A Sneak Preview

It's late and I'm certain that I can't really write or concentrate as well as I would need to in order to write the post about the incredibly exciting day I had today. So I will not tell you about my visit to Jane Austen's house...yet. You'll just have to wait until tomorrow, when my exhausted brain can think again.

Truly Appalling Tastes

This post has been a long time in coming, but I wanted to make sure to get a picture. I knew no one back in Michigan would quite believe me otherwise.

One of the oddest culture shocks I've received in England hasn't been the difference in driving on the roads or the accents all around; I was most amazed by the--shall we say unique--flavors of the chips here (or "crisps"). The big brand for crisps is named "Walkers," and it shares a logo peculiarly similar to that of Lays Potato Chips.

Some of the flavors taste pretty good; I'd never been much for salt-and-vinegar flavored crisps before, yet I've found them pretty addicting. They've also got "ready salted," which is like original flavored chips and "cheddar-and-onion." The last one is probably my favorite, but my breath afterwards would probably singe nose hairs.

Those are the relatively ordinary flavors. Now on to the appalling ones. Would you believe they have "prawn cocktail?'' Or how about "Roast chicken?'' "Builder's breakfast?'' Does any of these sound appetizing to you, because they sound pretty disgusting to me! From what's featured on the back of the crisp bags, I guess Walker's must be in the midst of a flavor contest. They released several new flavors and people have to vote on the one they like the best. Now let me see, which would I choose--Crispy Duck & Hoisin or Fish & Chips? And that's not even the most disgusting-sounding flavor. You want to know what is?

Cajun Squirrel... O_O ...

There are just no words.

A Funny P.S.

At long last, I have found proof that shopping is evil! Just kidding, but I found this funny nonetheless, especially considering that it was a display in Harrod's.

Just Another Typical Shopping Day...For Me

So today I went to Harrod's, the biggest and most extravagant collection of stores in London, not to mention a world-famous place in itself. And what did I spend my money on? Not the shoes, bags, clothes, or anything else that was surrounding me in the glitz and glamour. No...I bought food. Dessert, to be exact. The food in the food halls were enough to make anyone's mouth water, and the chocolate bar was even better. There were chocolate truffles in every flavor you could imagine and all sorts of delectable desserts to try. I bought a berry torte and creme brulee as takeaway and purchased a small green apple gelato. Nor was this unusual. I went with four other girls, all of whom bought desserts or chocolates of some sort. None of us purchased anything more than a couple postcards or stamps, although Sarah did buy a souvenir stuffed bear. So here is a picture of the delicious dessert that I am about to devour, the only souvenir I brought back from my trip to the shopping capital of England. And yes, that is a little disc of chocolate with a Harrod's logo on top. Eat your heart out.

Chilli Crisps and Communion Backwash...But Homey Nonetheless

I haven't yet described the church or church family that I've discovered in England, even though I've been to two or three services so far. I consider this as nothing less than negligence on my part, considering that my faith is very important to me and I've always been close to my church family. That being said, it has been comforting to find a home away from home at Christ's Church, which is less than ten minutes' walk away from my Surbiton residence.

I've been attending the night services, which are more geared toward a younger crowd than the family-oriented morning service. The services here really remind me of my church back in Michigan. The people are warm and welcoming, the sermons are actually engaging, and the music is contemporary and familiar. I've recognized a lot of the songs we've sung in the services.

Of course, there are some minor differences, not the least of which being the British accents spoken by everyone. Even when it comes to singing, my voice is obviously American. There's also a tea service before and after the sermon, where we're given time for fellowship and such while drinking tea and snacking on mincemeat pies and "crisps"--potato chips. Although I've learned to be cautious with crisps until after I find out the flavor; biting into a chocolate-and-chilli flavored potato chip was not a pleasant experience. Seriously...that was really the flavor of the vile thing! And that's not even the worse of them! But more about that in a later post.

Communion is slightly different, as well. I had to walk up and get the bread and wine from the pastor, rather than receiving it from my seat. We were all supposed to drink from the same goblet, which I found slightly unhygenic. And that's another thing--the Communion wine was really wine, something that I was unused to, having always received grape juice in my church. And I have to say, I didn't like the change. I've found that I really don't like the taste of red wine. I'd even go so far as to say that it's disgusting. It was all I could do to keep from spitting my mouthful all over the vicar. That sure would've give a new meaning to the song, "Washed in the Blood."

