Christmas dinners and university

I've just come to the end of my first semester at university and where did all that time go!? I've been in Manchester for 13 weeks now (which is longer than most of my friends at other universities) and it's just gone so fast, I started the semester off with a Geography field trip to Keswick and now I'm in my room deciding what to pack for christmas at home (I'm also wondering how I managed to pack for 2 months in the US yet I can't fit what I want to take home for christmas into my suitcase..).

So, a few things about my first semester (as told through the multiple christmas dinners I have had this week):

Course-wise I am genuinely really enjoying studying geography. I've managed to attend all my lectures (I only live a 5 minute walk away from campus so there's no excuse really) and the lecture content is interesting; my favourite module is one called 'Understanding Human Geography' in which we've covered topics such as multiculturalism, national and local identities and mobilities. I've also successfully completed four essays this semester! Essay writing was something I was worried about before starting uni because I had taken maths and chemistry which didn't involve essays alongside geography, and the essays in geography were never my strong point! However it turns out I didn't really need to worry as I've improved my essay writing with the help of my academic advisor over the four essays I've been set already, so I'm happy!  My academic advisor is so nice, chilled out and generally helpful with university life so that's great too! Finally, my coursemates are wonderful and I've made some good friends who like things that I like (particularly david tennant and daniel radcliffe, ha.). Christmas dinner number 1 was held in honour of Frankie's and Nicola's birthdays and it was amazing, particularly the warm chocolate-fudge-with-an-actual-layer-of-fudge-cake for desert!

One of the first pieces of advice I got about going to uni was to "find a church as soon as you can and get involved". The church I go to is called vinelife and meets in a building called 'the powerhouse' which is a community centre and library. Having visited a few churches this summer and in the first few weeks in Manchester, I really felt it was important to settle in one rather than visit more. There are so many churches in Manchester and all of the ones I visited only had good things to say about the others, which is so wonderful, but made it harder to decide where I should be! Vinelife own a coffee house at the top of the curry mile and everyone who works in there is a volunteer aka a cafe missionary so I've started doing that on a Monday morning! It's really exciting and there is so much to learn, especially because I don't drink coffee so have no idea what all the varieties are! I've also joined a lifegroup where we meet weekly and do bible study/outreach/socials together. There are 12 people in my lifegroup and every single one of them is incredible. This was Christmas dinner number 2, where we went round and each said one thing we were thankful for this year (so american) (but such a good idea) and one dream for 2014. There were some big dreams shared that evening, I'm so excited to see where God will take them. 

As I mentioned before, I live super close to campus which is so good for sleeping in and nipping back for lunch between lectures! My flatmates are really great and next year I'll be living with three of them in an actual house!! We're really excited, mainly for the sofa and how clean the kitchen will be! I really enjoy coming in from uni and cooking/chatting with them in the kitchen, and making and eating Christmas dinner number 3 was so much fun (even though I definitely did more eating and less cooking)! 

There were some not so good times too but at the moment I'm really happy and overall I've had a sound first semester at uni!

Bethan 

(Also, skype is so much better in the same time zone! At the beginning of term I'd get an email from my parents asking to skype at a certain time and my mind would automatically calculate what time that was in New York, even though I didn't need to. Small blessings.)

So long, farewell

..auf weidersehen, goodbye! (titled so because Hannah and I watched The Sound of Music in our time off at camp)

So, leaving was one of my least favourite parts of the summer. I was torn between really wanting to see my family and friends back home but also really not wanting the summer to be over and having to say goodbye to everyone who I'd become close to. During the week before leaving, we talked about going back home and not being part of camp; some things I was really going to miss like the community, the laughs, the silly greetings (#awkwardsalmon), the sunsets, the adventure course, being in a routine and being around kids all the time but there were some things I was not going to miss as much like the time difference between New York and London, showering with flipflops on because of gross-ness, cleaning the girls bathroom, the heatwaves, dealing with ticks and, being around kids all the time. I knew it would be strange leaving everyone I'd met that summer and coming home to a place where if I shouted "Hey [insert name here]!" I wouldn't get a shout back of "HEY WHAT" and then a continuation into some crazy camp song. 

I wrote here about saying goodbye at True North to Megan, Mike, Matt, Emma and Madison (so many M's) and after that we got into the international van for the last time and Karen drove us to the train station. Saying goodbye at the station was so strange because our train was waiting at the platform so we said goodbye then got on the train but it wasn't scheduled to leave for like 2 minutes so there was a period of waiting (us on the train, Karen on the platform)  in which, whilst almost all of us were crying/tearing up, Jess gave Karen her dancing chicken. True story. When the train left we did the classic waving for as long as possible out the window and then sat down for the journey into the city. It felt like a genuinely sad train journey but we looked through each others cameras at pictures of the past 7 weeks which was nice. Then Rachael, Katie, Jess and Pete had to get off at the station before Hannah and I so urgent hugs and goodbyes were had as they all needed to get off the train with their luggage to travel on to their next adventure. So it was just me and Hannah left on the train which pulled into Penn Station and we then lugged our suitcases up some stairs and navigated ourselves to the nearest bagel place, naturally. 

Then it was time for my final goodbye to Hannah, this one thankfully was less emotional than all the previous ones as I just sort of knew I'd see her again in the not too distant future so that was really great. We realised the other day that Hannah was the one person I spent every singe day with during my 8 weeks in the US which was really annoying pretty cool! I then headed to my hotel to get ready for my 4am flight the next day. 'Getting ready' involved spending all my change in the vending machine, dancing to the radio and rolling around on the massive bed all mixed in with bursts of loneliness - it was so strange to go from being constantly surrounded by friends to suddenly being alone in a hotel room!

So that's that. Summer: Complete!

And so that concludes my posts on my summer as a camp counselor. I could write about heaps more things, but will leave just a few more good memories here:

• The evening that began as talent show (in which us G3 girls performed the most Godly of raps) turned into a dance party involving Irish dancing with Rachael and a fab rendition of 'Kung-fu Fighting' with Hannah.
• When I dressed up as a caterpillar and escaped from the zoo (funniest thing ever).
• Getting sick from eating too many mangoes and the only way to recovery was having my kids dance like monkeys and sing songs from The Lion King.
• The absolutely insane cabin time where our girls turned off all the lights, had their torches on and did a fashion show.
• Eating ice-cream wherever possible.

Bethan