College Career = Screwed

Here's a little rant from dear ol' me over across the pond on a much needed study (and writing... poor hand) break.

I don't know if I've explained the English University system enough, if at all, on this blog so let me clarify -

When you are a dear ol' Brit, full of cheer, you strap up for university after high school and college for only 3 years, that's right 3. You take around 4-5 classes a semester (some are one semester, some are all year) depending on the intensity and amount of information. Naturally, unlike Gettysburg, they are weighted accordingly. You go to lectures, which are literally a summary of what you read and the powerpoints, to listen to a professor read the book and powerpoint. You go to seminar to have a discussion about this with your peers - yet another review. However, you don't ever fully learn anything because you're basically reading the information and regurgitating it. Now, you have maybe an exam, maybe a paper to do and that's it. Yep. Then you have a four week break after Spring semester and you return for about a months worth of of finals for ALL (I repeat all - fall & spring) of your classes (unless you get lucky and some professor decides to give your final early).

What is the purpose of this you say?

Well you're not really taught anything (as stated before) so you get ALL year to teach yourself and build upon (or even 4 weeks) what you've learned. It's a lot of information in a short time, and due to no previous experience other than ONE essay or exam, you should be better prepared and such.

So naturally, when you're an abroad student, and forced to take an exam someone would have 5 months to prepare for in one week (because, you have still be learning up to this point - by yourself) you're screwed. And you don't know how well prepared you are for the British grading system because, Hey! All your work is due at once! And it's only 2 papers. Or 2 tests. Or a test and a paper. That's it. You're grade is literally riding on one moment in your life.

Oh and the best part of the British University system is that, the tests are designed to be hard. They are designed like this because they know that if a student fails, they have the option to retake it in the summer before fall term next year starts up. With no penalty. So if you don't do well, you can learn from your mistakes and take it again. So the British university system is flawless for success.

Then when you're from America you don't get that option. So the British university system is a similarity to competitive Japan where if you fail on one test you have no future, your life is over, and you should probably see a therapist.

Wish me good luck with my impending doom - maybe now that I got this off my chest I can concentrate more on not failing.

The preoccupation with my depression of leaving isn't helping either.

Run for the Hills!

As many may know, the floods have hit England. The rain is, well, loud (6 am wakeup call for me with such loud rain). The weather is cliche Britain to the nines - woke up and looked like a dry day. Ohhh no. Warm in the morning, freezing in the afternoon. Gale winds. Yes, you heard right. And the places I've visited have been taken over for Noah to explore in his ark.

Went to Cork 2 weeks ago...

Now it looks like this...

Went here with Mike...

Now it looks like this...

Saw this, home of Wordsworth...

...Looks like this these days...

I guess I can say I finally am experiencing true English weather!

Lookin' Good in Lanc City [vol. IX]

It's baccccckkkk!

Cue the Cubicle Earbuds: One of my favorite bands (headed by frontman, Ryan Tedder - Number 1 on the Homewrecking list) came out with their sophomore album, and even though it isn't drop dead awesome yet, it's growing on me QUITE quickly. I will be excited to return to the states to see All the Right Moves by Ryan & co. in concert (again!)

Brit Slang of the Week: I've been learning Cockney. Just because I feel like I should. Things I've picked up -
"I'm all out of bees" - Bees = money. Bees & Honey rhymes with money.
"I just did it for a good bubble" - Bubble = laugh. Bubble bath rhymes with laugh.
"Man, I have quite the pain in my Gregory" - Gregory = neck. Gregory Peck rhymes with neck
Oh those cheeky Brits

What's on Telly: I have discovered podcasts - The Soup!, Chelsea Lately, NPR Programs (I'm such a grandma..) and my favorite 30 minutes of gawking - Anderson Cooper 360. As a friend of mine said, "He makes world issues sexy." Hahaha.

Mingers in the News: The students here are ticked! Apparently they are raising the prices of tuition here at Lancaster. It used to be less than half of what tuition is at Gettysburg to about half of what it is... I sympathize... to an extent. Uni Brits have no idea what the cost of an education is really like. However, the protest was quite cool to see through my window...

