Two weeks of term, gone already?

I’m really impressed with how quickly time has gone since term started, although I’m not at a loss to explain why.  The term has started in full force:  I have a literature review due on Monday and almost every spare second has been spent researching articles or trying to add those one hundred extra words in before I go to bed.  It’s not completely overwhelming.  I started early enough that I have time to do it all, plus I’ve been rewarding myself by rereading Pride and Prejudice, then Northanger Abbey, and now Mansfield Park. 

Rotary things have been going well, too.  I’ve done two presentations in two weeks, for the Lancaster club and the Morecambe club, my first twilight meeting and lunch meeting respectively.  It’s always a lot of fun to meet new people and to share my culture and my experiences here thus far (all with the aid of my handy power point presentation!  )  I am officially attending the district conference in Leeds in March and have even been given a five minute speaking slot.  Hopefully I’ll be able to make it enjoyable, although I’m a bit worried that all I’ll be able to fit into five minutes is my name and where I’m from.  I’ll also be helping out my hosting club with some fund raising in February, so keep an eye out for me at Asda!

My courses this term are super interesting:  Educational Change Management and Educational Policy.  I’m really excited to turn my essay in on Monday so that I can finally start devoting a significant amount of time to the classes.  I can tell that the assessments will be challenging, but really valuable.  I get to do a ‘cultural audit’ on an organization for Change Management, which just sounds fun!

Hopefully I’ll be able to post soon with some pictures of my mom’s trip to Tanzania.  She just got home this week and is in the process of launching a forestry to fight poverty effort.  I couldn’t be more proud!

 

Fireworks Night

It would appear that I have fallen off the face of the blogging planet.  Please let me assure you that is not the case.  Classwork swelled up very quickly, although that wasn’t unexpected.  While I have a lot to do, I’m on schedule with my work.  My paper for next Monday is written (hooray!) and my paper due in two weeks time is getting a lot of attention this week.  Then I’ll be able to take a bit of a break since my next assignments aren’t turned in until the end of January. 

With last week came the celebration of Guy Fawkes Night/Bonfire Night/Fireworks Night.  To put it simply, a group of people failed to blow up Parliament, so now they celebrate by blowing up other things, namely fireworks.  Lancaster had it’s celebration on Saturday and I joined two of my flatmates going into town to see the fireworks.  It was really nice, even if it was rainy.  We barely got on the bus, though, it was so crowded!  Then we probably queued for a half an hour to get the bus home.  It was really exciting being around so many people all headed to do the same thing and we all had a good time-particularly when we got home, changed into our pajamas and drank hot chocolate!

 

End of Week One

I’ve now been to all my classes and technically the weekend has started due to the absence of anything scheduled-although I already need to start research for my assignments and my self directed study for the semester.  I’m not feeling overwhelmed yet, and I hope that I don’t get to that point, although I am feeling really excited about all the freedom I have to explore topics that interest me in my papers and my own research. 

Speaking of that excitement, I have to take a moment to say how awesome it is being a postgraduate.  There are several little perks that I am really enjoying.  We have our own computer lab which is right across the street from me, our own residence halls complete with an activity room and the Gradbar, where the cool kids hang…until they are kicked out at 11:30…plus, if you are like me, you get awesome flatmates who like to have dance parties, which makes life fun.

I had my first experience with a conversation on Skype today-we had a few issues with the sound cutting out, but it turned out fine.  It is really exciting to think, as my friend Erin pointed out, that a couple decades ago, the only way we would be able to have a conversation would have been through the post or really expensive phone calls, and we just had an hour long conversation for free!  However, I do encourage the use of alternate mediums of communication-who doesn’t like getting mail?  Also, if you did not receive my e-mail containing all my contact information, leave a comment and I will forward it to you.

 

Countdown to China!

I am officially a graduate of Purdue University!  I now have a BS in Applied Mathematics.  I’m still not sure where that will take me, but it’s nice to have a diploma in hand as the culmination of a lot of hard work.  I will be living at home for my extremely long summer vacation (about five months!) and hopefully temping as a secretary/receptionist type when I get home from China.  For right now, my family is working really hard to get ready for my sister’s graduation from high school.  I am a very proud big sister and can’t wait to see her start her career at Purdue. 

I’m also trying to get ready for China.  I have a huge pile of music that I’ll need to have memorized for our concerts. It’s a little overwhelming, but I’m reminding myself that at one point I had it all in my head, and now I just have to get it back (somehow).  Our concerts are pretty well put together.  We’re trying to perform some iconic marching band pieces, (we’re playing most of our Mel Brooks half-time show) as well as some classical pieces that hopeful the crowd will recognize (arrangements of 1812 Overture, William Tell, and Stars and Stripes).  I’m really looking forward to our parade and performance on the Great Wall of China. 

 

Accepted!

I’ve finally received word from Lancaster and I’ve achieved ‘conditional acceptance’ into the education program in grad school.  My eyes bugged a little when I saw the word ‘conditional’, but after reading down a little ways, all it means that I have to actually graduate from Purdue and maintain my GPA (not a big deal).  So hooray!  I’m going to grad school! 

Things are finally starting to sink in a little bit.  It helps when everyone seems to be asking you what you’re doing after you graduate and you have to tell them.  Next on the list is figuring out housing, which is kind of overwhelming when you are an ocean away from the place you’ll be living.  Soon (hopefully)  I’ll be put in contact with a Rotarian from the area and they’ll help me find a place to live.

School is at a slight lull this week before Spring Break, and I’m really glad.  It’s nuts to think that after I return from Spring Break I’ll only have six weeks of class.  That makes it ten weeks until I graduate and something like thirteen weeks until I go to Beijing with the Purdue “All-American” Marching Band.  Exciting times!  I’m sure the weeks will fly by!

 

A little closer

I just got notice that Lancaster has received my application in full, and the e-mail stated that I should be contacted within the next week.  Exciting!  I hope they mean to contact me via e-mail, otherwise I think it will be more than a week.

On a less exciting note, my midterms start today and I have about one a week for three weeks.  Then spring break happens and I can breathe a little before it starts all over again.  Sometimes it’s hard to stay motivated when the end is so near, but that is balanced out with enough stress to make me study.  All in all, school is going well and I am having a lot of fun when I’m not doing homework. 

 

Phase…two?

My application to Lancaster University is finally submitted in full!  I turned in my part via the internet two weeks ago and yesterday, after some crazy e-mail glitches, I picked up my second professor recommendation.  I made a trip to the post office, and after a long talk with an employee about the pros and cons of each envelope and sending methods, my application is now on it’s way to England!  I’m very relieved to have that complete.  Now I just have to wait and see…

There are “backup plans” through Rotary if I am not accepted into the program, and I do have a vague idea of what I could do if it comes down to not being able to attend Lancaster.  However, I just have to wait to hear back from the university before I get too worked up about anything.

School is going well this semester.  I’m taking an English class on King Arthur which is getting me very excited about my upcoming year abroad, as well as giving me ideas of places I would like to visit!