Weeks 3 & 4: Dance Moves, Cooking Shows, and Cambridge

Hello everyone,

I didn't have much to say about week three since it was basically a week full of school work but for the sake of a post I'll make a list of some of the top things I learned that week.

1. Always have an umbrella or a raincoat.  It may be sunny but there is always a 70% chance of rain no matter the forecast.
2. Our English and the Queens English are quite different and sometimes it is as if we are speaking a different language completely.
3. Just because the restaurant is called KFC does not mean there will be dirty rice, gravy, or biscuits.  (Sad face).
4. English chocolate > American chocolate
5.American DVD's will not play on British computers and vice versa.
6. Donnervan chips are the best chips in Bristol. Yeah, I know...controversial.
7. Made in Chelsea is a highly addicting programme.
8. Mathematical Theory and myself do not click and will probably be lifelong enemies.
9. Nothing is better than a full English vegetarian breakfast.  Bubble and Squeak anyone? (give that a google search if you are American)
10.  Pret Falafel and Haloumi wraps are the best thing since....well ever.

My friend Lydia made a great video of Josh (the in house top chef) at work in the kitchen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RHz8MWNzAg

Here are some of us doing our usual country singalongs and enjoying the slippery floors:

As for week four here in England (can't believe it has been a month!) I went to Cambridge for the day on Saturday and have posted photos to my facebook and some below but also made a video of the city for anyone interested.  I also got to see the choir of one of the colleges in Cambridge rehearsing and recorded it.  It is really worth a watch if you've got three minutes. (I should say even though I am writing this blog most of the photos go onto my facebook so if you want to see more you should definitely check that out.)

Cambridge Video:

 

Cambridge Choir:

 

 

Photos from the two weeks:

 

late night bridge walk

 

The boys.

 

Cambridge

Cambridge

 



 

Cambridge

 

The Market in Cambridge

 

Cambridge

 

Punting

 

the river

 

Fudge!

 

Yum...

 

Sidenote: I saw my first castle this weekend when we drove by Windsor on the way to Cambridge. I was told we are visiting lots of castles next term so y'all can look forward to that.

 

 

Hope you guys enjoy this post.  I'm going on another trip this coming weekend so I'll have even more for you next week!

 

BristolVlog: Circus Acts, Gangsta Raps, & Josh Speaking German? Or Maybe Russian...

Week 2: An English Education & Giants Playing Dominoes

Hello everyone,

It's been an amazing week in Bristol, yet again! I'm feeling much more settled and I'm no longer worried about getting lost every time I step outside. (If you know how bad my map reading skills are, you understand the initial concern here).  I'm becoming more and more English as the time goes on which can mainly be seen in the fact that the weather is a prime topic of conversation at least five times a day and I drink a ridiculous amount of tea.  (Decaf green tea with honey--maybe that isn't so British...)  I also had a conversation with a girl in my math class for ten minutes before she realised I was American, so maybe my southern accent is fading? 

Classes started on Tuesday which I was excited about since I had been out of school for five months -which everyone knows I don't deal with very well.  It's fitting that my first class was Probability 1 which sounds simple but then my professor started speaking in what seemed to be a different language but was actually him just explaining geometric patterns in numbers or something to that effect.  The words I did understand very clearly were, "There will be no need for calculators in this course since you should all know this backwards and forwards already." I think you know what my expression was at this moment. Needless to say, I'm getting a tutor for this one.

My second course of the day was Intro to Philosophy.  Of course my math professor kept us over the time because he was really excited about that 'no calculator' rule and continued lecturing so I was running up Saint Michael's Hill  in the rain to my next lecture and was still late.  That didn't go over very well because I think it ruined the zen mood in the lecture hall of the philosophy course.  We pondered over our own existences for a while and then my day was finished.  The next day I had some pretty profound thoughts as I made breakfast -my flatmates can back me up on that.

Wednesday is my favorite day of the week because I get to attend a third year seminar on Intellectual Culture of the 12th Century.  My professor is 100 percent fantastic and I genuinely wish I could just take a million classes with him.  (For those of you at UNC with me, he's like a younger version of Armitage and in history instead of English)  We had tea and digestives (that's a cookie if you can believe it) and mulled over medieval humanism, love, monastic life, etc. Basically, it was awesome!

Thursday was just weird. I went to my philosophy seminar and I'm not really sure what happened...I think that's how I'll be with most philosophy classes.  We spent an hour discussing the meaning of meaning. Then I went to my math lecture again and sat in the front so I could hear over all the people coughing with "fresher's flu".  The best part of the academic day was when I walked into my philosophy lecture and the guy lecturing had the BEST accent ever and had dreadlocks and braids and basically looked like a character from Avatar minus the blue.  His lecture was great and I met a really sweet girl from London so it was a win win.

Later on that afternoon, I was supposed to do some reading but my flatmate Josh persuaded me to go to Brandon Hill park.  It is my new favorite place in Bristol.  You can climb to the top of this tower and see the entire city and the park is so green and beautiful.  Epic. 

