Always expect the unexpected

I had the most interesting, unexpected, random, yet surprisingly fun weekend these past few days. Four out of the eight of us girls that hang out all day every day went away for the weekend, which left us with just four left. I already blogged about what we decided to do on Thursday which ended up being a lot of fun and I definitely would want to do another crew date if we ever get the opportunity again, and then on Friday, we decided to hang in all day and try to get as much homework done as possible. Naturally, we all got nothing done and ended up going out that night to a bar that we had only been to once before. It ended up being a lot of fun with random people dancing on tables and running around like drunk monkeys, but when it was time to go home, we stepped outside and I swear I felt as if I was going to get frost bite right then and there. My hands were so cold I could see them losing circulation in them and turning white. My legs were shivering I could barely feel myself sprinting to the U1 bus to grab it before it drove away. It put me and my friends in the worst of moods. We did not speak to each other and all we wanted to do was get home, get changed, and jump in our cozy warm beds. The last time I was that cold was when I was in high school I think because the weather in North Carolina doesn't get like this until probably December or January. I swear it could've snowed that night!

The next day I woke up pretty late and had a text message from my friend Kenzie that goes to school with me in North Carolina and lives the next town over from me in Mass. She is studying in Barcelona for the semester and her and one of her friends from home, Bridget who is studying in York for the year, were in London for the Patriots football game. I had promised Kenzie that I would come and see her while she was in London since I am only a little over an hour away so I could not bail on her now, no matter how tired I was from the night before. So I hopped in the shower, grabbed some money out of the ATM and caught the next Oxford Tube to London. No matter what position I am sitting in, I always tend to fall asleep on car rides, bus rides, boat rides, any type of ride, and that is exactly what happened on this bus trip. All of a sudden I wake up and theres this guy politely asking me to move aside so that he can sit down, so I scooch over to the window and try to fall back asleep. Unfortunately, this man is a little bit on the bigger side and I was feeling a bit too claustrophobic to fall asleep (that and the fact that the window was too cold to put my head on).

So I get to Marble Arch and I'm going to take the Tube into Picadilly to meet up with Kenzie and her friend. I ask some people directions on how to get to the tea place that they were eating at, and when I get there there are 3 or 4 different restaurants in this one building. So I go to the first one I see and I look around trying to find Kenzie, I'm calling her and texting her but we just can't seem to find each other. I go downstairs to the other restaurant and do the same thing, no Kenzie. Finally I get ahold of her on the phone again, about 20 minutes later and walk back up the stairs to where I first looked for them. She stands up and waves me down and I realize that I had walked past her about 3 times while I was up there!

It was sooo good to see one of my good friends from school! I could not comprehend the fact that we were both thousands of miles away from home, in London TOGETHER, it absolutely baffles me. But I was prepared to just stay there for a few hours, hang out with Kenzie and her friend and then head back to Oxford so that I could get some work done and a good night sleep. Of course, Kenzie tries to talk me into staying and I tell her that I'll see how the day goes and maybe i'll stay with them for the night. At this point, it's about 5:30 in the afternoon and they say that they want to go on the London Eye. I have only done it once before and it was when I was last in London for the People to People student ambassador program when I was about 13 or 14, so I figured it'd be cool to go up again and see all of London in the night time for a change. After standing in line in the freezing cold rain, we finally get into one of the capsules that goes up and around so that we can see all of London. It was absolutely gorgeous, you could see everything from up there and it was as if I was looking at a picture rather than actual the real city of London! It was an amazing, breathtaking sight that I had actually had much more of an appreciation for this time around.

After that, I was starving because I was running off of a cup of tea and a small cappuccino. So we walked around trying to find some cute pub to go to for dinner because hey, isn't that what most people do in London? So we're wandering the streets, freezing, and passing all of these restaurants that have Japanese and Italian food, but we were in England and we wanted real English food. Finally, we look up and there's All Bar One, which is a restaurant that actually has a chain in Oxford and the food is unbelievable. So we run in there and decide to try to get an appetizer as fast as possible because we all felt like our stomachs were eating themselves. Now this may shock you a bit, but the service here was AWFUL. We had to wait for our water for about 20 minutes (no exaggeration) and then when we went to order the waitress said that they were actually out of two of the things that we wanted to get! After that, she forgot to put in our appetizer so we had to wait for our food for about another 30 minutes and when we were finished we had to seek out our waitress to give us the bill. If we were in America, I would've felt very bad for that girl because the tip definitely would've been under 20% (and that's saying something because I'm a waitress too and I usually am the best tipper around).

