Although Sunday was included in the last blog, I just wanted to mention that I started my week with a Thanksgiving meal at my friends Matt and Sam's house.
Monday morning I had literature class, which was its usual entertaining self. Then I spent the afternoon finishing my math homework before it was due at 5. Then I had a pretty open evening, which is my way of saying I don't have anything written in my calendar and I can't remember what I did. So I'm going to go with I probably just worked on my reading for my Social Movements class once I finished my math homework.
Tuesday I spent my pre-class time preparing for my presentation with Matt for our Social Movements class. I have never been quite so proud of my ability to number, label and color code a 13 page reading, it came in quite handy in our preparations. After that I had my Mass Media in America class, where we discussed local tv news in America. Then I got in some quality library time before it was off to British Culture Class. This weeks theme was sports, which was actually really useful and I feel like I learned a lot when I wasn't getting 'shushed' for trying to contribute to the discussion or glared at because I was discussing what was going on in class with my friends. During the class however I realized that I was feeling dizzy and light headed, after some thought my hypothesis was that this was due to not enough protein consumption, I have been paying attention to it for most of the semester (partly because my mom was reminding about it all the time for the first month) but I started to take it for granted because I had been doing so well and apparently not paying attention meant less protein which leads to me feeling like I may pass out, no good. This feeling returned over the next couple of days but now that I'm paying more attention I seem to have squashed it. Finally, I had Sacred Space, which this week was 'Bring and Share night' where everyone brings a poem or a prayer or a thought or anything really and we pray together, which I really enjoyed.
Wednesday after math class, the Christian Union was doing Text-a-Toastie, where for 2 hours you can text your Name, Location, sandwich fillings (ham, cheese, tomato or chocolate spread) and a question about God and someone will bring you your sandwich and answer your questions. I absolutely love this idea and I hadn't heard of anything like it before but it seemed to be a great success. They said they had almost 60 people text in. Then it was off to meet with Matt and finalize the details of our presentation (which continued to be finalized over facebook up until Thursday morning) and to try and get some math homework done as well.
Thursday was a pretty big day, first we had our presentation which went relatively well with one notable exception: Matt and I were the only ones who could talk about the reading. The professor opened it up for discussion after our presentation and no one said anything, it was a little bit weird. Then I had Math class, after which I picked up my Literature paper (I got the equivalent of a B, which I am happy with) and made an attempt at a nap which didn't work and then headed down to the KPA for thanksgiving. SO MUCH FOOD. When that many people come and each person brings a dish, it was a lot of food. I was stuffed. After Thanksgiving I went to Jesus Jam which was amazing as always and I even got to run the slides during worship. Finally, I closed out the evening by skyping with my family at their thanksgiving, which honestly made me pretty homesick, I am so used to the big family tradition and celebration that seeing everyone else there but not being there myself made me feel a little lonely.
That lonely feeling carried into Friday morning because I had a dream about going home and expected to wake up in my own bed and when I woke up not in my own bed and had to figure out where I was I got real sad real fast. That was especially rough. After math class, I went to the math building (my math class in the physics building for a reason I cannot explain) and not only worked on my homework and asked the professor questions but got it turned in early (its not due until monday) I celebrated by writing 5 letters while sitting in a cafe before heading back to my room. Then I spent several hours watching big bang theory and relaxing in celebration of finishing my homework early. Essentially I had a boring Friday night in my room.
Saturday was football day. First I went to Alyssa's dorm for our version of tailgating, beer and hot dogs in her kitchen. Then after two buses with a short trip to a coffee shop in between we were at the Stadium. Britannia Stadium home of the Stoke City Potters. We were sitting in the 3rd row from the pitch which according to our expert Wesley (he plays football for Keele and actually watches football) is the closest you can get to the pitch compared to other European stadiums. The downside is we got ALL THE RAIN. It was so cold. I have never been so grateful to have a pair of gloves in my life. The rain after it dripped on my hair started to run down my face so you know that was interesting and COLD. I opted for chips (fries) and hot chocolate at the half because I needed something warm. It had to happen. STOKE CITY WON!!!! After a hot shower and the great battle to change out of my warm yoga pants and fuzzy socks (I left them on) I walked over to Alyssa's dorm where Hannah, Alyssa and I had pizza, ukulele time and a pathetic attempt at homework.
Sunday morning I woke up with a stuffed up nose which I think is a curse from my mom who said I sounded sick over skype a few days ago. I heard Bishop Geoff preach this morning and then had lunch at Lindsay bar with Jo and Nellum. Finally Jo and I went to the library and actually got work done. Okay let me rephrase, Jo got work done while I tried to read The Europeans by Henry James. I was doing that thing where my eyes would close and I would shoot awake. So I got some reading done but not enough. Then I headed back to my room for (seriously) hours and hours more. Finally finished the reading at far too late, with the help of encouragement from Suzie via video chat, Mariah via Skype, Mykel via Skype and Alyssa via facebook. Yep it did take all of that to finish the 100 plus pages I had left to read today. I did find a quote I enjoyed though:
"I came for many of those reasons that are no reasons--don't you know?-- and yet that are really the best: to come away, to change, to break with everything. When once one comes away one must arrive somewhere, and I asked myself why I shouldn't arrive here." - Eugenia from The Europeans by Henry James
She is explaining why she traveled from Germany to America and it really stuck out to me because it is a good explaination for part of why I wanted to study abroad. To get out of my comfort zone to break from everything, to try something new. The sad thing was she was the only main character who didn't end with love and happiness. We'll see how the discussion goes in class tomorrow.
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