An American In The UK…

So it’s been a LONG time since my last post…life gets busy! But boy, has it been fun. I’ve officially wrapped up my first year at Corban and am now officially Junior status, I turned 22, and I went to Great Britain! Traveling to the UK has been a lifelong dream for me, so I was THRILLED the entire time. It was amazing…I want to travel everywhere now! Here are some of the highlights (if I were to post them all, this post would never end…):

This is Highclere Castle, A.K.A. Downton Abbey. The grounds were BEAUTIFUL!

Me in front of the London Bridge…seems pretty sturdy to me… 🙂

One of my favorite moments in London was taking a spin in the London Eye…the views were SO beautiful!

This is Jane Austen’s home in Chawton…I could see how someone could write so many lovely books here.

This is part of Oxford’s famous university. I believe some of Harry Potter was filmed here.

This is Blenheim Palace, located just outside of Oxford. DEFINITELY a highlight of the trip! One of my favorite movies, The Scarlet Pimpernel, was partly filmed here.

See why I love this place? SO beautiful! PS…I totally fried my straightener here, hence the half-straight-half-not messiness…needless to say, make sure to bring the correct power adapter if you travel outside the US.

Loch Lomond…had to hold back from singing the song. Despite the clouds, Loch Lomond was absolutely gorgeous! I can see how so many poets wrote here to gain inspiration.

A guard at Edinburgh Castle…we saw the changing of the guard ceremony, and it was quite the ordeal!

These are the ruins at St. Andrew’s cathedral. Our tour guide told us that historians believe the highest point of the cathedral was three times higher than that tall tower pictured here! What an amazing sight that must’ve been…it’s amazing still, despite its ruin.

My lovely roommate for the trip, Haley, and me as we set out on a boat trip touring the Firth of Forth! A firth, as it turns out, is actually another name for an estuary…this firth connects the Firth River to the North Sea.

St. Giles Cathedral…John Knox preached here! We attended Sunday Service here during Pentecost…quite the experience. It’s about 900 years old!

A panorama of Edinburgh from Holyrood Park…I love this because you can see the entire Royal Mile from top to bottom. The top, being Edinburgh Castle, and the bottom, being Holyrood Palace.

This is the ruins of St. Anthony’s chapel. This chapel dates back to the early 1300s. After the Scottish Reformation, it fell into disuse and disrepair. Quite an amazing view, up here, too!

Um, Hi, Whirlwind…

This last week has been C-R-A-Z-Y-T-O-W-N. To say the least…but it’s also been such a blast!!! Let me give you the rundown…

So last Friday, I packed my belongings, and moved down to Corban University. I LOVE IT! Friday through Tuesday was orientation, which far exceeded my expectations. I met a lot of really cool people because of all of the activities we did. Then Wednesday, we started classes!

Now, here’s a funny story…

When I first applied to Corban, I was dead set on becoming a history major. I thought that was what I was going to do, no question. But as the time drew closer, I started to have a bit of a check in my heart about it. I had been constantly praying about it over the last few months, but with the idea being that I wouldn’t really change my major or anything. Well, on day one of classes, I went to my Modern Eastern Asian History course (supposedly the hardest course Corban offers), History of the Middle East, and World Thought and Culture course. I was overwhelmed, to say the least (like borderline panic attack), when I saw all of the syllabi in tandem, working together to destroy any hopes I had of maintaining a social life..or minimal sleep debt, for that matter. In addition, I just hadn’t been feeling a passion for it. Thursday, day two of class, I went to Baptist Heritage (much more interesting than it sounds…), Global Perspectives, and Bible Study Methods. All of those classes seemed relatively easy, save a couple of papers I’ll have to write…they’re also all required. After class, my dad drove down to Salem and took me to lunch. I hadn’t seen him (or really talked to him except for when I had a mini meltdown over a printer…printers, by the way, are the bane of my existence…) for a week, so I gabbed on and on about everything that happened. Kind of like what I’m doing right now…anyways, during our lunch, he asked if I had considered changing my major. He told me that a friend’s daughter recently graduated with a degree in history, and now wished she’d gotten a degree in business. That was sort of what did it for me…I decided to change my major. I talked with my mom, who has been telling me that I should get a business degree since grade school, and she was thrilled. So today, I spoke with one of the business professors at Corban, and we got it all taken care of. I’m actually WAY more excited about school now than I was a week ago! I feel like this degree is a lot more versatile, and my heart is much more at peace about this than it was last week.

So that’s my story. I’m so incredibly excited for this year! You may see less posts from me. Trying to get good grades/have friends. 🙂

Here’s a little video Corban put together of orientation…kind of fun! 🙂 

Blessings!