First and foremost I must apologize for just now taking the time to sit down and write about my adventure in this new land! I know I have not stayed in touch with anyone really as well as I could have hoped to; I mean I planned to blog and journal all the time! I even bought a beautiful journal back in February to write everyday and so far I have written in it....TWICE!
There are a few good excuses I have come up with for my late start on this blog.
1) I am a bit afraid since I am not the best writer and I know I have friends that LOVE to pick out the errors in writing because they write so well (Hannah Stein, Tyler Reese, Johna Pishko....just to mention a few! Don't get me wrong, I love all my amazing friends that write like they are authors!) Just everyone give me a break if this is boring to read, or you have to stop and think "What is she talking about?" in that case I say you just think "Well, that's Michele for ya!"
2) This month has been crazy for me! In all honesty, at the end of the day, the thought of just sitting down to write about everything I had just done is tiring!
So I will try to touch on everything that has happened in the last month of my life and what I am looking forward to in my next two months here in England. If there is anything else you would want more detail on, any advice for me, or anything you would just like to talk about just shoot me an email or we can try to Skype! This whole 6 hour time difference makes it a bit hard at times.
The Flight
The flight was quite good I must say, especially considering it was the third time I have flown, 5th grade being the last time. The flight was a good 8 hours. The only bad thing was that I COULD NOT sleep for the life of me! It could have been the three cups of coffee I had or maybe the fact that I was flying to ENGLAND! I got to sit next to a really nice guy named Dave who lives down by Champaign and you bet I talked his ear off! I am a Dobbs, what can I say? Being a Dobbs, I have a loud laugh. I think I annoyed everyone on the plane too when I watched The Hangover Part 3. Ooops. I also watched the Great Gatsby and Monsters University! I was pretty happy to pay $1,300 and get free drinks, 2 meals, and 3 movies! What a deal!
Arrival
After we got off the flight, I was being a loud American and said something about Canterbury and two girls approached me and asked if that was where we were going. Turned out they were both from Illinois State University and were headed there too! We then went to Customs line only to stand in it for a good three hours, may I remind you, after a sleepless 8 hour flight and the whole process before just getting to the airport and on the plane! After that we met with representatives for the University and boarded a coach (they call all buses coaches here!!) for another almost 2 hours!
Once we got to our house (Vernon Place) we got to move in. I was a bit surprised when I walked in my room considering it resembled Harry Potter's closet... I moved in and then we went out to get some food since we had been awake for almost 24 hours at this point! I went with a group of NCC people and a girl who we became pretty good friends with since she lived in our house for two weeks before she went to a different Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) campus in Broadstairs. Her name is Elif! She took us to this cute little Patisserie, it was a bit expensive but I was so hungry I could not have cared less!
Later that night we went to the Student Union, which believe it or not, is the university bar! I know you are probably all thinking"wait what?" I know I was! Elif bought me my first drink in England! The first two weeks we were here there was an event that happens at all Universities in England called "Freshers Week" where basically you just go out to the bars throughout the week, like "Welcome Week" for freshman at a lot of colleges, except they add alcohol...because they can! This was probably one of the weirdest things for me to get used to!
Thinking back on all this now it seems so long ago! It is still surreal to me that I have been here for a month, or even that I am actually here! There are so many things that seem familiar but at the same time it feels so different.
Differences
- Drinking! I swear a Brits blood must be tea and alcohol! I still feel weird being served in a bar or being able to buy a bottle of wine!
- Classes! I only have class on Tuesdays from 3-5, Wednesday 11-1 and 3-5, and Thursday 11-1. They teach much differently here too, aside from my Geography class. My other classes are history lectures and the tutors just get up in front and talk history for 2 hours. I mean I am a history major, but I struggle to stay awake, those that know me well, know my "head nodding trying to not fall asleep, but clearly sleeping with my eyes open" look. I am used to class being an hour and the professor using some power points or getting us actually involved, I guess that's one thing I for sure miss about NCC!
- Driving: I have been here for a month and I STILL get freaked out when it looks like someone reading the newspaper is driving or someone sleeping is driving, until I realize it's only a passenger! Gets me every time!
- Certain things they say: "You alright?" This is their way of saying "Hey! What's Up!" I have told a few people here that to us that means either 1. You look like you are about to cry, puke, punch someone, etc, 2. Look like crap and should probably go back to bed. So every time they say this to me I have to do a full body check because I feel like I must look like I'm not okay and then I realize they are just asking me what's up, which my awkward self never knows how to respond so I usually mumble out an awkward "I think so? How are you?"
- They even text diffently! They put "xx" after everything! Instead of "lol" "haha" like we do it's just "XX". Me not knowing this, I have had to ask people and apparently it means kisses, like what grandmas put on your birthday card! XOXO! I think this is so funny! Guys put it to girls mostly but girls say it to girls and guys to their "mates".
