Lancaster Loyne

I attended my first Rotary meeting here in the UK yesterday evening.  I had a great time.  The Lancaster Loyne club meets for dinner, this week at a place in Morecambe.  The food was excellent (although I couldn’t finish it and left quite a lot of roast beef on my plate).  The speaker gave a presentation on the Orthodox Church and was super interesting.  In my history class on the Christian church, after the schism between the Catholic and Orthodox church in 1054, we spent almost no time on the Orthodox church, so it was really nice to hear more about the history of it and what it looks like in modern times.  After the speaker, some meeting formalities (old and new business) took place then the meeting ended. 

I thought I might share some notable differences between the Attica-Williamsport club and the Lancaster Loyne club.

• The Lancaster Loyne club does not begin the meeting with the Pledge of Allegience. 
• Likewise, the Attica-Williamsport club does not toast the Queen.
• The Attica-Williamsport club sings at every meeting.  The only singing at the meeting here was the speaker demonstrating an Orthodox chant.
• The Attica-Williamsport club meets every week, for breakfast, for an hour.  The Lancaster Loyne Club meets every other week, for dinner, for two + hours. 
• I found no equivalent here to Happy Bucks, where the Rotarians in the Attica-Williamsport, chip in a buck and share with the club something about which they are happy; however, there seemed to be quite a bit more mingling at the Lancaster Loyne club (probably because it wasn’t in the morning!)

 

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.

 

I’m online!

Well, I’m super excited because my new monitor arrived and now I’m completely set up in my dorm room.  It’s really nice to have my computer up and running-I’ve been jamming to music for the past two days, which is probably entertaining for the people whose windows face mine. 

I started my classes yesterday with an academic practices module.  It’s unassessed, but it is where we learn things like using the library, a couple types of software, learning tools for research essentially.  It’s still amazing to me how small the program is with only twelve people, but I think I’m going to like the small class size and the ability to get to know my classmates.

Now that I’m online, I can start sharing some pictures!  Here are a couple from my first few days in Lancaster:

A view of Lancaster from the top of a hill.

This is the Ashton Memorial-it’s called a folly because it basically serves no purpose other than existing, although now apparently it’s quite the wedding venue.

 

Freshers Week

For those who have been checking in on my blog, I’m not posting as often as I would like.  My monitor was damaged on the way over and so I’m not able to access the internet from my room.  I’m hoping my new one arrives tomorrow, though, because it is really quiet in my room without any music, plus I only have so many books to read.  And I would like to start using Skype, too!

Freshers week (freshers = freshmen) is coming to a close.  It’s been pretty nutty around here, but as one person told me, pretty soon everyone will run out of money and will stop going out.  I registered on Tuesday and went to a meeting for my program.  It looks like there are about twelve of us, which is really small!  I don’t mind, and I think it will be really beneficial to be in such a small group.  They already gave us reading for next week and our first classes, so I’ll need to get started on that soon.

Settling in has gone very well so far.  I’ve spent a lot of time with my flatmates.  I taught one how to make an omelet last night, and today I started learning to speak Greek!  We do get along well, and our only complaint is that we don’t have enough chairs in the kitchen for us all to sit down at the same time.  I even finished unpacking all of my luggage.  Now if my monitor would only arrive…

 

Link weekend and then some

For those who read my last post, I did indeed get lost last week; however, I used my sweet map and navigating skills to learn my location and make it back safely!  I returned yesterday from the 2008 Link Weekend for Rotary scholars in Birmingham.  I had a great time at the conference.

Most of the scholars did home stays with Rotarian families, so most of Friday afternoon was spent waiting for my hosts to pick me up.  It was a pleasant wait since the scholars were able to meet one another and spend lots of time talking.  The group was very diverse and I met people from all corners of the earth.  My hosts took in not only me but another girl from Japan.

The next day the conference allowed for a lot of free time, so my host took us to the cathedral in Coventry, which was bombed in WWII, so now only the ruins stand.  Next to the ruins is the new cathedral which is incredibly modern, but had lots of interesting pieces of art.  The entire theme of the cathedral is reconciliation and a lot of the architecture and artwork is meant to represent that.

