Hello, Love

So I have been in England for about 17 days and it has been a very busy and overwhelming 17 days. I think I am finally settled in, but I’m sure there are things I am forgetting. I now have a pre- paid Nokia phone, which looks like one of the first phones ever made, I have bedding and pillows, and I have registered for my classes. I am also completely unpacked. I was going to open a bank account here, but that basically failed. At first I showed up to the bank with the wrong form, and then when I came back with the correct form they told me I couldn’t open an account because of my housing arrangement. I’m sure I could have opened an account with another bank, but I was so fed up by that point that I just decided not to. None of the other study abroad students on my hall are opening one so I feel a bit more at ease with my choice.  I just pick up my meal stipend from the pay zone in the main building every month and I can use the ATM right next to it to get cash. Regions only charges about 3% per transaction so if I only withdraw fairly significant amounts it is not too bad.

 Besides getting settled I have also been working on making friends, which requires I put in effort and  basically just going along with whatever they want to do whether or not it is something I am interested. I just need to put face time in at the beginning so that I am not forgotten later. I think it is going fairly well.  All the girls are study abroad students and most of them are ISEP students from the US. What really surprised me is that three of them are Mormons. They are all super nice and I actually know all of their names. Kelsey lives next door to me but we don’t really hang out, just casual chit chat in the kitchen, and Hannah lives across the hall and this is her second year studying at Bradford. Then there is a door which splits the hall in half. It kind of sucks because it means I don’t get to share a kitchen with the girls I actually hang out with. I also have to put in a bit more effort to hang out with them. So in the other section you have Jasmine, who is funny, loud, entertaining, and my new random dance partner,, Michelle, who is has become my Doctor Who buddy, Tiffany, who I don’t really know but seems nice, Sara, who is fun and sarcastic, Maureen, who I am kind of iffy about, and Danielle, who is funny and girly. Overall I am pretty pleased. We have gone on a couple of day trips and explored Bradford together.

My first weekend we went to the World Curry Festival in the city center, which is about a 10 minute walk from where I am living. It was a bit lackluster in my opinions, but I am still glad I went. There were a bunch of booths selling various curry foods, music, kids playing in the fountains, and street performers. We stopped to watch these comedians/jugglers and by the end of it one of the men had stripped down to his boxers. It was unexpected because they were just on the street and a bunch of little kids were watching and a fair amount of sexual jokes were made. It was a bit of a shock, but hilarious. I thought it could have been a bit more exciting for a World Curry Festival, but whatever. I wouldn’t go out of my way to experience it.



(Right to Left: Me, Michelle, Gowoon, Danielle, and Tiffany)

The next day we went on this day trip to York, which was organized by the university. Three coaches (buses) went so a lot of international students ended up going. However, we all got to go off on our own and explore. We just had to meet back up at the coaches later. Oh! You have to buckle up in coaches here. It’s a bit odd that you have to here and not in the US considering people in the US love to sue and safety is a pretty big issue. Anyway, York is beautiful. There is this serene looking river and we ended up taking a river tour. I wish I had brought an actual coat with me because it was rather blustery on top of the boat. We also went to a cathedral but we only walked around the front of it because you had to pay to get in, and who hasn’t seen a church before?! We ended up walking all around the city and then along the city wall. We went down this cobblestone road with all of these cute shops on it. I also got fish and chips for the first time. I was not a fan of the vinegar thing so I had to get some ketchup, but it wasn’t half bad. I am not a huge fish person anyway, but the chips were good. For a Sunday there was rather large number of people just walking around. There was some sort of food and drink festival going on, but honestly I think there were so many people out because all the stores close at like 5 or 6. You just don’t have time to do your shopping after work so you have to do it on the weekend. I’m still getting used to that. I don’t know how many times I have been a store when they come over on the intercom and tell everyone to make their final purchases. We were so worn out from all the walking that I am pretty sure we all just passed out on the way back. Moving vehicles just make me want to sleep…except planes, I have trouble sleeping on planes.

This weekend we took a day trip to Skipton, again on a Sunday. We organized this trip ourselves. Basically Saturday night Sara said she wanted to go somewhere so she invited us all to go to Skipton with her. We got up at 9AM and walked to the train station. It was her first time on a train and she was really excited. It was early, but we all had a fair amount of energy on the train there. I’m sure some of the other passengers were a bit annoyed, but we weren’t being too bad. Thankfully there weren’t many people on the train besides us, and at one point we had the car completely to ourselves. We had to switch trains at one point, which was a bit confusing, but we figured it out. Also, Jasmine kept getting really excited about the sheep and pointing them out to us even thought there was no way we could have missed them. The hills we were passing were covered with them. Once we finally got there we sat in a coffee shop for a bit just talking so that everyone could get caffeinated. They were playing some really awesome jazz music in there and it was just really soothing. After that we headed to Skipton Castle, which as it turns out is kind of the only thing to see in Skipton. It was gorgeous! I’ve decided that I could live in a castle. Sure it would be drafty, but that’s why they have huge fireplaces. Also you could play an awesome game of hide-n-seek there. It was quite confusing with all the different tiny staircases. There was also this amazing courtyard in the middle with an awesome looking twisted tree. It was my first castle, but definitely not my last considering I am in England. Then we just had lunch and this cute little tea room. I had a steak pie and it was surprisingly good. Of course, having something so rich and warm just made it harder for me to stay awake on the train and I was trying very hard so that it wouldn’t be impossible for me to go to sleep later that night. Overall it was a good day and I now feel more confident about hopping on the train to go somewhere.

