Winter Break Adventures - part 3 - The journey back to 'Cuse

January 17th, the day I was heading back to Syracuse to start my second and final (sad face) semester! I cant believe the new scholars are announced in a matter of weeks! Good luck to you all! 

So I start my journey from Pasco in the early hours of the morning (5 a.m) and for those of you who know me well, will know that I am not a morning person so this was not the best thing for me to be doing. However, a sad goodbye to my family, through security and I was ready to board my flight to Minneapolis. I had a small suitcase with me for hand luggage as my bag was close to the weight and I bought things when staying with my family so the extra bag was needed! However, this was a small plane so my hand luggage had to go in the main body of the plane, no problem right?! WRONG! I had a close connection flight once I landed - intact I only had 30 minutes which was completely opposite to my journey on the way here, however, I believed I could do it and there wouldn't be any problems, well who was I kidding!? Since my hand luggage had to go in the main body of the plane, I had to wait for it to come out, baring in mind I only have half an hour to find my other gate and by this time we had already sat on the run way for 20 minutes with me checking my clock every 20 seconds because I knew how little time I had. So by this point I only have 10 minutes. I get off the plane and stand with the other people who are waiting for their bags, before we are informed that the door is jammed and they cannot get the bas out and no one has any idea how long it will take. My next flight is now boarding. I tell a woman that my flight is boarding and she some how manages to thankfully get the bags up quicker but reassures me that if I miss my flight then she will book me on the next one personally herself. Yeah, darn right she would! I Grab my bag when they are put out and I run for my life, shaking and needing the toilet so bad but I couldn't waste time for a pee so I just have to run awkwardly. I then have to get on a tram to my next gate. Fine. So as I arrive at the tram stop, the doors shut and a tram drives away right infront of me. By this time I can feel the tears building up inside of me and I’ve no idea when I’m gonna burst! Another tram pulls up about 3 minutes later and my stop is the second stop. I run to my gate which of course was the last one of the 3 gates in the building, and I get there as they are calling for final calls for the flight. I make it on and I’m sat beside a guy, around my age and we start to chat. 

We take off and my seat collapses back and so does the guys infront of me! The woman behind me then starts to shake and kick my seat in a hint to get me to put it back up. I ignore it for the majority of the flight but my seat is broken therefore overtime I put pressure on the back rest, It reclines back, resulting in her kicking and pushing my seat. The guy beside me is about 6ft 7 and can’t even put his tray table down because his legs are so long! However, long story short, she makes a big deal about my seat infront of the air hostesses to which they tell her a lot of the seats on the plane are like that and neither of us can be moved because it was a full flight. However the pushing and kicking continues until we land.

We finally land in La Guardia and I have just been on the worst flight ever and I just want to get off, forgetting I put my passport in the pocket on the seat infront of mine and I just head off the plane without taking it back out. Before Its too late I realise this and run back down and tell the captain and the air hostess who both look confused to see me! I explain my situation and they tel me just to run, I thankfully get my passport and head back out. Now worrying about getting to my next gate for my final flight. But thankfully, there was some good in the story and i was flying out of the same gate I flew into so I have no where to go! Yay! 

Judy collects me from the airport and I head back to campus. I guess travelling by myself had gone too well on the way there that something had to happen on the way back, and they say bad things happen in 3’s! 

So far classes have been amazing and I’m loving my second semester already! I cannot wait to see what the rest of the semester had to hold, starting with Graeme’s second visit in 22 days! 

Winter break adventures - part 2

Just a quick update on my travels so far.  All was smooth from Syracuse to JFK and then onto Salt Lake City - hey - however, when I landed and finally got wifi in JFK I checked my emails and noticed that the flights that I had originally been booked on was not the flights that were noted on my tickets and the planes I was preparing to travel on, however, I just went with what was on my tickets and thankfully I got to Salt Lake City with no problems. Notice I didn’t say I got to Pasco with no problems. As I arrived in SLC I managed to connect  to the wifi, every 18 year olds necessity of course, however it was so slow that Netflix wasn't working and neither was FaceTime, both kept cutting out. Nevertheless, the three hour wait didn’t seem to be too bad with the help of music I already had on my macbook - Shoutout to Jess Glynne, Train and Biebz. 

Everything was going good and I even managed to get a seat upgrade so I got extra leg room and a comfier seat! Bonus! However, when we boarded the plane and were all ready for take off, the captain announces that there is a maintenance issue with the plane and he was unsure how long it would take, however, maintenance were on the way and were going to fix it he assured us. Another 10 minutes later he pops back on. I’m shattered, fed up, my butt hurts and just want to get to my final destination by this point, so I’m sat in my seat hoping that he is going to tell us everything is fixed and we will be off soon! But no. He announces to us that we all need to deboard the plane and it is going to take a minimum of 45 to fix the problem. I text my auntie and explain everything thats happened, bear in mind, my flights were already changed and my auntie and uncle, along with my two cousins had already been to the airport to collect me as there was no notification of my change of flights. So our meeting so far has been pushed back, at this point, 45 minutes. 

We get complementary snacks and drinks back in the airport with the hope to be boarding again pretty soon. 25 minutes after we expected, we were able to board the flight again and I am finally typing this on my way to Pasco, with wifi on the plane, to see my lovely family! Im going to tell the bed I love it tonight! 

What a start to 2016 eh! Hope the rest of the year isn't as stressful as this! 

