Pictures!

Here are some new pictures for those of you that don't already have Facebook!

We took Charl out to Sugarhouse! 

Cathrine and me before the foam party

Foam party... gross.

Me in our kitchen

Alex and Me

Me, Stephane (in the background) and Ollie

Me and Cathrine again

First snow.

Last night was the first real snow of my stay here in Lancaster. We had already gone out on Saturday night for my flatmate Franchi's birthday, but we all went out to dinner last night because it was her REAL birthday (she turned 19). While we were sitting inside the restaurant we noticed it had started snowing. I was not excited... I'm not the biggest fan of snow now that I've lived on the eastern side of the mountains back home, but all the other girls were just ecstatic. Especially Alex... doesn't it seem like a Canadian would be sick of snow? Nope.

When we left the restaurant we were all sliding around in it and taking pictures, though most of the pics came out blurry because Franchi had already had some wine. Ha. Me and Alex went back to the uni because we were both tired, but Annie, Cathrine and Franchi all went out for drinks after dinner. Here are some pictures that we took while we were there!

Saturday night. Love her button...

Alex, Me, Annie, Cathrine and Franchi

Cathrine... me and Annie in the far background.

YAY!

Today I received a package from mom and Kel in the mail! I was so ecstatic about it. It had a big bag of Dove chocolate, ranch dressing mix, Sour Patch Kids, Snickers bars, JIF peanut butter, an assortments of cereal, Kool-Aid packets, Goldfish crackers, two cards a bunch of pictures of Kameryn and even a framed picture of me and her together! I'm going to have to have a Thanksgiving feast with all of the junk food that they sent me! I was so excited, I still am obviously, and I've already hung all my pictures of Kameryn up on the cork board behind my computer. Here is a picture of what it looks like...

Dinner with my crew

I just wrote big long post and it got all deleted... UGH!

So here is the short version: Annika, Pili, Charl and I went out to dinner last night because Charl has been really stressed about school lately and I thought this would cheer her up. Annika got the all-you-can-eat pasta/pizza/salad and didn't eat ANY salad but had about 8 pieces of pizza and two plates of pasta because she wanted to get her money's worth (it was only like £6). Pili was appalled at how much Annika ate because she is very healthy and never eats fast food. Afterward, to Pili's dismay, we went and got chocolate (Annika got TWO chocolate bars). Here are some pictures that Pili posted on Facebook...

Annika picking anything healthy off her pizza

Me and Charlie Warlie

Charl, Annika and pizza.

Me and empty fast food containers... haha.

Me and my first Mars bar ever!

Charl and Pili

My fellow CSV crew.

Here is a photo of all of us who are here at Lancaster... Pili, Charlotte, me and Annika.

Annika and I have been really getting on lately and hung out mostly all day today even though I was on duty with Charlotte. She's so hilarious. We talked a lot in the past about Germany and the US, WWII, American vs German culture and the difference in language. She speaks nearly perfect English but said today that she wants to develop an English accent instead of an American one (PSH!). I spoke a little bit of German to her today and I did okay. I said "die katze ist auf dem tisch," which means "the cat is on the table," and she responded with "Very good! Now you can go to Germany." Ha. She said that I speak German in a really sing-songy way and she said that I need to say it harder and that English is a "round language." It makes sense though when you hear her speak German. I told her today that we don't talk from the back of our throats and she just laughed.

The funniest difference I notice when she's speaking English is that she can't tell the different between a V and W sound and she often mixes them up. She was talking about an "Irregular werb song" for a long time and I had no idea what she was saying until finally I figured out she meant "verb" not "werb" and it was a song they used in her English language class. She also talks about her football (soccer) games and says "It was us wersus Lonsdale," which means "us vs. Lonsdale." I taught her the American alphabet song and she was actually quite thrilled about it. She said when she took Charlotte to class later that day she sang it the entire way there... haha.  When she says the letter V though, she says "wee" and it took forever for her to be able to do the correct pronunciation. She kept saying, "I can't tell the difference between the two sounds!" which is really weird to me, but then again, English is my first language.

