Starting Class

Alright, I'm going to try and recap what I've been doing since the last post, but it might be a little mixed up since I haven't been keeping track of what happened when. Wednesday I signed up for my classes, and I'm pretty sure that's all I did, because it took an extremely long time. You wait in line, and then once you get to the front it's first come first served as far as classes go, and of course most people attending the school have already signed up, so it was difficult to find things that I wanted. It's all sorted out now, though. Unfortunately for some people, they didn't come early enough, and the line was so long that they told some people to just come back the next day. So I guess I owe a thanks to Mom for teaching me to always show up early.

Thursday was when I went to the Fresher's Fair I mentioned before. It was a pandemonium unlike anything I've ever experienced. There were literally hundreds of groups crammed into the building, all trying to get your attention and hand out something, while all the other people visiting were pushing and shoving in order to get around. It took a couple of hours to get through the whole thing, and I know from talking to other people that there's still stuff that I missed. I joined a writing group, so hopefully I can improve and gain experience while I'm here.

Friday I went shopping with some friends in the downtown area called Broadsmead and saw a few of the European clothing stores. The clothes themselves weren't that strange to me (though not really to my liking more often than not), but the stores themselves have a different feeling to them. Most of the stores in America are very well lit and mostly white, almost like a hospital. Here most of the stores are more dimly lit and use darker colors. Also, they call sweaters "jumpers" here, which is hard to get used to, since to me a jumper is an overall-style dress that Mom used to make me wear to kindergarten every day.
After shopping we went out to eat at a place called Yo-Yo Burger, which was really good. They have things like a Bison Burger and Ostrich Burger, though we don't really know if they actually use bison and ostrich. How would we know the difference? Whatever we had was really good, though.

Saturday me and a few other people went out to see the suspension bridge, which I guess is a big deal around here. In any case, it was pretty. I'll put up some pictures either tonight or tomorrow. After the bridge we walked around the park area and a nearby observatory.
This was also the day that I started looking for Q-Tips, and couldn't find them anywhere. I checked the three main stores in the area. Nothing. I never really thought that this would be an issue, but apparently they just aren't as popular here as back home.

Sunday was a really lazy day for the most part, until later in the evening when some people from the lower floors came up to hang out. I actually spent most of the time talking about privatization and the government with two guys named Anthony (from Australia) and Felix (from Germany, I think). It was really interesting.

Monday was my first day of class, and I found out that I missed one of them due to a scheduling mishap. I got it all worked out, though, and I'm going to meet up with my professor tomorrow to try and make up what I missed. Class pretty much runs all day for me on Mondays since I have a 10-12 class, a seminar (supplement to lecture, you have less people and more discussion) from 12-1, and another class from 4-5 with another seminar from 5-6. Tuesday and Wednesday are easy, though, with only one class from 11-12 on Tuesday and one from 12-1 on Wednesday.
After class (which went pretty well, I think) I came back and almost started dinner when Alice, Chika, and another girl who lives downstairs named Shun said that Jan and I could both share the group dinner they were making if we pitched in a little money. We did, and we all ate chilli con carne. I also got to explain that "chilli" doesn't have to mean chili peppers, it's also a soup dish with beans and meat (I don't really know how to explain chilli).

Tuesday I went to class, then purchased a ticket for a day trip to London the school is planning for international students. After buying the ticket, I thought I'd renew the search for Q-Tips and tried to walk to Broadsmead (which is around 20 minutes on foot). I got a little lost for a while, but I eventually got there. Even better, once I did, Wilkinsons (kind of like a Wal-Mart but much smaller) had them, so I was pretty excited. On the way back I found an art store and gallery that was really cool called Nails.
When I got back (it was a little late since I got lost) Michael said that he was making us all pasta, so that worked out well. Mary, Michael, myself, Alica, Chika, Shun, a girl named Rosa (I think she's from Italy, I don't know), guy named Enrico (same for him), and Bernardo, who is the name of the guy living next to me whose light bulb I stole. After eating we all just talked until pretty late, which actually really threw me off for today.

Today I had class and then went shopping, since I can't depend on the others to feed me forever. The lines were all super long at the store, and of course it was raining once I got out, so it ended up taking much longer than I thought it would. Oh well, at least I got a cheesecake (it was only 2 pounds!).

When I was getting ready to come here, my study abroad adviser said that, since this culture is so much like my own, the things that are different will effect you more than if the whole culture was totally different. That's starting to make more sense to me now that I'm here. It little things, like never knowing which way to look before crossing the street, or ordering lemonade and getting Sprite (I have no idea why this happened, but to most people I've spoken to, "lemonade" as we know it is weird). Peanut butter and chocolate also taste different here, and they would never combine those two in the same candy. Mary and I tried to convince some of the others at the dorm, but they weren't on board. What was the funniest, I think, is that peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are considered weird or gross to pretty much everyone I've talked to. They have no idea why you would ever want to do that.

It's also been fun to live with people from so many different cultures. All of them speak English, but sometimes they need help translating themselves and picking out the right words. It makes you think about your own language more.

Lastly, I just wanted to mention that, thanks to Charlotte, I've now had Vegemite, a stereotypical Australian spread which you may or may not have heard in the song "Down Under" by Men At Work. It's yeast extract, and it's very, very salty. Not bad in small doses, though.