thesethingsicapture

THE PROS AND CONS OF STUDYING ABROAD   Now that I have finished my first semester, and have lived in a country which is not my home country for 4 1/2 months, I feel that I can give a good opinion on whether to study abroad or not. I know that for any Lancaster University students, it will be decision time very soon, so if you're still not sure, hopefully I can help! So I'm going to do it in a pros and cons format, and then give my honest opinion at the end! 

SEMESTER ONE  (This post was written Thursday 14th Dec!)  Yesterday I handed in my final paper for one of my classes, which means I have finished my first semester of studying abroad! I thought I'd do an overview of my first semester; my classes, some of the places I've visited etc. 

THANKSGIVING BREAK   Although Thanksgiving was almost a month ago now, I have been so busy since with finals and papers and so never got round to posting about my break; so I'm going to do it now because it was so wonderful and I want to have it documented on here! (Note: I'm only just getting around to posting this and I wrote this post 2 weeks ago, so thanksgiving was well over a month ago now!!!)

WASHINGTON D.C. On the Saturday evening of Fall Break we got the bus from NYC to Washington DC! It was roughly a 4 hour journey and we arrived at about 10pm and headed straight to the Hostel we were staying in. The next morning we ate endless pancakes and then left at 8.30am to make the most of our one day in D.C.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK Back in October, we went to New York City for Fall Break! Since then I've had endless midterm exams and papers due, and so I'm only just getting round to writing this post- but its a good one!

TWO MONTHS ALREADY?! As of yesterday, I have been living in the US for 2 whole months! That seems so, so crazy to me! It has gone so fast, we're almost half way through this semester, and I know before I know it we'll be heading home for Christmas!

EXPLORING ITHACA'S WATERFALLS  I have just got back from a fantastic day exploring Ithaca, and couldn't wait to share the photos! We went with our university Outdoor Pursuits centre on a 3 Gorges Waterfall Hike; visiting Taughannock Falls Gorge, Buttermilk Falls and Lucifer Falls in Ithaca! 

A CATCH UP This post is rather late because I have been SO busy, but better late than never.   Here's what I got up to in my first month in New York.

7 DAYS IN THE U S OF A I have now been here in New York for over a week, so thought I would share some photos and highlights of the week.  It's important to point out that my first week hasn't been full of high points, and at first I was quite homesick. I arrived late Saturday night, hungry and very tired, and then no where was open for food on campus and so I went about 22 hours without eating and this made me feel so miserable. Luckily two of the girls I'm sharing an apartment with were so welcoming, and cooked me some pasta which made the situation a bit better. There also has only been international or exchange students here this week, and until the other girls from Lancaster arrived, I did feel a bit lonely. I didn't believe my Mum when she said it would get better, I just wanted to hop on the next plane back home. One week later, it has got SO much better (I should have known- Mums are always right) and I have had so much fun already. 

MANCHESTER > NEW YORK, NEW YORK I have never travelled on an airplane by myself before, never mind a long haul flight to the other side of the world. And I've never had to navigate myself around one of the busiest cities in the world. I was SO nervous. The night before I left I just didn't want to go, and I cried when pulling out of the drive, leaving my Mum waving on the doorstep. It didn't help that we had to leave for the airport at 4am, and was still awake cramming as much as I could into my case at 12am- it's hard work packing for 3 different climates for 5 months in one 23kg suitcase. When I waved goodbye to my Dad and Brother at the airport, turning around ten million times until they were out of sight, it felt like some scene from a movie. The whole thing felt so bizarre, I was so emotional and I couldn't help thinking what the hell I was doing! 

I’VE MOVED TO NEW YORK! Why go to university near home when you can move to one 3400 miles away? For my second year of uni, I've taken a bit of a plunge and will be studying abroad in New York!  I'll be studying at SUNY Binghamton University, a 3 hour bus journey from NYC, and is pretty close to the Pennsylvania border (note that New York itself is a state bigger than the whole of England, not just New York City- there really aren't any skyscrapers here).