Probably the best part is the time I've gotten to spend getting to know people. It's a better opportunity to meet people than in class, where we're all concerned with schoolwork rather than trying to make friends. On both occasions when I've attended night service, I've been invited out to a pub afterwards and truly welcomed into the group as if I've been friends with them for much longer than two weeks. I did find out today that I've acquired a reputation already as "the American named Jess," but as that's not altogether a bad thing, I don't mind. It's just enough that I've been able to make friends so far away from home and comfort.

A Girls' Night Out for Valentine's Day

I haven't posted for a week and there's a very good reason: I haven't felt like it. Okay, so maybe that's not such a good excuse after all, but still. In short, I've been negligent to my readers, all four of them.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, as many will find it hard to forget. For the nineteenth year in a row, I was single on Valentine's Day...and to be perfectly honest, I didn't care! You don't need to have a significant other to enjoy Valentine's Day. I went out to a nearby mall with a couple of my new friends from class, and we spent a day browsing around the shops and having fun. It was great to get to know the other girls and to see firsthand how the English city celebrated Valentine's Day. They went all out here! Vendors were selling flowers and balloons on the streets, and there was even an organ grinder...without the monkey. Vendors at the farmer's market were offering unbelievable deals for produce, including out-of-season fruits such as strawberries and blueberries. My personal favorite was being able to browse around Waterstone's, which is the biggest bookstore in Kingston. Some things never change.

That night, many of the girls in the Kingston Study Abroad program went out for a Girls' Night. We met at the Odeon Rotunda, where we all bought tickets to see He's Just Not That Into You. If you haven't seen it yet, it is a truly enjoyable experience and a great movie. It was funny and touching and really insightful, too. It was a good Valentine's Day movie, whether you're single or not.

I'll admit that after watching the movie, I turned in quite early, though many of the other girls had talked about going out to a pub. They had not spent the entire day at the mall or out in the fresh air, and they surely weren't carrying a bag full of tomatoes from the farmer's market. I wasn't the only one who left early and after a day of activity, there was nothing I wanted more than to spend a quiet night at home. All in all, not the most romantic day for Valentine's Day, but I wouldn't change a thing.

A Whirlwind of Culture, Mystery, and Craziness

And that's exactly what yesterday's Photo Frenzy event was: a whirlwind of craziness. In teams of seven or more, Kingston international students were dashing all over London, attempting to answer answer questions about some of the most famous sites and photographing the answers. Furthermore, prizes would not only be given to the fastest team, but also to the group with the most creative picture. My team was comprised of ten individuals, and it became increasingly difficult to think of new and creative ideas to pose in front of sites such as Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Chinatown, and Westminster Abbey. My personal favorite was a picture taken in midair--as in, nine of us jumped on command while the tenth member snapped a picture. This happened in front of St. Paul's Cathedral.

The photos are posted on Facebook under the album, Chris and the Nine Roses. That was our team name, which I thought sounded more like an 80s rock band. The name was inspired by a point of interest of the day when Chris--our only male member--was conned by a street vendor into buying a rose for each of the group members for two pounds apiece! If you tally up the amount, it adds up to quite a bit of money. He was a good sport about it, and nearly all of us found a way to pay him back. Plus, he was the only one on our team to be given a prize--though our team didn't win any of the categories--as a reward for his gallantry, and none of us saw fit to correct the misconception.

Following the award ceremony, the majority of the team ended up going to see the London Philharmonic. Sarah, onr of the group members and a new friend, had a friend in the choir who was able to get us a deal: 5 pounds apiece for seats that were normally priced at 38 pounds a ticket! How could I pass up such an opportunity? It was beautiful and surprisingly entertaining. I say it was surprising because I never imagined that I could truly enjoy doing nothing but listen to music for over two hours, yet I did. The music was relaxing and soothing, which perhaps wasn't the best for college students who'd been running around London in the cold for hours at a time. I managed to keep from dozing off, however, and thoroughly enjoyed the music to Dvorak's Requiem.

This may seem really random, but it was one of the earliest highlights of the day yesterday. Upon arriving at the meeting place for the event--the London Eye--you'll never guess what I saw parked near a door below the overhang: a large, brightly painted van in characteristic neon colors of orange, blue, and green. Scooby-Doo fans everywhere know it as the Mystery Machine and, sure enough, the words were even painted on the side. I don't know whose it was, whether a fan's or a purposeful advertisement, but you can bet that was my first picture of the day! And so--however odd it may seem--I am ending this blog update with this amazingly coincadental glimpse at an icon of one of myfavorite American shows:

Module Recap

I don't have classes on Fridays, so I figured this was as good a time as any to update about the start of class this week. I had two classes on Wednesday and two yesterday, both with several hours in between that allow me to explore the campus and surrounding towns. While this might become a problem in the future (too much time on my hands with a bookstore nearby...), I truly relished the opportunity this past week.

