First Week

Hello everyone!

I've decided to write a blog because so many of you ask me the same questions and repeating takes a lot out of me! haha And this way, you all get to hear all of my stories!! This blog is especially for my aunts and uncles who refuse to join facebook. ;)

I miss everyone so much! However, I LOVE it here!!

So one week exactly has passed...let's recap:

Saturday/Sunday (9th/10th):

Emily (my roommate from school), Tom (a friend from high school and college), Pat (a friend from college), Gabie (we were introduced at security by our mutual friend Tom), and I arrived at O'hare Airport on Saturday at around 3:45 after going to O'hare International and finding out that United Airlines doesn't fly from there. We finally got to the right place and checked our bags. We all met and had a tearful, on our mother's parts, goodbye. We went to security. Everyone seemed a little scared just because security is never a very fun thing to get through. I was a little more freaked out because I've been on a plane once....to Colorado...when I was 10.

It's been a while for me. We passed security with flying colors, but not without the security guards poking fun at us for being the un-worldly travelers we are...psh just wait until we get back, we'll be so worldly it'll blow their minds. We ventured through O'Hare to our gate.

But since the Chicagoans were coming, England, specifically Southern England, decided to have the worst winter ever, filled with tons of snow, something they NEVER get. So our flight was delayed an hour. We got on the airplane at about 7:30ish (the English make fun of us for saying ish...even though it's a perfectly good word...lame). And we were off for our wonderful 8 hour flight. There were 5 channels with movies. I found "Slumdog Millionaire" in my nice aisle seat. I watched that and got some good pasta dinner. After, I found "This is It", the Michael Jackson movie. I watch that and then tried to sleep on and off for the next three hours which were filled with spurts of incredibly scary turbulence. Not fun. Finally we landed. We walked through the airport and made it legally into the country! Yay! All of our luggage was there, potential crisis gone, and we walked out and found our Study Abroad women holding the sign for our school. We hopped on a coach and left London. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go through any cool parts of London, we just saw highways and hills. We did get to freak out for two hours for being on the wrong side of the road though! We stopped halfway to Canterbury and got some snacks.

Emily decided to get some "Walkers"...but they weren't fooling us..they're "Lays". But as we expected, food here is much different. Every flaVOUR is very odd. Prawn Cocktail wasn't that bad. For those who don't know, Prawn is a little shrimp like fish. The English are OBSESSED. I see Prawn daily. So we got back on the coach and got to Canterbury! It was snowing pretty hard and we all took our bags and wheeled them to our houses. I got my key, which is authentic English and so cool. Emily and I live in the same house...it's a house, I've called it a flat and my British friends will correct me EVERYTIME.

Emily and I live with all Brits. Two girls, Tanya and Josie, and three boys, Billy, Adam, and James. They are all really cool and incredibly welcoming. They've given us good clothing tips and told us awesome places to go. Tom lives two doors down, Pat and our new friend Dan (also from my college) live 6 doors down and Gabie lives around the corner. We decided to try to get phones, which didn't happen. We went to ASDA, the grocery store and tried to buy food. However, it was so overwhelming. Hunger, jet lag, a new country and teenagers who don't cook their own meals are not a good mixture for grocery shopping. So we bought food for dinner and breakfast. We made pasta, it was horrible. haha We then unpacked and went to bed at around 8:00 pm, 2:00 pm US time. Jet lag is no fun! Oh and how could I forgot, I took the worst shower of my life. haha Most of you know the story so I won't repeat. But here's the shower. Surprisingly it's grown on me and I don't mind it too much anymore!

Monday:

We woke up nice and early and walked with everyone to school. Our school is Canterbury Church Christ University. It's about a 15 minute walk. Pat's british roommate Henry showed us the way. Henry is awesome and has already become one of our great friends! We got to school and went through some informational meetings. We ate lunch in the cafeteria and then had a tour of the campus. We picked our classes and went home. Gabie, Pat, and I have the exact same schedule and Emily and Tom have very very similar ones to ours. We have 4 classes, one Tuesday, two Wednesday, and one Thursday! It's fantastic! We then went and got our phones. They cost 5 pounds and they are pay as you go. Cool thing is I get 200 free international minutes every time I top-off. So you want a call, let me know. It'll be free for you and me!! Bad thing is that now we all have the exact generic phone with the same backgrounds and ringtones, you can never put it down. haha So at night we decided to go out. We got ready and headed off to the Jolly Sailor.

It's an awesome pub! The owner, Blackey, is the nicest guy ever. He loves Americans. He came up to us right away and was talking to us. He said if we come in he'll give us a tasting of all the beers and ciders on tap and teach us about them. We plan on going tomorrow! We hung out the night there and met most of Tom and Pat's roommates. They are all really cool!

Tuesday:

We decided to shop. Grocery shop. We buy all fruit. That seems to be the only safe thing so far. (now the food is growing on us) Then we had World Religions. Doesn't seem like too bad of a class. The rest of the night we just hung out.

Wednesday:

Went to British Literature. Our teacher was really cool. Then we had lunch and went to our weekly study abroad students meeting. Then we had Modern Britain. A few of our British friends are also it in, which was pretty cool. The other classes are mostly Americans. Then we walked around town and went shopping in City Center. Then we went to Baa Bars, a club. Not going to lie, it feels pretty cool to show my ID and get into places and be able to buy drinks, sometimes without showing my ID. haha The Brits have Baa Bars down. They described it before we went perfectly. The first floor is really lame. The second floor is R&B music and the third floor is what they call Cheese music, but awesome. Pretty much they played some Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Cheryl Cole, S Club 7, and other poppy artists all night. We danced for hours. It was so fun but exhausting and painful, heels were a bad choice.

Thursday:

We got to American Cinema Since the 1950's. Seems like an awesome class. Our semester is all 80's movies. We're watching E.T. next week. So cool, but honestly sounds really interesting too! We hung out all day and went back to the Jolly Sailor at night and met some new Brits. On the way there Emily, Gabie, and I have the most unfortunate yet hilarious luck. It was a perfect movie scene. A car drives by...on the wrong side of the road haha...and goes through a puddle. The three American girls stupid enough to walk on the sidewalk right next to the puddle, aka us, get soaked with street water, ALL OVER. The random Brits around us cracked up. It was really funny, but really cold! haha We finally made it to Jolly and played more Touch Cup, an awesome drinking game we learned the second night!

Friday:

We woke up early and got a tour of the Library. Pretty cool and really new and high tech. We then wondered around town all day and went to a Thai restaurant. Really good! Then we bought some mix and made jello shots (Vodka jelly as the Brits say). We took a well deserved nap and then just hung out at night with our friends.

Saturday:

We slept late, finally. We hung out all day. Got some peanut butter and oreos (the Brits think we put peanut butter on everything and they make fun of us). Then we went to Penny's, another pub.

Sunday/Today:

It was SUNNY!!!!! All the snow is gone, it didn't rain, it was wonderful! We got up and took our cameras and ventured into town. We took pictures of everything! Here are some randoms:

Tom, Emily, Gabie, Me, and Pat at the Jolly Sailor from Thursday.

British Tid-bits:

"It's pronounced CHuna...not TUNA"

They love their mayonnaise

Crisps mean Chips and Chips mean French Fries.

Aluminum is pronounced AL-U-MIN-E-UM

They hate the Welsh.

More to come!!