So last night marked the halfway point for my studies at Edge Hill and I thought I would write a blog about my impressions of the UK so far. I will be assisted by my lovely friend Megan from Michigan. 1. Men in university love to dress up in skirts to go out. Weird. 2. Men, in every continent or random island, are exactly the same with no exceptions. Except for Sam. 3. When you go to the doctor you are prescribed sleep and water over anything else. This can be a good thing if you do not need medicine, but [View Full Entry]

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This was the third time that I had been to Edinburgh, and miraculously, I still saw places that I had never seen before. There were 9 Americans, including myself, who went on this trip. I'll use names instead of saying "girl" or "boy", so our names were Erin, Megan, Kacie, Michele, Melissa, Alex, Nick, Adrienne and Kaylee. We took a train out of Ormskirk at cpm on Friday night. We trained into Liverpool, then Liverpool to Wigan, then Wigan to Edinburgh. We arrived in Edinburgh around 10:30 and made our way over to Castle Rock Hostel, just off the Royal Mile [View Full Entry]

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I have been seriously procrastinating writing a new blog, so this blog will set out to summarize the first four weeks of living in the UK. Hopefully it won't be too long. The first full week of living in the UK was Fresher's Week. This week was full of school organized events and social gatherings. During the day, we would all go to meetings for our departments. In the UK, you sign up for a degree and those are the only classes you are taking. They do not require anyone to take Gen Eds. at all. Jealous. For us, this week [View Full Entry]

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This entry should really run from 19 Sep (dates are written backwards here) to 27 Sep, because it will take place over an entire week. I was surprised to find out on my arrival that classes did not start for another week. In the UK, First Years (Freshmen) move in a week early. The week consists of meetings with your departments during the day and many organized campus events at night. In the United States, many of us may remember the campus organized events being corny and awkward, where you are forced to interact with other students. You may remember being [View Full Entry]

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So it has taken me two weeks to get caught up with what has been going on in my life. So much has happened and it's hard to put it all in words, so bear with me. I'll pick up where I left off. The next morning we were picked up by our previous cab driver at 6am to be taken to the ferry to Holyhead in the UK. We paid extra for guaranteed seats in a higher class that provided free food, and I would recommend doing that if you don't mind the money. The ferry is about 2 hours [View Full Entry]

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So I'm writing this blog a long time after the fact, but I figured that I needed to finally finish up the story of our trip out here. I wrote most of the last blogs on the trip and then just posted them later when I had internet access, but after this one I should be mostly caught up. The day after Glendalough I found that I was not feeling very good. I woke up with a sore throat and it started to worry me. I felt better later, but was really groggy and tired all day. Nonetheless, we made it [View Full Entry]

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On Wednesday, we decided to go out of the Dublin area and see the countryside. I had read a lot about a monastery called Glendalough that was founded by St. Kevin in the 7th Century. At one point, it was one of the major religious centers in Ireland. We paid 20 Euros to take a bus out to the site and got to spend 3.5 hours there. It was easily a place that I could spend a few days in. It lies in part of the Wicklow Mountains in a national park south of Dublin. Glendalough is one of the most [View Full Entry]

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This morning we woke up around 5:30 am to head out to the airport for our Aer Lingus flight to Dublin. One major thing that my family has learned about travel of our kind is to be really conservative with the items you bring, and that was reinforced at the airport. Also, make sure that you check to see the bag requirements of any airlines that you might travel. We checked British Airways’ regulations on the way out and had no problem. Apparently, though, Aer Lingus considers flying from Scotland to Ireland domestic, instead of international, so they only allow one [View Full Entry]

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Today we spent a day in Edinburgh. We woke up on our own time, got ready and departed for the Edinburgh Castle. This giant castle on a hill in the middle of the city is one of the things that makes Edinburgh really unique. We spent a good amount of time at the castle on my first trip out here in High School, including watching a Tattoo with multitudes of piping bands. We made our way up the Royal Mile towards the castle, and stopped at a neat Turkish place called Truva's, which means Troy in Turkish. We enjoyed a nice [View Full Entry]

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We ended up in Edinburgh after my last blog. When we arrived we went to our hotel and rested for a bit. We then made our way up to the Royal Mile, which is the road that connects Edinburgh Castle to Holyrood House, the palace currently used by the Queen on visits to Edinburgh. Both attractions are available for tours and I would highly recommend them. In between both attractions are many pubs, restaurants and other stores, generally guided for tourists, although you can find some locals. We walked up and down both ends of the Mile before my parents were [View Full Entry]

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