My Life at Uni

So in between all the traveling I have decided to join a few groups.  The kayaking club is one of them...although I haven't gone back yet after seeing that monkfish.  I have also joined the International Student Society, so far we've gone on a pub crawl and went to a Cailidh (pronounced kailey.)  A Cailidh is basically as Scottish as you can get.  It's a party where people wear kilts and there's a band that plays traditional scottish songs.  They teach you how to dance and how to look pretty much like a fool.  I went with my American friends (Annelise, Kacey, Lauren, Emily and Cailine) and we danced the night away.  You were supposed to try to pair up with a boy but for some strange reason there were way more girls than boys. Go figure.  So needless to say my girls and I took turns being the Scottish gentleman.  I learned a couple of fun dances that I'll be sure to pull out next time I'm at the fine drinking establishments of Champaign-Urbana.  

I've also joined this club called UrbanDance, which is basically a hip-hop/break dancing club.  I joined it with my friend Cailine who was in a ballet company for majority of her life.  We always have a good time because we generally look pretty goofy doing the moves that others can easily pull off.   One guy in the club taught us how to sort of break dance.  One move called a freeze, is where you basically use your arms and head to hold the rest of your body up.  And by head I mean side of your face.  Well this seemed easy enough to me, being the amazing gymnast that I was.  So I attempt to do a freeze and basically end up sliding on my face across the floor.  Wooden floor + face = painful.  So, my break dancing career might not work out after all.  I'm still doing the hip-hop club, just sort of keeping my face off the floor.  

My classes, or so they call them, are pretty much a joke.  I have three lectures a week (which most students "can't be bothered" to go to, not me of course though mom and dad...) and each lecture meets once a week for two hours.  Then about every other week I have a seminar for each class which lasts about 50 minutes.  So basically I have a maximum of 8 hours of class a week.  I just finished one essay for a class that is worth 50% of my grade.  But don't worry, the professor gave us an outline of what our paper should be.  So that was not the most difficult either.  

One thing that was difficult however, was my practical for one of my classes.  Since all of my classes revolve around sports and exercise, they thought it would be a "fun" idea to have the entire class participate in a fitness test.  oh joy.  Now I like being active, like you know hiking, walking to McDonald's, break-dancing, ect. but I absolutely hate running.  I am a pathetic runner so thank goodness my metabolism has not slowed down quite yet.  So this fun test was called the bleep test.  Apparently it's a pretty big thing here in Scotland.  Basically there are two lines separated by about about 20 meters.  You start on one line and then you hear a beep and you have to run to the other side before you hear the other beep.  Once you've reached the other side, you wait until you hear the beep and then you get to run back to the other side. Yay! The beeps get separated by less and less time as the test goes on.  So on my way to this joyous experience I asked my friends in my class what level people typically get to.  He says usually girls get around level 7 or 8.  So my goal was 7.  So I line up, get ready to go and then I hear the beep and start to run...but I guess I had missed the directions before that beep because apparently that was just a "test beep."  The Scottish accent is still a little difficult to understand.  So I realize nobody else was running next to me so I turn around and my friend shakes his head and tells me to come back to the line.  Sweet.  The American looks like a dummy. again.  So I skip back to the line wearing my t-shirt that says "Iowa Hockey" aka "look at me I'm American!"  and stand next to my friend James again.  He tells me to go on the next beep.  So I get ready, stretch a little bit (intimidation duh) and rethink my plan.  I visualize myself completely through level 7 and think positively (sports psychology here people.)  I hear a beep, wait about a fraction of a second to make sure everybody else is running too, and then start at a nice jog pace.  I get to the other line with a second or two to spare before I hear the next beep.  This continues until the fourth beep when I turn to my friend and say "oh this isn't bad at all, we're already on level 4!" to which he responds "no, we're on level 0.4"  ummm come again?  He explains that each level has 10 sublevels, so we have yet to finish level 1.  Oh bugger. I curse under my breath and continue along as if I could do this forever.  Around level 3.8 I start to wonder if it would be really embarrassing to drop out first.  On level 4.5 I'm sweating breathing hard and in need of water.  I push myself until level 6.1 where I become the third person to drop out.  I blame it on the fact that I had just climbed up the volcano in Edinburgh.  I totally could have gone to at least level 6.3 if I had not just died hiking a volcano.  But alas, I have come to the realization that perhaps McDonald's three times a week does take its toll (But I have only had McDonald's ONE time so far. A record.)  I am seeing a pattern here that I might need to work out a tad bit more.  So as I sit down sweaty and smelly and completely red in the face, my professor wanders over to me and says, "how did you do?" to which I respond "about a as good as you would expect from your average American...poor."  He laughs and tells me at least I can laugh at myself and my nationality...that's half the battle.  He did the bleep test in the second round and got 12.7.  He is pushing 60.  I can't help but to laugh and embrace it. Thank goodness for those Donewald genes.  Well I'm off to Dublin tonight so I will make sure to try to connect with my great ancestors.  I'll probably find them in a pub, where I can find any family member of mine. 

Cheers!