I'm through accepting limits

"I'm through accepting limits, cause someone says they're so. Some things I cannot change but 'til I try I'll never know." ~Wicked Musical Soundtrack


It's been a long week. One that has tested me in many ways, and finally sent me to the point of being extremely homesick. I'm better now, thanks to a little talk with an old roommate, but I do miss home. I miss my parents, my brother and sister-in-law, the kids, my grandmother, my dog, my parent's dog, my cat, normalcy, and the few friends that I've actually talked to since I've been here.

I went to church on Sunday and finally made a few friends there. Well, people I think will end up as friends anyway. Sunday night they did a special service just for students. The guy that spoke talked about our interactions with people and how we shouldn't be afraid to show people who we are and should carry our torch for Christ out in front of us at all times. It was the shyness part that got me. I thought I was past all this. But you know, there are times that being shy is just part of who I am. I'm getting better now, but the first few times I was around the church group I had a hard time talking and just wanted to run out of the room and find someone I knew...that I'd known longer than the 6 weeks I've been here. I guess that's what got it all started.

Monday was great. Well, the end of Monday was great. I finally got my package from home. All I knew it contained was a few things I wanted to bring but didn't have room for...mostly clothes (like my winter coat!). When I opened the box I was surprised by what my parents had added. It was great, and made me feel little more ok about things here, but still missing home. I can't wait to get more packages from home though. (*hint hint*). I received a letter from my grandmother yesterday. That was a great thing too. Now I just have to write her back but include pictures. She loves seeing the things I'm doing here.

Classes are getting tougher. It's not the content, mostly the grading. I received my first graded assignment back and let's just say I broke down. I'm really confused by the grade but I guess I'll just have to do better from now on. I have so much reading to do this weekend, on top of the 3 weeks worth of laundry, grocery shopping, and work. But it's why I'm here, right? Plus tonight will be loads of fun. I'm going to a concert at the student union...to hear Delirious play. I love them! I've wanted to see them for years...so I'm really excited. And it means I get to hang out with some people from church. Maybe making friends is what will help me get past this funk. Or at least make this place feel a little more like my home away from home. One can hope so anyway.

But that's enough procrastinating for one morning, it's time to get through this pile of reading before it piles up even more.

I am not afraid to walk this world alone

~My Chemical Romance

I've been pretty slack with this blog lately. I apologize! It's not that life hasn't been exciting here in England, it's just that I literally feel like I'm doing something every minute of the day. Down time is pretty much none existent.

Here's the breakdown on what's been going on...in short form.

Class, reading, homework, work, cooking, hanging out with friends, running into guys dressed in wedding gowns, football game, live band, sleep. Yep, that's about it.

I have class pretty much everyday of the week from 9-12:30, with some exceptions, like today. I've learned a lot of stuff in this first 2.5 weeks of class. Some stuff I was really excited about learning, and some that quite honestly, I never thought I'd need to know about. For instance, there was the 3 hour lecture on latrines. Who knew there was so much that went into deciding the appropriate type of latrine (or toilet) and so much for the design. Well, now I do. I do love class though. It's so much different than what I was doing back home.

I just started my job here. I'm working as a resident coordinator in my apartment building. Last night was my first official night. I had to make the rounds in the building so that I could get everyone to fill out a form that is required in this area and then I was on-call all night. Thankfully the phone never rang. All was good with people not locking themselves out or setting off the fire alarms. Whew!

Being on a limited budget, and living in a town where all the shops, cafes, and most restaurants shut down at 5 or 6 means I'm getting to cook, a lot. I'm enjoying cooking more and I'm getting better at cooking for 1. The good thing is that a few of us generally invite each other over for dinner so that we're not always eating alone. We have a bet going to see who can get the most free meals. I'm not exactly sure who is in the lead.

OK, I'm sure you're most interested in the guys in wedding gowns comment above. Actually, it was just 1 guy, but still. Guy, wedding gown, walking around town at midnight on a Friday with a bunch of normal looking guys. It could only mean one thing, Stag Party! (or bachelor party for my readers back home). We were out trying to find something to do in town a couple of Fridays ago and ran into the group. A few of the guys stopped us and asked us what we thought about the guy in the gown. Then we got invited to go with them to one of the dance clubs. It was a fun night overall. But I still can't get the image of the "bride" out of my head. Maybe there's a thought for the next bachelor party back home?! Unfortunately, I left my camera at home that night, so there's no solid evidence of this event taking place. But trust me, I can't make that up!

The day after the wedding gown incident I went with a few of the other international students up to Notts for the football game. It was the Nottingham Forest v Crystal Palace. Two teams that I honestly have never heard of before. The bright side is the Notts is red and white. Pretty appropriate for me considering how many of my shirts are red. Great game...not quite as rowdy as a premiere league game would have been, but definitely worth the trip and a possible return.

I've been so busy lately that I haven't even begun thinking about possible weekend trips. We take our finals for the 2 classes I'm in now the first week of November. Maybe that weekend will be my first trip...possibly Scotland. Who knows with me?

Hope all is well back in the States. Cheers!

"I'm international and you're orbiting my brain"

~Carbon Leaf

This was my first week of classes. Seeing as how I finally moved into my place and started classes, it finally feels like some sort of normal life. I really like my classes, my lecturers, and my classmates. I guess you can't get any better than that? It's going to be a tough year though. Right now we take 2 classes together, ending the first week in November. Then we take our finals for those classes and move onto 2 more classes until Christmas break. We have class everyday for 3 hours, which is much different than the other programs at this school. The classes are interesting, right now I'm reading about poop, latrines, and why water is important. Maybe I wasn't sure how much of this course would be about poop. It's really interesting stuff. Really...

