Oh joy! Freshers flu!

Yes, I have it.  The Freshers Flu (or Dusty's Plague.  I think it's actually Dusty's Plague.)  Nothing to be alarmed about, just a general feeling of Oh-my-lord-with-the-coughing and a runny nose.  I have asthma medication and should be getting better slowly but surely.  I also have cough medicine, lozenges, and pain killers.  And water.  I have been SO hydrated recently.

I thought I'd take a moment to be blatantly honest about homesickness, as everything I read said to write down your feelings (and unfortunately for you, my loyal readers, this is my only travel journal!).  Basically, it sucks.  It's like... I'm trapped somewhere I don't want to be with no one near me and no way of getting around save walking.  When you feel like garbage, this is NOT a good place to be.  In fact it made me quite teary and sobbing earlier.  I'm better now, don't worry.  It was only momentary insanity.  I haven't yet found many good ways of dealing with it, but I've found a few, which I'll record for posterity (or... whatever.  I don't know!)

1.  Stay busy.  And stay busy with friends.  Then you won't ever be alone, and you won't have time to think about being miserable.  They're also going through the same things, whether they show it or not, and they're likely to be very nice to you because you're all so desperate for someone to know you.  It seems like such a small thing, being somewhere where everyone knows you- your silly quirks, how you like your hamburgers, your favorite music- but in actuality I've found this to be a major complaint of mine.  None of these people really know me.  I'm so desperate for them too, and they seem to be desperate for the same, that there's been a lot of sharing going on.  And this is why I'm glad I did the international week (plus I'm not lost anymore).  I know few of you will believe it, but when I said, "I'm actually a shy wallflower at home," not a single person believed me.  Yes, they laughed.  The Spaniards and French and Italians all LAUGHED.  And trust me, they know outgoing.

2.  Get out and about.  The other thing I miss is just knowing where everything is.  The quickest way to remedy this is to go walking (here.  Elsewhere, you could probably drive).  Then you see things, and you even meet people.  See above for why meeting people is a good thing.

3.  Take familiar things.  For me, this is the zoo picture of Sarah, Tidah, Alex, Nyssa, Dusty, and me.  Also my two favorite stuffed animals, both my pillows, and the tackboard that used to hang on my door (of all things.) and some other bits and bobs.

4.  Try to find something to appreciate about where you are.  I really like the magpies, pigeons, and unidentifiable birds around here, and all the plants.  I have so many names to learn.  Also, I appreciate (but do not like- the two need not be the same) the physical fitness I will have when I leave this place.

And actually, that last sentence is a good segway into something else- I wanted to jot something (or several somethings, depending on what I remember) about Life In Sheffield.  Namely, that it was built on 7 hills.  Like Rome.  The fact that it is like Rome seems to make the locals happy.  That's great and all, but 7 hills?  Clearly the people planning this city did not have to /walk/ anywhere.  They must have had horses.  I'm just sayin'.  I need to actually keep notes on things when I come across these observations that I wish someone had told me (like my bank card not working at most stores!  That's an absolute joy.)

Sorry, so that was just the introduction.  I guess I should probably write down something about my week, lest y'all think I was sitting here twiddling my thumbs (HAHAHA, oh what funny folks you are!  Twiddling my thumbs!)  I'll try to make it as concise as possible.  I was going to add pictures, like Megan and Lindsay, but they're on my camera and my patience = 0 right now.  SO.

Monday: Orientation.  Yay!  I met people.  Most specifically, I went in to lunch, arbitrarily chose a group to sit with, and discovered that I was sitting with Spaniards.  It's like I have a radar or something (I seriously love the Spanish.  They are a hoot.)

Tuesday:  Don't remember a thing.  No, I wasn't drunk or hung over, I just don't remember.  Probably listened to a lot of lectures.  And hung out with the Spanish (Or maybe Germans).  Oh, that was dance night.  We learned the Cha Cha and waltz.

Wednesday:  Chatsworth!  Okay, so, for those of you who don't know, Chatsworth was used in Pride and Prejudice as Pemberley, which is Darcy's house.  It's gorgeous, and also I got to be a total dork for part of it and do the touristy take pictures thing.  Took pictures of the busts of Darcy and Georgiana from the movie (yes, I did, and yes, the English stared.  I smiled politely.)  Played in the gardens and got- you guessed it- even more sick!

Thursday:  A lot of stuff I don't recall, and hanging out with the Spanish group (which is not just Spanish, only mostly so).  I think that was the day we had the first dance.  Also learned about other cultures.  Basically, I never knew that really strictly practicing Muslims aren't allowed to touch women outside their family.  The one in orientation really didn't even want them within a foot of him.  That was fine, because he is perfectly polite and well mannered in every other way.  Imagine, therefore, my confusion when at the dance that night, he tried to convince me to dance by getting all up in my space (somehow without touching me.  I don't even know how he managed it, he was practically standing ON MY FEET).  So apparently, when it's his choice, he can get as close as he wants without touching- but women can't approach him that close.  I'm not gonna pass judgment on it.  Rather, I'll say it's a cultural difference and it would be wrong of me to impose my culture's morals on his.  Also, the whole guy-I-don't-know-up-in-my-grill experience was almost panic inducing.  I moved to get him out of my face and pretended to dance until he went away, and by then I was having fun.  So I guess he wins.  But really, the party was a blast, sans that one awkward experience.  It may have been sometime this day that the words "Where's Paolo?!" were picked up by the group as a joke because Paolo kept disappearing.

Friday: Took a nap curled up sideways (dunno how I did it!) in a little chair, and went to a couple lectures.  We had the international dinner, which was great fun.  I can home and didn't sleep at all, because I kept coughing.  I went earlier in the day to the Student Health Service and got a new inhaler and a maintenance inhaler because I was having some serious issues. 

Today:  Went out with Angie and her friend Mark (who is a great, wonderful, nice guy who drove us around.  Yay cars.  And let me watch the end of NCIS on his TV before we left to take Angie to the train station.)  I got my bedding and HUGE towel, and also stuff to wash clothes and some food.  Muesli exists in the grocery stores here.  We went to Mark's house for dinner and met his mom, who gave me her card and said to call her if I needed anything.  She was very nice and reminded me a lot of my mom, which triggered some nasty homesickness (plus I'm sick and crazy anyway).  But I'm over that for the moment!  It was a great day, even if I was very tired!  And we had lasagna for dinner.

I think that about covers it.  I promise a post with pictures soon!  I just need to get some organization into my life (and my room) before I take care of that.  Talk to you all soon!