It’s official! I am now on my own (kinda) since I dropped my sister odd at the airport this morning. It was nice to visit our relatives in Harrogate together despite Mia’s indecisive, “I’m good doing anything” nature because my aunt was very decisive and took us around to a couple of cute places. It was fun getting to know our cousins better as well. It definitely wasn’t enough time spent with them, though because they were in school from 8am to 6:30pm during the day. Our two cousins are girls ages 14 and going to be 16 and they go to an all girls boarding college. (It’s called a college but high school aged kids go. Afterwards, they go to university aka uni.) We visited and it’s very small but really old fashioned. They have a little chapel where the girls all go 3 times a week in long cloaks like the ones in Harry Potter. It was really cool to go visit and see the school even though it made me feel really inadequate. These kids in the UK take 18 classes as a standard when they’re at middle school ages and learn how to do things such as needle point and design clothes. They get to go on trips to places like Venice, France, Barcelona, etc for art and language classes too! Granted, trips and attendance at the boarding school is really expensive, but it’s pretty neat! They’d to learn a lot more with a hands on a personal experience aspect. My aunt told me that a famous artist came into a class one time to teach about his style of art and to critique the art of he students when their project was to create heir own piece using his style. Learning about their school and what the students to through was pretty overwhelming and I was left very impressed. I feel like people are a lot more cultured and knowledgable here… Or at least in Harrogate. In any case, things are definitely very different back in the states.
Anyways, I have time to write a long entry again because I have 1.5 hours to kill before I can check into my room. My UCEAP orientation starts later this afternoon and I’m… Excited? Kind of. The fact that I’m going to start a new quarter here is starting to actually hit me. I’m excited but nervous, I guess. I’m also a bit sad about missing out on a quarter with people in SD. I’m always slightly too attached to home/people that I feel really comfortable around, which is why I know that I need to push myself to do things like studying abroad. I can’t stay stuck in a bubble in which I’m familiar with everything. Though, I kinda cheated and chose to go to a place where I know the language. ^^; Oh well. At least I’m miles away and 8 hours ahead from home. :P That should count for something… xP Ahh, but it’s a little chilly here and I’m jealous of SJ’s 80 degree weather this week. I’ve caught a very slight cold already but hopefully I’m getting better. I’ve had 3+ cups of tea already and it’s only 1pm. I’m trying to flush out my system and take in a lot of vitamin c. Hopefully it helps. xP I’m supposed to go sightseeing with the UC group all day tomorrow so I want to feel a lot better before then. We’ll see what happens… Well, I’m going to head on out. Goodbye!!
