The Final Countdown

This is going to be a bit of a random blog post. I have so much to talk about so i will try and minimise it all down as much as I can, some are fun little facts and some are about my home cravings that cannot be fixed while I am here! - Enjoy! 

The final countdown is on, and boy is it coming in fast! - I know i say that every time but I just cant believe how quickly this while year has gone. 

Less than two months and I will be able to heal all of those craving for food that I've had while I've been here. I know what you're all thinking, she's in America and she’s craving food!? Trust me I didn’t think it would happen either! But its the little things, like Dairy Milk, Prawn Crackers and Irn Bru. Of course all the stuff that is bad for me. 

My body is literally shouting out for some of my mum’s homemade lasagne with garlic bread. - my mouth is watering writing this! And some decent chocolate! Hershey’s and Dove just doesn't compare to some good old Cadburys. 

These are all things I didn’t think I would miss because “America is the food capital of the world” but they just don’t have the right things for us Scottish girls needing some home cooked foods! Joanna and myself have been spending some nights at Kelly’s house because her daughter Maddie is an amazing cook and makes so delish meals so Sian and Shona, you girls are in for a treat when you first get here! The dining hall food is good, but just like anywhere, you get fed up of the same things every week and sometimes a little shepherds pie or decent spaghetti and meatballs is what you need to get you sorted! 

While I’ve been here however, my love for Starbucks has grown evermore and my craving for a medium peppermint mocha frap, no whip is unbelievable! So any Starbucks lovers back home, I’d love to know if thats available back home ;) wink wink. 

Final Four tailgate at Castle 

In others news however, 2016 marks not only the best year of my life here in America, but the first time in program history that both the Men and Women’s basketball teams have made it to the Final 4 of the NCAA tournament at the same time! How amazing is that!? Sadly the men least their final four game to North Carolina Tar Heels at the weekend :( However the ladies won and went on to play UConn in the final on Tuesday night, sadly the game didn’t go in Syracuse’s favour and we lost out on the chance of the title, however we will be back and we will win. I know it!

For me, basketball season has been one of the biggest highlights of my time here! The atmosphere on campus and in the SU area when there is a game on is truly indescribable and I’m going to miss it so much! Some of my favourite memories form being here have been from in the dome, at the games, meeting the players and just watching both the men and women’s team grow and break school records together! Resulting in Syracuse Basketball having their own official day. March 30th, put it in your calendars! 

This semester I have taken some extremely fun classes, one of which was Challenges of Zoo Management, where we learn all about the different zoo animals, and what they require to survive and we healthy while living in the zoo. Towards the end of the class we go on a trip to Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse where we get to go backstage and get unclose and personal with some of our favourite animals, which meant for me. I was up close and personal with a penguin (sadly pictures cannot be posted on social media due to the fact ti was all back stage in the zoo and the public generally cannot see this, sorry!), but the penguins, elephants, lions, bears, red panda’s, snakes, monkeys, all loved our visit I'm sure! I know I loved it!!

The home countdown is currently on 34 days so time is running out and going fast! Im just having a blast and embracing everything I’m doing! 

Cya soon! 

Second semester - part 1

March already!? Where on earth is this time going? 

#bleedorange 

I cannot believe that in two months i’ll be on a plane coming home and my year and time as an SU student will be over. I can still remember the phone call like it was yesterday when Graham Tait called me and I sobbed down to phone to him as he announced that I was going to Syracuse! - still gives me goosebumps now! 

Oh how I would turn back time to be in Sian and Shona’s shoes right now, you girls are going to have a wonderful time and I cannot wait to see all the adventures you guys get up to as the new ‘lockerbabies’ - Im so excited for you both and over the moon that two awesome girls will be filling mine and Joanna’s shoes here at SU. All of my friends are so excited to meet you! You’re going to have an awesome time, I promise. Come with an open mind, you never know what will happen while you're here!

I came expecting it to be cold and snowy like, all the time? So far there has been one weekend where I couldn't leave my dorm because of how cold it was but apart from that, we haven't had it bad at all! Its been a crazy 'winter'! I still didn't manage to tick "build a snowman on the quad" and "sled down crouse hill" off my bucket list but we are estimated a couple of inches within he next few days so you never know! 

