Election: 2008

No, I'm not talking about the US Presidential election (though it is generating plenty of talk around here). I'm talking about the election for Pillar Box Hall Representative (Pillar Box is the apartment building I live in). Can you guess who was just elected one of the three hall reps for the year? Yep. Yours truly. Hahaha. The absolute last thing I thought I'd be doing here was serve on the student union. But alas, here I am, waiting for residents to come to me about complaints with lack of hot water, bad internet connection, broken doors (our front door is actually broken right now, so we have to call security to let us in- hopefully that'll end soon!). Should be interesting. Plus, we get two training sessions (where I'll get to meet people!), and we only attend two meetings per semester- so it's not like it's a major time commitment.

We're almost finished with induction (read: orientation) week. Today we were greeted by the Vice Chancellor, career department, and student union. Then my course group met for about 3 hours. We met with current PhD. candidates who were able to share their experiences (they all did the MA programme I'm in now), and we heard details about assessment (basically, 40% is passing here. 60% is average. 70% is unheard of. Apparently, I'll be distraught when I get my first essay grade back, as I've never, ever, ever, ever gotten anything close to those grades. The professors actually called me out when they explained it, saying that the American wouldn't like this. Darn straight!!! I hate the idea of getting a grade that low! Oh well. Guess I'll have to get used to it as it's standard operating procedure here.

Tomorrow is the sports and societies (read: clubs) fair. I'm thinking about trying cricket. One of my professors was explaining to me today that it was pretty close to baseball. I've never seen it played, so why not give it a shot? We'll see. Maybe I'll chicken out tomorrow. Oh--- and yesterday I found a website of a softball team!!! Unfortunately, their last game of the season was last weekend. But I'm going to email them and see if I can play next year. I brought my glove all the way here- it'd be a pity if I didn't get a chance to use it!

I'm off to Birmingham this weekend for a Rotary conference where I'll meet all the other Ambassadorial Scholars who are studying in the UK. We'll go on a canal boat trip, do a mock city council meeting with the Lord Mayor (I'm excited for this!), have a barn dance, and learn more about our responsibilities as Ambassadorial Scholars. Should be a great weekend. I think I'm most excited about the homestay, though- I'm staying with a Rotarian rather than in a hotel - so I'll get another taste of British culture! Next weekend I'm touring Stratford-upon-Avon, and the Cotswolds with the international student's office of my university. I'm so excited! Here's more information about the two places from my favorite travel writer, Seattle's own Rick Steves:
http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/britain/nlcots.htm
http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/destinations/britain/strtfrd.htm
I'll have photos from Birmingham to post next week! Have a great weekend, everyone!