York

I spent last weekend visiting Chelsea in York. She's going to York St John University. Basically, she's going to Hogwarts. Different sets in the Harry Potter films are based on locations in York, including The Shambles. So, yes, Chelsea is in Harry Potter land, and I'm rather envious. 

The picture accompanying this post is The Minster in York. It's huge, to say the least. Chels's university is just on the other side of the wall from the Minster. (My university is just across the street from a graveyard, if you'd care to make a comparison.) Because I had to pay to go into The Minster, I took a ridiculous amount of photographs - several of which are on my Flickr site. 

While in York, I went to a pub to watch my first rugby match. I still don't understand exactly understand the sport, nor the indescribable fanaticism. I nearly went deaf each time England did anything remotely good. Chels and I were there with the only three people in the pub supporting France - possibly because the girls are from France. They got lots of glares every time they started cheering. Needless to say, I don't get excited by sport. I think those days have definitely passed. 

Chels and I also discovered the wonder of flavoured rock candy. It's not the stuff that looks like crystals on a stick (or the sculpture outside the Akron U polymer building). It's just a hard candy with a really good flavour. I bought a bag of it on a whim and had to go back again before I left York to get myself a bit more. It's incredibly addicting. The shop also had a lot of fun chocolates. Unlike the typical chocolate bunny you'd get someone for Easter in the states, you could buy a chocolate duck (with a top hat), fish, car, mobile phone, dog, etc.  

We also had a fun night of discovering that Chels's dorm does not have a stove or oven, despite having several kitchens. So the frozen pizza was cooked in the microwave. It came out pretty well, for the most part. It was edible and it was pizza, and when you combine those, it can't be bad. Frozen garlic bread, however, is not as easy to cook in microwaves... 

In other news of Leicester goodness, the fire alarm went off in one of the buildings I have classes in, but, unfortunately, went off right after my seminar had ended. Perhaps someone felt a floor vibrate and triggered the alarm in fear of another earthquake. Whatever it was, the timing was terrible and my ears did not appreciate it. 

4.7

BBC Breaking News

I arrived back in Leicester today and was welcomed by an earthquake. 4.7 on the Richter scale with an epicenter approximately 60 miles from here. That means it felt a bit like a dump truck emptying a load of rocks right next to you and sounds like it. 

I was sitting in my room, reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, when I felt the building shaking a bit. As it had been a windy day, I was willing to dismiss the dancing of my curtains as mere reaction to the draft from my window, though that didn't explain the vibrations in my floor. But, when you live with lots of university students, you don't really question that sort of thing until everything starts shaking and you can actually hear the rocks shifting in the earth. That's when you realise it's an earthquake, and that you're several floors up - but you're in England, so there's really nothing to worry about. 

USGS has official seismic activity here - in case you don't believe that there was an earthquake in England. (Being a geology nerd, I went here first and managed to get all of the geological information before the news stations had it. I've decided that's more sad than special.) 

How are the english people coping? They're all on their mobiles - or in the car park wondering if it's safe to come back inside the building. (While the fire alarms won't get them out there, at least an earthquake will.) And I'm guessing a lot of them are throwing earthquake parties now, just because this offers another reason for people to buy another round: cheers to surviving an earthquake!

While I've explained to them that the likeliness of it happening again is very slim (as we are not near any fault lines), most people preferred my advice of staying in a door frame so that nothing will fall on them. I'm hoping they're not going to try to sleep there. 

America...

I voted. :] 

I know I'm not very patriotic, but I do care who's representing the states. Right now, America looks ridiculous to the international community because George W. Bush is ridiculous. No one over here likes him, and you'd be surprised how many people know about american politics in Europe. To be honest, I think europeans are often more informed about what's going on in America than americans are. That's probably because of the way the american media contrasts from international medias.

To realise how prevalent America is in today's society, just visit BBC News and look at all the section pages. America is typically in some sort of story on every single continent. Is that a good thing? I don't know. The fact that most people don't look as fondly on America as they used to should say something. The age of imperialism is over, yet there's America, meddling about, trying to build an empire of capitalism. 