Let's Get Cultured - British Style: Virginia & I attended Dani's orchestra (and choir - but she wasn't in that) concert to learn things about British performances. 1) They don't turn the house lighting off. Awkward 2) The Choir sounds really good when they sing classical stuff. They sound a little ridiculous singing American favorites like Shenandoah [Mis-zerrrrriiiiiiiii] and Downtown 3) They make a big deal out of first chair, which is awesome since it was Dani 4) Dani totally owned their souls

It's 4:40pm, What Does Your World Look Like?: Dark. Note the picture I took for all your viewing pleasure.

Ending the Week on a High Note: I'm missing my first Thanksgiving :(. However, I'm apparently being skyped in to family dinner (technology these days), going to a dinner provided by my lovely English women Laura & Emily, and making my first homemade pumpkin pie courtesy of Paula Deene. I'm also attempting to make this for a certain American boy's birthday. Wish me luck.

Kissing Stones in the Emerald Isle

Taking a break from the paper writing, I decided to finally update on the trip to Ireland (I promise I'll be better updating on the home stretch).

Rule #1: You can't lose each other if you wear matching outfits.

Dani & I seemed to miss the memo to wear sneakers, jeans, a blue rain jacket and carry a green L.L. Bean backpack on our journey to Ireland. Good thing Virginia and Nate matched though - if Nate wandered off (he has that tendency...) we could just show someone Virginia and say "But a dude," and we'd get the point across. Traveling to Ireland was pretty smooth. Well... up until the landing in Cork and the 50 minute taxi ride.

Rule #2: Make sure you take advantage of the stupid tourist things - like the worst statue of John Lennon ever made.

Back in England though, us Beatlemaniacs had to get a tourist picture in the John Lennon Airport. Coolest airport ever (solely for its love of Lennon & crew).

Rule #3: Learn to be a true Irishman (or woman) and drink Guinness, Beamish or Murphy's.

To the dismay of parents and grandparents, I sucked it up and got a Murphy's at a real Irish Pub. And I drank it. And enjoyed it. And realized that Murphy's (the darkest beer you get before Guinness) was good and I was turning into one of those people from the British Isles... and then I stuck to Budweiser because it was surprisingly cheap.

Rule #4: Become truly Irish and try some Jameson... and try to make the least disgusted face possible.

Nate insisted on making us completely Irish and bought us shots of Jamie. The three girls stared at the glasses with the little amount of liquid in it like it was the elixir of death. But we all took the plunge. Dani and I split ours up to make it less horrible (or double the pain?) but in the end, Virginia actually took it the best like a champ (she took Dani's other half), and Nate looked like he was going to keel over for the next 10 minutes. It must be the Irish blood in us girls.

Rule #5: The Shandon Bells are actually in the Goldfish Church.

We didn't have enough time to ring the bells, but we did stay in the hostel directly behind the church. When we received the directions it said it was behind the church with a Goldfish on top. We were like WHA??? because our churches have crosses and bells on the steeple. There really is a goldfish... oh the Irish. I was hoping to find a church with a silver loaf of bread on top, but alas...

Rule #6: Learn to do AWESOME grafitti (American grafitti just isn't cutting it)

We discovered this amazing grafitti. Check it out (you have to look REALLY close)

Rule #7: Go to the Blarney Stone when it's sunny :)

Oh yeah, we picked a great day to see the Blarney Stone. Especially because it is outside. The grounds of the castle are AWESOME and we had a great time exploring (or in Nate's case, breaking rules).

Rule #8: Yeah, the Blarney Stone is ALLLL the way up there. You gotta climb

Hey Dad, forgot to mention the stone was at the top of the castle. For some reason I was under the impression it was in one of the caves and it was just a difficult reach you had to bend down backwards to kiss a stone and for liability reasons there was someone to hold you. HA! That's a hike...

Rule #9: Break rules.

Yeah, Nate thought that he could just be Tarzan in the castle. We really can't take him anywhere (and you thought I got rid of Jake...)

