Week 15

Hi folks!

This week I reached day 100 of me being here! I cannot get over how fast the time has flown; I am actually really saddened by this as it means my time is almost up. It saddens me more because I feel I am now at better place with professors, building that relationship with them that Juniata College offers; I just hope I can keep in contact with them. To celebrate my 100^th day Monica and I headed to Mimi’s for drinks...again seems like this is our weekly thing together. As it was my 100^th day this lead to the conversation of memories and reminiscing over the past 100 days which to be honest, as nice as it was it was also very depressing.

Day 100 spent at Mimis for 7 hours! 

The White Rabbit

With it being Easter Weekend most people have gone home so Friday was spent watching movies such as....40 year old Virgin, Miss Congeniality, Goodnight Mr Tom and the Die Hard marathon! Yes I watched Die Hard 1-4 back to back =)

Saturday was very exciting as I went to Professor Donna Weimers house for dinner and to watch Dr Who. No I am not a Dr Who fan but it was worth going to see it not only to get out a dorm and into a house but it was so much fun. We had Asian food such as Thai and Japanese and more alcohol, seems this week is the week for drinking! I also got a mug of YORKSHIRE tea! This made me very happy. Donna was concerned there would not be enough food! Think Vicar of Dibley when she ate all those Christmas dinners, running out of food was not going to happen. When I arrived here I was told it is possible you may be invited to a professors house in the 4 years of being here, I assumed in one semester this would not be doable, however, this is event number 5. I feel stupidly pleased for this achievement but never mind it was a lot of fun to get out the dorm and into a nice house. I would move in tomorrow! I discover on Saturday that there is life at the top of the hill and it is where all the rich people live. This makes so much sense seeing as how the “downtown” area doesn’t look very appealing.

Sunday was a lovely sunny day and all of a sudden the trees had blossomed which is making the town really pretty. I would rather the town looked horrible for me leaving so I don’t get as upset but apparently I cannot control nature. Also, the school food here is dire; however, on Easter Sunday they must have ordered take away food and passed it off as their own! We had lasagne which was more like cheese and broccoli bake, sweetcorn and pasta! It wasn’t like The Ivy, but it was hot for a start and more edible than normal.

My life has been overruled by an enormous amount of work right now, I feel the pile is never ending and the deadlines are approaching rapidly.  11 days until D-Day! Yikes! I have one presentation, 4 essays and an exam to do. Bearing in mind at Lincoln I get 4 essays per semester, here I’ve had about 4 per week!

also, signs for "before i die" have appeared everywhere, mine was to swim with sharks.


Tuesday we had temperature of 30C so i spent the afternoon laid out on the grass. Never felt so relaxed in a long time! but then, at night fall, thunderstorms arrived..

Week 14

So this week folks it has been eventful. Firstly, on Wednesday I went with the intercultural communications class to an Amish market in Bellville. Although it rained all day it was fun to see the Amish. Now, they have really strict lives which also include a no photo policy. Because of the rain this made it difficult to even get a sneaky photo of them. They believe that by taking their photo you are stealing their soul. We set off at around 9am and were back by 2pm. In the morning we went to the market and lunch onwards we were at a professor’s house for lunch and to see her farm. Even though it was raining it was still a good trip out. I got an Amish cookbook, Amish FAQ book and a new hat. I also had no classes that day so that I could attend the trip.

Thursday was the Juniata College’s Liberal Arts Symposium which happens every year. This is an event in which the seniors present their final thesis. I attended a communications block which consisted of three presenters. One of them did the hero’s journey on the show Survivor, another one did the colour pink and it’s ideology with breast cancer and finally the third did Jon Stewarts take on the Ground Zero Mosque. Initially I was dreading having to go as I didn’t know what to expect. But I am glad I did go and wished I’d gone to more but I’d spent the morning dying my hair which took up time. In the evening Monica and I headed down to Mimi’s for happy hour which turned into happy hour +3hrs. WE are now so frequent the actual Mimi who owns the place comes over to chat and to see how we are. Mimi’s real name is Rhonda. So day two of no classes.

Friday was a good day, the sun was shining, and birds were singing and yes another day with no classes! Monica had headed to Philadelphia for the weekend so I had the room to myself Friday- Sunday.

Saturday was Relay for Life. I had raised over $100 myself, not the team, so I was awarded a free T-shirt for my efforts. The team hadn’t raised anything at this point. Relay for life is similar to the Race for Life in England but this is 12hours of different fundraising activities which includes relays. The weather had turned into a monsoon and therefore the event was moved to inside. I was forced to try a deep fried Oreo!

I have also received an invitation to another Professors house for a picnic on May 2^nd! Now I was aware this may happen but usually it’s not this common or this soon. This will be my 3^rd outing with a professor outside of school hours!