Annika just finished Gymnasium in Germany which is (kind of) equal to high school. Their school system is way different than ours. She is 20 now and graduated this summer, which is normal. She's taking this year in England to improve her English and decide what she wants to study at Uni. She said she probably will graduate from uni when she is about 26, which is normal in Germany. She's from a town near Frankfurt and I told her I was going to come visit sometime and she said, "as long as I don't have to pay for your plane ticket." Haha!

And so it goes...

I haven't written for a while because I really haven't had anything significant to write.

Life across the pond is going well and I think I've adjusted well. Today marks my one month anniversary since I left! Can you believe it's been that long? Actually, I feel like I've been here for ages already because I had to learn so much new stuff all at once that it's hard to believe I've done it in only four weeks.

The language barrier is still there but it's lessened. I now know that they don't use the term "bathroom," but rather say "toilet" or "loo." I have also taken to using the term "Cheers," to mean "thank you." They say it so much around here that it's hard not to pick it up. I also called Charlotte "mate" yesterday... that was weird.

I'm still loving the English food too! I tried English curry for the first time today and it was delicioso. I didn't know curry was such a huge thing in the UK but apparently there are streets in Manchester and London that have curry competitions! Shop owners will beg you to come in and try their curry as you're walking down the street and they'll even give you special deals on it! The best English food so far though are the pasties and pies... so good. Then again, I like pretty much anything that has pastry on/around it. I've also taken to drinking tea quite excessively.

Working with Charlotte is still going very well. I'm starting to really get into my routine and each day I'm doing things more and more by instinct rather than having to carefully plan out each step in my head. I'm glad it's getting easier because it's exhausting when you're worrying about every step you take. Charlotte is starting to stress out though because she's an overachiever (not a bad thing) and, even though she is always on top of things, she thinks that she should constantly be doing more. I help Charlotte the most with her homework out of us three aids because I'm the only native English speaker, plus I'm an English major.

I'm meeting more and more people everyday and it's great. There has been some drama in my flat but I've done well to keep out of it and not comment. Frankie told me and Alex that we're the only drama-free ones in the flat, and I'd like to keep it that way.

I'm going back to London on December 10 and I'm SO EXCITED! I don't have much money, and I probably shouldn't really be going to London, but I just plan on acutely starving myself for the next couple weeks and pass on a couple of weekend club trips. It should work out I think...

I don't know how well I'm going to readjust to Cheney after being here though... I feel like it's going to be like taking a step backwards. I guess we'll see, I have quite a while until I have to make any decisions regarding my move back home.

I'll try to write more often, especially if anything exciting happens!

Halloween weeeeeeekend

My flatmates went crazy this weekend and I went along too but didn't really participate; I was more of a spectator. They went out Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, last night, and they're going out again today on SUNDAY. I went out of Friday and drank a bit (though not much because drinks are so expensive) and then last night I was a care-taker for Alex at Sugarhouse...ha.

Anyways, Halloween in the UK is big. My friends and I didn't dress up but the vast majority of people who were out were dressed up. Most of them dressed as Zombies. The thing about Halloween is, a lot of girls just use it to dress with as little clothing as possible and for some reason that passes as wearing a costume. Now, you have to realize that girls who live in England already wear very little clothing most of the time, so I wondered how this was going to work. Somehow they managed. Most of the girls last night were dressed as zombies, which basically meant that they painted their  face white, ratted their hair up, and (for some reason) wore the smallest clothes they could find and added strategically placed rips. Oh and 6-inch heels. But I suppose they achieved what they wanted because my friend Peter (Canadian) kept saying, "I love the women in this country!"

The real reason I wanted to write this blog wasn't to moan about the costumes, however. We met a girl in line last night who was the stereotypical posh Londoner. Her name (no joke) was Natalie Laura Tiffany Arnold. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!? Also, she has a "holiday home" in Florida. She is from a really posh part of London and lived down the street from an actor who is in a show over here called "Skins" and who one of her friends used to date. Aaaand he's gorgeous... haha. She said she loved the USA, though, and started talking about the show "Super Sweet 16." I told her I hated that show and the girls on there annoyed me. She said "Wait, you guys aren't like that?" HA. I guess that's what exporting American TV does for our image in the US. She also kept asking me to teach her to talk like me, which I thought was hilarious.