No other trips besides that, but on the 20^th I think I am going on another day trip organized by the university to Chester and then I am going to London from the 26^th to28/29^th. I am super excited about London not so much because I am going to London, but because I have tickets to Comic Con and Matt Smith will be there! I might be able to meet the DOCTOR!!! My friends back home have asked me to get autographs for them and take a picture of him with a mustache, but I told them that if I get that close to the Doctor  I might not be a functioning human being. I am just so freaking excited! Michelle is going with me and so are Tiffany and Danielle. We are going to go to Comic Con for parts of Friday and Saturday, and then check out London in the afternoons and on Sunday. I already know I am going to have to make another trip to London because there is just too much to see so it’s a good thing its only about a 4 hour train ride away. I need to start planning some other trips too because it is already October. My friend Maile is studying in Seville so hopefully I will be able to visit her there.  Also I know I want to go to Dublin, Edinburgh, Bath, Cardiff, and Paris. I will probably save Italy for backpacking after school ends and I just know there are a ton of other places I want to go. I don’t know how these people who are studying abroad for just a semester are going to do it. A semester probably would have been smarter academically, but that is not why am studying abroad.

Of course, I have actually been going to school although it doesn’t seem like it.

I have only had one week of classes here, and I am still getting used to how they do things here. For one classes are called modules and you get funny looks if you call them classes. Another thing is that each module only meets once a week for 2-3 hours. I am taking Philosophy of Natural & Social Sciences on Mondays from 2-5 (but it usually ends at 4), British Welfare State from 10-12 on Thursdays, and Modern Social & Cultural Trends from 2-4 on the same day. I only have to go to school on Mondays and Thursdays and that’s a full load! It’s perfect for travel, but I don’t feel like I am going to school. Also I don’t have textbooks for any of my modules. They give you a reading list of books to checkout at the library. It great that I don’t have to spend money on textbooks, but there are only so many copies of each book in the library. Basically all this means is most of the work is done outside of class. I am a bit worried because you don’t have a lot of grades for each module. For Philosophy I just have 2 papers and for Cultural Trends I have a group project and a paper. If I screw up there isn’t much room for recovery. Of course that is not the only thing that worries me about the grading system. From what I have heard it is extremely difficult to get A’s here. I am going to end up getting a grade and being really upset about it, only to learn that it’s a good mark.

Here is the grading scale so you understand:

100-85 Outstanding Ability

85-70 Excellent Ability

69-60 Good Ability

59-50 Satisfactory Ability

49-40 Threshold Ability

39-35 Marginal Fail

34-20 Significant Fail

19-0 Substantial Fail

I mean, you don’t even start failing till 39 and at home 50 is failing. Technically I just have to pass my modules because the grades won’t affect my GPA, but I haven’t made worse than a B in a course my entire college career. I might have a freak out moment when I get my first grades for assignments, but that is when I will Skype my friends and they will talk me down. They don’t know it yet, but that is officially their duty as friends.

I am also super proud of myself because I am actually making friends in my modules. It’s nice because I have multiple modules with some of the same people. I’ve actually hung out with them a couple of times either before or after the lectures. I am still trying to remember their names, but I think they are Pheobe, Charlotte, Hannah, and Lisa. I am also doing my group project with all of them but Pheobe. I definitely think I have friend in Lisa. Friday she took me to go see her horse, which lives a bit outside of Bradford. She is from Austria and she brought her horse, Buddy, over so she could ride him on the weekends. He is a super sweet horse and he rested his head on my shoulder when I was brushing him. Sometimes I get intimidated around horses, but it helped that he was really chill. The car ride to and from the stable was really nice because it gave us a chance to get to know each other. Once she gets a couch in her apartment I have already been invited to come over and have a Lord of the Rings and a Supernatural marathon. I am definitely looking forward to both.

Besides that I am not sure what else there is to talk about. I have been cooking for myself, which is not something I usually do at home. The first week my meals were really only pasta, but I have since branched out. I have made Italian Chicken, burgers, and tacos. There were some minor fails with all of them, but they were all still edible and that is what counts. Also they looked pretty, and one thing I learned from Iron Chef is that presentation counts. Once I find some teriyaki sauce I will add stir fry to my list of meals, but I am having some difficulty finding it. Also I have bought a bunch of stuff that sounds good, but ended up tasting awful. Too much money has basically been thrown away that way. England is not known for its food for a reason. However, I am learning.

 

My next goals are to get my membership and go out to a bar/club. I am not sure how I have managed to not do the later yet.

Things I love so far about England:

                -being called “Love”

                -the amazing sweaters that they have for sale

                -hearing people actually say “bloody hell”

                -the rolling hills covered in sheep

                -trains

                -free city bus

Things I am not a fan of:

                -they put too much vinegar in their ketchup

                -they put mayonnaise on everything

                -their hot chocolate could have more chocolate in it/be less bitter

                -too many Indian restaurants

                -cold, wind-blown rain

                -stores closing at 5 or 6

*Shorter updates and posts to come in the future. These long posts just take too much time, and now that I have a schedule I should be more consistent.