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 |
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| 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!
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