My Mumbling Thoughts

The next morning we had the International Welcome Breakfast and afterwards we took a tour of our campus. It's a beautiful place, I tell ya, and even though it's ancient (built sometime in the 1800's), I love it and can't wait until I really learn my way around. We're surrounded by nature and the first night here, I saw a fox. A real, live fox. It was insane. Apparently all of the animals are really tame too, especially the squirrels, and will just walk straight up to you. On some level that kind of scares me since I don't know if I'm going to get rabis, but it's also cool. Kind of like an open petting zoo.

The trip to Asda was what I was really looking forward to. I had my list ready to go and couldn't wait to take on their shopping center. On the very top of my list was a hair dryer, because if my hair isn't tamed every single morning, it is a force that needs to be reckoned with. I also needed tea bags, cereal, orange juice, milk, lamps, hangers and many, many other things. However, I didn't know that we were only going to be there for an hour so after they told me that, I bolted inside like was I on Supermarket Sweep. It was insane, but kind of cool to listen to all of the other British shoppers around me. I know, it's strange, but I can tell it's going to take me a while to adjust to hearing different accents all the time.

I asked a couple of people to point me in the right direction so I could get my Must Need Items. When I asked one guy if they sold any fans so I wouldn't have to leave my window open all the time in order to cool my room off, he told me that they didn't sell them during this part of the year. He must have seen the look of confusion on my face, because he then went on to explain that they didn't need them all year around. I still couldn't grasp onto the fact that they didn't sell them all year around. I thought even if they didn't use them, maybe they sold them at a cheaper price during the cooler months like we do in the states. Just because it's summer doesn't mean you can't find a heater.

Instead I figured I would only leave my window open during the day when I can keep a close eye on whether or not a bug decides to pay me a visit, since there aren't any screens on any of their windows.

Last night was particularly hard for me. Already I've noticed that the culture shock is hitting me a lot harder than I had expected, and all of these changes coming at me so fast back to back is major trauma to my system. I just wanted to be at home, in my car, sitting in traffic, doing normal stuff that I always do. Being alone and not knowing anybody yet is really strange for me as well. I was so used to talking to Momma and Mel every evening after work, going over our days, deciding what we wanted for dinner and then watching a bit of TV. Instead now I was trying to find a place to eat, trying not to get lost and adjusting my body clock while trying not to cave into the jet lag.

Today the international group was going into central London doing this thing called Photo Frenzy, which is the treasure hunt. I knew I wanted to do it, but I decided to skip it since I've already done the tourist thing and needed some time off to catch up on my sleep and learn my surroundings a little more. I told myself that I wasn't going to puss out just after two days and start freaking out. I was going to walk around, take the chance of getting lost, and officially make myself acquainted with London.

It was a good idea. A very good idea. I woke up today feeling a lot better. As I was putting my make-up on, my next door neighbor, Flora, who is also our Floor Resident, knocked on my door and introduced herself. She was also wondering if I had a pound coin for two fifty pence coins since she was doing her laundry and the machines wouldn't take her coins. We had a quick chat and then it was off for me to start learning about where I now live.

The thing that I forgot about was all of the walking. I mean, I knew I'd be walking a lot, but it's different when you're actually here, really walking around. I'm sure when locals say that it takes them ten to fifteen minutes to walk down the street to the store, in actuality it would take me double that time, because while I'm walking, I'm pausing every so often, looking around and letting it all soak into my skin.

I stopped at some random chicken place called, Jill's, for lunch and then walked a little further down to the Shell gas station that was also part of Sainsbury's. That was cool. I also stopped into a pharmacy, found a bakery and a Barclays atm that's close to the campus.

All in all, it was really nice and I feel a little better now that I've stepped outside of the campus gates on my own and have located some places that I can walk to for regular, every day items. Now my next goal is to learn the bus system and take my chances going off into central London. If there's one thing that I didn't completely realize until yesterday, it was that London is huge. HUGE. It'll take me a while to introduce myself to everything.

Well, I do believe that this post is frighteningly long now. I think I'm going to make myself some tea (shit yeah, I'm in England now) and get ready for a bar-b-que that we're having this evening. More details about mundane things that people do, but are different because I'm in a whole new country later on.