Vision Week...

...was not at all what I excepted. This week (which I might remind you I was looking forward to) threw challenges at me that I was not expecting. I am so ready to run away to Dublin for the weekend. First I have to struggle with my math homework, pack and write this blog (not necessarily in that order.)

Monday was pretty good, I went to my literature class then spent some time in the library before it was off to visit Cafe Chappelle an ongoing part of Vision Week, which was fundraising for Franciscan Homeless Charities. Then I went back to my room to prepare for something that I probably made a bigger deal of than it needed to be. I went grocery shopping by myself. I took the bus into Newcastle and went to two different shops, one just to get mugs that I had seen when we were doing the washing up (so british) last week and really wanted. I think one will be a gift but I may just keep the 2nd one for myself. Then I went to Morissons and successfully purchased groceries by myself. Not only that but I tried to be responsible in my spending and my purchases and I finally decided to man up and I bought a measuring cup. Long story short instructions here are in mL and so I was just estimating how much water went in everything but I decided that would not be the best plan of action when it came to pancake mix so I decided it was worth it. Monday closed with a Quiz Night at the chapel as part of Vision Week, where we had to abuse the fact that our team was all Internationals so we could have a handicap and ask for some help.

Tuesday was my drama day. This was the day where nothing seemed to go right. It started with the laundry, I got up at my usual time thinking I could do laundry and maybe even have time for a run before class. Nope, not happening. I did two loads and put them in at the same time and switched them at the same time, little did I know one of the dryers didn't work. So that killed an extra (almost) hour from the time that I thought I would be done. Needless to say, I didn't go running. I really need to and want to and I keep getting that 'I must go running' feeling but I am struggling to fit it into my schedule and homework always comes first. Then I went to class, fine no problem. After class I had a list of things to be accomplished: mail, library, cafe chapel, dinner. Well, the mail didn't have the package from my parents, the librarian was rude and talked down to me and made me want to cry (I told you it was drama day) so I went to the chapel quickly and made it to my room before I had a melt down over Skype. I finally came around to breathing and not crying and with a little virtual hand-holding from my mom even got some homework done. Tuesday night I went out to Curry Night at Snyd Arms (a pub super close to campus, pronounced Sneed (like the Dr. Suess character)) it was delicious and hilarious. For the record if you order something spicy on purpose I will laugh at you as you moan, groan, sweat and inhale water while eating said spicy dish. I'm just saying, its who I am.

Wednesday was mellow compared to the drama that was Tuesday. I went to class, visited at Cafe Chappelle for a bit. Met with my discussion group for my Thursday class. Then it came to planning London. I didn't have drama necessarily, but planning trips with large groups of people and having your credit card not work causes undue frustration. So next week rather than taking the coach with everyone else, I will be taking the train by myself. It'll be okay, I'm comfortable with the train and I will be meeting people as soon as I get there.

Thursday was a sandwich of class, time at the chapel, and more class. Then some free time which I filled with the math homework that has been eating me alive. Finally I went and hung out with some friends before deciding that I was not up for an international society party that started after 10 and could go as late as 2 am, still working on expanding my comfort zone to that sort of scene but I'm just not there yet.

Finally today, I had one class, helped out at the Lunch and talk at the chapel and have since been in my room doing the things at the start of this blog. Tonight I leave for Dublin and will be back in the wee hours of the morning on Monday with enough time to change clothes and get to class. So the Dublin blog will happen sometime before the end of next week. Until then, remember that just because something isn't what you expected doesn't mean it isn't worth it.

My Day in Manchester

Saturday was our day trip to Manchester and I have to tell you I LOVE THE TRAIN! I don't know why, its not cheaper than the coach, you still have to sit next to people in crowded seats, but I just like it so much better, I don't think I have good reasons, but I really like the train. I can't quite explain why I like it so much but I'm going to try and make more train trips happen, even if everyone else is taking the coach (well maybe not, we'll see, I am getting better at doing things by myself.)

After meeting the other half of our group (we were split between the coach and the train) we went to Primark, a large department store chain, and spent 2 hours there. I didn't realize we had been there for so long until someone mentioned it afterwards. There were 3 levels and so much to see and look at. At some point I want to check out the one that is closer to campus. One of my jeans is growing a hole and so I think when they get to the point they need to be in the rubbish bin (so british) I will actually throw them out and go buy a new pair from Primark (they are relatively inexpensive as well.)

After that we had lunch at the street fair, I wimped out and had a 100% beef burger with cheese (I couldn't understand what kind of cheese it was but it was tasty.) If we go to Manchester again, I am going to have the Ostrich Meatballs I think because I will be adventurous one step at a time.

