Cultural Adjustment

I'm starting to make a climb on the W chart and I think that I'm taking the adjustment pretty well. I have a steady schedule going (despite the new module) which consists of beer/cider on Saturday

3£ ciders are the best ciders

As well as a movie night on Sunday. Right now we're on the Harry Potter movies, but since the Oscars were going on last week, we watched Catch Me if You Can in honor of Leo.

Flat life is quite interesting. I get a nice little room to myself and I share a kitchen and bathroom with five lovely flatmates, but living in a flat can come with first world problems.

    

Souvenirs (and the most boring blog ever)

I think when someone spends a significant amount of time abroad, they're expected to bring back a lot of souvenirs. For me, all I really wanted was a little Union stick flag.

It took me f**king ages to find one. I was starting to think that I was going to have to wait until the break and go looking for one in London, which would've been stressful because London is huge and my German parents who are always in a hurry are going to be there. It would be a miracle to find time to go looking.

But it didn't really cross my thick skull that there would be trinket shops that were not in the city center. There were several lovely little gift shops near the Mayflower steps that were just full of things Union related. It was crazy. You could get an umbrella that looks like this:

Those were sold in two different shops.

I was tempted to get little tin red telephone booths filled with tea bags, but decided against it. Though, I did get what I was after and more. I went home with three stick flags instead of one.

Union Flag:

Flag of England:

And a Devon county flag:

I get excited over the little things.

History Lessons and Smeaton's Tower

A history lesson that I've learned as a nine year old came right back around to bite me in the ass

which was the Mayflower sailing from Plymouth to Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

In which case, I forgot all about it until I ended up in Plymouth. I couldn't even get the hint from all the Mayflower gift shops everywhere. I even passed the gate that lead to the Mayflower steps at least twice and not even noticing it.

Also, another American and I went into Smeaton's Tower today.

It is a very symbolic piece of architecture in the city of Plymouth. It's not that high but it's still the worst nightmare for anyone who is afraid of heights and/or claustrophobic.

(There wasn't a lift/elevator)

Weather and It Exists!

News and Weather

Culture shock is starting to make its way into my line of work and a way I cope with any kind of homesickness is reading American news (via the BBC News app of all things). It doesn't take long to get over the homesickness. One glimpse of Donald Trump's face and I'm good and extremely happy to be in England for the rest of the day.

And if that doesn't work, there's something that I go by, which is the fact that reading the news might be depressing now, but it makes Steven Colbert funny later.

The most American thing I can show is my favorite talk show host smoking bacon.

But along with the news comes the weather. Here in Plymouth, I think it's rained at least three times a day for the past week and a half and it's a cold, windy rain. Although, I think it's fine. I've never had much trouble with the rain. and despite it being cold, I know that the forecast at home is much colder.

It Exists!

There are several sweets found in the U.K. that has shown up in American television, causing us to think that they are just mythical things thought of by the movie or show. Knowing that these things exist makes the dreams of the average sweet-tooth American nerd come true. 

Sherbet Lemons

Jelly Babies

I was so happy over these things and the people working in the sweet shop were giving me weird looks. 

Class/Culture Shock Insurance

Class

I've never had that many friend requests on Facebook at once before. Everyone in my module is so funny and all of them are in a sort of love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with our yoga class. Probably because our instructor can do poses that just don't exist.

It's hard remembering names, so a classmate named Tim decided to be a dear and help me out. 

There's a lot of roaming around town during class. The course is basically focuses on different locations of theatre. We already have a group assignment which is to basically recreate a photo or a painting while preforming something. 

When we were given the prompt, this immediately came to mind.

Why are they all sitting on one side of the table? I asked that question in church once.

Culture Shock Insurance

More like, America follows me wherever I go.

Last semester, culture shock was explained to me in a W shaped curve chart.

Which can be confusing during arrival time, because I'm still a little bit jet lagged (10:00 AM here is 3:00 AM at home). 

Luckily, me and several other American students have explored and we found out that we were in fact, followed by our home country.

We could smell the Subway from about a mile away.

Not to mention the gun shop in the market. 

For the record though, I did not travel over 4,000 miles over the Atlantic and land in the United Kingdom to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken. I can only think of the number of Americans who would give me crap if I did.

Point is, I think I'm covered when it comes to culture shock.

28/01/2016

Orientation/Playing Tourist

My thoughts after getting settled into my room (3:30ish P.M.): "I'll just have a rest for an hour, and then I'll go out and explore"

I woke up at midnight. Jet lag is beautiful

Orientation is going to be a three day thing. It's the first day, and I already met a ton of Americans, two people from Australia, and four guys from India. I think we're trying to get as many international students on a Facebook group chat as we can.

But my parents are probably wondering,

Did I make an effort to meet my flat mates?

or

Did I meet anyone who is from the area?

Which is fine. I didn't expect to do everything on the first day. However, I did get more done on the first day than I thought I would.

I learned that the learning environment is going to be different. People in the U.K. are more stringent on in-text citations and there is going to be more research outside of class. One thing that is allowed, is the use of Wikipedia as a source, we just need to be careful. In most of the classes I've taken in the States, we weren't allowed to use Wikipedia at all.

Terms:

Take poorly = feeling or being sick, taking a sick day
Evidence (v.) = To display or know something
Stage = Year in school
Marks = Grades
Chips = Fries
Crisps = Chips
Trousers = Pants
Pants = Underwear
Sweets = Candy

The concept of "Alright".

People in Britain (who already know each other) may say "Alright?" when walking past each other. They're not really asking if they are alright, they just say it to acknowledge their presence.

Playing Tourist

I wanted to see the channel. I'm sure the people could tell that I wasn't from the area. Probably because I very excitedly took a picture of this:

I mean come on. It has a carrot on it. 

I also took pictures of San Sebastian Square because I thought it looked important.

Turns out, yes it was important.

The agenda for tomorrow is to spend more free time at the channel (with people of course).

These were only a few things I saw.

26/01/2016

Flying 

First thing's first. I have an irrational fear of flying and nothing puts the definition of terrified into perspective than flying alone for the first time internationally. 

I wasn't always afraid of flying, but that was before a flight from St. Louis ,that included really bad turbulence that almost knocked over a male flight attendant, me screaming, and the sister laughing. Since then, I haven't mixed well with flying.

Listening to Louis C.K. didn't help either (warning, language). 

Though, who ever had the idea of putting a tracker on the in-flight screens is a genius.

Alas, I do not have a wing picture because I was too busy clinging to the arm of my chair while we were landing into London (don't judge me, it was a bumpy landing).