Week 2

I admit this week is no where near as interesting as the first but then again it can't be that exciting all the time. So after a full week of classes i can finally get a feel for the place. It's such a quiet campus i cannot get over how quiet it is but judging by the amount of reading and work i got in my first week I'm guessing most people are working all the time to keep up.

The professors are really nice and friendly even more so with being an international student they tend to help you a bit more in terms of where things are/how to access the blackboard equivalent and so on. I was really quite anxious and nervous to attend classes but it's so friendly staff and students you instantly feel comfortable here. Still no news on the dinner at a professors house! but not sure that's a line i'd like to venture into to be honest. 
They all have an amazing background too. Take my tutor for example, Richard Mahoney, Ex politician for Arizona, Film maker and writer who now works at Juniata College in Peace and Conflict Studies. They all seem to have attended IVY league university too which you can tell through their teaching and knowledge but they don't overload you with information so again its very comfortable yet tiring in class. 

So on Tuesday in my Media Violence class we had a guest lecturer, Mike Trimm, he is best known for Weeds (US TV show) the Oscar winning film Mississippi Burning amongst other popular films and TV shows. I must admit it was pretty amazing to have someone with such experience talking to us for the afternoon, he also attended Juniata class of '76 and it's amazing to see how far he has come along. His major was in English and didn't initially have any intention of being in the film industry he claims a lot of his success has been on luck rather than himself. Whilst he was giving his class he mentioned that Huntingdon, PA by percentage of population has more guns than anywhere else in the United States other than the Army base! At this point myself and Phil (German exchange student) leant back and commented to each other that the thought of that is pretty scary! Especially seeing as most of the students here have their own guns on campus to go hunting with! i am so grateful i live with a vegetarian! 


http://www.tusseymountain.com/


Seeing as there is no public transport in the whole of Huntingdon the college do a ski trip for $27 (lessons included) every Sunday so i may give that a go in the very near future although having never skied in my entire life this could be interesting. 

Week One.

Bad start!

Never fly with British Airways- cancelled our flight at 2am the day we were to fly; reasons unknown, excuse given was snow.... there was no snow. Nonetheless we made it! =)

In the morning the snow came!

New York was even more amazing than the last time i was there! We only really had one full day there but it was still brilliant. in the morning we hit Macy's for supplies to take to Juniata the following day. so shopping in the largest department store in the world is a nightmare- in comes our personal shopper Nancy. Yes we got ourselves a personal shopper to lighten the load we couldn't have asked for a nicer person to help us and it meant we were done in only 2 hours rather than struggling to find everything on our own.

Lazily we called a taxicab even though we were in a hotel two blocks away from Macy's we simply had too much to carry but more time to chill out and see New York that way. Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and my God did we order too much food!!!! As always it was delicious. So far so good we had all our things [bedding etc] and so much time to spare we enjoyed a nice wander around times square and a bit of personal shopping rather than necessities.

At night we hit Planet Hollywood for drinks- well free refills of Pepsi in the end!

Packing all our stuff was interesting to say the least. 12 bags between us made it a very heavy load. The porter at the hotel seems a bit alarmed at our luggage on the way into the hotel as we were only checked in for 2 nights yet we managed to leave with almost double!

We got the train down to Huntingdon as it was cheaper but also we wouldn't have luggage limitations. Was the best choice as we did get to see an awful lot of the countryside. the downside to this was the annoying drunken old man on the train. He picked a fight with a gang from Brooklyn, New York- no idea why. but after a few hours of him being a pain and claiming to have a gun, bomb in a bag and looking at "pink clouds" the guards had him arrested at Lewistown and in the end Jodie and I had to give our details to the police as witnesses.

We arrived in the dark at Huntingdon dumped our bags in our dorms and all the international students went out for dinner. 5 of us over age 21 wanted to go to a bar... we assumed there would be a few... there is only 2. so we set off walking with directions and managed to get lost! getting lost in a very small town is a fine talent to have! Nathan, the international leader, had picked the rest up from the restaurant and spotted us stood on the side of the road confused, took pity on us and drove us to the bars. Memories and Johnnys. two bars 50:50 chance of getting it right....no we got it wrong we went into the wrong bar! No music, No lemonade [i.e. no vodka lemonade for me] pretty dead in there apparently that was the bar we should have avoided. Oops!

The next day was the start of orientation... boring but necessary. We also received training on what to do should someone come onto campus with a gun and start shooting.....

the next four days was pretty much just orientation related activities but Saturday night we went up to State College shopping and went ice skating at Penn State Uni!!!!!!!

Sunday the other students arrived back and i met my room mate Monica. She is of Indian descent and had just come back from a semester at Leeds University UK. She is pre-med at Juniata with the hope to go to Penn State afterwards.

Monday was first day of classes and i was pretty nervous but they went well. I am taking Philosophy, Women and Literature, Forms of Literature and Media Violence. There is a hell of a lot more work here than at Lincoln that's for sure! For a start we have to do all the reading! The professors seem really lovely and helpful, i have heard that some of them will even invite you round to their house for dinner.....

Word of warning though- books are expensive! $79.95 for my philosophy book!

I was a little nervous about this room share thing as i have NEVER shared a room with anyone in my entire life as i am an only child but in all honesty it's not bad at all. I have a good room mate she is lovely and knows what it's like to be an international which is good as she has the experience too. The rooms are bigger than i expected too.

One Week to go.

I have one week left in the UK and although it is an exciting experience and one thing or another it is also fairly stressful. I have one essay left to do and a whole load of packing amongst other things but im confident to say it will all come together.
It's more the actual travelling i am not looking forward to, 10 hour flight to JFK, NY on Tuesday 11th January and then on the Thursday a 6 hour train down to Huntingdon, PA.

So far only thing i would do differently would be to "cut the middle man" out. Seriously wish i had just sorted my own placement out rather than rely on other people.

I just hope things go how i imagined when i get there.

Fingers Crossed