Anyways, it's about time someone with some sense in his head was running the country. Hilary Clinton scares me and comes off as the typical manipulative, power-hungry female. Yes, it's about time America had a female president - but not her. It's also about time America had someone in the White House who doesn't fall under the standard white male protestant formula. Do I think Obama can really change the government? No. Not really. I think too much has gone wrong for one simple election to fix. But I think he's a step in the right direction. And at least the guy can give an intelligent speech. I don't think we need another leader who can't pronounce 'nuclear', especially if he's going to make references to such weapons on a frequent basis. 

Fact is, most people don't like the US government right now. Spend a week in Europe and you'll realise that America is not necessarily the greatest country in the world. Other countries do have freedoms, have democracy, have Starbucks and McDonalds. There are just as many opportunities in other western societies. It says something when the american dollar isn't worth as much as it used to be. Being an American might get you more from this world than being from a lot of other countries, but it doesn't have the prestige it once did. 

The other day I overheard a girl talking to someone, trying to figure out how the american currency works. I stopped to explain pennies, nickles, dimes and quarters - as well as the fact that in America, we don't have near as many coins as the UK does. She expressed to me that she wants to go to New York City. That's one of the few places people in this country have heard about. 

I visited the local library and checked out their travel books on America to see where people liked to go: Florida, Hawai'i, New York City, Chicago, Washington D.C. and the west coast. "Is there anything in the middle of the country?" ... and I remember that drive through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois...  "No. Mostly corn fields." ... "Where exactly is Ohio?" ... "Somewhere in between New York City and Chicago." 

I listened to an english guy try to explain the concept of the 18th Amendment to my American Literature class today. He didn't know the word "Prohibition", let alone the concept of it. "The 18th Amendment, which was like... when there was no alcohol." It was almost as good as the lecture about how "Pioneers had a hard life. They lived in sod houses." It's quaint, really, knowing that if you spent several months travelling across this country in a wagon, you'd end up in the ocean. So much for the Oregon Trail: let's see your oxen try to ford that Mid-Atlantic Ridge. 

High-class living

I returned from Paris to the following note on my door: "Water will be shut off from 8am to 4pm on Friday 15 March". This meant myself along with 700 other people living in this complex were not going to be able to use our taps, take a shower, or even flush the toilet between those hours.

Somehow, we all survived the Nixon Court water-outage. Most people woke up around 7am to get all of their "water things" done. I tried that. My alarm went off; I went back to sleep. I didn't bother getting out of bed until around noon. Shortly afterwards, the fire alarm went off. I hadn't had my tea just yet, so I merely stood there in a drowsy stupor, wishing the noise would stop. By the time I went to grab my keys and coat, the alarm stopped, and I didn't have to have my breakfast on the curb whilst watching the building burn down.

Clearly, this thing happens quite often. The alarm went off again tonight. After a minute, I signed off all programs on my computer and looked out into the corridor to see what my flatmates were doing, which was the same thing. No one was really resolved on going downstairs until we had evidence of a fire, because the alarm goes off on such a regular basis. One flatmate was still in her bed, rather set on riding out the noise. Another was in the process of deciding if she wanted to order a pizza or not. But after at least 10 minutes, the ringing got to be too much, so we went downstairs. And just as we set foot outside the building, the alarm stopped. One day, there will actually be a fire and everyone in Nixon Court will still be sitting in their beds, plugging their ears.

Of course, this is nothing compared to the time a few weeks ago when the heating was out for over a day. It happened quite suddenly when I was showering: suddenly, there was no hot water. The day turned into a survival of the fittest, challenging all of us to see who could survive the cold the best. The girls in my flat took to the habit of wearing numerous layers of clothing. I attempted to fix the draft coming in my window by closing the curtains and throwing a blanket over them for insulation. Even when the heat finally came back, my room took a while to get to a decent temperature. But Ohio has clearly prepared me for all elements, thankfully.

Yet another Leicester Uni oddity has arisen. The university post office will mail items for you, but they do not have stamps. You have to go elsewhere to purchase stamps. If you have ever heard of any post office not having its own supply of stamps or packaging materials, please inform me to assure me that Leicester Uni isn't as terrible as I think it is. (Stationary post boxes on the sides of roads do not count.)

