From the minute I arrived here in Rochester, my life has genuinely felt like a scene in a cliché American film. The things that I have experienced and witnessed already still don't seem completely real - and I'm not sure if they ever will. Now I have my good luck cards propped up on my desk, my rainbow unicorn bedding bought and my teddies arranged in a nice display on my bed (I promise I am 20 years old) - I feel settled and ready to begin my American adventure.
This has been a dream of mine since I started looking around Universities three years ago - and I still cannot begin to fathom that it has actually happened. I'm not going to lie and pretend that the journey was plane sailing - if anything it's been a struggle from the get go. Sorting health insurance, Visas, meal plans, accommodation etc was more of a faff than I ever thought it'd be but I got through it albeit a few tantrums and crying sessions on the sofa to my family.
The goodbyes were some of the most gut wrenching things I've ever experienced - I think by the end of them I genuinely ran out of tears. If anything it made me realise how lucky I am to be surrounded by the most amazing people, who I know will be waiting for me back home and hopefully feeling slightly jealous and missing me - even if it's just a little bit.
As a few people are aware due to my dramatic Instagram stories - how unlike me - the travel here was the most stressful and disheartening thing I've experienced for a good old while. Once I navigated my way through Manchester Airport on my own - something that I know Alice and Georgina were very concerned about - I felt indestructible and, if I'm perfectly honest, a little smug. I sat at Terminal 2 with my pint of Heineken and cheers'ed (is that a word) to myself and the adventure I was about to start.
Whilst the plane journey wasn't the greatest, that still didn't dampen my mood. The plane was two hours late to depart, due to someone trying to bring unidentified medical equipment on board, and luckily (!!!) I was seated next to two very unfriendly people who looked at me like I'd asked them for a kidney transplant when I (very politely) asked them to get my backpack down from the overhead locker.
7 hours later after being pretty much force fed and watered by the lovely cabin crew, I was ready to begin the short journey from JFK to Rochester. The plane landed and I felt excited and ready to get to my final destination to see what it was truly like. I sailed through customs and baggage claim to then be notified that the connecting flight had been cancelled.
I went to the Delta desk to be met with the rudest employee who pretty much told me that I would just have to wait in JFK for 24 hours for the next flight - and that I had no other choice. When telling her that that was ridiculous and that surely a hotel is provided for an overnight stay, she looked at me as though I'd suddenly grown two heads.
After ringing my boyfriend mid-breakdown to say that I already hate it here and want to come home, and him telling me to stop being dramatic and get on with it, I met up with Josie, the other exchange student from Leeds, who was also booked onto the same flight. Waiting 24 hours at an airport, we decided, was not going to happen and so we booked an extremely dodgy, extremely cheap hotel for the night. The sheets still had crumbs in them from the previous booking, and the 'duvets' were merely even a blanket - but I've never been so excited to see a bed in all my life.
We checked out the hotel the following morning at 11am, ready to finally board our 2 hour flight from JFK to Rochester. After checking the bags in we proceeded to join a huge queue to get through security. At this point it was around midday, and we knew that we had 10 hours wait in the airport until our flight. The time passed fairly quickly, especially after the ultimate task it was to find vegan food in the airport, and there wasn't even an inch of doubt in our minds that we wouldn't be boarding this plane.
After 6 hours of waiting, I received a text stating that the flight was going to be delayed by an hour and 45 minutes. Whilst annoying - surely it couldn't get worse than this?
It did.
Half an hour later, we were notified that the flight had been cancelled YET AGAIN. At this point I just wanted to hop on a plane back to Manchester, where I could be back in my home comforts and surrounded by NICE people. After going to the desk and being spoken to like absolute dirt once again, I pledged that there was no way I was getting a flight tomorrow - we would have to find an alternative way.
After googling how much a car to Rochester would cost (yes, I was that desperate), we decided to look at a trusty Megabus. Whilst 7.5 hours sat on a sweaty coach full of people eating smelly food didn't sound like the most appealing thing in the world, at least we knew that once we were on there we were guaranteed to finally be arriving in Rochester.
So, after staying in another hotel for the night, we set off the following morning to the megabus stand. We all have our low-points that we remember in our lives and it was here that I experienced mine. Still in the clothes I wore to the airport three days ago and clutching my trusty teddy bear Fred, I sat on the pavement in New York City waiting for the bus and truly questioning whether all of this was worth it (that was 45 minutes delayed, may I just add). When turning to my family group chat for some moral support, simply stating that 'this coach has to turn up, there's no way this situation could get any worse' my lovely Dad simply replied with 'the coach could run out of petrol or the driver could just not turn up'. Thanks Dad, I will definitely always turn to you in times of need.
Finally, the coach showed up and we managed to get on. Lets not lie, that amount of time on a bus was definitely not fun or cute, but at least we were getting closer to our final destination. Fast forward seven hours and twenty minutes later, we finally saw a sign for 'Rochester' and I don't think I've ever felt relief quite like it.
I think even Hull could look magical as a final destination after a horrendous journey like we experienced, but Rochester is truly in a different league from anything I've seen before. As soon as we got off that coach, where people were eating and doing some very questionable things, everything has ran smoothly since then.
Even getting our luggage turned out to be the least hassle free thing ever, and as soon as we arrived on campus I knew that the amount of time and energy it took to get here was completely worth it. I've spent the summer looking at pictures of this place online, and even they don't do it justice. It genuinely is everything I've ever imagined and more - and I'm so glad I didn't hop on a plane back to Manchester. (It also would've been slightly embarrassing because I've chewed off the ear of every person I've ever met in my life about the fact that I am studying in AMERICA!).
I'm writing this after being here for a week and things still seem as surreal and exciting as they were when I first arrived. I don't think it's completely hit me yet that I'm actually here and how far away I am from home - every time I hear an American accent I still feel an element of surprise!
The people here are genuinely some of the loveliest I've ever come across, and pretty much everything you see in the films happens here on campus. The other day I was peacefully stuffing my face at a welcome breakfast, when an acapella group seemed to just pop up out of nowhere and start performing. Fraternity and Sorority's are also a massive thing here, however I am still yet to go to a party that doesn't get 'dry' at 9pm.
One of the things I love the most about being here, is that EVERYONE talks to you. You can be sat in a group of people and someone you've never met before will just sit down and join in the conversation. Particularly when they hear a British accent, people seem to make a beeline for you. Even things like getting a coffee turn into two hour conversations with the people sat around you - which I absolutely love, yet perhaps won't be the most helpful thing during exam periods.
I'm going to keep it short and sweet, and end it off here - in typical Grace Fallon style I've blabbered on for much too long. If you've made it up to this point, then I genuinely appreciate in and also envy your attention span.
I've really missed writing and I hope to be more frequent with it now! I also really hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into the beginning of my life as an American college student (how crazy).
Please let me know anything else you'd like to see on here - the suggestions would be really helpful.
Love,
Grace x
