The Reflection

Hey guys! This is my last England post, as I have just returned to the states!

I made it home safely and all my flights were on time! Currently looking forward to starting work at the LGBTQ Resource Office as their graduate assistant and starting my graduate program of Human Development Counseling!

Think I did fairly well on my final for my English class although I was a bit nervous for it. Revision was especially scary because the only other grade for that course that I received was a paper earlier in the semester. So my grade was really riding on how I did for that Final! BUT it is over and done, I should be getting my scored July 1 and hopefully finishing up everything with my bachelor's degree soon after!

I am so blessed that I was able to study in England. I truly had an amazing experience and met so many great people. I look forward to going back and hopefully seeing some of my friends that I made during my stay in Hull.

Thanks for reading my study abroad blog and now you have received the -HULL- experience! :)

My Surprise Going Away Party

So my roommates, my friend Tish, and I had plans to go see a movie last Friday night... or so I thought!

I was told that we were going to do dinner at Tish's and then head out to the movies after. Then later that day, Tish told me that her roommates were doing something for dinner so we wouldn't be able to do dinner at her house anymore, but we'd still come and pick her up.

So we were getting ready and, to my surprise, Kiri is asking us all whether we're ready! (First sign something was fish-y: my roommate Kiri being rushed/ready to go on time) So we head to Tish's and I walk through the door and everyone yells "surprise".. Suddenly, I feel so guilty because I thought I walked in on one of Tish's roommates surprise dinner/party... Then soon realized that the people in the room was everyone that I knew! The surprise party was for ME!!

I was completely shocked. I've never had a surprise party... so I really did not know what to do and everyone was looking at me expectedly... So after a few seconds of shock, I went around the room hugging everyone. (Stare at the dog long enough, he does a trick... haha)

It was such a good night and I was so humbled that everyone came and everything.

I was also informed that I was making it super hard to plan this party, as I was Facebook-ing asking what everyone else was doing that night and trying to make alternate plans.. Whoops!

But it was a really fun party and I got a huge card that everyone signed (which I refused to read that night in front of everyone!)

Hull-ian Update

Hello all!

I'm 2/2 for final papers ans 1/2 for final exams! I have one more exam on the 31st (Tuesday) and then I am all done with my Undergraduate degree! Weird feeling!!

Also I only have 10 more days until I return to the States... This trip has been an amazing experience and I have met so many great people!

The Home Stretch is in sight!

Well readers, I can see it. The red carpet is unraveling! I have 37 days until I will be flying back into the US.

Decisions are being made and my new life is starting FAST!

I will be back at UIS next Fall for the program of Human Development Counseling. I have interviewed for graduate assistant positions and am still waiting for the final words but I am pretty confident!

Currently am looking at my apartment options. The roommate vrs the major adult decision of getting my OWN apartment! So that's both exciting and totally scary!!

In trip news, I have a few things to look to forward to: trip to London (next weekend), the End of the Ball, and finals (the last is something that I'm not totally excited for though).

That's pretty much it for now! Cannot believe the trip is nearly over! I can totally remember when there was that many day UNTIL i GO to England! It's been a good learning, growing, and enlightening experience and am so glad that I was blessed enough to go.

Until later,

~M

Leaving Paris... take two.

No worries, I am back in Hull and safe. I got back Sunday night at like 11:30 PM! The day was a NIGHTmare! Worse than before!

So to avoid the same situation I went (ridiculously) super early and checked in with the info desk and they told me that I would need to just go to the check-in at three PM (my flight was at 6:00 PM). At 3:50 the BMI check in desk opened up – fifty minutes later than I was told to be there – and the lady at the check-in desk tells me that there is no ticket for me in the system. Then she further instructed me that I would need to go to the other side of the terminal and talk to the lady at the Alyzia desk. This lady informed me that the man from the previous day had not switched my ticket over in the computer system. Because this was not done on the day of the missed flight, there was nothing she could do. Panicked I repeated that “there was NOTHING that could be done? I’m just stuck here in Paris?!” She replied that I would have to purchase another ticket. I asked if there was some sort of manager that I could speak to because I didn’t see why I would need to pay for a mistake that someone at this desk made. She replied asking me if I “saw anyone else at the desk” and that I would have to talk to the flight manager when I landed in East Midlands, “that is if you buy the ticket”. (I cut out some of the banter but you get the gist, she was really rude).