Our lecturers have us call them by their first names, instead of Dr. so-and-so. We have different lectures throughout the classes as well. They come in and teach about the subjects that they are experts in. It's great! And my classmates are all awesome. They seem like a fun bunch of people. Plus, it's a very international group. Here's the breakdown:

3 from USA, 1 from Spain, 2 from Sweden (twins), 2 from China, 1 from South Korea, 1 from Sri Lanka, 1 from the UK, 1 from Anguilla, 1 from St. Lucia, 1 from France, 1 from the Sudan, and 1 from Uganda.

This Thursday after our morning class our professors took us on a little field trip to Bradgate Park. Along the way they told us a little of the history of the water supply for the town and some of the history within the park. We saw the ruins of the Grey Manor where Lady Jane Grey lived. We also saw quite a few deer, really big deer. It was really pretty out there...and cold.

Moving on up!

I've finally settled into my new place. I now know where just about everything is. I'm starting to learn what things I can live without, and I'm starting to realize there are some things I miss...like have a fridge that doesn't sound like a wind tunnel. It's a very neat little room that I live in. Just enough for what I need. My favorite part of it all is that I walk downstairs and I'm in the middle of town. It's great when we go out at night, it's terrible when I have a 40 minute walk to make it to class everyday. Here are a few shots for you...

Bedroom:

Kitchen:

Study:

Have Fun Storming the Castle

Saturday my temporary host took me out to see Bolsover Castle. It was pretty sweet! I don't have much to say about it except the views were amazing, I tried to lock my ride in a secret cubbie (but she got out), and I had a blast seeing more of the English countryside. With that, here are a few shots from the day.

In the stillness of this hour

Ahhh...time to relax. Finally! I feel like the past week and few days has been nonstop. I guess the bright side to being so busy is that I haven't had time to feel alone or sad about leaving people...well...mostly. But it is nice to finally get to sit and relax.

Monday night our social tutors...the folks making sure we had fun while at orientation threw a party at one of the clubs in the union. The club is called cognito...which sounds like a funny club name to me. It was a dance club, not my type of thing, but I had a blast. Cali girl, Oregon girl, and Nigeria girl and I all danced most of the night. The music selections were...well...how do I put this...odd. Mostly the standard dance music, remixes of songs, and the occasional Bon Jovi and Billy Joel!? Yeah...Billy Joel. Apparently that's big over here. It was amazing how different dancing is here than back home. The guys aren't all over you. There were large groups of guys dancing together. It was amazing! I also had a blast getting to know a few new people.

We spent most of the next day recovering from our late night. Then I left my small little space on campus to stay with 2 of the only English people I knew before coming here for a few days. That's where I am now. Hanging at their house. Don't worry mom...they're feeding me well. :-) Plus I got a trip to Ikea to buy some stuff to allow me to cook when I do get into my own place.

Like I said, it's been a lot of fun. It still doesn't feel like I live here and I miss my family, friends, and my dog a whole lot. I really miss Phantom...even his constant licking. Hopefully when I get settled and stop living in a suitcase things will become more normal. Regardless, I do know this was the right decision and I'm so happy I'm here. I can't wait for classes to start on Monday.

Cheers!

Gonna rock around the clock tonight

Saturday a double decker coach full of us went down to London for the day. I've been to London before so I didn't want to do the same things I had done last time. I already had the pictures of all the sites so I narrowed my options down to 2: go to Greenwich or see Wicked on the West End. Greenwich won out.

When we arrived in London, we started out at Hyde Park and walked towards Buckingham Palace. We caught the tail end of the changing of the guard, but my pictures aren't worth much there. I walked a little while with the girl from China, 2 from Germany, 1 from Austria, and one of our orientation people from England. Since they decided to see Parliament and all the other political buildings, I made my way down to the pier to take a river boat out to Greenwich.

It's about an hour journey, depending on the tide down the River Thames to Greenwich. Along the way, our commentator pointed out important things. One that caught my attention was an old church, of which you could barely see the steeple. It's near that site that the Mayflower was constructed and where it was later dismantled. The wood from the Mayflower now serves as the pews of the church. The little pub nearby changed it's name to help people remember that famous ship. You can barely see the steeple in that picture as well.

Once I got to Greenwich my only real mission was to see the Prime Meridian. Yes, that one. The one we all learned about in geography in middle school that is '0' longitude. OK, maybe only science geeks remember that kind of stuff. Anyway, I made the long, steep...no really really steep climb up to the Royal Observatory and stood in both the eastern and western hemispheres at the same time. It was pretty neat. I saw lots of really really big telescopes and learned more about how time (GMT) was established. Then I journeyed back down the steep hill to the boat to catch the coach back to school. Here's a view from the observatory, just to give you an idea of how steep it was. You see the buildings way off in the distance? That's the water front.

On our way back to uni we stopped at a "welcome break". I'm assuming that's our equivalent of a rest area. It was late and way past dinner so we grabbed some food. Unfortunately that meant eating KFC. Ugh! But I got my first experience with thinking these people are completely crazy and speaking a foreign language. I ordered a chicken filet sandwich...you know...like 'fill a'. The guy looked at me strange and after I said 'fill a' at least 5 times he finally asked, "do you mean a chicken 'fill it'?" Sure. So, that's my first taste at KFC in England...still yuck...and being looked at like I'm speaking a completely different language. Oh well. It was amusing.

I pretty much laid low on Sunday to recover from all the walking I had done earlier in the week. I'm just glad my knee seems to be adjusting. For a few days I was really in pain and worried about all the walking I'm going to be doing. It's a lot more hilly than I remembered.