This is an Update

Oh hey, guys.

I bet you thought I was just gonna stop writing for another month.

Well here is a picture of a disapproving sea turtle for your misbehavior:

Just don't do it again, okay?

Mostly I've been working and homeworking, sometimes simultaneously. (Who knew bar-backing could be so educational?) I also caught up with a couple of good friends who happened to be abroad as well. Basically, there was awesomeness involved.

AND I've been planning for my April journeys (we're kicked out of the flat for another month... can you say Norway and Prague?!?!?) Woot.

OH and I bought my plane ticket home. It's a little weird: my British days are numbered.

Commence supreme tea indulgence session.

(More soon! In the meantime, I need to go work until 4 a.m. and then maybe watch Wonder Boys again.)

Yours,

An Addition to the Family

Um so I bought a few books for the flat library this year, but this one is by far the most important. I'm a little surprised we didn't have it. It's called The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss.

If I were ever to get a literary tattoo, I would definitely consider something from this book. Anyway, I think I'll keep it under my pillow until the end of the year. We have good conversations.

Yours,

Seeing Red: A Gingermentary

Just life at the flat. (Totally ad-libbed, by the way. Can you tell? Of course you can't. We're professionals.)




Yours,

Catch-Up

Much has happened in the past month. To start, a new semester has begun. I'm taking two classes at Uni.-- Introduction to the Study of Religion, and Twentieth Century Literature: Forms in Transition. Both have proven thus far to be incredibly interesting. There's a lot of reading involved, but hey, I'm an English major. It's what I does.

We also began our flat-wide class: Public History. I'm quite excited for this one. We get to interview people involved with the Nottingham program, because apparently little to no information exists on that front. So I suppose you could say we're all doing our sesquicentennial duty. Huzzah!

Secondly, I underwent a mild freak-out session in which I thought I had failed a class last semester. On February 7th, I checked my grades online and discovered that I had received a 41% in philosophy. (Remember, these are British standards. For British freshmen, this does not constitute a fail. Their first year at University doesn't hurt them.) I needed a 42% in order for the credits to transfer back to Luther. So after a week of frantic emails and intense waves of depression, I learned that the grade was incorrect: they had forgotten to factor in my essay score. I got an A on the exam and a B in the class.

Thirdly, I got a job. At this place. Making these:

Can you taste the awesome?

I start on Wednesday. I have absolutely no idea what to expect. Which is why I'm gonna wear my skinny tie:

This guy knows how it's done.

Fourthly, we visited Coventry and Stratford upon Avon as a group this past weekend. We went to Coventry Cathedral (which was bombed during WWII). We also saw an amazing production of King Lear in Stratford. Twas quite a day, to be sure.

Fifthly, I made awesome french toast.

And that's a rap.

Yours,

So... Harry Potter

That's right. I saw the Deathly Hallows English-style. I soon discovered that this isn't entirely different from American-style, aside from the lack of midnight showings. Instead my flat mates and I enjoyed a leisurely 7:45 p.m. movie in a giant, slightly-cramped theater.

Also, I dressed up.

Aren't I cute?

This requires particular attention. I am not, in fact, a muggle, but a wizard dressed up as a muggle. (Hence the wand.) Though in actuality, I am a muggle dressed up as a wizard dressed up as a muggle. The irony was completely missed by Britons, however, and I was largely regarded as "lame" for my poor muggle costume.

But the skirt made everything okay.

Oh, and I guess the movie was good, too. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Yours,

In other news...

WELL we're going to Manchester tomorrow. The internet has decided to bless me with its presence, so I decided to update you guys whilst it is here. Tomorrow is only a day trip, and we'll be back late in the evening. I'm not entirely sure which places we'll be visiting yet. Nonetheless, I'm sure there will be lots of photos for your viewing pleasure.

Also, I'm in the library right now, procrastinating. Here's a video!

If you look closely, you can see James Patterson staring back at you.

Well that's about it, really. This past week was "reading week", so we didn't have any classes. Normally this would have aided my essay-writing efforts. But because I've already done mine, I just ate fruit, slept, and read Little Women all day. Yay!

Okay. More soon (knock on wood):

I provided this visual just in case.

Yours,

Bleh.

Please note that there is no correlation between being hairy and being sick--I simply lack shaving initiative at the moment. Thank you.

