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!

From the flip side!

I hear someone (several someones?) wanted a blog update.  I'll try to make it organized, so that at least someone can try to follow my thoughts!

The travel: Well, it was fine.  The TV on the big plane was broken, so they gave me a free beer.  That was not good.  Not good at all.  But then again, I should have known it wouldn't be.  Also, it knocked me out.  But the flights were mostly smooth, and I slept for a couple hours on the plane, even though it wasn't real sleep.  Awoke to one of the most amazing red sunrises I've ever seen, and tried to take a picture (and failed.)  We landed and got the train ok and got to Sheffield and my dorm okay, and I was ever so glad to be done with /that/.  We then walked around forever, until my back hurt and my feet hurt and besides that I was jet lagged.  This made me sick to my stomach and incapable of logical thought or controlling my emotions.  We can all see where that's heading, so I'll leave it at this:  I got mildly hysterical twice yesterday, but both times my parents talked me down out of it.  This is a drastic improvement over Philmont, for anyone who knows that story, in that I could not be talked down at Philmont.

Today:  We slept til 1.  This was 12 hours for me, and would never have happened so I must have been really really tired.  I still feel like I was hit by a bus!  But we spent a lot of time outside today so hopefully my circadian rhythm clock will be a bit better now.  Today, we went to a different shopping place that is much closer, and went in the Tesco again, and found a place like a convenience store that had kinder eggs.  Kinder eggs!  I can find them almost anywhere.  Those of you who know of my kinder egg love will know why this is happy.  Aaaaand we also took a bus (which Adam nearly broke) and got snarked at by the bus driver (seems like all bus drivers are cranky, no matter the country) and got off and went back to city centre, and then found a pub and Adam watched the football game, and I texted on my phone with Skype and drank cider and then ate fish and chips.  Aaaaand then we walked all the way home (note: >F) and I came to the edge, which is the computer place, and got online!

This is the best part of the day:  When I got online, Dusty and I arranged that her sister would bring her laptop to her bridal shower, and they'd turn on Skype and set it where I could see some stuff, and now I get to be at Ashley's bridal shower which is thousands of miles away.  It's awesome.  But the sound keeps going in and out, or it just gets really quiet.  I can't tell.  But I'm ridiculously happy I get to be there anyway.

Also, for future going abroad generations: While your ATM card will work in ATMs, it probably won't work in a lot of stores.  In England, they have a different system than we do in the US, whereby there is a chip implanted in the card and they have to stick the card in a reader- not swipe like we do.  So you should always carry some cash.  The rumor according to my dad, who travels here a lot and has never had this problem, is that you need to tell them you have to have a voucher printed to sign, and to please run it as credit instead of debit.  He said this works most places, and since he's been to most of the common places, he's probably right.  I just haven't tested it yet.  I'm wondering if maybe it's more common that it works in and around large cities.  Then again, this city is bigger, population wise, than Albuquerque.  So... I don't know.  If I have to I'll transfer my money, or some of it, to a bank here in England.  It'll work out.

Also, some general info on the blog for folks who've asked:  I'm still testing it, but I believe any of you who are getting this by email can respond and no one else will see the response.  If that isn't the case, I'll just set it to not show any comments, and then that'll be fine.

I've also set it so that anyone can comment on my journal.  You'll still have to type the code word thingy, but just type what you see on the screen.  It's not a password, it's just to keep spam robots from spamming on my entry.  I'm not sure how it says who is posting the comment, but I'm guessing you supply a name of some kind when you enter the comment.

I think that's all the pertinent info!

They're totally right, though, the omnipotent they (in this case, Christine) when they say that for awhile you keep having moments when you go, "Why am I here?  What have I done?  I'm going home on the next flight, because I can't possibly survive this nonsense."  This is made worse by jet lag, as I've spoken about.  I'm sure I'll have my share of these moments in the near future, but for today I've had fewer of these moments than yesterday, and the ones I've had haven't lasted long enough to develop into a full blown panic.

Anywho, I better go!  Gotta get back to the party!  If you have Skype, send me a message!  My username is caitydid685.  I'd love to hear from you!

Pre-departure update

So, it's official, Adam is indeed flying out with me tomorrow.  He got his visa yesterday, and is now one of those kids Lauren tells stories about to all the kids just heading out.  We had some drama today with not knowing exactly what we need to have besides our visas to enter the UK, but that's all been squared away.

And I'm enjoying some "peace and quiet" with the puppies outside... peace and quiet all being relative, as the two of them are rarely peaceful or quiet this time of night.  Plus they slept all day.  Yay border collies!  Also, just so I have this down for prosperity, I'd like to share that I am 100% totally freaked out and 100% totally wondering if this was the right thing to do at all.  Of course it is, and I know I won't regret it once I get there, but right now, well, I'm not so excited.  Just pre-trip jitters, I'm sure.  Tomorrow at the airport is gonna be somethin' else, as I'm the second worst at goodbyes in like... the entire world.  And my mom is first.  :P  I love you mommy!  But we'll get through it, since we have to, and my next update will be when I get the change in England!  That's actually a pretty exciting thought.

