Saying good-bye to the familiar

Hello my name is Meghan Schetter and I am just going to give you a little information about myself before I begin telling you about England. I am 19 years old and I come from Carney, Michigan. A tiny, little town that if you blink when driving by it you may miss it. I have lived there my entire life, so I am not used to the city scene, which is the case here in Kingston. I enjoy all sports, horseback riding, going out with friends, or just watching movies, and much more. My major at the moment is psychology/pre-medicine and the long term goal is to go to medical school, but I'm not exactly sure what I would like to specialize in. However, there is much time left for that.

The Adventure Begins
On Sunday, September 10, I finished packing my last few items and threw my bags into the truck and headed down to Illinois with my Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa. The good-byes at home were hard, but I knew it would be alright once I got here. We stayed the night at my Aunt and Uncles house and the next morning my dad dropped me off at my terminal in O'Hare's International Airport and I said my last good-bye. When I entered the airport I looked at the time board and there in big bold writing it told me that my flight had been canceled. Everything went alright though; I was put onto an earlier flight, which in the end helped me out. Kingston University had a meet-and-greet service waiting for me and other students upon our arrival ready to take us and our luggage to our new homes. 

My landlady is wonderful and I enjoy my area of living. I am very grateful for my other housemates whom are also students at Kingston University. There is Nick, a 21-year-old guy from South Carolina, and Veronica whom I would be totally lost without.  Anyway she is also 19 and lives in Indiana, but attends Grand Valley State University. The three of us share the third story of the flat so it works out well. The only thing I must say I am missing from home is being able to watch my favorite TV shows—Grey's Anatomy and E.R. We happen to live right next to the Kingston Hospital, so we are constantly hearing sirens at all hours of the day, again very different from my little farm country home. 

Orientation and Tours
I started my orientation on Thursday the 14th and sat through the typical informational lectures. On Friday all of the Study Abroad students (103) were taken to Brighton, a city with a never ending beach on the coast. The beach isn't the typical sand beach that we have in the States, it is covered in rocks. The view was breathtakingly gorgeous and I could have sat there all day and stared at the water towards the direction of France, which was only about twenty miles away. We toured the Royal Pavilion, the palace of King George IV. It was almost destroyed by Queen Victoria; however, she was convinced to sell it to the people of Brighton for only fifty thousand pounds ($100,000 or less).  It was fantastic; we had an excellent tour guide and a lot of freedom to look around later without her.  After our tours we walked out onto the pier and along the beach for a bit, loaded back onto the buses and headed for Kingston. 

Last Saturday we were given the option of going to Central London. Of course I accepted and we took the twenty minute train ride from Surbiton to Waterloo. There was a fairly large group of us together, which included Danielle, a fellow student that had already lived in London the previous summer. We were very lucky because she turned out to be our very own little tour guide. When we got off the train we saw the London Eye. For those of you who don’t know what it is, it looks like a gigantic ferris wheel with enclosed submarine looking compartments where you stand and when you reach the top you can see all of London.  At that point we were all in awe and with our next step around the corner we realized that we were really here. We all looked around and saw the House of Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey, dumbstruck with awe and excitement.  After walking around a bit and seeing Westminster Abbey and taking it all in we met up with Phillip, our spectacular tour guide. 

We walked around some more and he told us important little facts about different buildings and statues. He then led us into St. James Park to have lunch and sit a bit on the green grass before we proceeded onto Buckingham Palace and went our separate ways. St. James Park was fascinating I could probably go and sit there all day and just enjoy the beauty of it all. The trees here are massive, they don't seem to be much different in height compared to say our maple trees, but the bottom or trunk part of them is enormous and the branches twist and turn in every direction making each unique in its own way.  After lunch we walked over to Buckingham Palace and watched the guards for a while through the gates and then proceeded on in a smaller group of only four.  London was amazing and I will be going back often throughout the year. 

I am a thirty minute walk to the Kingston campus. I could take the bus part way, but every time you step foot onto a bus you pay and it adds up quickly—everything here is very expensive and almost double the costs of everything in the States. I have not started classes yet, so I’m still nervous about that whole ordeal. Their teaching system in the universities is not at all like I had back at Tech. A typical class here seems to have lecture for one to two hours on one day of the week with your professor. We do not get tested nearly as often as we do in the States and everything is very much an independent study. Your grade is basically pulled from your final exam, which will most likely be in essay form that is graded by your professor and possibly two other professors from other universities. 

Wednesday, Veronica and I were kindly taken to Central London with two English guys that we met this past week. It was great seeing everything at night, we went to Piccadilly Circus (I do not understand exactly what is so famous about it, but I can now say that I have been there and seen it). We then walked up Shaftsbury Avenue to past Soho down to China Town. From there we walked through Leicester Square over to Trafalgar Square and saw Nelsons big column. After that we sat around by a nearby fountain, went back to the car and drove over Tower Bridge. It was lovely lit up at night. 

First Impressions
Because this article is so long I am going to briefly touch on some odd things that I have seen so far. Well I have to start by saying that the driving here is insane. The difference with driving on the opposite side of the rode is not that weird to me, but just in general it is scary. Crossing the roads however is very bizarre. I did not realize it, but I am programmed to look in the direction I am used to traffic coming from. The other day Veronica and I had taken a wrong road and were waiting at a bus stop to get back to Kingston, when we heard a car crash and a woman scream. The first thought that came to mind was she was screaming out of anger because her car got wrecked. But then we realized when we looked, she had been on a motorcycle and had gotten hit by a car. That was pretty intense and eye opening for us to pay even closer attention when we are crossing the roads because drivers are not as courteous to pedestrians as in the States or at least Carney and Houghton.

I am really getting used to the English accent. I don’t really notice it much at all anymore and I catch myself using one of their words here and there and speaking in an English accent. I didn’t expect that to happen so quickly. I have so much to talk about, but I am afraid I am getting far too long for the week, but I will continue next week.

Until then,