MEI English Through the Ages

Ate you thrilled we FINALLY made it to Wagamama? (We’re looking at you, ...)

"You Can Stay Out Here. In the dark. In a graveyard. Alone. Or come inside the locked part of the mausoleum with us".

That was the warning our tour guide, Charlie, gave us as we waited outside the Mausoleum at the Greyfriars Kirkyard. Charlie, a young student at Edinburgh College in Fashion Design who works in the day at a bakery and at night is a tour guide with City of the Dead, had been giving us a history lessons on Scotland's bloody past, and we were approaching the last part of the graveyard that had a gate with a lock. Some of us didn't want to go in, but we all did.

I didn’t know at the time, but Greyfriars is the most haunted graveyard in the world. I don’t know who decides the ranking, but apparently 170 people have passed out in the graveyard from attacks from the George MacKenzie poltergeist. I was one of them. The moment I stepped into the mausoleum my body became warm and heavy and my head felt like like I was going to pass out. This happened to me last year in the underground tour of Edinburgh, so I quickly singled to Charlie, who let me out. Charlie continued to tell her story about the MacKenzie poltergeist. Unbeknownst to the students and teachers inside the mausoleum, and a man in a cloak and mask appeared, and then jumped in front of them screaming. Everyone screamed…several times. The guide finally took us out and back to the safer part of the graveyard. We walked home together to spend the rest of the evening terrified.

Earlier that morning, we did more ISUs at Levels. And later in the afternoon we went to Nandos for diner. It’s always fun for the students to get dressed up and go out together.

Thursday, July 25th we started the morning off with our last work out of playing games at the Holyrood park. We played toilet tag, where you have to become a toilet if someone catches you, and then get flushed to be come free again. We also did a favourite from last year - Octopus. Plus they taught me a new one called cat and mouse.

After our workout we did our last ISUs and then students were given the day to study for their exams. We met up with students in the evening for their last evening note, and then they handed in their journals for marking.

Tomorrow is Friday, July 27th, and it’s our last day in Edinburgh. Our journey is coming to an end quickly. Paris seems like a lifetime ago at this point.

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View more of photos in our course Yearbook.

Tuesday, July 23: We packed in a lot today, as is usual for us. We added another birthday celebration to our trip – Keeley turned 17. We celebrated with gelato from a small shop on the Royal Mile. Her parents treated the entire class to the treat, which was a complete surprise to Keeley. We pretty much cleaned out the gelato shop of all their flavours. They only had chocolate and strawberry left by the time we got to the end of the group – which are the two best flavours in my opinion. We all loved and appreciated the surprise treat! A big thank you to Keeley’s parents.

We started our morning off playing ultimate frisbee at the Holyrood Park at the base of Arthur’s Seat. We had two games going at the same time, and I played on team Eagles against team One. Ultimate frisbee is one of my favourite memories from when I was a MEI student. I remember playing it on the beaches in Santorini and Mykonos, although it was tough running on sand.

Today we started our Independent Study Unit (ISU). We notify students at the end of workout when and where to meet us and which teacher they will have. I had Anne-Marie, Emma. H, and Taylor for my first day, and we met at the cafe called Levels located on Holyrood right beside our residence. Hailey completed her ISU with Chris.

For the ISU, each student goes through their legacy book, which includes photos from their trip in each city that they have visited, plus their creative portfolio that includes their war poem, free verse poem, short story, d’Orsay lens paragraph, and their additional creative piece. The last part is three excerpts from their morning note that they have typed out and will read. The ISU is a great way to wrap up the trip with a reflection piece and discuss what they have learned. For students not doing their ISU, they had time to sleep in. It’s an unspoken practice here, but you really do need to take naps and sleep when you can. It’s amazing how 40 winks can refresh you.

Students have been working on their ghost stories assignment since arriving in Edinburgh, which is also part of their creative portfolio, so we shared the stories tonight. We first walked over to The Meadows or Hope Park, which is a large park, about 1 km from our residence to have an evening note and the share ghost stories in small groups. For their evening note they were prompted to write a letter to a friend who means a lot to them. It could be a friend on this trip, or to someone back home. The ghost stories were good, but I think from the consensus of the group, Alex had the scariest one…something about flesh eating fish. I couldn’t listen anymore.

We walked home together in the dark, which is one of my favourite group activities. We can talk casually as we wind our way through the narrow streets and have light-hearted arguments on which way to go. Alex and I tried to sing songs together, but we don’t seem to know any of the same songs. What about Green Day – Time Of Your Life? We settled on Bohemian Rhapsody.

Read more here:
https://meiacademy.com/courses/2019-mei-academy-summer-study-abroad-program-english-through-the-ages/july-23-we-can-throw-a-party/

View more of photos in our course Yearbook.
https://meiacademy.com/courses/2019-mei-academy-summer-study-abroad-program-english-through-the-ages/yearbook/

Blog Post: July 22 - Leaping to the Finish Line with Highland Dancing

We started our day off learning how to Highland dance. We first did a short run from where we are staying at Darroch Court at the University of Edinburgh and ran to the Holyrood Park at the base of Arthur’s Seat. The class was taught by Kiersten, one of our students. She’s been practicing Highland dancing for 9 years, and she has aspirations to get her certificate to be a highland dance instructor one day. Thank you, Kiersten!