Rule #10: Kiss stones for the gift of flattery.

I tried to explain to Mr. Bodyholder, that I really don't think flattery is that necessary in my life and I'm not big on kissing but he disagreed with me and forced me down there. I think I kissed it. Barely. Nate on the other hand informed us that it tastes awful. We informed him he didn't have to lick the stone, but I guess he really needs some flattery.

Rule #11: Experience Blarney

It was a super cute village and I could definitely see myself living there. However, we were surprised that Ireland reminded us more of home than England. Not the culture but the actual landscape. Is that even possible?!

Rule #12: Experience Cork at Night

We didn't get to spend much sunlight time in Cork :( but we did get to experience it at night and it's a very cute city. I liked it as much/more than Dublin but it definitely doesn't compare to our little city of Lancaster. Can you believe I actually was ready to go home - and not in the US :)

Rule #13: Wear out the only boy so he has to sleep the whole way back

We think Nate is glad he only had 1 sister, rather than 3. Poor guy - what a good sport :)

Hope everyone has a great week - Again I will update about life back in L'Angleterre soon (ugh this paper...)

Love,

Sarah + her American fam (Nate, Dani & Virginia)

Lookin' Good in Lanc City [vol. VIII]

Cue the Cubicle Earbuds: More reason I'm excited to go to Scotland - The beautiful & amazing 5 guys basing out of Glasgow, Snow Patrol, has decided to release more music making this American girl want to Just Say Yes

Brit Slang of the Week: It's not actually slang... but put 3 Americans, an Englishman, and a German in a room and we discover how to pronounce the word "jalapeno". Yes, that's right. Americans (thank you, Hispanic culture being so common) pronounce it correctly... and the Germans do too... but those Brits - Click here to listen. "ha-la-pain-yo" is how I say it... but here I apparently need to pronounce it "ja-la-pea-no". Erlack!

What's on Telly: Dani & Virginia went to Liverpool this weekend, and in an effort to keep the surprise & save money, I stayed behind. But looking at their pictures and knowing they were inches away from greatness, I watched A Hard Day's Night and Help! Not only was I tearing up at random points and so happy that I'm so close to where everything happened, but I confirmed that I have a crush on all four men. I don't care if they're dead and/or 40+ years older than me...
Mighty Minger: Stupid Yankees. Any Brit in a Yank cap gets scathing glances from me, that's for sure. Psh, they don't even know baseball.

Least Mingin' Thing To Deal With: It's a BEAUTIFUL day outside - especially after a superiously gross weekend full of Brit weather (and my computer is back! Miracles do happen)

Reward for High Productivity: Going to Cork for the weekend to kiss some Blarney Stones and rekindle my luck of the Irish. :) :) :)

Like It, Love It, Want More of It!: I got my care package from the girls back home in ADPi and I absolutely loved it! It's nice to feel loved (and it makes me look loved with all the notes on my wall - Even boys are jealous)!

Lookin' Good in Lanc City [vol. VII]

Brit Slang of the Week: Tosser [noun] A person or thing that is useless, pathetic, or incapable of doing anything right That is one tosser of a computer. (You'll understand this example quite soon). [Note: When asking my friend, Tom, for suggestions he said 'reckon' and 'twat'. I told him those are too familiar and easy. Then he mentioned something being 'well good' and we realized that it's becoming harder to find words because they're becoming not only familiar to us, but part of our own vocabulary...]

The Biggest Minger Yet: My wonderful (bold faced lie) computer has decided to go crazy (again) at one of the best possible times (again - this time not the week before finals but while I'm in another country). Quotes from my friends on this matter: "That may be one of the worst possible things that could happen"; "I think I'd rather die"; "How are you surviving? There's no happiness in this place without a computer"; "What do you do with your days?"; "And you haven't thrown yourself off a building yet?" Yes, I love this country but you realize that your happiness stems from having that computer.

Reward for High Productivity: Because I am sans computer... I have higher productivity than maybe half this college. So to reward myself I'm getting a milkshake. I deserve it (I have very little else to look forward to...)

