Pictures

Both England and Scotland are gorgeous so I thought I'd post some pictures of the countryside as well as some random photos from the past week.

The river Tweed, a 15 minute walk from the school.

The view from one of the football pitches.

One of the Argentinians that came to stay with us for a bit watching the

boarders scrimmage. We were so sad when they left because they were

so kind and great company. They understood so much English!

Argentinian girls loved the chocolate face mask I let them use :)

A beach in Eyemouth, a town just a short drive north of Berwick.

The pool in Eyemouth on a Saturday outing.

On Sunday my friend and I took the train to Edinburgh - so fun and beautiful!

On the way back, however we caught the wrong train which was going to

North Berwick, not Berwick-upon-Tweed. They were in opposite directions so it

is safe to say it was a long day!

The view from a cafe in a shopping mall in Edinburgh.

The only semi-decent picture of my traveling companion and good friend, Nikita!

Sheep, Potatoes, Accents

This past Sunday all of the boarders took a trip out to Newcastle to the Metro Centre, a huge indoor mall with what must have been hundreds of shops!

Last week I went down to the river Tweed with two of my good friends, Nikita and Robert. It was about a 15 minute walk and it was absolutely gorgeous.

Two days ago for P.E. class we went to the local gym (super modern, very large). It made me smile that I was on this small school bus bumping along through the countryside watching sheep graze just a few feet away. Very scenic.

Least favorite food this school week was the mashed potatoes which had no taste. However, the soups for lunch are absolutely amazing and I love the ham sandwiches as well. I have yet to eat a bacon buddy (by far my favorite British breakfast option).

I'm missing circus and the feeling after the intense workout it gives me. Hopefully I won't be too out of shape when I come back home! Luckily, I have been always up and about and playing football (and rugby) fairly regularly.

This week about ten Argentinian guys and girls all around my age have come to stay at Longridge for a few days. Tomorrow I think I will scrimmage against them. So excited! I absolutely love being around so many people from so many different cultures. It is strange that although we are from completely different sides of the world we are all so alike! We all learned how to speak, write, laugh, learn in similar ways. It is so interesting comparing and contrasting our lives and experiences. One thing they all have in common is everyone likes to make fun of my accent :)

School Time!

Where do I even start? I find that when I type these blog posts or call friends and family I have so much to say I find myself stumbling over words. So much happens every day and I’m not even sure what pieces would be interesting to write about.

I should start be saying that this and the last post are not accompanied by pictures because of three reasons. One, I brought a camera, but managed to forget the sim card. Two, my cheapo temporary phone does not have a camera for easy photo- taking. Three, I am in school five days a week and no technology is allowed.

School is going very smoothly and I am beginning to settle into the routine. I am even able to find most of my classes. Although, it doesn’t help that every other day the room where math is taught changes. I very much like the classes I’ve signed up for because they are quite easy. Although in general the schoolwork is not hard I find it overall very beneficial to be taught the basics using different methods.

At this age, every student at the school is preparing to take the GCSEs, a huge set of tests, which basically determines how they will do in life. I find that for a school that welcomes many students for different periods of time it is difficult for them to fit people my age in when they are only here for a term. That is ok though because most days we do not do work in preparation for the GCSEs, just normal coursework. But, today in geography I colored in wizards on the computer because everyone else was revising…

My favorite part of the day is actually after school when we have what is called enrichment. Those who board are told to choose at least three enrichments.

On Wednesday I signed up for Girls Touch Rugby… In short rugby is the single most confusing game I have ever played and we have only been taught three rules: run forward, pass back, don’t be off sides. Sounds easier than it is.

Thursday I chose Football, although my roommate Carmen and I are the only two girls. No one passed to me today. That’s ok because at the end they all said I was the best girl they had ever seen play football and that it looked like I actually knew what I was doing. Success!

On Fridays I have House Choir. The school is split into three houses, Jerningham (my house), Home (pronounced hume), and Stobo. There are competitions between the houses and one of them is a sort of choir sing-off. Also, I am taking part in another house competition on Saturday, the house field hockey tournament. I have never played field hockey in my life and I have no gear. We will see how that goes. Wish me luck!

I hope to have updates coming more frequently as the Wi-Fi is meant to be fixed now (although still incredibly slow).

First Day of School

I've just come home from the first day of school and my oh my everything is completely different here. I am in Fifth Form (equivalent of eleventh grade in the States).

Because I am a boarder I only had to go down the stairwell and I was at my first class with my Form teacher. This was almost like homeroom and I was given a list of classes to choose from. I am in Science (a mixture of chemistry, biology and physics), math(s), english, geography, and French.

Today we also had an assembly where we sang (or in my case mouthed and hummed) a song and prayed. I have never ever prayed in school before - or I guess anywhere before - but it was actually quite cute seeing all of the youngsters recite the prayer by heart.

Each day the schedule rotates and every few classes I have a short break time. Some classes (such as geography and French) are two hours, but others are only one hour.

Throughout the day I enlisted many girls to help lead me to where I needed to be. The school is actually quite large and I got lost once, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.

Each class had a maximum of twenty students and in my French class there were only four of us! I don't know if I prefer smaller or larger classes (where you can slink to the back and not be noticed).

My favorite class by far was Science mainly because the teacher is so calm yet he knows how to control the class. There were only about six of us and when we did an experiment where we burned magnesium he was very helpful and attentive. I loved the hands-on approach (I would go months without doing an experiment in my science class) and I hope some of the other classes that I didn't have today will be like that.

Now I'm off to my second supper at Longridge. So far so good!

The Boarding House

Finally I was able to see where I will be staying these next few months. It is so nice here! The people are extremely friendly and I know if I need anything I will be well taken care of. Here are a few photos of the place.

The grand staircase.

The grand staircase with my cousin, Ryan.

Entering the school. Last time I saw my dad for three months (not sad at all :)!

The common room.

The other side of the common room - flat screen TV just to the right of the map!

My lovely bed, already made up.

My equally lovely roomie, Carmen.

There are so many people here from many different countries, Spain, Russia, China, Portugal, etc. It is so fun being surrounded by all of these international students and very eye-opening. I love the boarding house and I can't wait to go to school for the first time tomorrow.

School Uniform

Went to the school to find a few pre-owned pieces and then got the rest of the uniform at the official outfitters, Robertson's.

The uniform...for boys.

My favorite part was the dress..but it's only for the Juniors :(

The full uniform.

The full uniform with the blazer.

The field hockey uniform...should I try out??

P.S. This was meant to be up yesterday, but our wifi was down.

The School

Today I slept until noon..my body clock is still a little off. Then I visited Longridge Towers for the first time. Although it was closed because it's Sunday it was still nice to see the school in real life.

The school is absolutely magnificent! Didn't get to go inside, but the scenery and school are very picturesque. Still not sure where the boarders stay although I'll find that out Wednesday when I'm meant to check-in.