Arriving

Here I am in England! I just woke up from what must be the longest amount of time I have ever slept in my life.  I had a flight from Syracuse to Atlanta, a ten hour layover, then a flight from Atlanta to Manchester--where we proceeded to take three trains and a taxi to finally reach our destination.  Needless to say, I was a little exhausted. Note to self: there is neverrr a need for a ten hour layover. Ever. It is a long time, especially when you're by yourself almost the whole time.  I was exhausted then, and had to keep myself awake to make sure nothing happened to my things--though there was absolutely no one in my terminal anyway for a solid seven of those ten hours. Then there was the eight hour flight to Manchester.  I was seated next to an old lady from Yorkshire who was leaving from visiting her daughter in Pawley's Island.  She was very nice, but also very old and I didn't want to make her move if I needed to get up for some reason. Thank goodness I didn't.  We went through a line showing our passports (and apparently getting our Visas, though I didn't need to show the person any proof of my student status, she just stamped my passport) and then proceeded to grab our luggage and book it towards the 'station' where we got railcards and our train tickets to Telford.  We took a first train to a place called Crewe, then another to Shrewsbury, then yet another to Telford Central. From Telford, we took a taxi to the school.  We met with our contact who showed us our rooms. After freshening up and getting a little food, we met with her again and got some paperwork out of the way.  Another one of our contacts met with us afterwards to look over our schedules for classes and to take us to the grocery store to get some food.  Several comments on this: 1) Driving on the wrong side of the road is super strange, no matter how much you think you're prepared for it.  Not only does it seem that the driver is in the passenger seat all the time, but it always seems as if you're going to run into oncoming cars, because you think they're in the same lane as you.  2) No french/catalina dressing in the supermarket I went to. This is the only type of dressing I like on salad, so there will be something done about that. 3) English coins are confusing, but amazing. It makes me wish we had more coins in America.  I have so far collected the two pence, five pence, twenty pence, one pound, and two pound coins. And they are all sorts of beautiful.
That is all I have to report on so far. Classes start Monday.

Home (bitter)sweet home

Less than four days until I embark on an adventure in England! I can count that on one hand.  Yikes! I'm excited and nervous (more excited than nervous.  I'm sure that when it hits me as real, I'll feel more nervous).  How scary to think that I'll be living in a different country for the next four months.  I spent the last couple days (and will spend the next several days) seeing people before I leave, as well as getting in what snowmobiling I can before I can't snowmobile again this season.  As I hugged my best friend goodbye today, I couldn't help but think how bittersweet it is to leave home again.  It's also funny how every time I say goodbye, people leave me with the same message: Have fun, Don't get abducted.  While I'm not so much worried about getting abducted (especially as Dad is working on becoming the next Liam Neeson) I know that I will definitely have fun. Home will always be home and saying goodbye will always be bittersweet, but an adventure like this is priceless.
Don't worry about me, I'm ganna have a blast!

Quotes Galore

I have heard different things about how to bring up old memories--Maybe by writing funny moments down and putting them in a jar, and looking through all of them at the end of each year.  I think that I'm going to have to start a daily book of quotes.  I write down "quotes of the day" all the time.  I have quotes from friends, professors, and family scribbled on random pieces of paper and in my notebooks.  I think I'm going to have to designate a journal specifically for favorite quotes and quotes of the day.  Today's quote of the day so far: "Cause it really wouldn't be good if our wedding rings turned into pencils"
Enjoy your Monday! 

Pre-Thankyouday

Well, with Thanksgiving quickly approaching, I'm excited to be heading home for the holiday.  Less than 24 hours now! I haven't been home in a solid month and a half (weaning in preparation for abroad, surely).  I'm so excited to see everyone and to see Emmy! I miss my little pup.  Of course I have a checklist for my home-ly activities.
-Check mushroom log (inoculated with mushrooms in class last year...I'm still trying to see if it grows)
-Prune apple tree
-Get out Christmas Decorations!!
-Get some much needed rest before finals
-Eat some yummy turkey and potatoes and stuffing and pie slash home cooked food in general

It's such a tease! I only get to be home a couple days and will be back for several weeks before I'm actually done.  How mean, Cornell!

Elements!

Chemistry is not as easy as it looks, kids.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not terrible at chemistry, and I do enjoy it. (Especially the labs, they make me feel like such a chemist!) But it does have its difficult moments.  To make up for my complete lack of chemistry brains, I thought that maybe I would instead make use of my memory talents in memorizing The Elements Song.  The song, however, has proven itself to me as being very fast and super difficult to memorize. It also takes substantial warming up or the vocal chords and lips to be able to sing the song as fast as it should be, like in this here video:

I am still intending on memorizing this song.  Give it some time!

Abroad Countdown!

Approximate countdown for England-bound me.

COUNTDOWN WEBSITE

Updates

Hi all!
We will not linger on the fact that I have not blogged in months, but instead skip forward to the part where I hope to be better about it in the future...especially as..I'M GOING ABROAD!
I'm so excited about it, as I've never been out of the country.  I'm studying at a small agriculture focused college in the UK.  Right now I'm really busy as I plan and find an airplane ticket and apply for my visa and such, but I'm sure it will be fully worth it and I look forward to living in another country for a little while.  A friend of mine is abroad right now and keeps an updated blog.  I'm sure that she misses Cornell, but it also sounds like she thinks it's nice to get away from Cornell for a little bit.  I can imagine that will be nice. I do love it here, but this semester has been very busy and stressful...a semester's break from that kind of stress will be greatly appreciated.  So here is my potential to-do list for going abroad:
-Learn how to play Cricket
-Start drinking tea
-Purchase Plane Ticket
-Get Visa
-Ask tons of questions to people that actually know what they're doing when it comes to going abroad.
-Watch more Rugby
-Start saying things like "Bob's your uncle" and "Jolly old chap"