School oh School....
It has felt almost like I am completing a looped circle, coming back to college after going through a graduation ceremony just months ago. I remember at graduation, I almost felt like a pretender. Because I wasn't actually graduating like everyone around me. But now I feel like it was what it needed to be... a closing to a chapter in my life.. because it is very different here. At Chico, I could walk the campus and run into a million people I knew. I could hardly make it to class on time because I would run into sorority sisters, fraternity friends, classmates, co-workers, and professors. Here, I don't feel any of that yet. I remind myself often that I had an AMAZING 4 years and that this year is about growing as a person and seeing the world, not about feeling needed on my campus. But it has been a big adjustment going from knowing everybody to knowing nobody. Yeah I have my handful of friends that I have made here and I enjoy them very much, but the feelings are just different. Lately I have been a little homesick, mostly because of that reason. The honeymoon stage on campus has worn off, everyone is getting in school mode and into their comfortable routine. As I adjust and continue to meet new people I am sure I will fall more easily into a routine as well, but nothing will be like my experience at Chico. And to be honest, I don't want it to be. Being away from it for a while has made me even more thankful for my time at that school. Now I am on to new adventure at a different campus that I will learn to love just like I learned to love my home campus. And now what you have all been waiting for! My classes! I am taking four courses this term:
2 Comments
Other than landing in London almost a month ago, I haven't really been in London. So I was very excited to take my first real trip last Sunday. A few things I learned:
CLICK THE READ MORE BUTTON!
Wivenhoe. Just a short walk away from campus, acts as a sleepy and quiet coastal town. It was a nice Saturday afternoon and my flat mates and I had just finished having our morning tea and didn't know what to do for the rest of the day. I had heard people talk about how nice of a walk it was to this cozy town and decided to offer the idea. Everyone was onboard and we headed off to Wivenhoe! Mind you, none of had done this walk or really knew where we were going. The only thing we had been told was to walk through the fields next to the road because it was faster. As we were walking along the street I saw a pathway entrance with a sign that said "NO CARS - NO TRESPASSING" however there was an opening to the side of it. Naturally, we didn't listen to the sign and walked down the path. Turns out this was the short cut we were told to take, and we found it completely by chance. The walk was pleasant, it made feel like I was in a novel walking along the water bank. There hasn't been much rain lately so the water was really low and many of the boats were suck in the mud instead of floating on the water. I took some photos of this and of the beautiful walk that you can see below. Once we got to the town we walked around the streets and enjoyed the cute buildings that made up the town. The town itself is very small and it didn't take us long to see the whole thing, but the buildings and houses were so cute. They were made of up pastel blues and purples and yellows, it made for some pretty photos that you can see below. We also stumbled upon a very old stone church in the middle of the town. It seems to be more of a park now, but still, so beautiful. CLICK THE READ MORE TO CONTINUE
Last Wednesday, my flatmates and I decided it was time for us to explore our new town more thoroughly. After finding out how close the Colchester Castle was to my school, I couldn't wait to get out on the town. There were a few things I knew I wanted to do while I was in town: 1. Tea Time - I hadn't had tea yet and I had been in England for four days. (It may be stereotypical of me but I was expecting to have tea time everyday). 2. See the Colchester Castle - When you think of England the first thing that pops into your head is tea (stereotyping again, oops), red buses, old telephone booths, ancient cobble stone pathways, and of course, castles. Therefore, I absolutely couldn't leave town until I saw it. 3. Find the Three Wise Monkey's Pup and have a beer - I had been told by some fellow beer lovers that this place has some great craft brews and for a decent price, as well as delicious lunches. I knew it would be a hard sell to my friends, as one of them is allergic to wheat and the others are vodka cranberry girls, but I figured I'd give it my best shot. The first thing we did was figure out the correct bus to take and return on. It looked cold and windy out so I layered up on the warm clothes, even going as far as putting leggings under my pants (big mistake). With our bus tickets in hand we headed to town. Looking out window of the bus, I tried to pick things out that were the most different than the US. To start, there were no trucks anywhere. Coming from a family that owns trucks and being a truck owner myself, I found it to be so interesting that there were none on the road. After thinking about it, I assumed with the narrow roadways and many buses that travel the streets 24/7 that it wouldn't make sense to own trucks here. The next difference was if you were parked on the