My card was declined because it was a big charge towards the end of my trip and I had not called my bank because they had told me that it was not going to charge me for it. This left me having to go to the Cashpoint and take two separate withdrawals of money (half of the ticket each) then I get back to the desk to find out she told me the wrong amount and I withdrew extra money leaving me with extra euros. So not only did I have to pay unnecessary withdrawal fees and conversion charges, now I had to pay for converting the extra 50 euros back to the money that I can use.

BUT with all this I have a receipt for the "supposed" switched ticket and the one that I was actually charged for. I'm hoping to repeal this and get my money back, but I'm definitely on a tighter budget then I was originally on. But I am home safe and sound!

In other news, it's my birthday in an hour and eight minutes! Going for a fancy dress party with the roommates and some uni friends. It's a "Prehistoric" theme and I will be dressing up as a caveman! It shall be fun!!

Coming to America - Update!

Another detail I forgot to put up here is when I will be coming home.. now known for sure!

Since I didn't get the job I applied for, I will be returning to good ole' Illinois June 8th!

I cannot believe how fast this semester is flying by and that I only have like a little more than a month here! :(

Forgotten Post! - Dublin

Hey guys! I just realized I forgot to post about Dublin/Trampolining tour!

It was so much fun, but everything in Dublin is EXPENSIVE! Or at least the places we frequented...

I finished both my routines! Second one I almost fell over but I scored pretty well in spite of that. I avereged like a 6.4 on my first go and a 5-something average for my second.

Last month I found out my place in my division and I got 8th! (Out of like 20-something novice men) I'm pretty proud of that! I've got one more competition at the end of May, which I'm hoping that I'll do even better in! :)

Le voyage de Paris!

Hello all!

Today is my last day in Paris 2.0! That's right, you read correctly... 2.0! I shall explain that later...

Flew into Paris on Monday! After a few attempts to understand the transportation system we finally get to our exit to the hostel. We come out of the metro station to see in front of us... the Moulin Rouge. My first Parisian landmark! Our hostel wasn't far up the road from there. We got all checked in, my classmate on the trip with me had some problems as she had booked the wrong dates for the hostel... unfortunately she had to check in and out on a daily basis; but luckily they had openings everyday for her to do so. We hung out in the lounge and met a few people: 2 girls backpacking around Europe from Canada, a  guy from London here for a concert/vacation, and a man from LA also backpacking around Europe. Then after a glass of red wine (which is amazing in France!!), we went back to our rooms and slept.

 The next day we had breakfast at the hostel. We had what you would think, by stereotype, you would have in Paris for breakfast croissants and juice! :) I read in a pamphlet that the "Sandemans New Paris" company gave free tours around Paris. So we went and I am SO glad we did! Our tour guide, Fiona, was both hilarious and well informed. The walking tour was around three hours of sight-seeing around Paris! Then after we were done with that we had a French meal and went to the musee d'orsee and then to l'arc de triumphe. (This was probably my favorite thing we did while in Paris... the view was AMAZING!) But it is a job to get up there as there are a gagillion stairs, believe me I lost count, counting. (haha) Later on we went to a pub crawl (sponsored by the same tour company we went on earlier) that had discounted drinks and we got into a club for free (normally the door charge is like 20 euro). I tried Absinthe for the first time which is a story that you should ask me about... not my best moment nor my favorite drink.

Wednesday we went to the Cathedral de Notre Dame which was huge and beautiful! (We didn't go up though, just walked around the main area). Then after Notre Dame, we hit the Louvre and then spent a good 5-6 hours looking around. Exhausted after this long day, I simply rested at the hostel for the evening.