During dinner was when I got talked into spending the night with them. So I called my friends back in Oxford and told them that I was staying in London. Everything seemed great, we were taking the tube back to their place so that we didn't have to spend money on a cab, and we had plenty of time to go back and shower before we decided to go out. While on the tube, we look and the line that takes us directly to where we needed to go was closed off for maintenance. So, we decide to take a different line, and we're sitting on the train about to get off at our stop and a person comes over the loud speaker saying, "this station is closed, the train will not stop". What stop did it happen to be? Yup, ours. So we get off at the next one and decide to ask someone for help. The three old drunk men that tried helping us get on the train actually ended up getting us even more lost and so we just decided to get off at another stop and take the same train backwards so that we could start from square one. Finally, we find someone that knows what they're talking about and we hop on one train that is going to take us to another station, that will take us to one more station that connects with where we need to be. After about a 2 hour journey through the tube, we finally get out at Paddington station and are walking to their hotel. It's about 11 at night right now and we are still planning on going out that night.

The rest of the night was a lot of fun. I met a few more of Kenzie's friends from home, and had a great night out in London at some places that I never even knew existed there. The family that we were hanging out with, friends of Kenzie's from home, were probably the wealthiest people I have ever met. The mother and daughter were both wearing real diamond huge earrings, the father was buying drinks for everyone left and right, and they just looked as if they were our age except with a huge amount of money! I was flabbergasted. I felt as though I was legitimately dreaming because I had never been in a place like this before, especially not in a VIP room. We were being waited on the entire time and the only thing I could think of to do was try to "blend in with the crowd".

Waking up the next morning was a bit rough because I was exhausted, and knew that I had a ton of homework to go back home to. Of course I don't regret staying there and having a great night out in London, but at the time I was ready to sleep for days and not move until someone made me. It's nights like these that I look back on and yeah they're not too fun the next morning, but they are such great memories. If I decided to come back to Oxford that night, I would've just come home and probably got a little bit of work done and then would've gone to bed. But instead, I chose to live up my time abroad. I have come to the realization that it's not worth worry about how much money I have, how much time I have to do my work, or even how much sleep I get while I'm over here. I have so much to experience and learn while being abroad and I am not about to waste a second of it laying in my bed, doing exactly what I could be doing if I were back at HPU. I love being spontaneous and having random things happen to me without expecting it. It's what makes life fun and worth living!

Money Money Money

I find it absolutely pathetic that everyone in the entire world revolves their lives around money. It's not like we really have a choice or anything but if you think about it, money really does control the majority of our lives. It determines what experiences we get to have, places we get to travel, what time of food we are able to consume, what type of clothes we wear. It controls our stress levels, our amount of time that we spend at work verses at home, it even controls our moods sometimes. Many people say the poorest people in the world are usually the richest, but I say that is all up to one's own perspective because I know that when I work hard for my money and I have more money, I generally am a happier person with a lot more opportunities ahead of me. Now this may sound a little bit like a snobby, arrogant blog, but that's not my purpose in writing this. This fact about money is just a reality...

What made me start thinking about money and how much it affects our lives is the fact that everywhere I go while I am abroad in Oxford, and everything I do while I am abroad revolves around how much money I have. I was fortunate enough this summer to have a very good job as a waitress and to be able to come over here with a large sum of money so that I did not feel as though I was missing out on anything, but I still find myself being so cautious about what I choose to do with my time on a day to day basis. I wish that I had loads of money so that I could travel to all of the places that I want to go in this short time of 4 months, and that I could try every pub in Oxford at least once so that I could compare them all and see the differences. But the fact is, that's impossible. It's a bit of a pessimistic way of looking at things honestly, but think about it, has anyone gone an entire day without mentioning the word money? It's sad, but true how much we depend on those little sheets of paper every single day.