We gathered in a circle and Kiersten took us through some basic steps, which all involved hopping between each movement. And then she took us through some more complicated dance moves, including dancing in a group of four. Our favourite was when she showed us how to do the little jump and clicking of our heels in a jig about an angry Irish washer woman. And she demonstrated one of her dances for us too. So we all left with a greater appreciation of Highland dancing - what a workout!

Read more here:
https://meiacademy.com/courses/2019-mei-academy-summer-study-abroad-program-english-through-the-ages/july-22-leaping-…h-highland-dance/

More Photos here:
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Blog Post: July 21
Today was our first full day in Edinburgh, so we started it off big by climbing up Arthur’s Seat, an extinct volcano, so we could get a good look at the city. We stopped a couple of times in the way up because the incline is pretty steep. It looks like a gentle slop from the bottom, but once you’re walking up it at a quick pace it takes your breath away, and I found it difficult to hold a conversation.

We didn’t get to the summit on the path we took, just partially up, but still high enough. Tyler asked about doing the full hike one day, so a group of us might go out. We have our Independent Study Unit starting on July 23rd in the morning, and these will be over 3 days, so the afternoon will be a good time for students to explore the city and natural landscapes here.

Read more here:
https://meiacademy.com/courses/2019-mei-academy-summer-study-abroad-program-english-through-the-ages/july-21-hello-dolly/

See all photos here:
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July 20: Today we travelled from Ambleside to Edinburgh.

Edinburgh is pretty small in population. I’m surprised by that because it’s the capital city of Scotland, so in my mind it would be similar to the size of Ottawa or Toronto. But its population is about 480,000, which means my small city of London, Ontario is comparable in size at 405,000.

It’s still larger than Ambleside, and this morning we zipped up our luggage and made our way out of our hostel. Three of the students helped carry all our luggage down the 3 flights of stairs, I won’t say names, but these three students slept in the other morning and nearly missed our workout session, so as a reminder to set their alarm and get out of bed on time, they have to carry all our luggage down the stairs. Part way through the operation I realized the 3 students were thoroughly enjoying the experience. So it ended up not being much of a punishment, but more of an opportunity to be a leader, or project manager, and get a workout. They even thank me for the workout.

Either way, we all appreciated the help getting our bags down stairs to the main floor. So we had our bus loaded and were ready to go by 10:00 AM. I love it when these transitions work smoothly and everything flows on travel days.

On the bus, some slept, some did work, and some talked and dance during our 3 hour drive from Ambleside to Edinburgh. We arrived early in the afternoon at 3:00 PM, which gave us plenty of time to drop off our bags and do a walk through the city.

Read more here:
https://meiacademy.com/courses/2019-mei-academy-summer-study-abroad-program-english-through-the-ages/july-20-welcome-…tle-do-just-fine/

See all photos here on our Yearbook
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMNSfr2BJa7YpMmcqYRLtQSeooBMGwsoTKLSgfQ3wuCvgEbttXcqn9tNo3NtRf9YQ?key=TFFHWEpfanNFc1VsX18xMXpRVkJ0U0J6b2lNYUV3

Blog from July 19: Last Night in Ambleside

The rain stopped in time for our morning workout, so we ran to a nearby park with luscious green grass to play ultimate frisbee. Our hostel doesn’t have a large green space to play, but we do have a lake. One of the first questions students asked us when arrive was to go swimming, but we said no for safety reasons, and it's way too cold! The first night we arrived we saw three young girls around 14 wearing wet suits and shoes in the water. You have to have special gear to go swimming in the cold English lake.

It rained most of the night, and when we woke up the rain had stopped, just long enough for us to go for a run and find a nearby park to play ultimate Frisbee. Just as we arrived to set up our field, the rain started coming down, and pretty hard this time. So we ran back in the rain to the hostel. And then the rain stopped, so we did some stretches and went inside for breakfast and morning note.

Read more here:
https://meiacademy.com/courses/2019-mei-academy-summer-study-abroad-program-english-through-the-ages/july-19-do-the-write-thing/

See all photos for July 19, 2019 on our year book:
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Say 🧀!

Having a monumentally good time in Scotland! @ National Monument of Scotland

July 18 Ambleside Blog: A Game Called Splat or Sq**rt

Here's another entry from Ambleside.

It rains a lot in the Lake District, as we found out. So it makes sense they have a lot of lakes. The small lakes that form on the Loughrigg Fell are called tear drop lakes, but I can't remember the Old Norse word for it that Tom told us on our hike. Tear drop sounds poetic, but also suggest that all this rain can get a bit depressing. What a change from the heat and humidity of Pairs in July! The rain stopped in time for our morning workout, so we went for a run. We just ran and saw and saw how far we could go and what we could find, and then we ran back to the hostel to play some games and do stretches, especially after our 5 hour hike the day before.

Camp Counsellor Emma (our nickname for her when we need a new game to try) taught us a game called Sq**rt, or Splat, depending on what side of Canada you’re from. The person in the middle holds their fingers like a gun and stealthily tries to shoot people and say sq**rt, or splat. We compromised and decided to accept both words, as long it was clear who you were sq**rting or splatting. The person being hit ducks down and the two people on either side have a dual for the quickest draw. If you’re shot, then you’re out. So this went on for a while, and then we did some stretches and went inside for breakfast.

Read More here:
https://meiacademy.com/courses/2019-mei-academy-summer-study-abroad-program-english-through-the-ages/july-18-a-game-c…-splat-or-sq**rt/

More photos here on our Yearbook
https://meiacademy.com/courses/2019-mei-academy-summer-study-abroad-program-english-through-the-ages/yearbook/