 

Thursday we went on a little souvenir shopping trip and then went to see the Opera house where the story of the Phantom of the Opera come from! :) Sadly we didn't go in and I didn't get to meet Gerard Butler... I mean, the Phantom. ;) Then we went and saw the Eiffel Tower with plans to return to see it all lit up at night! Later we walked through the Catacombs! Which at first they are just a bunch of tunnels with words on the wall... then you hit a point where the walls upon walls are just lined with skulls and bones. (I'll post pictures of these sites when I get home) BUT it was crazy-cool! Then we went back and climbed up the hill to the monmartre district and saw the Cathedral of Sacre Coeur which was REALLY pretty and HUGE! Then after that I went to dinner with my roommate at the hostile Sabrina from Argentina! She was a hoot! She made me order because of the little french that I speak (which got better the longer we were in France!) Funnily enough, the waiter comes out with this huge pan of muscles, I froze in shock because it is nothing like the crepe avec jambon that I ordered. Luckily, when I asked if there was a mistake he realized he gave me someone else's meal and I got the meal that I ordered. BUT I totally thought that a) I was being played a joke no or b) I had somehow botched my order up SO bad that he thought I said muslces... 

 

Last day (1.0) in Paris!! (from the same company we took the tour around Paris on Tuesday) It was SO beautiful and the weather was great. My only regret is that we went on a Friday and not a weekend when the fountains were on because I'm sure it would be even more beautiful. After this tour, I went back to the hostel and took a small nap to recuperate... then went back to the Eiffel tower to see it at night. It was all lit up and eventually did this shimmery-sparkle things which was SO cool!!

Last day (2.0): Well, after discussing what time we should leave for the airport last night I thought we were leaving a bit late, so missing my flight is more than 1/2 my fault for not speaking up... But after a delay in our train and I still had to print off my boarding pass I missed the boarding time... thus missing my flight. The classmate that I went to Paris with somehow managed to talk her way on since she had her boarding pass already...

SOoOo I'm all alone, in Paris, no reservation for a place to stay, flight got switched but it wasn't until 6 the next day... Lemme just tell you words cannot describe the panic that set in. BUT after that passed, I recollected what bits of sanity I had left and jumped back on the train and headed back to the hostel I'd stayed at this week. As luck would have it, there was a cancellation and I got a room.

And I have time for a tour of the Montmartre district at 6 tonight which I was bumbed that I didn't get to fit in to the trip... I'll blog about this tour when I get back to Hull. So everything has virtually worked out. I have a plane ticket back to the UK... a place to stay tonight for not an huge cost...

The Mont Martre tour was so cool! We got to see where it was where Van Gogh lived in Paris and where traded Picasso traded art work for food (which was the cabaret called the Agile Bunny)! What Van Gogh's favorite flavor was: Yellow (which is jokingly referring to his paint of which Van Gogh ate). All of this was blocks away from my hostel! So neat to get the extra info of the area. I also made some friends on the tour and we went to a crepery and enjoyed a delicious crepe! :)

Problems to face tomorrow: getting a train back to Hull.

As I said, I shall post about this adventure when I get back into town, but for now I am choosing to look at it as that I am lucky and get to be in Paris for another day! :)

Getting My Tourism On!

After a few months of being here I have finally got all of my housing, tuition, and other bills sorted out which means.... I am finally getting my tourist-mode on! This weekend Roisin, one of my roommate, is bringing me home with her to Birmingham. I've been informed that the culture in this area is a bit different from Hull, so I am excited to see exactly what this means! Our main reason for hitting up good 'ole Birmingham is for the St. Patrick's Day Parade.. it's apparently a big thing there. I shall post and upload some photos from this experience soon. I'll be there from Friday to Monday (3/11-3/14).