After a quick bathroom break, we mapped out and set off on our adventure. Our first stop was Chinatown and seeing the Chinese Arch. Then we set off along Princess Street because with all girls and one boy the princesses ruled the day. Then we spontaneously stopped at an Art Museum which was really interesting and had a lot of different exhibits and time periods. My favorite was the special/seasonal/rotating exhibit that they had about the art of paper cutting, I can't really explain it but I watched the video special they had on the making of and it was really really interesting.

Then we headed to the People's History Museum and stopped to take pictures of beautiful buildings along the way. Then we rushed off to check out the National Football Museum before it closed. We also got some pictures of the beautiful Manchester Cathedral.

Then we wandered around (kind of lost, I'm not going to lie) the Northern Quarter of Manchester and found the weirdest little shop that I have ever seen called Oklahoma, yes thats right, like the state or the musical.

Finally we went to the mall, it was called the Manchester Arndale and had dinner there and got to meet up with Martin and his two German friends. Then it was back to the train station to head back to Stoke.

It was exhausting, there was a lot of walking, but all in all I feel like it was a good day and a great way to see Manchester with friends.

When you start your week with a firedrill

You are tired, the whole week, so exhausted. Not as bad as jet lag exhaustion but still pretty freakin' exhausted. Let me back up a minute and explain. Leading into this week I figured that it would be a good example of what I could expect from a typical Keele week. Homework, activities, class time, I thought this would be the week that I could use as a measuring stick to know what to expect from other weeks. The great flaw in this otherwise well thought out idea was the fire drill.

Keele has quite an interesting policy goal for fire drills. They would like to make sure that the fire drill will without a doubt wake you up from a deep sleep and so they choose a time when they know (hope) everyone will be sleeping. My dorm's lucky time........6:05 am on Tuesday morning!

Now on to my week as a whole. Monday went pretty well, classes, time in the library homework. Tuesday I don't have class until 2 in the afternoon and so I had made this grand plan of the things I was going to get accomplished Tuesday morning, but the fire drill and following exhaustion (I did go back to sleep, but not well) made a mess of all of that. I got the bare minimum accomplished Tuesday morning, didn't go running finally had lunch and went to class. Tuesday evening was the first of my all-American, British Culture 101 class. It was really interesting and I enjoyed the free pizza knowledge that I am not the only one experiencing culture differences and wondering. I closed out Tuesday with Sacred Space at the chapel where we had prayer stations and I had a good long cry sitting at a map of the world praying over Oregon.

Wednesday and Thursday blended together with classes and homework. Wednesday night I went out with the Christian Union to do Acts of Random Kindness which this week took the form of doing dishes in the kitchens we could access. Thursday night was Jesus Jam with songs and great discussion. They even snuck in one of my favorite worship songs "Lord I Lift Your Name on High"

Friday was math day. Math class, math homework and doing the math on how in the world I am going to have the Scarlet Letter finished by Monday. The last equation has yet to be solved.

A break in the math came in the form of a British-Canadian Thanksgiving Celebration. Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, green bean casserole (with onion rings on top), peas and carrots, broccoli, gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, and stuffing with sausage in it. Finally we had pumpkin pie, ice cream, and cranberry bars for dessert.

Tomorrow I am taking a day trip to Manchester with the restless Americans. Sunday marks the set-up (and in my mind unofficial start) of Vision Week. So next week will be spent almost entirely at the chapel but when I come out on the other side I will be in Dublin!

As a reward for surviving the entire blog I give you: The Great Cheese Misunderstanding

I LOVE string cheese. I will take it any time I can get it. In fact I love almost all kinds of cheese. I paid more than I would have in the states to make sure that I had a supply of cheddar cheese in my fridge. Today I went to buy lunch from the select and save on the way back to my room, I picked out a Cornish Pasty (Pronounced like pasta but with a y instead of an a not like kindergartens eat paste-y) and then I saw it. STRIP CHEESE, 'that must be string cheese' I thought to myself bursting with excitement at this treat that reminded me of home and deliciousness so I grabbed it up and purchased a 4 pack. So thrilled with the idea of string cheese I tore into the package the minute I left the store. Opened the individual cheese and took a bite. 'What in the bloody hell is that?' I thought in my best british accent. It tasted like gross, plastic, American cheese. The worst of the cheeses. Of all the things for them to take from America and pass off as there own why would they take the worst tasting cheese we produce and turn it into strip form. It was awful and I have 3 more in the fridge. What is a bug to do?

Keele time.....