Anyways, that's my little quip for the day.

Lancaster

Pili and I went in to Lancaster the other day which is about 10 minutes from where we live. We just shopped around and looked through town, and Pili took a few pictures, so here they are!

We went shopping but I didn't buy anything.

Coooookies.

A church.

Busy Lancaster street.

In a store called "Accessories"

Playing dress-up!

Me on the bus.

Houses? Flats?

Annika and her German dinner.

A little more about London

Well, as you can all tell by my last post, I absolutely loved London and I want to go back! The only problem is that a three hour journey in England is way way way more expensive than a three hour journey in the US. Plus, London is super pricey no matter what you're doing.

Me, Alex and her friend Peter (who is also from Canada) all left together at about 1 PM on Friday afternoon. Once we got on the train it was a little over two hours until we arrived in London. I can't remember if I've already written this, but the English countryside looks a lot like the Pacific Northwest! It's very green, lots of trees and fields... But most of the trees aren't evergreen and most of the animals in the fields are sheep. I was pretty anxious to get off the train but the trip wasn't too long and once we arrived at Euston station we went down to the underground (the Tube) and bought a ticket to get to Victoria.

These are what the taxis looked like. Just like in a movie.

The Tube is an adventure in itself and I honestly don't know how I rode it by myself when I first arrived in London from home. There are SO many people and it's hot and shaky. It's good for getting places relatively cheap, though, because taxis are expensive. Eventually we found our way to our hostel which was called "Surprise Backpackers" and realized quickly that it was pretty sketchy. Alex and I walked into the pub that was below our hostel and a couple of the guys made comments right away which was... unnerving. When they let us in to the actual hostel part of the building we signed in (they lost one of our reservations) and gave us our sheets.

When we went upstairs to find the bedrooms we were staying in we relaxed a little bit. The upstairs was cleaner, bigger and a little less menacing. The room we were in had 12 beds in it... four sets of three beds stacked on top of each other. We noticed right away that there were three guys sleeping in there when we arrived (it was about 6 PM). We found out later that they were Polish and there were also some British girls in there and some other people of unknown origin.

After we settled all in we set off to find a club that Peter wanted to go to because of the live music. It was a difficult feat finding it so we kept asking random people on the street. Eventually I saw a girl with her hair all done up and a sequined skirt on so I asked her and, turns out, her and her friends were going to the same place. It also turns out that they were 17-years-old. Eventually we got there and then had to queue up for a good twenty minutes and then pay £5 to get in. It was worth it though. While we were there, Alex went and found her boyfriend, Colin, and his friend, Carl, who had just flown in to London from Switzerland. They're both also Canadian but they're doing internships in Europe.

The next day we got up and did all the touristy things. We went on a walking tour around west London, rich London, and took pictures yadda yadda. There was also another tour that we could have gone on that went to all the places where Jack the Ripper left his victims. Crazy! We would have done that but all of our feet were hurting so bad we decided against it. After the tour, the whole tour group (about 15 people) went out to eat at a local pub. I got macaroni and cheese and was SO happy about it.

That night we went to another club, called Fabric, but it turned out to be a waste of money. Apparently it was 2nd in DJ Magazine's "Top 100 Clubs" in 2009 and 2010 so Peter wanted to go there. I think the overexposure must have ruined it though because it was expensive and flashy and everyone there was way too posh for my taste. The club the night before had been underground and way more fun. We didn't stay out late on Saturday night and after we left Fabric we got pizza and went back to the hostel.


