Halfway Through My First Week

Deepest apologies for the small gap in blog entries... so much has been happening that I haven't had much time to sit back and relax. Add in the fact that my computer crashed a fews day ago, and it's understandable why you haven't heard much about my first few days in Guildford. Luckily, I'm starting to get back to my normal routine and my computer is at least functioning now. (My biggest wish right now is that my Dell Inspiron lasts through the remaining fourteen weeks of this trip!)

Since my last blog entry was on Saturday after Bill and I arrived in the U.K., I'll start recapping events from Sunday. My second day in England was much more restful than the first, and it gave me a nice chance to get myself organized before starting classes on Monday. I managed to find a Catholic church near my house for mass on Sunday morning. One of the best things I love about Catholicism is that masses are generally the same in every part of the world. This one was no exception. Mass gave me a nice hour to reflect and celebrate the concepts of my religion. Though desperately trying to fit in, the parish was so small that almost everyone in the church realized that I was an outsider. After hearing my accent, they guessed pretty quickly that I was an American. One thing that I have noticed is that the British are incredibly friendly, and the people of St. Mary's Catholic Church were no different. One old lady even tried to convince me to join the church choir! Not ready to make any commitments, I declined with the excuse that I was unfamiliar with British hymns. This was a wise decision since the "choir" consisted of a guitarist, flutist, and pianist/cantor. Besides the cantor, I would have been the choir's sole member! After church, I wandered around the neighborhood looking for the nearest supermarket, got lost, walked back to my house, looked for the grocery store on Google Maps, and left again for a twenty minute walk to Tesco (the European equivalent of Kroger). The rest of the day was spent unpacking, wandering aimlessly until I found the university campus, and making a ham sandwich for Bill since he didn't realize that Tesco closes at 4 p.m. on Sundays.

Monday brought my first day of class, and I found it very overwhelming. After spending the past five and a half months completing a relatively easy co-op, I was in no mental state to go back to class. Even though I had only two classes in the morning, the rest of the day was very busy with various meetings and seminars. I did receive the pleasure of meeting my international adviser, Christina, who has been incredibly helpful with answering my questions and giving advice for my stay in the U.K. In the afternoon, Christina helped us register with the university and get our student IDs. After pocketing another college ID, I headed back to my house while Bill and Christina left to look for a house that Bill could rent during the semester. (International students who are studying at the university for only one semester are required to find a place to live off campus. If they fail to find a place before arriving, they are given a temporary room on campus to rent while they are "apartment shopping". This is what happened to Bill; I was able to find a house before leaving the U.S.) By a crazy stroke of luck, Bill was able to find a house in the center of Guildford, which is an ideal location since it's not far from campus and near everything in town. In the evening, all of the international students were invited to a bar on campus (Chancellors) where the Student Union provided us with free drinks while giving a presentation on student activities. The university has millions of things to do, and I'm hoping to pick up a new skill while away from home. The evening was my first chance to meet other international students, and I had a great time making new friends. In the short hour and a half that I was there, I spent a lot of time talking to Ava (Germany), Doroska (Poland), and Gabriel (France). Everyone was really open and incredibly friendly. It was a fabulous end to an otherwise overwhelming day.

Tuesdays are the easiest weekdays for my class schedule. I only have one class (Micronutrients), which doesn't start until 4 o'clock in the afternoon. So this day was an excellent chance to recover from the day before. I meandered to the grocery store, did laundry (which takes a considerable amount of time with European machines), and walked to campus to figure out why my computer crashed on Sunday. Unfortunately, I found out that Dell warranties purchased in the US are only honored in the United States. Giving up on Dell support, I took my computer to the campus computer shop for any help that they could give. In the end, I was really impressed with the computer techs on campus. They told me to not worry too much about the "blue screen of death" that my computer spat out on Sunday and to just keep a log of any other error messages that I might come across in the next few weeks. So at least for now, my computer is working relatively well... even though I'm getting my hopes up too high that it'll live through the rest of the semester. In the afternoon, Bill and I met up with a Surrey student who studied at UC in 2005-2006. His name is Mathew, and it was really cool to meet up with someone who is familiar with Cincinnati. We brought him gifts of Skyline Chili, Montgomery Inn BBQ sauce, and oyster crackers. Needless to say, he and his house mates were thrilled with the local delicacies. Mathew graciously cooked Bill and I dinner, and we hung out with his other four house mates for the rest of the evening. It was funny to hear everyone's stories from random trips to Americans. I've noticed that Europeans are much more well-traveled than Americans. After an education in British humor, I left feeling thrilled that I was able to meet another group of really great people.

Finally, this long blog entry can wrap up with today's happenings. Compared to earlier in the week, today was relatively uneventful, which gives me a chance to actually write an entry for my blog. ;) Rather than going through a typical day of classes, I'll leave you with one thing that I learned in Micronutrients class and one conversation that I had with a few small children on my way home from campus:

Random British fact learned in class:
"Vitamin D is produced by your skin through exposure to sunlight. People in the United Kingdom do not produce Vitamin D from October to February despite walking outside on a sunny day. This is because the sun's rays hit this region at an insufficient angle for human skin to produce Vitamin D."

Random British conversation with small children:

Three little boys were arguing with a small girl who had apparently gotten on one of the little boy's bike and refused to get off.

Little Boy to Me: Can you make her get off my bike?
Little Boy's Friend to Him (laughing): What could this lady possibly do?!
Me: I can't make her get off, but just make sure that you don't do anything to hurt her. You should never hurt a girl.
Little Boy to Me: Of course... say, are you American?
Me: Yes. Why do you ask?
Little Boy: You sound American.
Me (winking): And you sound British.