By the way, if anyone wants some excellent New Mexican food, Los Cuates is amazing, as is El Patio down by UNM.  I've been to both within the past week and they were excellent!

Alright, time for me to go.  Talk to y'all on the flipside! (*gulp*)  Haha, just kidding.  I'm fine, I'm just a little dramatic (and we all know who I got THAT from.  Hi mom!  I love you!  Again!  :P)  Adios for now!

A Quick Update!

A quick update, just because.

1.  Adam's visa got picked up by UPS today and is being sent back to him by next day air.  We should have it Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest.  This hopefully means I don't have to fly all alone.

2.  Turns out I don't have a job.  Someone went back on their decision or something, I'm not sure what happened.  Not cool, but it's one less thing to deal with so I'm not totally shattered.  If I can, I'll get a job in England, but it's not going to be something I obsess over.  I have enough money, I think, to manage, even with the exchange rate.

Only 6 days!  (Commence uber panic now!)

Let the Madness Begin!

The Road goes ever on and on
    Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
    And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
    Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
    And whither then? I cannot say.

-JRR Tolkien

Hola, all y'all out in blogger (and facebook, if that application is working right) land!  So, as all of you know, I'm leaving for England very soon (on the 10th!) and yes, I finally got my blog set up.  It was titled with the help of Ashley.  It's part of the lyrics to a song Tolkien wrote, which is ironic if any of you happen to know that I'm not terribly fond of LotR (but sssssh, don't tell the Hobbit Society!).  Well fine, The Hobbit was okay... but I digress.  Aaaaanyway.  I'll hopefully be updating this blog semi regularly, and it should hopefully be posting any updates once a day to Facebook, for those of you reading this from Facebook.

So, a summary so far, from the beginning:  I found out about studying abroad from some presentation they've done every year in my German classes, and I initially said, No way in heck am I going overseas.  I don't remember why I suddenly changed my mind, but judging that to be a good thing for once, I went and talked to one of the SA advisors, and applied and everything before I really fully understood what exactly I was doing.  Of course, by the time I got accepted it was fine.  After doing all that paperwork, just for the application to /our/ program, I sure better have known what I was getting in to!  The day before our applications to our program were due, my brother decided to follow my lead and somehow managed to get the paperwork it'd taken me weeks to pull together in a matter of hours, and also got accepted to go to Hull.  His application to Hull was accepted, and he's going to be going there.  It's about 40 minutes (or miles, or kilometers, I forget) from Sheffield.

So I got accepted into our program, and then got to apply to Sheffield.  That was... I don't remember how that was.  Not too too bad, because I'd already gotten transcripts and letters of recommendation to turn in with the SA application.  And I got accepted to Sheffield too (obviously, or I wouldn't be writing this!).  All of this crazed nonsense with filling things out to apply to both programs was compounded at the time by a trip to Argentina, which was my first experience going outside North America (which, by the way, is just part of America to the Argentineans, as is the entirety of South and Central America.  They are all one continent.) and I loved it.  It convinced me a little further that perhaps traveling to England for a school year was a really good idea.  I kind of enjoyed the traveling, to be honest.  And the 11 hour plane ride wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be.

After I got in to Sheffield and got my housing and all, I got some time to wait for my visa letter to apply for my student visa.  Oh joy, oh rapture.  Let me tell you something about applying for student visas.  First, I filled out an application (the correct one) but sent documentation for another.  Luckily, the documentation for the first was included in the documentation for the second, but the confusion added some days to me getting my visa.  Second of all, if you apply for a visa, you will never be able to speak to a single living person who knows anything.  I am not kidding.  There is a number where you can ask questions, but you pay for it, and they don't really know anything you can't find online, and they can't really tell you anything specific.  All in all, probably the worst thing I've had to do so far is applying for that visa.  It was stressful, confusing, and annoying, and every bit as bad as everyone says it is.  But I survived, and so did my application, and I got my visa.

And that kind of brings us to today!  I actually started a packing list, yay hooray, and I get to keep my job, after a fashion (oh man, are the people at work who figured that out a patient lot) by doing something different than I'd be doing here.  It's exciting, because I'll still have a consistent source of income.  Adam hasn't gotten his visa yet and probably won't before we were supposed to leave, so I'll probably go to England all by myself and he'll come later.  (But cross your fingers and hope for us that his visa gets here in time, because I hate traveling alone).  I'm not sure exactly what classes I'll have in England- 4 or 5 I know for sure, but the other 1 or 2 I don't.

I also probably won't update again til I get there, unless something earthshattering happens, like Adam getting his visa, or if I decide to post the night before I leave, or sometime while I'm traveling.