After we rejoined the other scholars in the afternoon we took a leisurely ride in a canal boat.  Birmingham actually has more canals than Venice, and while they don’t have much purpose, they are a source of great fun for the people there.  We then walked to the city building for a tour and had the chance to meet the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, who told us about his position and the history behind the regalia he wore.

We returned to ‘home base’, a hotel in Birmingham for tea, then a BARN DANCE, my favorite part of the conference.  We danced two ‘spasms’, or sets of songs, ate dinner, then had two more spasms.  All I can really say is that it was super super fun and that I hope there are more!  It was really similar to barn dances I’ve attended at Purdue, and a lot of the steps were even the same.  There was only one square dance, though, a lot were in circles or in lines.

We had an early morning the next day.  The group was addressed by several Rotarians:  Past District Governor David Robinson, Chairman of the Organising Committee, Past RIBI President Norman Proctor, the Representative of the President of RIBI, District Governor 1060 Peter Smith, Bruce Gow, Member of the RIBI Foundation Committee, the Representative of the Chairman of the RIBI Foundation Committee, and the Chairman of RGBI, Keith Pickles.  After a break for tea we also heard a presentation from Sandra Urban, the Rotary Foundation scholarships coordinator, and three alumni from the ambassadorial scholarship.  This portion of the day only lasted about four hours, so by one in the afternoon I was back on the bus headed toward the train station to return to Lancaster!  I made lots of friends though, and I am looking forward to visiting a lot of them!

Once I arrived back in Lancaster, Lyn helped me load my luggage into the car and I moved into my dormitory!  It was pretty lonely as I unpacked my things, but as I made my bed and set up my computer (which I can’t plug in yet), things started feeling more cheery.  I’m planning on buying a plant later.  I went out around 8pm to forage for some food and ended up meeting two of my flatmates (who are from Greece, I so want to go there!).  Today the three of us went to the grocery store together and I’m looking forward to getting to know them better.

I’m settling in and registration is tomorrow so I will meet my classmates.  Hopefully my plug adaptors will come soon and I’ll be able to turn on my computer, too!  Once that happens I’ll be able to blog more often and I’ll e-mail out my contact information.

 

I am here!

It is true, I am now in country.  I arrived at Manchester International Airport around 8:30 UK time after a decent flight, which was my first with BMI and I enjoyed it.  My favorite part was the comfort packs every one received that included a mask to cover your eyes (which I used while waiting for them to dim the lights), a pair of socks (awesome), and a toothbrush with an itty bitty little toothpaste.  I’ve never received socks from an airline.  Also, there was a bottle of water that magically appeared in the seat next to me while I was sleeping that I found when I woke up parched.  My other favorite part is that there was no one in the seat next to me, so I had the aisle seat AND the window seat.  Pretty cool!

After a three stooges act with my luggage (I kept trying to load suitcases onto the cart and then the cart would roll out from under the luggage, then my carry on suitcase would fall over, then as soon as I got everything back in order, it would happen all over again), I met Lyn (my host counsellor through Rotary) and we made our way to the car then to his house.  Lyn and his wife did a great job of helping me stay awake until it was a decent hour to go to bed.  Lyn even took me around campus then all around town, which was really fun.

My first impression of Lancaster is ‘wow, I made a good choice!’  Most of the buildings are stone and they have a sort of antique feel to them.  Not old and falling apart, but noble in their age and well looked after.  It reminds me of Aix-en-Provence or Florence, maybe not in age or design, but just small, old cities with lots of little shops everywhere and the feeling of not being rushed.  While I don’t exactly feel ‘in my element’, I do feel like I will be able to get there! 

Yesterday ended with an 8:00 bedtime followed by over twelve hours of sleep.  I’m feeling pretty good now!  This afternoon, I’m planning to set out on foot, probably get lost, hopefully get un-lost, and get to know the city a bit better.  I’ll take my camera and I should be able to upload some pictures here soon.