24 August 2011

As the Chagrin Falls High School students moved to their classrooms for the first day of school, the Cornwall students piled onto a yellow school bus for a day trip to the Case Western Reserve University, the Cleveland Museum of Art and one of the University Hospitals.

The Case Western Reserve University is seen as one of the top universities in America. This university offers over 75 different fields of study and 4000 students are currently enrolled here. What makes this university quite unique is that once a student is accepted by the university they can switch between courses as they like. If you want to drop engineering to switch to dance, that would be accepted. Their lecture-student ration is 1 to 9, but can also be much higher depending on your field of study. With a motto like: "think beyond the impossible" one can imagine that researching a car paint that would "heal" itself after the car is scratched is not far fetched after all. We were taken on a tour of the beautiful campus and given the opportunity to look at a typical dorm, that a freshman (1st year), would stay in. Our tour guide Kate, is a pre-med and also takes classes in music and psychology - her goal is to move onto researching the influence of music on the brain. Fees are $54 000 per year and international assistance is available. Cars and trailers with students and furniture started arriving as we were getting ready to move on to our next destination.

The Cleveland Museum of Art was a short walk from the university campus and lectures often take place at the museum. After being treated to lunch by Mr. Kline it was time to start exploring the museum. There were so many awe-inspiring works of art to admire, but not enough time to see all of it. It was a privilege to admire the painting by artists such as Picasso, Monet, Renoir and Vincent van Gogh. All too soon it was time to move back to the bus to be transported to the newest addition to the group of University Hospitals.

We were taken on a tour of the impressive University Hospital. Here they cater for obese patients with bigger room, beds and wider doors so that the big wheel chairs can be pushed into the rooms. We met a South African doctor who after 19 years of living in the US still maintains his South African Accent. We appreciated him taking time out of his busy schedule to meet us.

...and so we come to the end of another wonderful day in Chagrin Falls. Tomorrow we're all attending classes...