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!