England

Hello all! Well, I have been living in England for going on three weeks now. It has been crazy so far! In this first post I will try to give an over view of my experience so far rather than trying to document every single thing that has happened since I arrived!

First, the trip here. I feel like I passed a milestone in the world of travel. I slept in an airport! My friend Andrea and I's flight from NY arrived in Dublin at 5am, and I had hardly slept on the plane. I felt extremely grimy and disgusting after doing it, but I don't know that I would have made it the rest of the trip if I hadn't! Another first was I flew in a commuter plane for the first time. Dang those things are SMALL!

The home I am staying in is tiny, but adorable. My room is smaller than many offices, but it is cozy, and I don't need a lot of space. We are in a quiet neighborhood, thank goodness. The walls are incredibly thing though. I can hear my housemate that lives beneath me talking to his family on his computer, and on the weekdays I can hear my neighbors' alarms going off! One goes off at 6:30am, the other at 7:30am. I cannot even begin to explain how annoying that is! Hopefully I will eventually be able to just sleep through it...

Andrea and I have become quick friends with our one housemate, Fran, who is from Cameroon. She is kind of like our mother actually. She has even begun to feed us.....

The walk to school is fairly intense. It is a mile to get there...and that is just getting on campus! The campus itself is HUGE. Much larger than where I went to undergrad. It is also 100x more gorgeous and fantastic in about every way.

It is not exactly a secret that I did not really enjoy undergrad. Therefore I am trying to shove the college experience I never had into one year. A challenge? Yes, but I think this is the school to do it! I have joined four clubs: a hiking club, a creative writing club, the student newspaper, and a student run tv station! I hope I have time to devote to everything....we shall see. I also am in the process of finding a job. An unfortunate necessity due to the crappy exchange rate between the US dollar and the British pound.

Random Observations:
-People love my accent. I have been quite shocked by this, but I have encountered several people who genuinely enjoyed listening to me talk just for my American accent.
-Some people do like America and Americans...go figure! I have gotten many excited reactions when people realize where I am from. It has been nice so far.
-Carrying groceries half a mile is a PAIN IN THE BUTT.
-Sweaters are a must.
-They say "lorry" instead of "truck"...this really upsets me
-I don't have to take notes in any of my classes because the professors give them to you at the end...is this heaven?
-I had four or five people tell me I should go home for Christmas before I finally decided to do it. Apparently it is super dead around here at that time.
-I love my smartphone..
-I don't know if I will ever get used to Brits driving on the wrong side of the road. It is amazing how something like that is so engraved in you!
-My landlords are British angels
-I bought a cactus. It makes me happy to look at it.
And finally...
-Time differences suck!!!!!!

Well that is all I got for now....I will try to update fairly reguarly, but maybe just when something interesting happens.

Cheerio! (People actually say that....mind blowing)