I have my earliest class on Wednesdays at nine. Now, I had a nine o'clock class last semester, too, and it wasn't that bad. It was in the same building, so I just had to wake up in time to go upstairs. Not so at Kingston. I have to take the bus to the campus everyday, allowing for leeway time in case the first bus is full. Therefore, I had to wake up at 7 and catch the bus a little after 8. It wasn't bad this week, but it could become problematic as the semester goes on. It also doesn't help that my nine o'clock class is covering Shakespeare; who wants to decipher old English at nine in the morning? Oh well, I digress from my true point.

All last week, the study abroad orientators had warned us about not expecting to make British friends in class right away. I expected this, because it's usually the same in America; it takes a couple weeks to get talking and getting to know your classmates. I found this was the opposite case in my Shakespeare course--excuse me, module. I was introduced to everyone before the professor even showed up, encouraged to sit between two of the girls during the lecture, and invited out to lunch with a group after class. Everyone was so friendly and accomodating! It was rather exciting, and I had stories to tell at my British Life and Culture module later that afternoon, which was for Study Abroad students.

Yesterday commenced in a rather interesting manner, though I suppose for some it would be considered trivial. In getting ready for my 11 o'clock class, I looked outside to see a red fox exploring the back garden! The picture's not that great, but you can still see him by the bush there. This was the second fox I've seen in a little over a week, and just served as another reminder that I'm not in Michigan anymore.

Anyway, my early class yesterday was the one I'm most excited about: 19th Century English Novel. That's the subject that I'm most interested in, particularly because we'll be reading Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, one of my favorite books. The class hasn't really started reading yet, so yesterday's lecture was commonplace and a bit boring, but I'm hoping it will get better when we start discussing the books. The professor seemed really nice and excited about her subject, though she had the annoying tendency of giving away the endings of the books we'll be reading. I haven't read them yet! I don't want to know what to expect! The mystery's half the fun!

I was both amused and disappointed that roughly half the class was comprised of American study abroad students that I'd already met. America was taking over! On the one hand, it was nice to recognize new friends and be able to sit with them. On the other hand, half the experience of studying in a new country is meeting the native students, and it makes it rather hard to do so when you're sitting among a clique of Americans. I'll write more later about this subject when I've got more to say.

One thing that most surprised me about this literature module was the lask of papers that we'll have to write during the semester. As both an English major and an honors student, I'm used to writing or working on a paper of some sort every week. That's not the case here. There's more of an emphasis on ideas and critical thinking, rather than busywork. For this course, I only have to write two 750 word responses and one 1500 word essay in the course of the entire semester. Oddly, that's going to take some getting used to.

The module that I've been most concerned about is my French course. I only took one semester in college, and I wasn't sure how this would compare to a semester in England. After yesterday, however, I'm feeling a lot more confident. I was able to understand and keep up with the lesson, and there were only a few words that were new to me. Furthermore, I was not the student who seemed the worst off. Another American student in the class was in the same boat than I was, and I don't think her previous semester was half as thorough as mine was. In addition, I found the professor to be both engaging and agreeable. After class, we actually had a somewhat lengthy conversation about the book I was reading (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte) and the comparisons between American and English language classes. All in all, the content of the course itself proved to be a relief to me.

And that's that, really. At least concerning my courses thus far. Today is Friday and, as I said, I don't have any classes today, so I'm mostly spending the day writing, reading, updating my blog, and catching up with the American TV shows that I missed this week. I finally found a website that's working for me. I knew I was getting desperate when I tried to watch an episode via Skype yesterday, helped by one of my best friends, Sarah. Not only did the time difference make it difficult, but the sound and picture were not ideal. Consequently, I'm glad that another option has proved plausible today.

Well, I'm fresh out of update news right now, but I promise to update when I have more. I honestly don't know my plans for the rest of today, but tomorrow I'm heading into London again for a Photo Frenzy scavenger hunt. On Sunday, my house mate Rebecca and I are planning on catching a movie down at the cinema in Kingston. It's called The Secret of Moonacre, it's a British film that just opened today, it's been advertised everywhere, and it also stars one of my favorite actors, Ioan Gruffudd! If it's any good, I'll let you know.

Six Inches? You've Gotta Be Kidding Me!

I'm going to keep this update rather short because, quite frankly, I don't feel very well right now. I tried going out with some friends tonight, but had to bow out early when my stomach threatened to reveal its contents. As soon as I post this, I am falling into bed to try to sleep this off. I have class tomorrow, and there is no way that I'm going to miss it!