So this Saturday was Relay for Life here at JC, 12 hours of different events and fundraising. I personally raised $114 so I got a free t-shirt or rather a very expensive one! The day was good but was moved inside due to the monsoon that occurred all day and night. Approximately $25,000 was raised in total.

On Monday I was told to watch Disney’s Mulan and write about it for my literature class, I thought it was an odd request but oh well. For now it is bye bye life hello pile of work.

I have another invite to a professors house on Saturday night for dinner and movie =) total= 5!

Bon Voyage!

Week 13

Welcome folks!

This week has been a little more exciting than the week before. On Wednesday I got a S’mores cupcake! Now I realise this doesn’t sound interesting, but let me explain. S’mores bars are a rarity here at Juniata, mostly because they are the only edible food on campus. Wednesday they had them in cupcake form.

Thursday was interesting as it was the kick off for Genocide Awareness Week with Ervin Staub. (See http://www.ervinstaub.com/) for more details. Ervin is a well accredited professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts and has done a considerable amount of work in Rwanda to prevent genocide. This was a requirement that I attended this event, and although a little depressing, it was fairly interesting.

Friday came another compulsory event- I swear Madonna has less events to attend! Unlock Your Voice- a celebration of women writers. Basically people took a piece of literature and read it out at a coffeehouse event. The turnout was more than I expected but a lot of it was a requirement for classes. Now Friday was stressful and I shall tell you why. The American Government had until midnight to make a deal regarding the budget otherwise the Government would close down. What did that mean for us? The trip to Washington DC on the Saturday would be limited as all the Smithsonian Museums would be closed, anything government ran would be closed. Passports invalid for travel, military wouldn’t get paid. As it was explained, no one working directly for the government would have a job until this issue was resolved and therefore out of pay. The national zoo would be closed, but the lions and tigers would still get fed. Panic! Saturday I was embarking on a long bus trip to Washington DC to primarily go to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History to see all the dinosaurs. Let me put this into context. I love dinosaurs and had been looking forward to this for a few weeks now; I had watched Jurassic Park in sheer preparation of seeing the dinosaurs in the museum. I was a happy bunny counting down the long hours that stood between me and the giant T-rex. I even phoned the museum trying to get some clarification of the potential shut down of the Smithsonian’s- they confirmed they could indeed be closed. I even got desperate enough to Google Natural history Museums in Las Vegas! 11:07pm they struck a deal- the Smithsonian’s would be open. Relief! I didn’t sleep through sheer excitement of seeing the dinosaurs.

9am we set off from Juniata College, Huntingdon on a four hour bus ride through the Appalachian Mountains to Washington DC. We passed through Maryland along the way and 1pm we arrived at the National Mall, Washington DC outside the Air and Space Museum.

First we went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History to of course see my dinosaurs. I was once again a happy bunny =)

They were so beautiful and well worth waiting for!

After that I did my rounds at Hard Rock Cafe then made my way along to The White House.

Meagan and I got slightly lost and ended up going to the Washington Memorial and then along through the World War II Memorial. At this point feet hurt, and there was a bike/trolley thing so we hopped in and $20 later we were at the Lincoln Memorial. I wanted the money shot of the reflection pool so we climbed and climbed to the top of the steps, turned around knowing the reflection pool was behind us and then we saw it.... EMPTY! Full of sand! It was a giant sand pit! We considered re-enacting the scene from Forrest Gump when he did his Vietnam War speech and Jenny came running through the water but in our case it was quick sand. However, we decided to take silly photos of Meagan leaning on the Lincoln Memorial. We did attract a big crowd but never mind.

Next Stop: Obama’s Crib.

We were ambitious; we thought we may get an invite for dinner but no. Along the way we did see the DAR headquarters [Daughters of the American Revolution] and a rugby match on a small piece of grass. The White House was well white. Nothing much to report on to be honest, we thought in the distance Obama was sunbathing in his Speedos on his decking but it wasn’t him.

We had to be back at the bus for 8:45pm so we hit the city for food. This was not to be. Restaurants are a rarity in DC- we asked a number of cops and security guards for places to eat and they replied there isn’t anywhere really in the city. Great! In the end we found Hooters Chinatown DC.

The bus ride back was long and tiring but a worthwhile trip to DC. Would I go to DC again? No but I am glad I went anyway. I much prefer New York. Meagan prefers New York too, but then again she is from Manhattan so it’s understandable.

Naturally Sunday was spent being lazy and trying to stay awake to do bits of work. Nothing to strenuous I may add. 

Monday was a BEAUTIFUL day until mid-afternoon and thunderstorms arrived. I am noticing the correlation between hot days and the storms arriving shortly after. It still stays warm though so it's not like the temperature drops at all. As stated above, S'more cakes were available, but now the real S'mores bars are back!!!

Hasta la vista!