{Yale University}

Hi!

So I have been wanting to do a post about the uni's I'm applying to, for each one an individual post, for a while. And I finally started.

First on my list is Yale University. Yale is the dream. Yale is the hope. And Yale is hard to get. Yale is the number two university of the US(after Harvard, the unconquerable number one) and the number three of the world(after, again, Harvard and Cambridge). Their admitted students score an average of 700-790 on the SAT, so since I am about 100 point under that average, my chances are small to get in. But if you never take a chance, you'll never win.

So, first, some basic history. Yale was founded in 1701 by the Colony of Connecticut and is the third oldest institution of higher learning in the States. It was called after its first benefactor, Elihu Yale. Five US Presidents graduated from Yale, and 48 Nobel prize winners are affiliated with the university.

As for Geography, Yale is located in the North-western United States, as are all Ivy league institutions, in New Haven, Connecticut. The campus is an urban one and has a vast size of 840 acres. It also has the second largest academic library in the US(after, duh, Harvard).

So, those are some fact about Yale. Now what can I tell about Yale? Well, eh, nothing. I haven't been there yet, but I have just scheduled my campus visit(information session and tour) for March 24th, just after my spring break trip :) So, after that, I'll tell you about Yale first hand! For now, I have just fallen in love with the academics, the old buildings and the prestige.

Concluding, Yale is probably any one's dream and I might be able to live it, well, that is, if I get that thick acceptance envelope.

For more info on yale, please visit: http://www.yale.edu/

Loves!

{EF-UFY University Foundation Year 102}

Hi!

So as many of you know, I am doing a University Foundation Year at EF International School of English in NY. In this year(9 months) I'm preparing for University in the US, by improving my English speaking, writing, reading etc.

These 9 months are split up in 3 terms, I finished term 1 and am now in the middle of term 2. Unlike term 1, we now have electives on subjects that interest us, but we do still have some basic classes:
- Application Workshop - 1 hour
In application workshop our University Pathways Manager, the lovely Megan, helps us
with applications and gives us information about the process.
- Advanced Reading - 2 hours
My least favorite subject so far, although I do like reading. In this class we are
reading 1984 by George Orwell and we learn how to skim and scan texts and how to
find answer to questions more easily.
- Academic Writing&Grammar - 2 hours
In this class we just do writing really, not so much grammar(yay). We prewrite,
draft and rewrite the final essay and have to hand in a different one every week.
- College Survival Skills - 2 hours
So in this one we learn how to survive in college(duh) and we read through a book
of case studies, not exceptionally interesting, but it can't hurt.
- Culture and communication - 2 hours
As the name says we talk about different cultures, especially the American culture
versus our culture and we analyze how different behaviour can be seen as weird or
even offending in other cultures.
Then there are the electives, there are many electives and I only can tell about 3(that's how many I have), but since this blog is all about me :P
- Biology - 2 hours
In biology we relearn the basics of cells and photosynthesis etc. I've had it all
before, but it is nice to learn it again :)Later in the term we'll write a paper
for credit.
- Economics - 2 hours
In economics, it is kind of the same thing, we relearn the basic economic theories,
but we also learn about famous economists, which I never did in school. We also
have to give a presentation with a partner on one of these famous people.
- Journalism - 2 hours
In Journalism we each write 1 piece per week, every week a different kind of piece.
We then want to put the most interesting one together into a UP newspaper :)
So those were all my subjects, as you can see 16 hours(80 minutes) per week, so I have a lot of time left to do stupid things or visit NYC :D

Loads of love,

Charline

{My lists}

Hi!