On the other hand, money has so much to offer us. It is what makes the world go round. It creates controversy in the world which in turn makes this world a much more interesting and exciting place to live in. Yes, we all have our ups and downs in life and much of it is a product of how much money we obtain, but that's the beauty of living. If we didn't have controversy and something to work for in our lives, then everyone would be the same, boring, most likely miserable people. It gives us something to work hard for, something to gain knowledge for, a reward for doing something right. Money is something that is needed and wanted by every single person in this world. Now i'm not saying that "money buys happiness" but I am saying that when people use it the right way and don't abuse it, money can play a very important part of one's life.

I just booked two more trips over the next few months. One to Barcelona to visit one of my best friends from school, Allison, that is studying abroad there, and the other one is to Prague with a few of my really good friends that are studying in Florence for the semester. I was getting a little anxious about looking at my bank statement after I had booked these flights and made these plans. The thought of the amount of money that was leaking out of my bank account was very frightening to me. But then  I realized, when am  I ever going to have another experience like this where I can travel to so many different countries for such a cheap amount? Most likely NEVER. I want to be able to live it up and have a great time, not worrying about how much money is in my bank account while I am over here. If I need to borrow money from my parents then i'll worry about that when I get back to the states and start working. But for now, this is my time and I need to enjoy it! That is probably the best advice that I could ever give my fellow classmates that are studying abroad or thinking about studying abroad; never have any regrets, do what you want to do because in the long run, "people never remember the nights they stayed in."

Last night was another huge eye opener for me as far as money goes. We were invited to go to this crew date party by some girls from Stanford and meet some random boys from Oxford University. My friends and I had no idea what it was that we were getting ourselves into but hey we had each other and we figured it'd be fun to meet some new people and switch it up for a night. We end up walking to meet up with the girls from Stanford and then walking all the way to this Indian restaurant on Cowley road. None of us had been there before so we were a little bit sketched out when we were being taken to a random restaurant to meet these random strangers. We walk up to the front door and we see about 20 men sitting in every other chair at the table all dressed up and "posh-looking" all for us. We were told that it was some sort of a "Oxford boys" and "California girls" theme so we were all dressed, in what we thought, seemed like outfits that people would wear in California (short shorts, tank tops, sunglasses, curly hair, colorful jeans, etc.) We poked our heads in and immediately ran back outside to convene with the rest of the girls to figure out why we all looked so ridiculous! Eventually we all sucked it up, walked in and sat down in every other chair so that we could get to know these Oxford boys.

The boy I was sitting next to was very nice, his name was Alex and he was my age but in his second year of "uni". We talked about random things here and there and had a few glasses of wine, and before you know it we're being thrown into playing British drinking games that we had never heard of before! They were a lot of fun such as when someone would toss a penny in your drink you would have to chug the entire thing, or when someone stood up and announced an action, everyone that had done it before had to stand up and drink. It was a pretty cool concept and it definitely gave us a better view of what the drinking culture is like in England for the Brits.

Back to the talk about money, much of this would not be possible without money. We would not be sitting here drinking this wine, and sitting with these British boys that were studying at one of the most prestigious colleges in the world. It's an unbelievable thought that the amount of opportunities that I have been offered here are a direct result of hard work and dedication to obtain as much money as possible so that  I could enjoy myself abroad. It also is a great experience to learn how to spend money wisely and when to conserve it. Responsibility is a key to survival in this world, and there is no better way to learn about how to become better at it than being abroad in another country.

Comparing

The UK is a lot like America in the sense that there are different accents all over the country. Apparently the north has a certain accent, that actually sounds a bit like an American accent, and the south has a completely different one. Same with London, they seem to sound much more “posh” over there and have the more traditional accent from ages ago unlike that in cities surrounding the city. 

I met a few new girls in one of my classes today that were from all different parts of the UK. They were commenting on each other’s accents and asked me if I could tell the difference. Unless I really listened carefully I felt it was nearly impossible to notice. They said that they can’t really tell the difference between American accents either, unless it’s a southern accent, then they said it is pretty obvious.

