Week Three & Week Four

Hello!


Sorry for skipping last week and not posting - these past few weeks have been very hectic.
The biggest thing I had to deal with these last couple of weeks was my health. In short, I was pretty sick for about 3 weeks with some sort of virus and then eventually pink eye in both eyes :( Yet as of today I feel basically back to normal and so happy about it!


The other things that caused some craziness around here was traveling! We've been all over these last two weeks! We went to London on the 12th and 13th, London on the 16th, Oxford on the 17th, and Windsor, Bath, and Stonehenge all on the 19th. I was sick for all of those trips, unfortunately, but still managed to have a good time.


The first trip to London was 18 of us; all American and most from ISU. It was everyone's first time in a hostel so that was kind of an adventure all on its own. It went well though. We had 16 people crammed into a very small room. We did basically everything someone could want to do in London in two days: Big Ben/Parliament, Westminster Abbey, a market, The Globe Theatre, Millennium Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, Tate Modern Museum, Big Ben at night, Piccadilly Circus, Covent Gardens, Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards, London Eye, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, and the British Museum. 


The reason we went back to London a few days later (5 of us did) was because we planned to go to Oxford, but it was much easier to get there from London so we went a day early to finish up anything we didn't get to see, which wasn't much. We went to King's Cross (for Harry Potter's Platform 9 3/4), Abbey Road, Harrods, and an Icebar! The Icebar was exactly what it sound like - a bar where everything was made of ice! The cups, the tables, the walls, and even the seats. They gave us "designer" thermal jackets to wear because the room was at about 22 degrees. We were allowed in for 40 minutes and had an absolute ball. It was right by Piccadilly Circus and I couldn't imagine ending a trip to London on a better note.


The next day we went to Oxford and it blew me away. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect - just a campus in a small town I guess. But the campus isn't a set campus, it's more integrated throughout the city than any other campus I've seen before. The city was basically the campus. All the building were so different looking and unique too. There is so much history in the town and so many interesting things to see! Like we went into a bookstore that has every book ever published in the English language! We saw two different spots were Harry Potter was filmed and another room that they used to base a scene from. We saw the building where penicillin was invented and the building Lewis Carroll (author of Alice in Wonderland) lived. I was so glad we made the trip out there. 

A few days later we went on a guided tour to Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath. I had never heard of Windsor or Bath until recently, and I've been to Stonehenge, so this was another trip that I was not sure of how it was going to go. I really enjoyed it though. I loved that we did a guided tour (got on a bus in London and they took us to each of the places and the tour guide gave us a lot of information during the ride). It was so convenient and thank goodness someone thought of doing that! (That would be me :) ) We first went to Windsor, which is the town but the main reason we went was for the Castle. WIndsor Castle is the "official resident of the Queen", and as our tour guide described it - Buckingham is her office, Windsor is her retreat and her place for the weekends. A certain flag was flying the day we were there which signaled that she was in the Castle when we were! But no Queen sighting can be reported. Sigh. It was really beautiful though. We were only allowed like an hour and a half there, which was half of the time we needed. We got an audio guide but couldn't listen to all of it because we had to get back on the bus. We couldn't take pictures in there, and while we were outside it was raining so I didn't get too many pictures. 

Stonehenge was next and we had enough time there - we walked around them once and were done. It didn't seem to significant to anyone and now we just joke around how it's just a bunch of rocks. I'm glad we went and I think it is very interesting, but it's something where you go, see it for a few minutes and are done. I got a little mini stonehenge though! It goes with my mini Eiffel tower and my mini red British telephone booth :)

Bath was the last destination for the day. Bath is a city where old Roman bathhouses are and again, I had no idea what to expect. It was, again, very beautiful. The baths were really interesting to see and I definitely had moments where I just though, "Wow. I'm standing on something that is thousands of years old. How amazing." How the baths work (which I did not know) is that there are natural hot springs that have water that about 115 degrees. I took pictures of some diagrams that tell how it all works. After seeing the actual Baths, we walked around the city for just a little bit and the scenery was breathtaking. I took a ton of pictures of it but feel like the did no justice to what I saw. I've been constantly told how beautiful Bath was, and I'm so glad I went and can come back agreeing. 

So that is mostly what I have been up to these past two weeks. Classes have been good; The food has been bad... Nothing new. We aren't going anywhere (Thankfully! I needed a break!) until next weekend so this week will be a slower week. 

The rest of the pictures are on my MobileMe account by the way. I uploaded the two weeks separately but everything I wrote about is there.

