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
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