basically hot cider) and hot chocolate with baileys. After the market we went and got tea and warmed up. I love that here in England when you order tea they bring you a little pot of tea instead of just a cup.

After tea we went shopping at a bunch of the stores in York and went to an area called the shambles. The shambles are buildings built in the medieval period that look like they are about to fall over. They reminded me a lot of Diagon alley in Harry Potter. Around 7 pm we decided to leave and headed back to the train station.

We had a terrific day and I’m so glad Liz was able to show us around.  It was nice to actually see more of England then just Sheffield. Next semester our weekly work load in less intense and we’ll be able to travel more.

This week is my last week of classes for this semester! I just have to finish up my skeletal analysis for my adult and juvenile skeletons and take my final anatomy exam on Thursday and I’m home free! This anatomy test is going to kill me I think. I’m terrified I’ll do worse on this test and end up failing the class.

I have the Osteo Christmas party this Friday and we’re all wearing ugly Christmas sweaters. I got mine form a shop called Cow and it’s fantastic. I might have to wear it for Christmas eve!