- Lauren

Week Two

Greetings!

I have officially been here for two weeks and I can say it does not feel that way. Looking back at the first day here feels like months ago, but when thinking about going away for spring break, I feel like I just got here! It's very strange.

Updates: Classes are not formatted the same way here as back home, that's for sure. I think that might be the only thing ISU has over University of Leicester. Our only grade is a very long essay due the last day of classes yet we are required to read quite a bit weekly, even though we won't get any sort of grade for it. That's not at all what I'm used to - when we are assigned a reading, we speak up in class to show we read it, and then get participation points or something. Here, I feel like people are doing school work because... they like it. Another very strange thing. Definitely not the American way. My third class that I finally got accepted into is Renaissance Drama: Shakespeare and His Contemporaries. Each week we read a Shakespeare (or Marlowe or Webster) play and discuss it once a week. This is the class that I'm mostly referring to that requires a good amount of reading. I'm used to reading a lot for Psychology classes back home, but I find Psychology much more interesting than Shakespeare, so that will be my constant semester struggle. I am excited for the class, despite my complaining about reading. I signed up for this class for a reason and I don't regret it (I say that now when I'm only one week in, though!)

Sadly I have no new pictures and not too much of an update because I have been sick :( I came down with something about a week and a half ago and thought in due time it would cease. Wrong. Long story slightly short - I was rejected by the University's Health Services (it's a "hassle" to register a study abroad student), the local pharmacist wouldn't see me (normally they can just prescribe something but I had been sick for too long) but I was able to go to a walk-in health clinic nearby and saw a doctor! Or as they say, a GP (General Practitioner). The visit with the GP was genuinely very odd. He asked like two questions (1. Did I have a rash? Because meningitis - which the main symptom is a rash - is rampant here and I constantly see posters about it. 2. Am I allergic to penicillin?) After that, he printed out a prescription for penicillin and says, "And obviously this is a private prescription"... Right. Obviously. And that means....?? Not sure. Either way I got medication (for what he said is tonsillitis) and should be feeling better soon. That's all I care about at this point.

The main reason I want to get better is because we are going to London this weekend! Therefore my next update will be filled with pictures. We are arriving around 9 AM Saturday and leaving around 6 PM Sunday. Also, although not nearly as exciting, I am going to the City Centre again tomorrow and will hopefully have pictures from that. Leicester is quite cute if I do say so. I went exploring around campus and where our houses are, but haven't really been in the mood to spend the time to take pictures of anything yet. Once I feel better, hopefully soon, I will definitely take pictures of my surroundings to show everyone. :)

- Lauren

Week One

Hello All!

I know I have not been updating but this first week was much more hectic than I imagined. But I can proudly say that I survived the 8 hour flight (which I was dreading), the jet lag that I thought would last forever (it took about 3 days) and the adjustments of moving across the globe (well, maybe not yet).
I have so much to say but can't figure out where to start! Maybe just some basics. My new roommate, who was paired with me at random, is named Christy. She lives in San Diego but goes to school in Alabama. She's the only other American in the house beside the ISU girls (there are 4 of us) so I'm glad I got her! I was nervous I'd be paired with someone of a completely different culture and would be even more out of my element, even in my own room! But everything is fine. She did say that I talk funny though haha. Making Chicagoans proud with my nasally accent! The other girls in the house are 3 girls from ISU, 1 from France, 1 from Sri Lanka, 1 from the UK, and the rest (about 10) are from South Korea. One of the girls from South Korea, Miji, has been hanging out with us a lot and I'm learning so much! I love being able to not only learn about the British lifestyle, but by living in a house that is all study abroad students, I'm learning so much about other places around the world as well! One random thing I learned about South Korea, is that they, unfortunately, have yet to pair peanut butter and jelly together. What a shame. But in all seriousness, I love hearing Miji talk about life in South Korea. She says that so many people back home learn English from a young age, and I heard the same from a girl from Finland. Any person I tell that I am from Chicago, they know exactly what I mean, but do not expect me to know anything about where they are from (and they shouldn't because I'm not a all cultured, or even know geography). It just ceases to amaze me how much other people from around the world find America interesting and wish to go there. I have already, in one week, seen how Americans take our culture and country for granted, while the rest of the world looks at us as an inspiration. It is constantly blowing my mind and I don't think I will grasp this idea quickly.