What's on Telly: If I can catch it (because God hates me and took away the only source of it) THE WORLD SERIES! However, Philadelphia Newspapers seemed to miss out on the games as well making this mistake. That's a cruel, cruel joke. Those boys better rally some more!

Hallow's Eve: England celebrates Halloween, too! However, unlike in the US where "Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it" (Courtesy of one of the bests), Halloween is the one night a year the British are not slutty and they make anything and everything scary. Us Americans were not having it. So Dani, Virginia, Nate and I went as the people from the Wizard of Oz. See if you can guess who was who.

Cue the Cubicle Earbuds: It seems that we have hit a rut in the new music world. Everything "new" here is old back in the US or it's just not British & fun. I was in a 90s music phase yet again (before I had no more music since it's with the computer). It's almost like we're now teaching the Brits music. We'll see this coming week if new things hit the radio waves.

Apres-Weekend Guilt: I surprisingly don't really have any because after the death of my computer, I have been super productive!

Takin' the Sting Out of Tosser Tuesday: I am getting myself that milkshake, making myself some potatoe salad a la Mrs. Heinlen style and going to the netball game with Miss Laura Hayes. I think there will be some planning to get off campus soon too with some flatmates and a possible blue-eyed Brit? I'm looking on the bright side :)

World Series - World's Away Addition

I thought I'd drop a line to tell all the Philadelphia fans out there (Yankees fans, you can go away now...) how excited I am about game one. I got super excited when I was reading a Brit paper about the upcoming series. They said that the Phils were by far the best National League team, no question. I could have told them that. And yes, I stayed up to watch it at midnight. And yes I paid $9.95 so I could get postseason.tv - that's the only way you can watch it (or buy Fox.tv for 19.95) but I think it's worth it. I've decided Chase Utley and I are getting married. If not I'll take Jason or Cole (still mad he has a kid) or even Raul after last night... And if not naming the first born Chase. My friend Ryan, from Norristown, and I had facebook chat up (he's in Lancaster too...) screaming at each other everytime something happened. Ryan is going gay/having a sex change for Chase. Most love man in America lol. Moral of the story: I'm still a Phillies girl no matter what country I'm in.

Lookin' Good in Lanc City [vol. VI]

Brit Slang: Knackered [verb]: exhausted I am knackered after the hike we had today. However, if you talk to someone of a different generation, on the mature side of the spectrum, it means exhausted in a different way... and you might not want to get caught in that tangle. Totally acceptable (and innocent) with the yuppies and younger, though.

Reward for High Productivity: Transformers Revenge of the Fallen is playing at the LU Cinema this week for 2 pounds. Ha! I get my work done & I'm so there for some quality Shia LaBeouf time. Mom, I know you're cringing...

Apres-Weekend Guilt: I wanted to get work done on Saturday as well as Sunday... that didn't happen. But I did get work done yesterday and I am taking a break from some MAJOR productivity.

Cue the Cubicle Earbuds: I'm loving X-Factor Judge, Cheryl Cole's, new single Fight for This Love - lots of fun to dance to, and the boys love her (she isvery pretty) - but I'm excited with the LONG AWAITED entry of Good Girls Go Bad by Cobra Starship feat. Leighton Meester. It's amazing and I think I was the happiest girl ever when I heard that. Sad the little things that make you miss home... like crazy songs.

What's on Telly: I've been spending much time with Project Runway, and Season 5 is by far a fave - All three women's runway shows actually had things I would want. WOAH. However, I'm a total fan of Kenley Collins, even if no one likes her attitude.

Takin' the Sting Out of Mingin' Mondays: I got some DELICIOUS food from Sainsbury's last Friday (Even though I had to take a normally 15 minute bus ride that lasted 2+ hours...) and after making some interesting beef stew (but good) I'm attempting my own take on my mother's fabuloussss corn chowder (which I'm hoping she's planning on making for me when I get home because I think I miss that most!). Fingers crossed!