street, you parked half on the sidewalk (pathway, in British terminology). Again, probably because of the buses (the bus drivers here are ruthless). I also noticed how small the houses were and the amount of land the houses had. All of the buildings were pretty much built connected, and if they weren't connected, there were just inches separating the houses. Front lawns and backyards are pretty much nonexistent here in Colchester. Once we arrived into town, the first place we saw was an old cemetery. The only people in our group that were interested in walking around there was Liv and I. These grave stones were over hundreds of years old. On some of the stones you could make out the years, and I found one that was buried in the 1800s. Once we were done squinting at gravestones, we headed up the hill to Colchester Castle... CLICK THE READ MORE BUTTON :)
Before coming to this school, I figured I would probably meet people from other parts of the world, however I was under the impression that the majority of the people I would meet would be British. Man, was I wrong. I attended a International Student Welcome Talk on Tuesday to meet some people and hopefully understand this foreign grading system. (Apparently you need a 40 to pass a class. But 40 out of what? 40%?! In my mind, that is below an F!!). So clearly I needed some clarification. While I still don't understand most of their grading system, I did find out that the University of Essex is 15th in the WORLD for international students. Think about how many Universities there are in the world... that is pretty insane. I also found out that this school is 50% international and 50% British. That just blew my mind. This school was a melting pot of cultures and then I realized I was living in my own little melting pot! I live in a flat with 4 Spaniards, 3 Canadians, 2 Japanese, 1 French, 1 German, 1 British, 1 Chez, 1 Romanian, and myself the American. That is NINE different cultures, view points, ways of life, all living together on one floor for a year. My favorite part about being surrounded by so many cultures has been realizing how similar we all are. Most of these people look like any other person I would see in the states, yet we have been raised so differently. The Spanish girls love to teach me phrases in Spanish, mostly because they like to laugh at how I can't pronounce anything correctly, and because I cannot for the life of me role my R's. What I have been realizing though is that even though all of us speak English, we all speak a different version of it, and our mannerisms when we speak are very different. You wouldn't think there would be a language barrier with English people but there definitely is. Below is a list of the words they use differently than I do: Que = line. As in "Que up" Wankered/Pissed = To be foolishly drunk Crisp = Chips Chips = Fries Ranch = Cream sauce Bomb = any type of mixed shot Cloak room = Coat check Toilet/Lou = Bathroom/Restroom Peng = good/great/hot "Thats so peng!" Bullocks = balls Are you okay? = How are you today *There are others but thats all I could think of off the top of my head* Overall being with this incredible group has made miss familiarity, but has also made me appreciate our differences and adapt to my surroundings. Now I really just need to get adapt to the cold weather! *Below photo is all of the nationalities that came to study abroad at Essex this year* Arriving in England went smoothly, and happened a lot faster than I could have imagined. The flight didn't feel long at all, especially because I slept for a few hours and enjoyed the complimentary food and wine (yes, free wine (WIN)). As we started our desent down to London, I could hardly keep my nose off the window glass. Lower and lower we went, and the clouds finally parted and there it was. ENGLAND, my new home. I felt this overwhelming sensation of happiness as we touched down in London, which I took as a reassurance that this is what I am supposed to be doing. Customs took 5 minutes at most, perks of landing at 6am and because I am a student I was ushered to my own line where I was able to walk right up to the officer. Once that was over I collected my luggage and wandered around blindly until I find someone or something that said University of Essex. A few wrong turns eventually led to a right one and then BOOM, bright green shirts everywhere with big smiles and welcome signs. I had found my people. While we were waiting for our bus to arrive I met a very nice girl from Zimbabwe, which I thought was just so ironic because my Mom's good friend, Erica, is from there and she has been loading me up with advice for my travels the last two weeks. (I took this as another good sign). Fast forwarding waiting in the rain for 45 minutes and 2 hour bus ride (which I slept the whole time on) I eventually made it to my actual new home, The University of Essex, Colchester. First Day on Campus My first impression was how nice everyone was. I had multiple people offer to help me with my suitcases (yes, plural, I brought 2. Packing light isn't a quality I seem to have). Once I checked in and received my building and room key I headed over to my building, which from the outside didn't look too bad, but on the inside... It pretty much looks like an insane asylum. But hey, I didn't come here to live in luxury anyways. I also noticed there are only 4 toilets and 2 showers for 16 people, so it should be interesting. I met my RA first, her name is Paula and she's from Romania. Sweetest person, and quite funny. She had coffee waiting for her tenants, which I thought was so nice, considering most of us had just traveled long distances. I chatted with her for a bit and eventually took off to conquer unpacking all my stuff. This actually didn't take long and before I knew it, I had another part of my new home, a room with my belongings. Another feeling of relief and accomplishment. Considering the fact that nobody else had arrived yet, I decided to make my way to the local super store to get a SIM card for my phone and some groceries. And what an adventure that was...