This semester I am absolutely loving my Zoo Management class. Ive came face to face with a sloth, given a bearded dragon a little massage on its tail and had a snake slither through my fingers. This is a class full of fun yet you still learn a lot. (I only really took the class for the penguins but its actually really good!) At the end of the semester, the zoo keepers take us to the local zoo and provide us with ‘backstage’ access to parts of the zoo that the public dont normally get to see, and for someone who is so obsessed with penguins like I am, this is exciting. And for those of you who are wondering if there is actually any learning and “how can zoo management be a class?” there is actually a lot of research that goes into the class as we are set the task of researching and designing a space for our chosen animal (penguins for me obv) and giving a presentation in order to “sell” our enclosure to the zoo keepers from Syracuse Zoo! - exciting or what?

Midterms are underway at the moment, so far I have only had one but the rest are in the calendar! 

Graeme is visiting again at the minute (best boyfriend ever or what!?) so there will be another blog post soon about all our adventures while he was here, I promise I wont leave it as long before I update you all again!

Thanks for reading!

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! 

-------

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!

First Semester - check! (Almost)

I cant believe I am writing this, but in two weeks, first semester will be over! Half my time here will be done - that makes it sound like I’m in prison! I’m really not, for anyone who hasn't clicked on, I love it here! I just cant believe how quickly time is going! It seems like yesterday we got off the plane and attended our first week of classes. Yet since that day we have survived midterms, the stress of picking next semester classes and our Remembrance Week. With no break from the moment we arrived we have welcomed Thanksgiving with open arms this week! A nice relaxing week off eating plenty food. - nothing new there with the food side then, we are in America after all! ;). I would be lying if I told you this semester was easy and stress free, however, I’d also be lying to you if I’d told you I haven't been loving every minute! Whether its been the first basketball game of the season or the last football game! I’ve done it all and I am so grateful for this opportunity.

Its already time for next years applicants to apply and to me, that seems crazy! I can remember getting the phonemail like it was yesterday! But to anyone reading this who thinks they may apply, want advice? JUST DO IT, FILL OUT THAT APPLICATION AND GO THROUGH THE INTERVIEW PROCESS AND IF YOU’RE LUCKY ENOUGH TO BE GIVEN THE SCHOLARSHIP, EMBRACE IT! You’re about to take part in one of the best years of your life. Make Friends for life and make memories that will last forever. Have I missed home? For sure! But its only natural and human! I remember the day I was told I’d been given the scholarship, lying in bed that night crying, thinking”What the hell have I go myself in for here!?” but seriously, don’t let homesickness or thoughts like that stop you from applying. There are so many opportunities and people here on campus that can help you through it all, and trust me (sorry mum) but sooner or later you realise you need to forget about home and just enjoy your time here, and trust me, it may take a few months before you realise it. But you will realise it, the time goes quicker than you know! There are too many things for you to be involved with hereon campus to remember home. You’ll be back there soon, take in the ‘Cuse experience while you can! Yeah people back home will stop talking to you even if they said “We will stay in touch, like, all the time. I might even come visit OMG!” but its things like this that let you know who you’re real friends are!

This semester I have taken part in - White water rafting, Ice skating with a class, 3 point challenge with the ‘Cuse basketball team (AMAZING), Pepsi fan cam at the dome, and the most stressful work load ever, but the work load is nothing when you look at all the other amazing things I’ve been able to do! This could be you! This could be your brother or sister, or your son or daughter. 

You could spend a year meeting and spending time with some of the most welcoming families there are out there. One family I’ll never forget are the Monetti’s - Their son Richard died on the plane, the reason we are here is because they lost their son, yet they have been themes kind hearted people ever and will always have a place in my heart and as their son said “A good attitude is worth 5 points; don’t sit back, make the most of everything. Do all you can while you can. Life is a one time deal” Its opportunities like this that allow you to build a bond with someone you never met. They fill a place i your heart. Remembrance week will make you cry, laugh and remember but it’ll also make you eternally grateful! You’ll miss home but your remembrance fam will be there and you’ll love them just as much as your own family. I know I love every 36 other scholars that I spent my first semester with! 

But seriously, If you’re thinking about applying and are unsure, drop me a message, a comment, anything! I will do anything I can to persuade you this is the thing for you!