I have decided to post my most important random lists, later I'll do some individual posts about the items on the lists :)

List No 1: Movies to see
- Black Swan
- The Kings Speech
- Blue Valentine
- No Strings Attached
The first 3 are nominated (several) times for the academy awards, and I hadn't seen them yet, so I really have to. Theres more good movies/actors nomivated, but these are supposedly really good.
Here's a link to the NY Times list on Academy Award nominations:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2011/01/25/movies/awardsseason/25oscar-nominations.html?ref=awardsseason

List No 2: Books to read
- 1984, by George Orwell
- The imperfectionists, by Tom Rachman
- War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy
The first one I have to read for reading class, the second I already started and it is really great untill now. As for the third, since it is such a classic I want to read it, but the 700-something pages scare me a little.

List No 3: Universities I applied to
- Yae University, New haven CT
- Georgetown University, Washington D.C.
- University of Chicago, Chicago IL
- Williams College, Williamstown MA
- Smith College, Northhampton MA
- American University of Paris, Paris France
This list is slightly different from the one I gave you guys about 2 months ago, but I'll get into detail about every university/college in later posts.

This was all for now,

Loves,

Charline

{Damn, I should update more}

Hi guys!!

I'm soooo sorry for not blogging for a month or so, but I promise, I'll update every day for the rest of the month.

I have had a crazy busy time after getting home. Over the holidays I finished 3 college applications(Yale, Williams and Chicago) and I finished the Chicago financial aid application.

I had an amazing Christmas and the best new years party ever(Thanks Mina!), although I don't remember all of it anymore, haha. For pictures, please check facebook. I can't upload anything since my cable is still in my suitcase, which is still missing(I'll address that one in a seperate post).

In the beginning of January I went to Holland for a few days to visit my mom, friends and family in Rotterdam and I had to pick up some official documents at my former university. I also met the monsters my mom teaches every day, good luck with that :) Afterwards I went back to Luxembourg, where I spend two more days before flying back.

Saturday the 8th of january I arrived in the States again and it's been crazy busy again. I had the Georgetown application deadline the 10th and the Smith application deadline the 14th of January, but I ot both in on time. Than I took SAT last saturday(the 22nd), and I now am waiting for the results.

As for school, the second term is fun. I have three electives and some standards subjects(for this also, I'll post a seperate post). I'm still on 16 hours per week, and I'd like more, but I'm not allowed. I have 8 different subjects nw, which means more homework: one of the reasons I haven't been updating.

Then, I have some exciting news: I am going to apply to the american University in paris. Yes, in Paris. This way I could get the american college system, but closer to home. Check out their website: http://www.aup.edu/ I'll also give some more info about this one later :)

In the coming week I have my financial aid deadlines for Williams, Smith and Georgetown comming up, so busy again. But I promise I'll update!

I'm staving, so I'm gonna eat now!

Loves,

Charline

{Flying home for Christmas - The happy end}

Hi!

So here's part 3 of my story:

I. A.M. H.O.M.E.

With some delays due to bad weather I was in Luxembourg at around 15h30 :) Familytime...

Loves

P.S. My luggage was probably send to Lugano, Swiss. Nice work Air France.

{Flying home for Christmas?}

Hi!

I have a lot of time on my hands for posting these days, so here's a follow up. I actually slept in a bed tonight! Yay for me :)

So, where did I leave off? Oh, yes, I had rescheduled my flight and wanted a hotelroom... Mmm, well, I got one obviously. But it sounds easier as it was. First of all, there are loads of people stranded so it is very full and busy here. The Air France lounge is my saviour though(this sounds like Air France lounge = Jesus, hmmm), since there are no lines existent or at least the are shorter.

They had a lot of problems booking me a room though, since my flight to Luxembourg is operated by Luxair. Still, after 4 hours of waiting and walking back and forth to the counter, and some tears, I got a room for the night including dinner and breakfast.

First, I had to take a bus there, which was kinda hard to find, since the TGV station was crowded with stranded passengers too, but I found it. Then I got at the hotel, got a nice room, and finally after TWO days took a bath :) I then was so tired I actualy fell asleep for two hours or so. At 22h00 I woke up, got dressed and dragged myself down to the restaurant. I felt like I was sleepwalking, but I had to eat something, so I had salmon with bread and peas. Yay, real food. I then went up and fell asleep again.