Discovery of the day: Morrisons (the supermarket I shop at) has Nature Valley granola bars. They have a rather odd selection of flavours, but the Oats 'n' Honey is here. Life is good.

Short Paragraphs on Paris

It turned out that the black woman on the metro was NOT talking to me. I'm just a little too unsuspecting to Lee's witty, witty jokes. Needless to say, the woman wasn't speaking French, English or any other language this side of Europe. 

I took two trains from Leicester to Paris. One had a girl trying to go on a diet whilst eating crisps for an hour straight; the other, an englishman attempting French. I spent those few hours staring at sheep. They're fluffier here.

I'm not Catholic, but I was allowed to go to the Notre Dame all the same. There are a couple of pictures of it on Flickr, but most turned out fuzzy because I'm anti-camera flash. It burns my eyes. 

Lee lives in the southern part of Paris in an incredibly french apartment - as in, the toilet is special enough to have its own room apart from the rest of the bathroom. He's just reprimanded me for sharing his toilet with the internet community. He also makes fun of my accent - for good reason, of course. But at least I pronounce every letter in "shower". What's a "shar"? 

Weather here has been much better than Ohio's: very sunny, rather warm. I's nice to be missing those snowstorms this winter. It's even better knowing that breathing the air outside isn't going to make my lungs freeze. 

The typical tourist things were covered, and we ate baguettes. The biggest accomplishment was me managing to fall both up and down at the same time. Escalators are fun.

Lee's landlady dropped by whilst he was out getting food. She doesn't speak much English; I don't speak French. We got along rather well.

I did not see Oscar this time around. He was a bit too busy, being dead and all. Apparently dead people only function from 9-5 as well. 

Starbucks is the same, except in French. Gatorade does not exist, possibly due to the lack of wild alligators. There's a lot more cheese here, too. Most notably, McDonald's restaurants don't look like slums. They even have bouncers at night. That's probably why french people aren't fat.

When there aren't any strikes going on, the transport system is very efficient - cleaner than the ones in New York and they're able to squeeze more people on (due to lack of obesity). 

An important lesson learned: get to the Eurostar station at least 20 minutes before your train is boarding - otherwise you get to run through the station with a bag that's bouncing and mutilating the back of your leg.

It was a really good week in Paris. I miss it already. 

Free Pizza

I really should just start my introductions in a foreign language, that way when I ask someone "where is the library" and they point to a building right next to me that says "Library", I won't feel so ridiculous.

Leicester's Central Lending Library is a nice walk from my place and conveniently has all the texts not in the university library that I need and don't want to buy. One thing university students rarely think to do is visit the public library. That just makes life easier for me. D.H. Lawrence's "Women in Love": certainly not a horribly poplar reading choice, yet missing from the university library and bookstore shelves. Thanks to my new Leicester library card, it's sitting in my room. And I have books coming from branch libraries -- it feels like being at home again.

I've decided that my flat is a microcosm of Leicester in concern to its population. The city is incredibly diverse. I'm pretty sure most people only come here for Indian cuisine. There are four of us in this flat, all from different cultural backgrounds, and even countries in some cases. Along with learning about their cultures, I'm hoping to pick up some of their study habits because they always seem to have their noses in books. I do, too, but just reading literature doesn't make me look as studious as some of them who constantly have calculus assignments spread out over the kitchen table.

Earlier today, when I came home after a lecture, I walked in to smell garlic and started thinking to myself how nice it would be to have some garlic bread and pizza. One of the girls then walked out of the kitchen and into the corridor carrying a garlic pizza. We stopped to chat a bit and, quite suddenly, the pizza decided that it would be much happier off of her plate and on the floor. I instantly told her to pick it up and by mandate of the 10-second rule, she could still eat it. The idea of eating a pizza that had fallen to the floor did not appeal to her. I brushed off the one or two hairs stuck to it (the cheese wasn't gooey, so no harm there), and told her to just stick it in the microwave for a while if she was concerned about the germs. It took about 10 minutes of me trying to convince her that eating the pizza would in no way kill her, and if she ended up with chlamydia, I would most certainly pay her medical bills. Needless to say, there was no convincing her that the pizza was okay to eat, but instead of throwing it in the bin, she let me have it. So dinner tonight was pizza del pavimento. Eccellente.