I spent yesterday's snow day predominantly in London with a group of fellow study abroad students. We ate lunch in Chinatown, toured the Tower of London, walked across the Bridge, ate dinner at a pub near Trafalgar Square, and rode on a double-decker bus around the city, where we got completely lost after the bus dumped us off on the outskirts of the town. Thank God, our group was made up of several people, including five guys, so the rest of us girls found safety in numbers in what could have been a very frightening situation. Come to find out, we were less than a hundred yards away from Paddington Station...so much for being "lost in London."

Today was the final first day of class--as in, classes had been cancelled on the two earlier days in the week. In Michigan, this would have been unheard of, considering that Kingston only got about 4-6 inches of snow. That's barely considered a dusting on the ground from where I come from, and there would have been no way Grand Valley would have cancelled school for one hour, much less two days. I was amused by how freaked out everyone got over the snow and ice. No one here seems to know how to deal with it. In London, there were piles of salt every three feet, as if they expected it to spread out on its own. And men were clearing the sidewalks with brooms. Not shovels, brooms. As in, those wide sweepers that my dad uses to clean out the garage after we have a family picnic. Also, everyone seems to be in constant danger of falling, probably because the shoes and boots that are sold here--while good for rain--don't have the traction needed to walk on ice. For once in my life, I was one of the most coordinated people in the area--and you know that's saying something.

This turned out to be longer than I expected or wanted, and I haven't even begun to talk about my classes yet! I'll just leave that topic for the next post, when I can talk about all at the same time. I don't have any classes on Friday, so I can probably post bout today's and tomorrow's classes as soon as I get the time.

Michigan Weather in England?

Monday was supposed to be my first day of class, but a nighttime

snowstorm brought more fluffy stuff than Great Britain has seen in almost two decades...or so I've heard from the news. It just figures, doesn't it? I leave Romulus and Grand Rapids, expecting to escape the snowy Michigan weather, and encounter weather just like it overseas. I must've brought it with me; but I won't go advertising that idea, for fear of getting jumped by angry Englishmen and -women :).

Usually, I'd be thrilled to have a snow day from classes, but since I'm in a new country and at a new school, I would have rather gotten the whole initiation period over with as early as possible. Instead, I was cooped up inside the house all day, left with twenty-four extra hours to fret about the start of classes and schoolwork. I spent the day reading Jane Eyre and watching the same movie on youtube, with only my landlady's cat, Poppy, to keep me company. It was nothing if not an uneventful, lazy snow day; the kind of day that is nice to have once in while, but gets boring and old really fast.

So guess what? According to the Kingston University website, all Tuesday lectures and classes are cancelled, as well. I may have brought the Michigan snow with me, but one thing's for sure: Romulus High School and Grand Valley State were never so quick to close campus for a snow drift like this.

Shopping is a Continuous Cycle

Well, classes start tomorrow and I believe I am about ready for them. I picked up the remainder of my school supplies and books today, which was quite a task, let me tell you. I went with some fellow Study Abroad students that I've befriended; this probably slowed me down, but definitely made the trip more enjoyable. However, we didn't get to the shopping strip until around 3:00, and most stores around Kingston close at 5:00 on Sundays. I finally found my school supplies at Wilkinson's, which happened to be the last store we entered around quarter to five. I imagine that it looked quite comical to see six college students running full-speed around the store, cramming notebooks, staplers, and other items into the crooks of our elbows as we attempted to juggle an armful of supplies.

The early closing times of the Kingston stores makes for very difficult planning when it comes to buying groceries, necessities, or even school books. For one thing, I've been busy the last couple of days with orientation plans, field trips, and other initiation events that have prevented me from getting to the stores until after most of them have closed. I've been able to keep up with groceries and food fairly well, but that's proving to be another problem. The food here doesn't seem to keep as well as in the States, probably because they don't use as many preservatives. While that's undoubtedly healthier for me, it also means that I can't buy in bulk or else the food will go bad before I can eat it. Which means that I'm going grocery shopping every couple of days just to buy my meals; eating out every day would just be too expensive.

Shopping has never been my favorite pastime, setting me apart from other women everywhere. I especially hate clothes shopping. So you can imagine how frustrating it must be for me to discover that I packed barely enough clothes to last me one week without doing laundry. It looked like so much more when I was packing my suitcase! Now I've got to find some time this week to find some inexpensive tops while simulataneously worrying about the start of classes tomorrow...and it seems I've come full circle. I really didn't mean to rant like this or complain; it might seem inconvenient to me now, but I'm sure I'll be able to adjust to the way of living here...even if it does include more frequent trips to the store.