The Drank Culture

I'd like to preface this post by stating--quite accurately--that I am neither an alcoholic nor a drunkard. I have an occasional drink at a pub mostly because it's the normal thing to do. The social equivalent in America is going out for a cup of coffee with friends.

See the similarities?

Indeed, on more than one occasion, I've been asked to go out for a pint after society meetings (or even class!) In fact, after I attended church service, the choir director, who is an older man, invited the Girlfriend and I out to a pub. Don't worry, he just wanted to talk to us about getting involved in music.

Anyway, my point is that drinking *responsibly* is a big part of the culture here in England. People don't drink to get drunk, they drink to socialize and meet new people. And because the English are quite chatty, you can expect them to strike up conversations with you at any time, at a pub or elsewhere.

Also, Nottingham is a beer and ale city. You won't see many *cheap* cocktails around, because that's just unheard of. Not really. But it's why I joined the Flair Society: discounts! Oh, and drink knowledge. You get to learn a lot about the nature of alcohol and what mixes well and what doesn't mix at all. For example, did you know that in order to make a Tornado (1/2 part Peach Schnapps, 1/2 part Black Sambuca), you have to pour the alcohol down the back of a spoon so that it separates appropriately? It's true oh em gee you learn something new every day.

Look at my cool drink recipe posters!

The society meets twice a week. We have one-hour training sessions where we get to practice flipping bottles around. And then there are bi-monthly mixologies, where we get to learn how to mix actual drinks. It's pretty fun and I've met quite a few people.

All this is to say that I applied for a job at a pub today. It's about 10 minutes away if I walk, and it's called The Horse and Groom. I mentioned that I'm in a sort of bar tending society at the Uni, and the lady at the bar seemed pleased. She took down my name and number, so I'll keep you updated! My visa allows me 20 hours per week to work in the U.K., and minimum wage is £6.00-£7.00. Awesomesauce!

P.S. Our director's neighbor, Dave, has been working with the Nottingham program for about 15 years or so. He likes the students, and he answers all of our local questions, such as: "where do we get jobs?" Last night he participated with a few of us in a Pub Quiz (see earlier posts), and we won! Yay! It was probably all of those America related questions. Anyway, he told me about the pub job, so here's hoping it'll work out.

More soon, don't worry.

Yours,

Breakthroughs

Things have been picking up around here! Except for the dirty dishes. They just stay there. Forever.

So I'll just list some of the week's highlights, partly because I like lists, partly because I'm sick and delirious.

1) Aparna and I cooked for everyone on Wednesday. (Everyone cooks in teams of two for dinner because there are so many hungry tummies.) We made a rockin' stirfry with peanut sauce. Also, a nifty tropical fruit salad with an orange liquor glaze. Needless to say, the meal went over well.

A taster of what we made. Ha! See what I did there?

2) I finished signing up for classes and got into all the ones I wanted. In hindsight, I believe it was a miracle. For such a large institution, the University of Nottingham is surprisingly unorganized. Nobody (NOBODY) could give me a straight answer when it came to courses. In fact, I still don't know where the lectures and seminars are located. But I suppose it's all part of the experience, right? Oh well. I only have class every Monday and Tuesday, so the remainder of the week will consist of SLEEPING AND HOMEWORK YAY! The only disappointing thing is that no creative writing courses are available this year. NONE. I cried a little.

3) I did manage to sign up for some cool societies (clubs) on campus. One such cool society is called "Flair". Twice a week we get to go flip bottles around and make cocktails. Think of it as bar tending experience. Here's the website if you wanna take a look: http://www.flairsoc.com. I also signed up for the Kettle Society (an appreciation for all hot beverages) AND Creative Writing society WOO!

4) I may have found a job. A nearby catholic church needs a violist to play with the choir every Sunday. I'm not sure when rehearsal is or how much they're offering, but I think it could be fun.

5) I'm going to London in an hour. It'll be fun. Some of our planned activities include: (OMG LISTS WITHIN LISTS IT'S LIKE INCEPTION WE HAVE TO GO DEEPER)

• A literary tour of London
• A tour of the Globe theater
• A performance of Henry IV part 1
• Shopping/walking/clubbing

Here's what I'll look like by Monday/first day of classes:

It's a good thing I'm a phoenix.

Some real pictures to come! In the meantime, godspeed.

Yours,

GUESSWHAT

That's right. I singlehandedly fixed the internet:

This, my friends, is what win looks like. Behold the happy blue lights.

Megan's note/warning about the dangers of the silver button.

Lookit that. Full bars. Oh yeah.