Then coming up in about two weeks is my trip to Dublin! As I've previously posted, I've joined the trampolining club here and will be performing in Ireland. This trip we'll be driving out to Leeds (very early in the morning) to make our 6 AM flight to Dublin - Thursday, March 24th. (For those who know me, this is going to be ROUGH! ...but hopefully worth it!) The competition is on that Saturday and then I leave back for Leeds at 12 on Sunday. I apparently am being considered a "Fresher" on this tour, since I'm a first-year "tramp-er". Hazing to be expected... EEK! We are going downtown one of the nights with a "fancy-dress" theme of "Fashion Disasters". So me and Kiri -- my other roommate -- hit up the thrift shops and got some tacky-clothing. This trip outta be fun and I'm just now getting my routine down, so I'm pretty excited!

Annnnd.... *drum roll* I've booked my flight to Paris and I'm not going alone! Fellow UIS-er and Study abroad student, Grethen Addis, is accompanying me on my Vacances á Paris! I'll be going the second week of Spring Vacation: April 11th - April 16th! I cannot wait! This trip, I have been dreaming about since I started French in High School! Check... off the bucket list! Still in the process of planning what we will be doing there aside from visiting the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre,  Notre Dame... etc. I will obviously be posting photos on what we do when I return.

The last leg of my tourist plan is hitting up London! I made a friend recently through my roommate who lives in London -- Kyle. He has generously offered for me to stay with him and have him show me around. So this trip will more than likely happen somewhere during the last few weeks of April. 

So those of you worried that I'm cooping myself up in Hull, I am getting out! No more need to worry!

That's pretty much all the updates for now..

Until next time!

~M

Update

Started research with a new professor today! His name is Dr. Chris Longmore and he is a Cognitive psychologist. His research is quite a bit different from Dr. Large's. It's a face-recognition study, focusing on how we encode faces - portrait-wise or a 3 dimensional encoding.

My first session for Dr. Large was scheduled on Thursday, which is a pretty busy class day, so I only got to see how they set up the EKG cap. I was able to see the read-out for the EKG for was while too and learn the different brain-wave patterns and what they mean.

It sounds like I'm going to have more of a prominent role with Dr. Longmore's research, where I will be running all the sessions and helping with analysis. I'm excited but nervous about this, hopefully I won't screw up the math portion of the study!!

Also, a student was meeting with Dr. Longmore when I came in for our meeting who asked me to answer a few questions for his dissertation project. His research is pretty interesting as he has Asperger's syndrome and is double majoring in Computer Science and Psychology. His intentions are to create a computer program that is able to see through/understand ambiguity, when he, himself, cannot. The program was a bit hard to understand, but I think I got the jist of it: it will involve a driver's description of a car ride and the program will be able to simulate the occurence. This may sound easy, but if you start to consider the ambiguity of language it becomes intuitively more difficult. Think of the description "the road was bumpy" or "the car was swerving". There are both extremes and minor occurrences of these ambiguous descriptions. A computer is left dumbfounded with the 'thought' of "how bumpy was the road" or "how much did the car actually swerve". It will be incredibly interesting if he can create said program. The interview was interesting as well with the combined factors of his questions about ambiguity and the symptoms of his condition.

My free-time has run out and I need to go to class...

Until next time!
~M

Class Analysis

Looking back, it looks like I haven't explained how classes are different here versus my past UIS classes, which gives me something to post about!

I am taking four courses here, but I go to Uni more than four times a week. Most of the classes that I take here have at least two sections: a lecture/screening portion and a seminar portion. The lecture or screening portion are as they sound... the lecturer lectures for the majority of the class time while the students take down notes. Screenings (for my film classes) are where the instructors will give a brief intro on the film you are going to watch and you watch the film(s). Seminars are where you meet in smaller groups and are more discussion-based.