We checked out at 11 AM the next morning and had to carry our backpacks around everywhere. We ate at McDonald's for breakfast (the closest home-y thing we could find!) and then we went down to Picadilly's Circus, which is a huge shopping center. Picadilly's Circus isn't like a mall... it's more like a street with shops all around. You don't stay inside the whole time you're shopping. We went into one reeeeally posh store and I could believe the prices of things. There was Gucci, Dior, Jimmy Choo, etc etc, but even the names I hadn't heard were super expensive. Me and Alex saw a purse that was leather and, honestly, quite average looking for £1,400! That's like $2,200! I felt like I shouldn't even touch it. Plus we were all in dirty clothes with dirty hair and backpacks haha. I knew people were eying us, annoyed, thinking "Freaking tourists!" 

We left there pretty quickly and after shopping around a bit more we walked over a bridge, past Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and went in to a dirty little pub and got lunch/dinner. I got fish and chips, which I didn't really want, but I felt like I should get them. They were really good though and I was happy with my choice. Everyone else got burgers or Sunday roast. There was a football (soccer) game on in the pub, Arsenal FC vs. Manchester City, so there were about twenty men sitting in there drinking and yelling at the TV. It was so English. 


After we ate, we left and found our way back to Euston and back on to the train. It was an amazing trip, though very tiring, and I hope I get to go back soon. I kind of want to experience REAL London instead of tourist London because I know it's got to be a lot different. Also, I found out later that the hostel we stayed in has a really bad reputation for being dirty and overpriced (even though it was only 20 quid a night). That gives me hope though because that hostel was perfectly fine with me and next time we'll probably stay in a much better one! My next stop is probably Manchester but we'll see...

I'm moving to London ASAP.

I loved London so much! I am dead exhausted though but it was so worth it. We stayed in a hostel near Victoria and walked mostly everywhere. When we went long distances, though, we used the underground. Here are some photos, I'll elaborate more later. Sorry I'm not in most of the pictures though, we were on a walking tour for most of the photos and we didn't have much time to stop and whatnot...

Alex and me walking to the Globe Theatre over the River Thames.

You can baaaarely see the London Eye in the background...

Big Ben.

WWII Memorial.

Buckingham Palace!

Hyde Park

One of those guards with a bearskin hat.

There is grass on the top of this to confuse Nazi pilots...

Sweet telephone booth.

A church, I can't remember which one.

Street on the west end.

Another street.

Off to London...

I'm leaving in about a half hour to go to London for the weekend... thank goodness for Annika covering my shift :) but I will return the favor next weekend by working Saturday afternoon. I thought I'd post a couple more pictures from last weekend! There will be many more coming Sunday...

Me being crushed by Ben.

Norway looks like a model.

That wasn't all our alcohol... seriously though. People just left it there.

The Welcome Dinner!

This was probably a Spice Girls song. Really.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em

So, I've told you all about my flatmates/friends here in Lancaster, but I haven't told you how I finally ended up being asked to go out with them on Friday night. I missed the first week of school so I missed the clique-building time but luckily I broke into this one without much problem...

So for three of the first five days I was here (I got here on Saturday the 9th) I was kept up LATE, like 3 AM, by my obnoxiously loud flatmates. Me and Pili both talked about how loud they were and how we couldn't sleep. Well, Wednesday night was one of these nights and at about 2 AM Thursday morning the fire alarm went off. At first I wasn't sure what it was because it sounded weird, but when I poked my head out the door I saw people walking outside. I looked in the kitchen quick and saw Annie (who I didn't know at the time) waving a tea-towel at the smoke detector in the kitchen; she had burned her toast.

There are three other flats around the one I live in... probably about a 50- 70 people in each one. All four flats had to evacuate because  of this burnt toast, and we all had to wait outside in the cold in the middle of the night until the fire department arrived and checked to see that it, indeed, was only burnt toast. While we were standing outside though I asked Annie what was going on, and she explained, and I also talked to Ben without realizing I'd be hanging out with both of them for the next three days! I also met a girl from Greece, but I haven't seen her since.

As I was walking back to my room after we were let back in, Catherine (Norway) walked past and said "I'm sorry if we've been keeping you up." To my surprise, I replied with "Oh no worries, you guys should come get me next time so I can hang out though!" The next day, they did. So I figure, I'd way rather be having fun than getting mad since I'm going to be up all night either way.