That tearful time

This week was Remembrance week and Friday marked our biggest even on the calendar for myself and my fellow scholars. I got up as normal, I went to my econ class as normal, yet what wasn't normal was the fact that I couldn't focus and take in what Professor Evensky was telling us about the Macro Economics system. (not that I understood much of it anyway). 

My mind was just elsewhere.

I came back to my dorm and started to get ready. I walked back and forth in my room reading the speech I had prepared for the ceremony. I felt confident. I ran through it all in my head, trying to take away the fact I got rather upset during the practice last week - today is a new day I kept telling myself.

12:45 arrived and we (the scholars) were meeting together at 1 inside Hall Of Languages where we would get our pictures taken and have our roses handed to us. I kept running through my speech in my head as we all congregated together. I knew this was going to be though, but just how tough? That I was unaware of. We all had fun taking pictures and chatting casually before all the seriousness began and people kept asking me if I was nervous and all I could say was “Im ready, I’m prepared in my head but when I get out there, anything can happen” and we would all just laugh off our nerves. 

Laying a rose for Andrew

2.03 arrived and we headed out in our separate paths down to the wall of remembrance where each of the 35 seniors laid their rose in memory of their student whom they were representing this year. I lay a rose in memory of Andrew McClune. A past Lockerbie Scholar who sadly passed away here in SU, 13 years ago. I introduced my rose laying by mentioning how “Andrew had dreams of joining the Royal Air Force and founded Syracuse University’s curling team. He was known for being highly ambitious and always on the move” before stating “I lay this rose of behalf of Andrew and act forward in his memory”. Myself and fellow Lockerbie Scholar Joanna Barrie were then introduced and invited to speak. For those of you who were not there, my speech went like this 

“I respectfully stand before you all, whilst we all take time to remember those affected and touched by the tragic event many years ago.

On December 21st 1988, Syracuse University lost 35 of its most outstanding students, my small hometown Lockerbie, in Scotland lost 11 residents and us as a community in the world lost 270 men, women and children on the Pan Am 103 flight. 

I am here today to act in their memory. To Look Back, Act Forward and to never forget. 

I wasn't alive when this tragedy happened and at the time of the disaster, my family was not living in Lockerbie, however,when you grow up in such a small, close knit town, you begin to feel like you were there that night and you share the heartache with those people who were there the night the plane landed in our small town and being able to come as far as we have today and have joined another community that is Syracuse, mourning the same tragedy 27 years on is simply surreal. I cannot thank any one person enough for this opportunity I have been given. It really is an honour and an absolute privilege.  

We are not only here today to celebrate the lives of the students we lost the night of the Lockerbie Air Disaster, but also fellow Lockerbie Scholar, Andrew McClune who sadly passed away during his  scholarship year here, 13 years ago. Andrew was a young curler just like myself and played for the Universities curling team. He is described by his friends back home “as a star, he was academic, sporty, fun and kind, everything that you would want a friend to be, it was him. He was without exaggeration the nicest, kindest man.” We cannot forget to act forward in his memory also. 

I now have a short poem written anonymously to share which I feel is significant for the reason we are gathered together today.

Fighting back the tears

“I thought of you with love today,

but thats nothing new.

I thought about you yesterday 

and days before that too.

I think of you in silence,

I often speak your name.

All I have are memories,

and your picture in a frame.

Your memory is my keepsake,

with which i’ll never part.

God has you in his keeping,

I have you in my heart”

Today, tomorrow and Forever, we must look, back, act forward. and never forget these outstanding people, whom we lost 27 years ago. ——

Thank you.”

This truly was the hardest thing i’ve ever had to do. To look up half way through my speech and see people I didnt know, in floods of tears and smiling back at me, was one of the most moving and heartwarming yet heartbreaking things I've ever seen. 

The tears ran down my face as I finished of my speech and a little more when the bagpipes were played as people were invited up to the wall to lay their own flowers in memory of any of the victims. We all then left and went to Hendricks Chapel for the congregation where myself and Joanna were presented on stage with lovely Lockerbie buttons. 

The most amazing people I've ever met! 

It really has been an honour to be a part of, I feel so lucky and so humbled by everyones comments from not only that one day, but throughout the whole week. To know how grateful people are for myself and Joanna to be here, really is mesmerising. We are the ones who are eternally grateful.