Thank goodness I am in classes with all brits, and possibly some other foreign exchange students mixed in, but I am the only American in my two Oxford Brookes classes. And every time I speak up in class I get about 30 pairs of eyes on me as if there’s some sort of alien in the room. Everyone is really nice in my classes, but I am especially grateful that I am the only Yankee because it is the only real way that I am going to meet any brits. I live with all Americans and I love it because we’re all friends, but sometimes I wish they threw in at least one or two brits to mix things up and allow us to experience the true culture of the brits first hand. 

I also got my first grade back on a paper that I wrote for my Communications, Culture, and Organisations class and I got a B on it! I was pretty proud of myself because when I was writing that paper, I was very confused about what the assignment was and I was actually a little scared that I was going to fail the entire assignment. I talked to my teacher after class to see if I could get some help on the next paper that we write in her class and she said that she would be more than happy to help me. Just like teachers in America, most teachers here are ready and willing to always be at your service and help the students out with anything they need. It’s definitely reassuring to experience that because in one of my other classes, I have a teacher that is very much all about “learn from yourself and/or your classmates” and personally, I think that that makes them a horrible teacher. What are they there for? Oh yeah to HELP us. 

Ever since I got back from Italy, I have had a different outlook on this experience. I am so much happier here and have realized that the time really is flying by, and I haven’t done half of the things that I want to yet! It’s a little too cold to go punting now, but I still want to visit the castle in Oxford, attend a mass at the church, go on a date with a cute British man, and try all of those pubs that I pass everyday on the way to class but haven’t gotten around to trying yet. I know that I have blogged about this before, but I can’t express it enough how much more I want to learn and experience from the Brits. 

This is a bit of a scattered blog because nothing very specific has happened to me recently that I have enough to blog about. I did lose my jacket out at a club the other night...and I had to throw out my favorite pair of boots because the England weather got to them faster than I expected. And when I say they got to them, I mean there were holes in the sides of them and they looked as if I had fallen off a motorcycle and scraped them all up. Oh, and they smelled, TERRIBLE. I know shoes are usually supposed to smell, but these were just awful, so I had to throw them out when I was in Florence. There are some days here in Oxford that I cannot think of anything to write about because not much has happened to me that day, or I just had a day that was like any other; I went to class, I went into the city, I did some shopping, my feet hurt, and I am exhausted. Yet still, almost everyday here flies by as if I’m on a vacation. 

There is one big change that my roommates and I decided to all make a big change on, and that is our diet. We all have realized that we have taken advantage of this whole “being in a new country so eat whatever you want ordeal”. We have come to the realization that we actually are living here now and we need to get back to the healthy habits that we had back in the United States. Not only is this for how we all feel we look, but it’s for how we feel. I know that, personally, I always feel so much better when I eat good and exercise. I always have so much more energy and want to do so much more with my time. Hopefully I can keep on reminding myself about this whenever I want to slip up and have some sort of unhealthy snack. But, like I said, this is a life changing experience, so maybe it’s going to change more about me than I ever would have expected.

The "Joys" of traveling

Living in Oxford has given me a whole new perspective on the word "traveling". I used to love going to airports and going on planes and buses etc. to fun new destinations. That was before they started to consume my entire day when I want to go somewhere.

Our trip started out with a 3 hour bus ride from our flat to the Stanstead airport at 1 in the morning, so naturally we decided to all stay up and wait until 12:50 to walk to the bus stop and just sleep on the bus when we get there. I passed out the second I sat down, but the other two people that I was with, Emily and Clarissa, could not sleep for the life of them. When we finally got to the airport we had to stand in line to get our passports and tickets checked. While we were standing in line, I realized that I didn't have my iPhone! I thought I must have left it on the bus! So I sprint back down the long hallway, through the sliding doors, down a flight of stairs, and down another long hallway to see that the bus had already left. I wasn't about to give up so I kept running outside up to the other National Express buses and banged on one of the doors until a nice man opened it. I asked him, "Do you know where I can find the bus that just came from Oxford about 20 minutes ago?" Unfortunately his response was, "I think it just left to go back.... but you can check at the office to see if they found whatever it was that you left on the bus." So I thank him and sprint over to the office which is right outside the entrance to the airport. I ask the lady if anyone had dropped something off that was left on the bus from Oxford, and she asked what color my phone was, and when I told her it was blue she held it up. I do not think that I have ever been more happy to see it in my life.