At 7h30 I got my wakeup call, since I don't own an alarmclock anymore. I took a shower again, to make up for the last days, haha, got dressed and had breakfast. At the same time I was stalking all websites with departures and arrivals at CDG and Luxembourg and weather forecasts. At 9h00 I went down to check out and take the bus to the airport, where I am now.

It still looks good, the earlier plane from CDG is boarding and the plane from Luxembourg should be here in an hour. That plane is supposed to fly me home later today. I am hoping and praying it'll work and I'll let you know.

Loads of love from Paris!
[Hoping it is the last time I'll say this]

{Flying home for christmas, or not.}

People!

Okay, so I promised I'd write from Luxembourg next time, but today I'm writing from Paris, France. Karma.

So, I was sceduled to fly from JFK to Paris CDG on saturday at 21h45. I'd arrive at CDG at 11h00 and then fly on to Luxembourg at 12h40, where I'd arrive at 13h30. Well, it all got a little problematic when the weather decided it'd be fun it there were snow everyday in the whole of central and western Europe.

So, when I arrived at JFK about 5 hours early(I shared a cab with someone leaving at 17h00), it turned out my luggage was overweight. I had to take out 7 of the 30 kilo's, so then I went wandering the terminal with books and my coats...

Okay, then I want to get through security, but it is the saturday before Christmas, so it is crowded, with a capital C. I'm becoming an expert at cueing these days. Then, while waiting at security I saw that my flight was delayed for an hour and a half. We were now sceduled to take off at 23h10.

So I spend the rest of the night chillin' at the Air France Lounge on JFK :) These lounges have saved my life the last days. By the time we took off it was 23h45. The flight to Paris was okay, I even slept for 5 hours or so. The we landed in a white snowy world. At CDG we were parked somewhere and then had to wait for 2 hours in the plane, before we could taxi to the gate, since all the gates were occupied. Then we had to wait for groundpersonell to attach the gate to the plane :)

Okay, then I was in terminal 2E, my flight to Luxembourg was cancelled and I didn't have a boardingcard to get into terminal 2D(were the flights to luxembourg leave), so I had to cue in 2E at an Air France helpdesk. In the cue I made some friends with some American and Dutch people :) After SEVEN hours of waiting(standing , pushing and no food/drinks) I was finally at the counter, where an Air France employee told me I had to leave Terminal 2E and go to the Luxair checkin in terminal 2D. So I had just spend all afternoon and evening cueing for nothing...

At around 22h00 I arrived at terminal 2D, where everything was closed. I couldn't find a Luxair representative and decided it'd be better to spend the night at the airport and go to Air France again in the morning. I installed myself at a radiator in Terminal 2D with two coats, hanging on my bag. Midnight the "Protection Civile" woke me up, asked if I was alone and when I answered yes, they told me it was too dangerous. They had some blankets and water in a trminal downstairs, so I spend another 5 hours there.

At 5h00 on Monday morning I went to Terminal 2D, they let me in without the boardingpass once I explained the situation and then I, again, cued for tyhe Airfrance desk, although it wasn't going to open for another hour or so. Two hours later I was at the counter again and this time it was no problem booking me onto another flight. I was assigned the 12h40 flight to Luxembourg. Then it started snowing again... So the flight was cancelled. Surprising. I then decided to see if there was any way to get my checked luggage back. At the luggage counter we were given forms to fill out, s the luggage could be sent to us in about 2-3 days.

Well, even so, I still wanted to find a way home. So I enquired after the trains. Well no one on the airport knows anything, I called home and heard that the CFL had announced there would be any trains coming into or leaving Luxembourg. So I resceduled my flight again to tomorrow morning and am now waiting for a hotelroom, which is quite a problem, since there are so many people stuck.

That is it for now, I'll update again when I know more.

Loves!