* Below are pictures of my flat* The Tesco FiascoTesco! The glorious everything you can think of Tesco. It's pretty much Target of England, but with a little more. Conveniently located 1.4miles from the University, it is every students go to spot. On this particular day (Arrival day) it was absolute hell. You could hardly walk around the store, it was so packed. A few things I noticed: The only brand I recognized was Philadelphia Cream Cheese, so I grabbed that. They don't have sliced turkey (or at least any that I could find) so I grabbed sliced chicken. They call Ranch, Salad Cream Sauce, and its slightly yellow looking, so I passed on that one. And they do not have mustard anywhere. Looks like I'll be eating chicken and mayo sandwiches. Without realizing it, I had filled up my cart (which is actually called a trolly here) and was ready to leave the Tesco Zoo. I exited the store and could not remember where the bus station was. So I walked in the direction I thought it was and a nice guy offered to help me carry my bags, which was nice because they were darn heavy. He also didn't know where the bus station was but we spotted another guy with Tesco bags and he seemed to know what he was doing so we followed him to the bus stop. The first guy was walking back so once he got me there he left, and now I was standing with Christian, the second guy. We chatted for a while, he's from Norway but has been going to Essex for three years (he did know what he was doing). The bus eventually shows up, its full. Dang it. Wait for the next bus. We got on the next bus but the road to my building was closed so he got me as close as he could (which actually wasn't close at all). So here I am, on campus trying to get to a building that I have no clue where its located and carrying 4 heavy bags. All I knew, was that this was going to be hard. Dreading the walk ahead of me I started on my way, and eventually these two nice girls from Malaysia offered to help me. Thank GOODNESS because I thought my fingers were going to fall off. We were about half way through campus when one of my bags breaks. UGH, typical. Another THANK GOODNESS because a lady near by had an extra bag and a trolly she wasn't using, so now I could push my groceries. Up some hills and down some others I finally found my building and made it back to my flat. The whole return trip took me about an hour and a half, but I made it back and nothing was broken so thats a plus. Now I know, check the bus numbers more closely before getting on because some can get on certain roads and others cannot. First Night Out on UniUnlike Chico State, this campus has an active campus night life with bars and night clubs all on the campus. The student store sells booze and people can just walk around with open bottles in the courtyard. Theres concerts and raves pretty much every weekend and dress up nights at certain bars. (Skyler if you're reading this... A DRESS UP BAR, dream come true right?) Every Wednesday is a different theme at this one bar. I ended up meeting up with some of my flat mates and we decided to check out this awesome night life. It was so cool to see everyone socializing like that on campus. We mostly drank our own wine at a table and talked and met others. I think the wine made me realize how tired I was so I headed back early with another flatmate of mine and went to sleep. That concluded my first day in England. Some ups and downs but overall, I can tell I am going to love it here. *Below are some pictures of me with my flatmates, and a few other photos I took around campus.* That is all for now, but thank you for reading and I will post again soon! Contacting me... The best way will be through Facebook Messenger, or on WhatsApp. WhatsApp is a phone app that allows for free international calling, texting, and even video chatting.
My international number is 44-7751-049829 You can put that number in your phone, set up an account on WhatsApp, and chat with me that way! My old phone number will not work, so keep that in mind. Hello friends and family! Thanks for visiting my blog and for wanting to keep up with what I am doing. I will update this blog a couple times a week with my thoughts, experiences, travels and yes of course... PICTURES! Feel free to comment on my posts if you feel inclined.
|
MadeleineMy name is Madeleine Sarner, and I am an American student living in Britain's oldest recorded town, Colchester. After many months of saving, extensive planning, and a few break downs along the way, I have finally started my journey of living abroad. On this blog you can keep up with my adventures, my culture shock, and my new and exciting experiences! Archives
December 2017
Categories |