After I run back into the line to meet up with Emily and Clarissa, it's time to go through security and find out where our gate is. Ryanair is funny in that way that you have no idea what gate you are at or where you are even sitting until you get into the terminal and on the plane. Standing in line for security, we are all so anxious to get on the plane and just get to Florence. So, as usual for security, we have to take off our shoes, jackets, sweatshirts, make sure that our lotions and liquids are in containers etc. So I think I do it all and walk through the security detector and it goes off. Immediately a woman comes over and has to rub me down to make sure that I don't have anything on me, which by the way I feel is a little more intense than it is in the United States, but regardless, I find out that it was just my bracelets that I had forgotten to take off that set the detector off. So I turn around and see that my bag has been taken because they found something in it.... I walk over with one of the officers and he asks me if I have any liquids or sharp objects in there, I say no and he digs through my bag to find my make up bag, he opens it up and takes out my lip glosses, zips back up my bag and runs it through the detector again. He brings it over and says that there is even more in it. So this time, he tears apart the entire thing so legitimately everything is out of my bag. He finds my toothpaste.... takes it out and puts it in a plastic bag, runs a little blue tool over it and then scans it for drugs or something? I'm not really sure. Once he is finished with that the man goes, "okay you can put it all back now" as if i had done something wrong! It completely baffled me. So I pack back up my bag and head over to the terminal. I understand that security is necessary because there are so many hidden criminals out there, but sometimes I feel as though it is taken to such an extreme level that it becomes unnecessary. I actually wrote an essay on how I believe security should be changed, not necessarily weakened, but in a way that it does not consume so much time and make people feel uncomfortable.

About after an hour of waiting to see where our gate is, we hop on the plane and find three seats next to each other. I pass out on the plane and next thing you know we are in Italy! We then have to take a bus from the airport to the train station and take a train to Florence. My friend had told me that the train was only going to cost us 7 Euro so we weren't too worried about that. We get to the train station and see that the next train to Florence is in either 10 minutes or 40 minutes, so naturally we all sprint to a ticket stand and purchase the tickets. Emily goes first, everything is fine, minus the fact that the train was actually 30 euro not 7. I go next, everything is fine. Then Clarissa goes and her card doesn't work! So we had about 5 minutes to get to the train so I just spotted her 30 Euro and we sprint off to the train. When we hop on we find the first available seats and sit down, that is until we find out that we actually have assigned seats and have to spread out all over the train. Once again, I immediately pass out once I sit down. I wake up about an hour later and we are still not there yet (it was only supposed to take about 45 minutes). I find out that our train was delayed 45 minutes! So we finally get there and hop off to meet up with Emily's boyfriend and he shows us where everyone else is supposed to be. But keep in mind, he is studying in Barcelona so he probably knows where he is going just as much as we do! So we're wandering around Florence, running on a few hours of sleep and trying to get ahold of our friends that are already there. We are all starving so we stop and get some famous Italian pizza and sit on the side of the road to eat it while we wait for them to call us. We FINALLY get ahold of them and get to put all of our stuff away in my friend's apartment and get to really start our italian vacation.


This trip was definitely one of the most fun trips. We rented vespas and went on a wine tour, went shopping downtown, explored Boboli Gardens, experienced a bunch of italian 2 and 3 course meals, and got a taste of what it was like to go to an Italian bar and club, which by the way, is much much different than anything in England or the states.
Coming back was a little more relaxed than getting there, everything went pretty smoothly and we are now finally back safe and sound in Fblock of Clive Booth Hall. :)

  

fuzzy ducks?