SO excited. I'm definitely ready to do some skyping now.

Anyway, besides this breakthrough, nothing much happened today. On weekends, we're pretty much on our own. We plan meals, do homework, shop, sleep, read, do chores. All that fun stuff.

Later this week I sign up for classes. Apparently it's quite an extensive process. The system isn't exactly computerized, so we have to go sign up manually and ask individual professors in their individual departments for their individual signatures. Each student here is allowed 60 credits each semester at the University, as per our Luther exchange program agreement. This is the equivalent of 4-6 *American* classes a year. (Our director also teaches *American* classes here at the flat, so these factor into our transcripts as well.) In the end, everything should balance out.

But my point is that I anticipate long queues (lines). Hopefully my English classes won't be full by the time I get up there OTHERWISE I WON'T GRADUATE OMG FREAKOUT SESSION. But not really 'cause I'm super tired.

Imma go eat some digestibles (cookies) and then go to sleep. 'Till next time!

Yours,

Greetings!

So I'm here in England: safe, relatively healthy, and currently suffering from jetlag. It's the second day, though, so hopefully it will wear off by tomorrow morning.

Anyway, let's start from the beginning:

The perpetrator.

1. Flight. There was quite a bit of concern/freak-outage about Virgin Atlantic. They had recently integrated a new luggage policy, thus limiting passengers to a mere 50 pounds of check-in luggage and one carry-on. This presented a problem, of course, because I needed to bring my viola, as per my scholarship requirements. Everything turned out to be fine, however, when we (my parents and I) discovered that I was allowed to bring my instrument on board. Indeed, I nearly had a heart attack upon learning that my viola would be put under the plane. (I did need a WHOLE instrument to play, after all.) After that was settled, I went through the security checkpoint with surprising ease, and entered my gate, which was a few feet away.

Once on board, I was offered the window seat by my flight buddy, a South African woman who was returning to her home in England. We had a pleasant chat once we had crossed the Atlantic; I suppose we were both extremely tired. She even gave me her copy of a Margaret Atwood book! (The perks of being an English major...)

No complaints, really. Food was good. Service was fine. We got to Heathrow at 8:00 a.m. (six hours ahead of Chicago time), jumped on a shuttle, and slept another three hours on our way to Nottingham.

2. The flat. There are thirteen students here, including myself. Our director, her son and her assistant all live in a small house down the road. But here, there are a few things to get used to:

• Two showers.
• Two roommates.
• Different electrical outlets. (Fortunately, my bunk-mate, Aaron, thought to bring a power-converter and strip for such circumstances.)
• Chores. (We have yet to assign the cooking and cleaning duties, which I am fully prepared for, but I'm still a little nervous nonetheless.)
• Colder weather. It's pretty schizophrenic, too. Sun, no sun, sun, no sun. GAH.
• Alcohol. I may have tried an English brew or three already. (Don't look at me like that, it goes well with fish and chips!)
• Smoking. People can smoke just about anywhere here. Being allergic doesn't help.
• The roads. Look right, then left, then right when crossing. Otherwise, the results may be disastrous.
• Lack of internet. (We're actually working on this one. Our router is in the basement, resulting in a very weak internet signal. Someone tried to skype home, but the call dropped after just ten seconds. So we need to buy a signal amplifier, courtesies of Luther College, in order to increase the internet range. In the meantime, web activity is relatively slow.)
• Walking. (Woot!)
• Public transportation. (The University is a little far away, so we all need to find alternate routes.)
• A new home.

3. Today. Several things happened today. We went to visit downtown Nottingham, which is actually a huge place, but very compact. Our British tour guide informed us that the main shopping square is 4 blocks by 4 blocks in "American measurements." We briefly examined Nottingham castle, and saw some striking Robin Hood statues. We did some shopping (just the necessities: toiletries and pillows.) We bought bus passes. We went on a scavenger hunt. Basically, we made ourselves familiar with the area, visited some shops, and learned some of the history behind Nottingham. (Did you know that the city was built on an intricate, prehistoric cave system!?) Oh! We ate at a pub, too. I got some chili. Mmm. And now we're watching the UK series, The Office. With Ricky Gervais.

Yeah, Ricky Gervais!

That's about it for now. I promise posts won't always be this massive. Also, I'll try and get some pictures of the flat up, but honestly right now everything is so slow!

Oh, and here's me!

View Larger Map

Until next time, yo.

Yours,