So, since I met those guys I've gone to a club called Sugarhouse in Lancaster on Friday night and then reluctantly went with them to Preston (about 45 minutes away) on a coach that was sent to pick people up from the Uni. The coach was arranged by a girl named Amy to pick up her guests and bring them (free-of-charge) to a club called Revolution for her 21st birthday. I must say that Saturday night was a lot more fun, much smaller than the night before, and I met about 20 more people.

Lancaster University! I live in the very top right hand corner.

Working with Charlotte is actually going really well. I've only been working with her for a little over a week and I already feel quite comfortable with some of the aspects that I was nervous about. She also provides quite good conversation which makes work pretty enjoyable and I often forget than I'm "on duty."

Charlotte is really interested in everything American and today I made her a very American lunch... it was breaded chicken with ketchup (which isn't very common here), a baked potato and salad. While we were eating she was asking me about American TV: "What does PBS have on it?" "Is ABC Family a different channel than ABC?" "What cartoons did you watch when you were growing up?" It's funny though because American TV is boring to me and British TV is boring to her. The other day I watched the equivalent of a British Maury Povich called Jeremy Kyle, and a show just like The View called Loose Women. She also regularly watches X-Factor (with Simon Cowell) which is mostly just the English version of American Idol.
The weather has been worse here than it has been in Pac Co (according to mom). It's been overcast and it rained a bit today, but nothing I can't handle since I am from Washington state!

Tomorrow is my day off and, after I do some laundry, I'm going to get my student rail card so I can get my train ticket to London for this weekend! We already have our hostel booked so we're almost set to go....

Parties!

I don't have time to write much but I thought I'd post a few pictures. I went out a couple times this weekend with friends and it was a great time! I didn't have anything to wear (these brits are ALWAYS dressing up) so I had to borrow a dress from Cathrine (Norway) which was really not my style. It was very small. BUT, it had to be done because we were asked to dress "smart" for a birthday party that was in Preston at a club called Revolution. It was really great. I sang "Wonderwall" with an actual Englishman. That made my whole night, I tell you what. Next weekend, I'm heading to London with Alex!

Frankie (left) Alex (behind) Me (with the drink) and Ben

Canada, Ben, Annie, Me and that guy again.

Hey, hey, USA

Well, I met some friends. They live in my dorm and consist of Frankie, who is from Liverpool, Alex from Canada, Annie from London, and Catherine, who is Norwegian but speaks with a southern accent when speaking English because she lived in Louisiana for a year.

Me and the Canadian got on really well because we use all the same slang and understand each others references. Last night we went to a pub (legally! Yay!) and "What is love?" came on. Alex and I both started doing the SNL/Night at the Roxbury head-bob dance and everyone looked at us like we'd lost our minds. I would have been pretty awkwardly embarrassed if it had just been me, but luckily it wasn't!

I went to get groceries today since I got paid (woo!) and was quite dismayed to find that peanut butter is a rare commodity in the UK. I found TWO jars of peanut butter in the whole store. Both jars were about 1/3 of a jar of PB at home and the only brand they had was Skippy. I was pretty disappointed but I had to settle. When I mentioned the Peanut Butter dilemma to an Englishman later that day, he told me that he has never even TRIED IT! How is this possible?

The English do have quite good food though other than their lack of peanut butter. For example, their yogurt (spelled yoghurt), though it probably has twice the sugar of American yogurt, is about 5X as good. You can also buy it with a little side packet full of tasty little things to put IN your yogurt. So good. Also, the bread it better. Jon wouldn't be able to live here though because there is no Mountain Dew. There is also no Root Beer. Very, very strange this place called England.

I'm going out to a club tonight though with my *new friends*! Sorry no pictures yet... I may be going to London next weekend with Canada so I'll definitely have some then!

My Flatmates.

Charlotte, Charlie, Charles, Lady Char Char, Carlotta...