I should be posting more pictures of the city of Leicester on flickr in the near future. I've taken to exploring it a bit on my own, always with some sort of eventual destination, and I've tried to force myself to look like a tourist and stop to take a picture or two every once in a while. And my flickr account will soon be overloaded with pictures once I've done a bit more travelling.

I also found oreos in the student store. That was a happy moment. I'm still trying to understand the student union store, though. There's a shelf full of sex toys, a shelf full of gummy candies, an aisle of asian food, rows of school supplies, and cartons of vodka cheaper than a small bottle of fruit juice. Needless to say, I'm going to go broke because I buy strawberry-banana smoothies instead of vodka.

Life in Leicester

Meet Henry! He's my hoover. He cleans my floor. Rather, he attempts to -- his sniffing power isn't all that strong. But we're working around that.

I've been in this city for over two weeks, though I can't say I've done too much. My first night here was rather terrifying, being dropped off at a residence hall with absolutely no guidance for how to get my keys. Luckily, it was managed as was the finding of my room. 

I'm living in a six-roomed flat, but two of the rooms are vacant. There are three other girls here with me, and they're definitely the best housemates I could ask for. We share a kitchen, sitting area and shower/toilet facilities. Each room has the necessary furniture and a sink. My walls are hideous, but I just try to not look at them. 

It took a while to get settled in, to buy everything I needed to survive. In an attempt to purchase the cheapest items possible, I ended up several miles away from home, miserably failing at figuring out the bus system whilst carrying too many bags and standing in the rain. Luckily, I had a mobile by then and Lee was able to get me a number to order a taxi. So I got home okay in the end, only to receive an email about Tiny being put to sleep. Needless to say, my second day in Leicester did not go so well. 

Since then, things have slightly improved. I'm taking three classes, Modern American Writing (which really isn't modern, but we won't get into that), Medieval Literature and Victorian to Modern Literature 1870-1945. I only have 8 hours of class a week. Each class has a lecture (or two) and one seminar. The lectures are for over 100 people, while the seminars are approximately 10. I hate the lectures. They are delivered by a professor who types up their entire lesson and reads from a paper with powerpoint going in the background. They're supposedly offering historical and cultural information to assist our readings of the text, but I really get nothing out of them. The seminars are much better: they actually discuss the literature. The education here has really made me miss KSU's approach. At Kent, the professors would use the text to provide all the historical and cultural information in an interesting way, and while they had their lectures planned, they didn't read from a print-out. Basically, they weren't mindlessly presenting information out of context: they were actively engaging in the complete study of literature. Gosh, I miss it. One nice thing is that I'm only assessed by one essay at the end of the term. So it's kind of a low-stress semester until I've discovered that I procrastinated and have to write a 10-page essay in a matter of two days. Here's to hoping that won't actually happen. 

Uni aside, I've been having a wonderful time here. I know where to go to buy food. I know how to get to the train station. I know how to use british currency. I can't cook too many types of meals, but that's okay when you have the stomach of a bird. If you're wondering what my views of british foods are so far, I can't say much. I haven't tried anything strange, but I have noticed a few odd things whilst walking through the aisles of the shop. They apparently like rhubarb flavour -- I found rhubarb yoghurt and was a bit put off. The fresh fruit selection isn't quite the same, but I'm still able to get my apples and bananas. That means I'm not getting scurvy, mum. Also, for the record, all peanut butter is inferior to JIF. Thank you, family, for sending me a jar! 

As for exciting things that have occurred, Lee came from Paris to visit for a few days. A band we both like, Blood Red Shoes, played in Leicester so we went to that together. It was a really great gig and we were fortunate enough to push our way up to the front of a mass of people in the bar (this means I could actually see the stage). We also happen to like each other, so we are together. (That would be my way of avoiding sappy stories, hah.) 

But now I must return to planning trips and convincing myself that I should do some work for my classes. And for anyone who hasn't noticed, I have posted a link on the right side of this page entitled "Flickr Photos". I have most of the pictures I've taken in London and at the Blood Red Shoes gig up and that's the page where I'll be putting all of my pictures.