On Thursday night I went to the Freshers Ball with my flatmates Linda, Hannah and Lucy.  We had a great time pulling out our American dance moves that we practiced in the kitchen the night before. (Sorry to put that embarrassing fact on the Internet y'all)

Saturday I went on a daytrip with the international students to Avebury and Stonehenge.  One thing I've learned is that while it was really easy to sleep on buses in America, if you fall asleep on a bus in England you will always miss something cool. Avebury has huge stone circles and is bigger and older than Stonehenge, just not as famous and y'all know what Stonehenge is so I don't need to go into much background there. I met another American girl, Arianna, and we spent the day together which was great! Avebury was a really quaint, gorgeous countryside village and there were tons of really cute sheep walking about with us.  The Salisbury Plain is a pretty part of the country and it was nice to be out of the city for a while.  Just a testament to how crazy the English weather really is in the three hours we were at Avebury, it was sunny, raining, sunny, then hailing.  You never know what you're going to get here. 

Stonehenge was really amazing.  I know so many people say its a bit underwhelming but for me it was just as incredible as I thought it'd be.  As we walked around Stonehenge taking pictures and listening to the audio tour, the coolest thing happened -a rainbow appeared in the sky directly over the stones.  It only lasted for two or three minutes but it was absolutely beautiful. As we were walking out to the bus some guy I passed said, "Yeah it was made by giants who left their game of dominoes in search of food." I'm always advocating for the existence of unicorns, dragons and giants so I had a laugh at his interesting theory on Stonehenge.

I've only been in England for two weeks but I can't even begin to convey how amazing it has been. I came into this experience with pretty high expectations.  As most of you know this has been my dream since I was little, but the best part is my life here is even better than I imagined it would be. Thank you to everyone for your love and support thus far! 

Pictures from the week



At Avebury



At Stonehenge...freezing.



Cooler than a double rainbow if you ask me.



Freshers Ball



I love tea! (and Sainsbury muffins)



Walking up to Brandon Hill



View from the tower. 



The tower at Brandon Hill

Week 1: Freshers Week Madness

I made it safe and sound to England, arriving in London bright and early on Sunday the 30th of October. I don't remember much of the plane ride except that (dude, if you're reading this I'm sorry) I had, what appeared to be, a charming Englishman beside me.   About an hour and a half through the trip though, he began dissing southern people.  Yeah, that was after I told him where I was from. For instance, he asked if we knew what Internet was in NC.  Really?  Anyway, that's enough of that rant.

I touched down in London and quickly realized I should've packed lighter.  Basically, the luggage belt swept me away as I was trying to get my suitcase off.  You can imagine the looks I got. I jumped straight through an express line at customs and got to my bus stop early. In the hour that I sat at the bus stop I learned that the pigeons are really friendly in London. You know how I felt about that.

Everything went off without a hitch and I arrived to the bus station in Bristol only half an hour late.  Missy and Amar picked me up and quickly moved into my accommodation.  It is an ugly building from the outside but the rooms are quite nice and my flatmates are fantastic!  After moving in, we went to the supermarket and I got some food (basics: spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti) and my bedding. I'll post a picture of my room soon once I get my things hung on the walls. I'm experiencing a shortage of sticky tac at the moment. I should stop being so detailed or this is going to become a million pages long!

On Monday, the craziness began and I started registering for classes but the good news is I got everything I wanted!!!  I'll be taking three history units, two maths, one philosophy, (and a partridge in a pear tree) and a British cinema course.  My tutor is called Ian and is remarkably helpful.  Funny story, I was concerned about my courses for history not counting at UNC to which my professor, Ian, replied, "I was Best Man at the UNC Director of History's wedding. You'll have no problem." Yep, small world.

Anyway, if you can't tell this is going to have a  stream of consciousness vibe so just go with it.  I should introduce my flatmates:

Note: No flatmates, I'm not just sugarcoating this because y'all are reading this.

Lydia is from Oxford and she's studying drama.  We have similar music tastes and she's quite laid back so we get along well.

Katie is from Washington State (Go Huskies) and it is nice to have an American in the flat.  Sometimes we laugh at British foods--BBQ Pringles for example. Definitely not the same here as at home. She is studying politics at Bristol.

Josh is studying German and Russian and is pretty darn cool.  He cooks amazing food and is basically the walking dictionary of the flat which is really handy.   He's from Sheffield and plays the tin whistle. Epic.

James is from London and can juggle.  He's also studying German. Basically, he's a pretty cool dude and also a culinary genius.

Linda is from Nottingham and is studying English.  She's been super interested in my Americanisms which has been lovely.  She's also into the Vamp. Diaries so I have a partner in crime! She also braved the bank with me...more on that later.

Hannah is from Bath and wears the best jumpers (sweaters)!  She's also studying English and has been a great tour guide around Bristol.  She has been super lovely and supportive which is great!

Lucy is from Salisbury (not the one close to Albemarle either) and studies music.  She also cooks amazing food and asks me how I'm doing every time I see her which makes me feel at home.

Jack is from Spain and so far is in almost all of my pictures.  He is studying history and has been taking good care of me.  For instance, walking around the freshers fair bagging free food :)

So yeah, if you can't tell I got SUPER lucky with the people I'm living with.  It's going to be a great year.

To get back on to what I did this week I took many walks around the city, learned to shop in the grocery stores here with a concentration on bargain hunting, registered for all my classes, found out I LOVE pubs, walked across the suspension bridge and saw a pirate ship (just to name a few things).

Just so you get an idea of where I'm living, I'm in Clifton which is a gorgeous part of Bristol and I'm only ten minutes walk tops away from basically anything and everything.



Sorry, I'm running out of energy to add too much more detail to this but I promise I'll do a better job for the next week!

Love,
 M