experiencing and beginnings.
Prior to matriculation, I explored the city a bit on my own and took two million pictures while getting to know my way around.
I started off looking like this:
Pretty straight hair!
But, you know, that’s washed out eventually, and I was surprised with how SHORT he ‘trimmed’ my hair!:
Just kidding, my hair's not that straight, it's this crazy curly! You thought you knew me too! :O
It was kind of a weird day, it went from being like the last picture to being a spitty, windy, light rain which is terrible because your umbrella doesn’t work and it’s an annoying spray.
On Sunday, I forgot to mention, I was also able to watch the fireworks they have over Edinburgh Castle. They are put in tune to music, and are quite beautiful! I found them much better than the July 4th one. I also met some of Melissa’s friends she met at her building meeting, and some were postgrads! YESS.
One I met was Mike, and he’s outside of Leeds & here for environmental engineering (I THINK), and went to Oxford for physics, which he told me is not that brilliant. But I was like, “OH COOL!” When he told me, and Melissa leaned over and said, “I told him tell any American that and they’ll make a big deal of it.” …yeaaaaa.
Fireworks over Edinburgh Castle set to music.
After exploring the city center, the day before I had matriculation, I finally met all of my flatmates.
Of the five of us, we’re from all different places. Ashley is from Switzerland, Becca is from London (I’m pretty sure), Vicki is from Glasgow, and Lina is from Shanghai. That night, looking not so hot, (hey, I had just washed my hair out!) my flatmates, being mostly first years, were planning on going out with some pregaming in the kitchen.
I wound up staying in the kitchen till around 1AM, when intending to go to bed at 11PM, as I had to be up around 7:30 the next morning for matriculation. The friends Becca had made came up, and so did their friends. Eventually, there were at least 12 people there, including me. Another girl from Glasgow, two boys from Edinburgh, two boys from Northern Ireland, one from England, and another from Canada. (Yay, North America!)
Several drinking games were attempted and failed because there were too many people, and too many separate bits of talking going on. I also discovered with my Canadian friend, Desmond, that they don’t really know beer pong or flip cup here. Guess who’s teaching themmmmmm? Haha. Anywho, talking to everyone was fun and exciting, just because they were from so many different places. The different nationalities and accents in the same room was absolutely beautiful! I couldn’t help smiling just from experiencing it.
Also, I always gain extra cool points for being from NYC. There was actually one point in the night that my flatmate, Vicki, gave me a hug because it was so cool and I came here all alone…:( Justttt kidding.
Also, as I previously mentioned, one of the Irish boys was telling me of a stupid encounter he had had with another American, and I recognized that I’m going to get a lot of shit for being from America. He concurred. However, it’s all fun and games, as it seems everyone runs by the generalizations of the different countries.
The next morning, I woke up early enough to give myself time to get the bus to my campus, as I hadn’t ventured there yet. The ride was a bit longer than I thought, but eventually I arrived at Sighthill. The area didn’t look as amazing as the others, but it was okay. The building actually reminded me, even though it is obviously newer (just opened last January) of Stony Brook’s Chemistry and Life Sciences Buildings thrown together with a much newer appearance. The layout of it, that is.
I wound up standing outside of the lecture hall, as I was there early (of course, normal for me). I wound up talking to a girl who turned out to be in my Master’s program! Woot! Finally met someone in it! Score. Her name is Francesca, and she is from a town near Brighton in England.
We sat together through the introduction lecture where I found out this long day was NOT the actual matriculation day. Oi…We also had a technical lecture and fire and hazard lecture, which I have never experienced before, but really gave me a hard time keeping my eyes open. After, we went to a separate room grouped by our Master’s programs. My room was also combined with EcoTourism and Wildlife Biology. After some more of a welcome, I found out we have no exams! I was absolutely baffled by this. Huhhhhh? Repeat that again, please. I had never heard of such a thing. Anyway, I had little time to be confused as we were sent on a group self-tour of the building. My group was not very enthused about actually walking up and down the stairs again or writing papers down, so we dallied a bit and then turned around and went back.
At this time, we received our matriculation paper and our Program Director signed it and we were sent onwards to the next bit. It was lunchtime, and consisted of free “crisps” chips, and sandwiches, water and fruit. Oh, by the way, the sandwich choices (premade) are kind of odd choices. It is like tomato and cheese, egg salad, tuna salad, ham and egg, or cheese and colslaw? Yea, that’s what I said when I first saw that.
Anyway, we sat in some chairs and met more people: Jenny, Ally, Fenna, Bruno, and Barbaira. England, Aberdeen, Germany, Portugal, Portugal. Cool!
What we eventually found ourselves involved in was a goal setting workshop, which was well-intentioned but a bit long, and not something I think many Master’s students really were interested in as shown by our “goals” where the guys wrote “run naked through the Royal Mile” and “No hangovers”. Clearly, age does not change priority. But, it was a great way to bond with fellow classmates.
After that, we were done, and I set off home and knocked out fairly early after hanging out with my flatmates for a bit for dinner, since the next day was my nature walk with my fellow classmates!