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So here I am now, sat with my uncle and auntie close to the end of my winter break, and boy what a great time I've had. From bringing out my inner interior designer and helping them arranging their new house to making animals out of toilet tubes with my old neighbour from Lockerbie! 

This "adventure" has been unbelievably amazing and has been just what I need to kick start the new year and to tick some ore items off my bucket list when I head back to 'Cuse. 

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of my first winter break as an american student! 

Love you all and I cannot wait to see what the rest of 2016 has to hold. Truth be told, its got a lot to live up to following 2015! 

Winter break adventures - part 1

First semester is officially over, which sadly means that half my time at Cuse is over but what a blast its been! I’ve met people I’ll hopefully be friends with for life, experienced things that isn't possible to experience in the UK and been on a rollercoaster of emotions, but hey! Thats college, right?

First semester was finished with a visit from Graeme (the boyf) before Winter break began with a visit from my family! Its been a wonderful month so far and I'm currently sat on a plane 36,000 ft in the air heading to Salt Lake City before finally arriving in Pasco, Washington State to stay with my Uncle Martin, Auntie Lisa and my cousins. With a short visit to an old neighbour from Lockerbie in Spokane. Fair to say its going to be a busy couple of weeks but I cant wait! 

So, heres a run down of how the family visits went - Graeme arrived on December 4th and in our time together we went to the SU soccer game, SU mens basketball, a shopping trip to Destiny Mall, went to see Lights on the Lake with Kelly and her daughter Maddie and on several occasions we ate out. What else do you expect when in America!? Having Graeme stay really made my time during finals go a little easier and a little smoother than I had originally expected. It was so nice to have someone from home staying with me, a Scottish accent to talk with and my best friend finally back! - soppy I know. We stayed with Kelly (my second or third mum while I'm staying here) for the first couple of days before I took Graeme onto campus and he got to experience college life for the first time! Everyone on my floor loved him and welcomed him with open arms, some literally and others just a high five or a shake of the hand. They all seemed so excited to have another Scottish person staying for two weeks! Once the he got over the jet lag and he wasn't waking up at 2am asking what time it was everything went pretty smooth. There were a few bumps along the way but I wont mention those. A tearful goodbye was said on December 19th and his second visit is being planned as we speak! Hopefully only a couple of weeks and he’ll be back! I guess he liked it! 

December 20th - I headed to Washington DC with some of the Remembrance Scholars for the annual service that is held on the 21st at Arlington Ceremony for the victims of Pan Am flight 103. We got to read out names of the victims at 2.pm and were to be finished by 2.03 pm for a moment of silence to remember those we lost on that long December night in Lockerbie. I had the honour of reading some of the victims who were killed on the ground in Lockerbie and are also known as the Lockerbie 11. As I finished I mentioned I was a Lockerbie Scholar along with Joanna and that we were here to represent the Lockerbie 11 during our scholarship year here. A piper played and members of the FBI and family members spoke before the ceremony was concluded with the presentation of a Pan Am 103 wreath that was made up by red, white and blue flowers was placed infront of the cairn. 

Representing Syracuse at Arlington

Joanna and I at the cairn

One thing I will never forget from this ceremony happened afterwards. A lovely little lady tapped me on the shoulder as I turned around I seen the tears streaming down her face. I held her arm as she asked if I was from Lockerbie. I smiled and told her I was and fighting through the tears she said “You tell them all when you get home, thank you. Thank you from us all”. We hugged and that was it, she never told me her name and I never seen her after to ask her more about why she was there. But I’ll never forget her.

December 22nd, I had my first McDonalds in 4 months and my first ever Chic-fil-a. Both were amaaaaaazing! And we headed back to Cuse. My parents and my sister also arrive tonight which I was so excited about since leaving Graeme was so hard and I was loving having someone from home around. 

They arrived late that night and the following day I took them on a tour of campus where they got to meet the lovely Juan, one of the Remembrance Scholars. We went into Hendricks Chapel where they could see my name on the plaque that the university have for all of the Lockerbie Scholars over 25 years. We had lunch on Marshall Street before I took them to spend some money on “Orange Wear” which was a necessity for the basketball game we were going to on the 27th. On the 23rd we took a random road trip to lake … and we had the biggest, fajitas, nachos and burritos ever. Christmas eve we went to Kelly and Dennis’ house for Christmas Dinner which was lovely. It was so lovely to be spending family time with both sets of parents (My real ones and my cuse ones). Christmas day we opened presents as usual and had a lazy morning before heading to “Grand Genesse Hotel for Christmas lunch, sadly there was no turkey but Kelly did kindly make us some! Boxing Day, Koren and I hit the sales at Destiny Mall while mum and dad went to the movies! Was such a fun day but I was totally shopped out. Basketball was next and Cuse were up against Texas Southern and thankfully came out on top! GO ORANGE! We went to Niagara Falls next and my family got to meet one of my friends who only lives 20 minutes away from the falls. Katie joined us for lunch and came to the falls with us. It was so nice to see her again especially since I didn't think I would see any of my friends over the break! So shoutout to Katie C for taking the time to come and see us! We visited Destiny Mall a few more times and ate out pretty much every night, so that 1 and a half stone I’d lost over four months has undoubtably been put back on! These visits included go-karting at Destiny, and carving our name into the table at Dino Bar-B-Que. (we asked the waitress I promise). Breakfast out with Kelly and Dennis yesterday and now here I am, after a 3 o’clock start this morning, I’m on my second of three flights of the day and due a well deserved nap! 

Happy New year! See you all when I’m back in Cuse!