.....is roughly 5 to 10 minutes late, to just about everything. This week I finished my first week where I actually had all of my classes. I am not kidding, even in the classes where the students and the professor were there on time we still managed to get started late. Same thing with the meetings I attended, I would be so worried about getting there on time and when I got there I clearly had nothing to worry about. The person running one of the meetings even told me that Keele time is about 10 minutes late.

I could definitely tell the difference between having multiple classes a day everyday and my Keele week where the only day I have two classes is Thursday. I am excited by my classes though. The titles of the classes are kind of long so it is easier for me to explain the gist of what they are about. Monday is a class on Gender and Sexuality in 19th century American Literature, Tuesday is a class on Mass Media in America (and every other week a no credit class on British Culture specifically for American Students here on exchange, but I haven't actually had that class yet), Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I have Partial Differential Equations for 1 hour, and additionally on Thursday I have a class on Social Movements in America. Keele students tried to explain to me that the reason they have less time in class is because there is more reading assigned outside of class, I'm holding my breathe to see if this is true because when a Keele student was on exchange at Willamette he posted a facebook status about the large amount of reading Willamette Professors had assigned him.

Outside of classes I have also tried to figure out what activities I will pursue while I am here and I think I am going to commit the majority of my time to being involved with the Christian Union. They are so welcoming and I feel so comfortable in the Chapel and with the people and at the events that they have held. The Pastor (her name is Ruth and I'm not sure if I should actually call her a Pastor or not, I'm still figuring that out so I think I'll switch to calling her Ruth) Ruth had a lunch at her house after last week's Sunday service and she has been especially nice to me. She likes to say that if you really want to there is something to do at the church every night of the week and I have been exploring the truth in that by checking out (and mentally trying to commit to some of these events.) Tuesday night is Sacred Space where they run a different kind of alternative prayer each week, it is later in the evening and seems like a great way to unwind and I am excited to experience new things. Wednesday night alternates between the Main Meeting of the Christian Union and the Christian Union's Acts of Random Kindness, and finally Thursday nights are Jesus Jam which is a fantastic mix of worship, bible study and discussion and I cannot wait to keep going.

Today some of the Christian Union took a trip out to the Manley Mere Assualt Course, which was basically like a big obstacle course, but you had the choice of whether or not you did each obstacle (check out their website here: http://www.manleymere.co.uk/id12.html) I loved this event because I feel like I bonded a lot with the girls I was walking around with and was able to support them and encourage them (and them for me) even though I didn't know them that well and wasn't really an established member of the group.

The next few weeks are gearing up to be a nice mix of busy and awesome. This week will be another week of school, but the next week the 15th through the 19th will be Vision Week where all the Chapel groups get together and have events everyday and things going on all the time and I am excited to volunteer and help out with that as much as I can plus that leads right into the trip to Dublin, Ireland that I have planned with my travel buddies. More blog posts as those things happen. Thanks for sticking with me!

Two days of tours...

is actually really exhausting, especially when you don't really get a whole lot of sleep from Friday night to Saturday night. To close out Freshers Week the Student Ambassadors had planned trips to Trentham Gardens on Friday and Alton Towers on Saturday. I thought it would be fun to see the local attractions. It was fun but it was also exhausting and like everything else since I've been here an adventure.

First let's start with the Monkey Gardens. It was really great and really interesting. They had monkeys running around everywhere and we were able to walk a path through the gardens and see them, take pictures, as the guides questions if we had anyone. As I was walking along I felt something hit my face and I was under a tree so I thought it had just been an acorn or something, but then I reached up to touch my face and oh no I had been pooped on.....yeah......I don't want to talk about, but I had to share it because I feel like those of you that read this blog at least deserve a laugh.

Next we went to the actual Trentham Gardens which were breathtakingly beautiful. I loved them. In addition to the main large Italian Garden off on one side they had show gardens. I don't know if it was the sun finally being out (first time I have worn my sunglasses since I have been here) or the peacefulness of the gardens, but I was feeling very philosophical that day. See the show gardens all had different themes and different names and had been designed by different people and I thought to myself how each person has to find the right garden for them and what fits who they are or what they need. I found myself drawn to the time garden, it was pretty and the sun shined right on it and there were little benches, and so I sat and spent some time in the time garden and it was really nice. Shortly after that we found a park with a rope swing. You never see those in America. It was awesome. I had to go play on it. Finally, it was off to check out the shops in the shopping center and eventually take a break for tea.

This morning I got up bright and early to catch the coach to Alton Towers a local theme park. It was really fun but boy am I exhausted. We tried to hit all of the major rides and I think we only missed one. We started off on Oblivion which dropped straight down for far too long, then Thirteen and Rita in the haunted forest. Next we went on the scariest thing I have ever done worse than any haunted house I have ever been on. It was called Nemesis Sub-Terra, then we went on the much less scary Nemesis roller coaster after a break for food. Then it was back to the bus for us. Now that I'm back its nap time for me because I am exhausted.