Onto another subject - classes. I was admitted to two classes and my other one was denied (it simply filled too quickly). Although we are halfway through the first week, I have yet to get into a third class, but I am hopeful that my meeting with the English department will go smoothly, so I can get into one more class. Here, every one takes 3 classes, each worth 5 credit hours, while back home we do the opposite (5 classes each worth 3 credit hours). So all I need is one more class, and it will hopefully be a literature class on Shakespeare, but I'll find out tomorrow. The other classes I am in are Psychology & Crime, and Crime & Media. The first one because Psychology is my major and the second because it sounds interesting. Both teachers seem very down to earth and excited about the class. One is Canadian and keeps talking stabs at America though! I guess I'll suck it up and ignore it... or come back with something really witty against Canada, we'll see :) That class has about 30 or 40 students, and the other only has 12! That class is mostly made up of international students: 3 other Americans (NY, LA, Colorado), 3 Swedish people, 1 girl from Finland, and 3 from the UK. This class worried me a bit because I guess the professor's idea of the media is just the news, so we all have to read a specific news source and we'll discuss them weekly (I was assigned to the Guardian). Maybe it will get better though. I just envisioned "media" in broader terms. Oh well! Both teachers assigned the class to 3,500 - 4,000 word essays as the final. That's pretty much the only grade in both classes, which is very different from what I'm used to! Yet writing has always been one of my stronger points (definitely more so than test taking) so this might actually be better for me. We pick our topics for the essays next week and they are due the last week s I have a ton of time to get them done, and I'm hoping to finish them both before my spring break.

Another thing I think that is quite noteworthy is the food here. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, I'll admit that, but I am still surprised at the food. Potatoes with EVERY meal. Not a different vegetable in sight. No salt. No spice. Bland bland bland. One more thing that will take time to adjust to, that's all I can say. I just never knew the Brits had such an undying love for potatoes. It still makes me laugh every time we see what's for dinner. Obviously the answer is one form, maybe even two, of potatoes! Also, grape jelly does not exist here. Blackberry, strawberry, peach, boysenberry, black currant... not grape. I've learned to enjoy strawberry. A quick little story about food differences: I went to the ASDA (basically Walmart) and asked a man who worked there where the salad dressing was. He lead me to mayonnaise. I clarified, and he said, "Yea, salad dressing. Mayonnaise." I obviously looked confused so he asked another worker standing close by and showed me the salad "creams" which were just what I was looking for. The first worker explained that people here think of mayo when they hear salad dressings, because here they are called salad creams. Lesson learned.

I posted some more pictures on my MobileMe Account. There are labels at the bottom of the picture giving a brief explanation of what is it you're looking at, but here's some more detail. The first two are of the City Centre, which is like downtown Leicester. We get a bus pass for the semester and took the bus there to explore. It has everything I could ever need. Tons of stores that we have and some that we don't but I can see myself loving them. We didn't stay long so I don't have many pictures of it. The clock tower is I think in the middle of the City Centre and has been around for a while (I'll research and find out how long). The spot it was built on was originally a hill so they put on the clock there, and then gradually a town formed around it.

The next two pictures are a few of us on our way to class. We again need to take the bus, and sometimes it's even a double decker bus! They are set up kind of like the El, so if you are one of the last ones on, you are riding backwards. Weird.

The next several picture are of the campus. I haven't walked around too much but so far it seems like a maze to me. Pretty... but a maze.

The rest of the pictures are us when we're out. We have done two barcrawls; one for all the students living in Oadby Student Village and the other for all study abroad students. The Oadby one was called the Refreshers Barcrawl. Here, students either say they are in their first, second or third year: They don't say freshman, sophomore, etc. Except first years have the nickname freshers, and I guess new "freshers" are called refreshers. I'm not entirely sure why it was called that, because not just first years went on the barcrawl, but whatever. Silly England. The Oadby Student Village is divided into 5 (I think?) sections so each section had their own color. I'm in Digby and was supposed to have blue, but they were out when I got one so I wore orange.

The other barcrawl was just study abroad students and the theme was neon and white. Everyone wore white tshirts and other neon colors, and markers were passed around so we signed and drew on everyone's shirts. Miji, my housemate from South Korea, came out with us that night and just ordered orange juice at the bar - she's too funny! That barcrawl ended at the O2 Academy, which is the student union's club! I was surprised not only to hear that the University had a club, but at how successful it was! It was packed but we all really had a good time. The last picture is just some ISU students is our ISU clothes that we all wore one night when we just went over to a friend's house. We are by far the biggest group that is here and people are constantly amazed at how many of us there are (18)!

Well I'd best be off or I'll miss dinner - it's only served for an hour and a half, same as breakfast. I wonder what we'll be having... :)

- Lauren