Let's Travel!: We're starting to get that travel bug again, and even though I don't think I'm going anywhere this weekend (Laura is throwing a Halloween party I am required to attend), we're starting to think of places to explore. Dublin? Scotland? Liverpool to visit with Tim & some friends? Or Blandford to visit some swell British boys I know? Who knows where I'll go next but get excited.

Least Mingin' Thing to Deal With: Planning for the arrival of 4 amazing people in my lives including 2 really swell best friends who are willing to give up their Christmas's to see little ol' me across the pond. I'm one of the luckiest girls in the world :)

No News is Good News :)

I realize I haven't updated in a while, and my parents are probably wondering what's up. Nothing. (BTW - Mom I will email you back - SO EXCITED! but I'm just writing this before I head up to the library to do work, shock, I know). We've been having quite a quite weekend where we're just sitting around, doing work, and living in real English weather. Blah. Dani is off to Spain for a backpacking trip and we miss her very much. Our card obsession hit rock bottom when Virginia, Nate, Me & Tom from the flat over played cards from 9:30... to 2 in the morning. Also, Daylight Savings Time happened here this week (a wekk early) so we are now 4 hours ahead of you 'til your daylight savings time. Look forward to a lookin' good tomorrow!

Lookin' Good in Lanc City [vol. V]

Cue the Cubicle Earbuds: I have been here for 2 months and so I think that warrants a playlist of all the big songs in the UK for everyone to download (illegally in some cases ha ha). Then you can all jam out Sarah style. I bring the UK to you.
Lookin' Good Soundtrack I
1) The Ian Carey Project - Get Shaky
2) Esmee Denters - Outta Here
3) Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire
4) Kelly Rowland feat David Guetta - When Love Takes Over
5) Dizzee Rascal - Holiday
6) Sugababes - Get Sexy
7) Robbie Williams - Bodies
8) Chipmunk - Oopsy Daisy
9) Taio Crus - Break Your Heart
10) Michael Buble - Haven't Met You Yet
11) David Guetta feat. Akon - Sexy Chick
12) The Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition
13) Pixie Lott - Boys & Girls
14) JLS - Beat Again
15) Paolo Nutini - Pencil Full of Lead
16) Mika - We Are Golden
17) Calvin Harris - Ready for the Weekend
18) Noisettes - Never Forget You
19) Peter Andre - Behind Closed Doors
20) Cascada - Dangerous

Brit Slang of the Week: [per Father's request] Minging - verb 1. smelly I don't like to walk down there by the bay - It's minging. 2. Ugly There is no amount of alcohol to make that boy less minging. 3. Drunk [I have yet to hear it actually used this way but I was told this is another definition] I wish I didn't get so minging last night. 4. Generally distasteful The rain yesterday was just downright minging.

What's on Telly: There really seems to be nothing exciting or new on telly over here, so I'm catching up on all my favorite TV shows and discovering some new ones.

Apres-Weekend Guilt: I definitely did not do as much work as I could have been doing with all the free time I have but I definitely made sure I didn't put it to waste. Going outside, exploring the town and enjoying nature & England at its finest is well worth it in my mind.

Mingers Outside: The lousy construction workers who are tearing up the ground everywhere out front of my building, starting right away at 8 in the morning, and blaring their music so they can hear it over the drone of the machines (and so I can 4 stories up).

Workin' the Cobblestone Runways: Tights, tights, tights! The more crazy, the better. Wear them under everything! Just make sure they are part of your wardrobe, ladies. And yes, these are all prints you can get for your tights (and don't think I haven't seen crazy ones like these out - THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!)

Most Mingin' Thing to Deal With This Week: I actually have something due next week (a presentation on "Distinguishing between location factors which promote market-seeking and export-platform international business operations") which makes the first actual assignment I've had since my summer course. Mingin'.

Takin' the Sting Out of Mingin' Mondays: I got super cheap Danish Sugar Cookies & 2 for 1 Ben & Jerry's for super cheap at Sainsbury's satisfying my sweet tooth and sustaining me through my research.

Word to the Wise: If you find a guy cute because he has a pretty face and dresses like Shia LaBeouf, check to see if he has a rat tail. It's happened to the best of us (just ask Dani haha).