This is a picture of Charlotte Amy Faragher, the girl who I am caring for. She's 19 and loves getting dressed up and looking cute. She's upbeat, constantly laughing and just great to be around. She does get stressed about school though but really, she has a lot more to worry about with classes and such than most people... like even being able to get TO the classroom in her wheelchair. She is quiet but very clever.

Pili and her boyfriend in Colombia.

My Columbian flatmate who also helps Charlotte is named Andrea Pilar Aristizabal, but she goes by "Pili." She's 19 (almost 20) and teaches belly dancing and meditation in Columbia while studying politics at her University. She is great to be around because she is always dancing and singing and is always over-the-top enthusiastic. She seems to be very intelligent and she is definitely very friendly (she hugged me when we met) but has a hard time expressing herself because English is her second language. If you say anything to her in Spanish (Buenos dias) she is beside herself with happiness.

In fact, her and I went to the bank the other day and she heard two men speaking in Spanish, so I eventually convinced her to go talk to them and when we left she literally had tears of joy running down her cheeks. She asked me to help her improve her English so I have been correcting her a little bit and she is thrilled when I do. I taught her the word "hangover" yesterday and she thought it was hilarious. She also used to say "I'm going to take breakfast," instead of "have breakfast," as well as saying "I have hunger," instead of "I'm hungry." I've only known her a few days but I think her English is already improving some.

My German flatmate/volunteer-mate is named Annika Rehman. I don't have a picture of her because she doesn't have a Facebook (shame!) but I'll have one soon since I'm sure we'll take pictures while we're here sometime or another. Annika is very German. She is tall and blonde, very straight-forward, and quite reserved. She is also very nice though. She plays football (soccer) and is on a club team here at Uni. She also plays the electric guitar so we talk a lot about music but she doesn't listen to any Beatles except "Come Together," and doesn't know any Led Zeppelin except "Stairway to Heaven." SO, I told her I was going to make her a CD when I get a chance. Every once in a while she'll accidentally slip a German word in to our conversation without even realizing it... I usually realize what happened but Pili gets very confused.

I have also met a few of Charlotte's friends from last year, mainly Leah and Josie. They're both pretty hilarious and hopefully I see them around more often. I haven't had bad culture shock but I've mostly found the cultural differences very funny. For example, Charlotte's mom, Fiona, and I went to the British-version of Wal-Mart which is called "ASDA." The first thing I noticed was that the shopping carts they used didn't just go back and forth but they went every which way. People were walking with their carts completely sideways... it was so weird. Also, there is a whole isle full of hard alcohol in ASDA! I was so shocked to see it. Fiona told me that they sell it really cheap there so kids go and buy tons of it because the price is so low. ALSO, a big pain that I have come across is that none of my plug-ins fit into the UK plug-ins... so I had to buy an adaptor. When I buy things in a store I feel like a little kid because I'm still unsure about how to use pounds. They have pence instead of cents, and their one-pound is a coin and not a bill. I feel like I sold all my money to the bank for Monopoly money.

I've found British food to be quite good so far. They call desserts "pudding" and they often refer to dinnertime as "tea" or "teatime." That reminds me, I've been drinking tons of tea. That is one stereotype that is completely true. Last night for tea we had chicken and gravy pie and salad. For lunch I thought it was funny that we all had the same ingredients available to use but we all made something different: I made a turkey and cheese sandwich, Pili took two pieces of bread with tuna and put mayonnaise on it while she ate it, and Annika ate two pieces of bread and butter with cheese on them. I got the hiccups after dinner and Annika said "Bless you," which I thought was pretty funny.

Some of the common phrases I've come across are, instead of saying 7:30 or half past seven, many English people just say "half seven." Also instead of saying "how are you," a lot of people just say "alright?" and if something is very cool it's "well good," and if someone is very attractive, they're "well fit." Instead of "crazy" or "insane," people are "mad" or "mental." Once, when Annika and I were discussing the difference in their accent and mine, Leah overhead us and said "You're taking the piss out of my accent!? Cheeky buggers!" I liked that quite a lot.

Well that's all for now, it's about time for me to go make a cheese and tomato quiche so until next time...