Things I didn't know a week and a half ago

Over the time that I have been here I have slowly developed (and I mean slower than a snail slow) a running list of common british phrases that are substitutions for american phrases or else common british sayings that I had no clue about previously.

On my first day at Keele I told one of the Student Ambassadors about my flight times and lengths and time change and general lack of sleep and he responded with "Wow, you must be knackered." I responded with complete confusion because I swear on my life it sounded like he said naked, but he didn't. It is just there way of saying exhausted, spent, delirious or what have you.

There are a few words that are specific to my educational experience here. In America we just refer to everything as class but they have lecture or in some cases if it is a smaller discussion then it is referred to as seminar. Mainly though I hear "I have to go to lecture" Then there is the fact that today in my Math lecture the professor said "I am going to do a revision on the Chain Rule" and I was like "whu, huh" and then I figured it out. Revision is british professor for review....duh!

Next is my struggle with on campus problems. They refer to any sports that are done on campus as clubs. What I think of as clubs they refer to as societies, which I think is so British. Then there are the doors, almost all of the doors on campus are automatic only they aren't American automatic, you have to push the handicapped button, it is so weird to me because I feel like at home pushing the button when you can just as easily open the door yourself is lazy but here it is required. Then there are keyboards, they have different shortcuts above the numbers than ours. Plus the paper is A4 which means its longer than the paper I am used to. When you order food instead of saying "to-go" it is called take away. Hopefully someday I'll have the British thing down.

Also, it seems like running late is pretty common place. It would drive my dad crazy. Cheers.

A Wales of a Tale

Well, I am sad to admit that I made my first big fat American blunder, it took me far too long after being in Wales to realize that it was spelled Wales and not Whales. I've only ever had to spell the animal name so I didn't think much of it. Once I thought to myself 'that looks a little wrong, no, its probably just my imagination' well it wasn't. Just a nice heap of American stupidity on my end.

I loved Cardiff, it was beautiful, I feel like that isn't even the word for it, I just got so caught up in the city it was captivating. I don't think I will have a chance to go back during the time that I am at Keele (I'm trying to save money to go to Paris and Ireland) but, it is officially on my "when I'm rich and/or old I must go back here." I cannot express how grateful I am that I was able to do Cardiff (student style) this time around and develop friendships through the experience. Seriously, there is nothing like getting slightly (walked past the same set of buildings 5 times) lost after dark in a foreign city to bring 5 girls closer together.

It was recommended that I start at the beginning so prepare yourself for a long winded blog post. I was the last to join up with this group, but essentially the plan was to take advantage of the fact that most classes don't happen on Freshers Week and go away for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The problem is the bulk of the master planning for this get away happened Sunday night. So we sat around with our computers and figured out that Meredith and I would come back Tuesday pretty late (so we could have most of the day in Cardiff) so that I could still attend class on Wednesday and Meredith could read Shakespeare for her class.

So the next morning when the alarm went off far too early we were up and off on a bus. Then another bus and then another bus. The third bus was my favorite not for anything the bus specifically had (all the buses were cold) but for the fact that Alyssa would yell out every time she saw an animal out the window. It made me ponder to myself about what people from other countries take pictures of when they travel on I-5 for the first time, cows perhaps?

Once we got into Cardiff we dropped our stuff off at the lockers in the Tourist information center. The Meredith and I ran off to the Doctor Who Experience (because it is filmed in Cardiff) which was really fun and then also had a museum with all sorts of Doctor Who goodness. It made me excited to watch more of the episodes with Mykel when I get home. That evening we went to Prince of Wales for dinner and I had seriously the best chips (fries) ever. I'm hoping that pub fries in this area will be just as good. Then we wandered around, went shopping, and headed to our hostel which took us quite a while to find and when we finally did it was worth it because for the price it was really nice. It even had the English version of continental breakfast which is basically toast (and butter and jam.)

The next day we went to Cardiff Castle, which was probably the most wonderful part of the trip for me. Not only was it full of history but it had so many great views and lovely decorations. I just couldn't believe it. I think the thing that really made the whole experience for me was surviving the scariest stairs I have ever climbed to see one of the greatest views I have ever seen. We shopped at a store named something along the lines of "All Things Wales" then it was lunch (some yummy mini pizzas), shopping, and a photo shoot in the park. Finally Meredith and I were back on the bus and the bus and the taxi and back to Keele around midnight.

Coming soon on facebook far too many pictures from these wonderful two days.