How my schedule works:

Monday I have my American Animation History Screening, which depending on the day we may watch one long feature length film (currently Disney oldies) or various clips/short animated films. Tuesdays I have my American Animation History and Neuropsychology lectures. (Neuropsychology only has lectures, and no seminars/screenings). Wednesday I have my Anatomy of an Auteur lecture/screening which is where we watch all Hitchcock films. For my Anatomy of an Auteur class, it's one long session of both lecture and screening, rather than breaking them apart and meeting on campus twice. Thursday, I have my Children's Brit Lit Lecture, my seminar for my American Animation History, followed by another seminar for my Anatomy of an Auteur class. And finally, Friday I have my final class for the week which is my Children's Brit Lit seminar.

So, for the most part classes aren't TOO different from what I've experienced at UIS. The class sizes are a little bigger... Lectures are different as students do not contribute to the lesson, they just listen to the lecturer and take notes. Seminars are shorter versions of what UIS classes feel like, wherein students talk and contribute a lot more. Another adjustment I am working with is the lack of busy work! All I have is readings assigned and TONS of it! But there aren't papers or tests periodically throughout the year. I am a bit scared for the finals and final papers at the end!

My favorite class so far is my Anatomy of an Auteur which, again, is centered around the work and technique of Hitchcock. It's been thoroughly interesting! My audited Neuropsychology class is a bit drier than I thought it'd be, but I'm sticking with it!

I'm also starting research next week which I am incredibly excited about! Dr. Large said that not only am I going to helping collect data but I get to serve as a participant. The study involves EKGs, so perhaps I'll be able to see my brain in action! haha

That's pretty much it for now!

~M

I'm still alive and kicking!

Sorry I haven't been posting a ton, as of late!

Classes are going well! I'm really liking my two film classes. The reading for each week is a bit strenuous though... Like for one week, I have a two page document of reading materials just for ONE CLASS! I've gotta figure out how to get a grasp of that and soon! Neuropsychology is seemingly different than I thought it would be, but I'm managing. I am QUITE excited at the prospect of starting research next week!

Other than that I have joined the Trampolining club, here. It's like gymnastics on a trampoline. I've been told I'm a natural and will be competing in two months in Dublin! I shall post a video/pics when I get them and update you on how this goes!

Also, I have been attending the "Tramps" (short for Trampolining, of course) social events... wherein they have these "fancy dress" nights where there is a theme and you dress up accordingly. So it's like Halloween, but more often! The last event I went to was last Wednesday and the theme was 'Genres of Rock N' Roll' and Kiri painted my face like Kiss... it was fun!

That's pretty much it for now!

Until next post!
~M

1st Day of School!

This past week was pretty snooze-worth, not much to report. But today..... I start school! I'm such a nerd! I'm all ready and I still have three hours before my class even starts! haha

Today's class is the Film Class: American Animation History!

Although, I have to leave the class about an hour early because I'm only "pre-registered" and I have to get it finalized. So hoping the professor will be okay with that.

That's pretty much it! Until later!
~M

Random Memory and Forgotten Post!

So I forgot to write about my experience at Chiquito's. So in America, as most of you know, when you are near being done with your meal the server usually asks you if you would like a food box. If not that, it is normal to ask the server for a box to take your food home. Well, apparently in England, this is an odd thing to ask in a none-take-away place!

So when I asked the waitress for a box, she looked at me like an alien! "Uhm, I can look in the back for a bag?" I tried not to laugh at this idea and just asked for an extra napkin. So she comes back with like 33 of them! I thought this was SOoOo funny!

Shopping at the Stephens Mall!

I hit the Stephen's mall today... properly named, I'd say! :)

Bought some running shoes, a cardigan, an undershirt, a few bracelets, and a scarf! I was a bit off the budget, but I'm back on track, no worries!

Love the options that I am given by the male sections in stores here... bit more variety compared to American shops. I'm trying not to replace my wardrobe as I would definitively wouldn't be able to bring them home!

Last night we hit the campus club, it was pretty fun! Tonight we're hitting up Sanctuary for karaoke, should be fun!