Cheers! x
I started off looking like this:
Pretty straight hair!
But, you know, that’s washed out eventually, and I was surprised with how SHORT he ‘trimmed’ my hair!:
Just kidding, my hair's not that straight, it's this crazy curly! You thought you knew me too! :O
It was kind of a weird day, it went from being like the last picture to being a spitty, windy, light rain which is terrible because your umbrella doesn’t work and it’s an annoying spray.
On Sunday, I forgot to mention, I was also able to watch the fireworks they have over Edinburgh Castle. They are put in tune to music, and are quite beautiful! I found them much better than the July 4th one. I also met some of Melissa’s friends she met at her building meeting, and some were postgrads! YESS.
One I met was Mike, and he’s outside of Leeds & here for environmental engineering (I THINK), and went to Oxford for physics, which he told me is not that brilliant. But I was like, “OH COOL!” When he told me, and Melissa leaned over and said, “I told him tell any American that and they’ll make a big deal of it.” …yeaaaaa.
Fireworks over Edinburgh Castle set to music.
After exploring the city center, the day before I had matriculation, I finally met all of my flatmates.
Of the five of us, we’re from all different places. Ashley is from Switzerland, Becca is from London (I’m pretty sure), Vicki is from Glasgow, and Lina is from Shanghai. That night, looking not so hot, (hey, I had just washed my hair out!) my flatmates, being mostly first years, were planning on going out with some pregaming in the kitchen.
I wound up staying in the kitchen till around 1AM, when intending to go to bed at 11PM, as I had to be up around 7:30 the next morning for matriculation. The friends Becca had made came up, and so did their friends. Eventually, there were at least 12 people there, including me. Another girl from Glasgow, two boys from Edinburgh, two boys from Northern Ireland, one from England, and another from Canada. (Yay, North America!)
Several drinking games were attempted and failed because there were too many people, and too many separate bits of talking going on. I also discovered with my Canadian friend, Desmond, that they don’t really know beer pong or flip cup here. Guess who’s teaching themmmmmm? Haha. Anywho, talking to everyone was fun and exciting, just because they were from so many different places. The different nationalities and accents in the same room was absolutely beautiful! I couldn’t help smiling just from experiencing it.
Also, I always gain extra cool points for being from NYC. There was actually one point in the night that my flatmate, Vicki, gave me a hug because it was so cool and I came here all alone…:( Justttt kidding.
Also, as I previously mentioned, one of the Irish boys was telling me of a stupid encounter he had had with another American, and I recognized that I’m going to get a lot of shit for being from America. He concurred. However, it’s all fun and games, as it seems everyone runs by the generalizations of the different countries.
The next morning, I woke up early enough to give myself time to get the bus to my campus, as I hadn’t ventured there yet. The ride was a bit longer than I thought, but eventually I arrived at Sighthill. The area didn’t look as amazing as the others, but it was okay. The building actually reminded me, even though it is obviously newer (just opened last January) of Stony Brook’s Chemistry and Life Sciences Buildings thrown together with a much newer appearance. The layout of it, that is.
I wound up standing outside of the lecture hall, as I was there early (of course, normal for me). I wound up talking to a girl who turned out to be in my Master’s program! Woot! Finally met someone in it! Score. Her name is Francesca, and she is from a town near Brighton in England.
We sat together through the introduction lecture where I found out this long day was NOT the actual matriculation day. Oi…We also had a technical lecture and fire and hazard lecture, which I have never experienced before, but really gave me a hard time keeping my eyes open. After, we went to a separate room grouped by our Master’s programs. My room was also combined with EcoTourism and Wildlife Biology. After some more of a welcome, I found out we have no exams! I was absolutely baffled by this. Huhhhhh? Repeat that again, please. I had never heard of such a thing. Anyway, I had little time to be confused as we were sent on a group self-tour of the building. My group was not very enthused about actually walking up and down the stairs again or writing papers down, so we dallied a bit and then turned around and went back.
At this time, we received our matriculation paper and our Program Director signed it and we were sent onwards to the next bit. It was lunchtime, and consisted of free “crisps” chips, and sandwiches, water and fruit. Oh, by the way, the sandwich choices (premade) are kind of odd choices. It is like tomato and cheese, egg salad, tuna salad, ham and egg, or cheese and colslaw? Yea, that’s what I said when I first saw that.
Anyway, we sat in some chairs and met more people: Jenny, Ally, Fenna, Bruno, and Barbaira. England, Aberdeen, Germany, Portugal, Portugal. Cool!
What we eventually found ourselves involved in was a goal setting workshop, which was well-intentioned but a bit long, and not something I think many Master’s students really were interested in as shown by our “goals” where the guys wrote “run naked through the Royal Mile” and “No hangovers”. Clearly, age does not change priority. But, it was a great way to bond with fellow classmates.
After that, we were done, and I set off home and knocked out fairly early after hanging out with my flatmates for a bit for dinner, since the next day was my nature walk with my fellow classmates!
Cheers! x