Last night was definitely an experience to remember. First off, pretty much no one wanted to go out last night so Courtney and I decided to try out a new club by ourselves. But before we went out, we decided to go out with a few friends to a new pub since we haven't really had the chance to explore different pubs in Oxford yet. We went to one called Greyhound and Angels? I think? It was something like that, but inside was so cozy and warm and quaint. They had a fire place going and the room was filled with cozy chairs and couches surrounding little tables to put drinks on. Even the smell of the place made it feel homey in there. The only thing that would make this place complete would be a few dogs laying down by the fireplace and snow falling outside the window. But yes, we went there with a group of people that we do not normally hang out with from High Point, and I was so excited to finally be branching out and making some new friends! We all found out that we had so much in common and didn't understand why we all didn't hang out before. It's definitely good sometimes to branch out and come out of your comfort zone to meet and talk with people that you don't already know, who knows, you might learn a few new things!

Now to back track really quick to before we went to the pub, it was an interesting journey actually getting there. The people that we were with had made some British friends when we first moved in and so they were the ones that we were following to this new pub. Putting our complete trust and faith in these people that they were going to get us there the quickest/easiest way, we ended up walking all the way into town. All of the buses ended up either not coming to the stops we were at, or it would've been faster just to walk anyways. The only thing is, it was down pouring outside. Courtney and I were huddled underneath my jacket as I held it above our heads and everyone else was running to get there as quick as possible with just their hoods on. When we finally got to the pub, it was time for a drink. We were not expecting the journey to be that long and that cold and that wet, but hey as i've said before, our adventures are our sum of our misadventures.

After the pub, Court and I decided to go check out a club that we hadn't been to yet, and every wednesday night they call it "fuzzy ducks night". Why? I have no idea, but from going in there I'm assuming it's because there is always some sort of a theme going on and people are dressed in the strangest of costumes. We had one guy dressed in a full on footsie pjs and a duck hood on top, another guy wearing an American flag body suite, and girls left and right dressed with feathers in their hair and cowboy boots on their feet. The theme was cowboys and indians (of which Court and I did not get the memo) and everyone else seemed to just dress up in whatever costume they felt like that night. We ended up running into a friend from PA and some of her friends, and we made a ton of new British friends, two of which are part of the soccer (aka football) team. Court and I actually met while playing soccer in high school so it was nice to meet some fellow soccer players!

When we left the club, it was about 3 o'clock in the morning and still pouring rain outside. While trying to find a taxi, I slipped on some mud and fell flat on my face in a puddle. I was covered in mud, lost my phone battery and was shivering to death, yet I still did not allow that to ruin my night! I was still having a great time walking home with a few new friends that Court and I had made, and said I would just worry about the rest in the morning. Things like that are bound to happen on a wet and rainy night, and honestly I would rather laugh it off than be annoyed or mad at myself for doing it.

This trip is all about learning through experience. We don't have our parents here to bail us out when we're in trouble, we have no one else to make our decisions for us, or be responsible for us. It's only been two months and I have already learned so much about myself. I have learned how much I love to work, how impatient I am, how independent I am, and how much I appreciate America and the fact that everything is a lot cheaper over there! Although I do love the weather, and the trees, and the friendly people here, there are definitely some days that I cannot wait to move back to my home land.

I leave for Italy tomorrow with Emily and Clarissa and I am so excited to go! I can't wait to see one of my best friends, Rachel, and be able to explore a foreign country with her! I want to eat pizza and drink wine and maybe even go on one of those little boat rides that you see all the time in the movies. Traveling is such a big part of coming here, not only because it is so cheap, but it's convenient and I have a chance to visit my other friends that are studying abroad all over Europe! Oktoberfest in Germany was the time of my life and more than I ever could have expected, I can only imagine what Florence has in store for me next!

Half way through

This is an amazing quote that I found from one of my friends that is studying abroad in Florence. It describes the experience PERFECTLY and makes me want to latch on and take even more advantage of the opportunities that this journey has given me and will continue to give to me for the next few months: 

"Your journey has molded you for your greater good, and it was exactly what it needed to be. Don't think you've lost time. There is no short-cutting to life. It took each and every situation you have encountered to bring you to the now. And now is right on time." 

-Asha Tyson

I cannot believe how fast this study abroad experience is flying by. I feel like I just got here a week ago and I still have four more months to go! Everyday here goes by in the blink of an eye, and I feel as if I'm wasting time sometimes just sitting here doing homework or hanging out with my flat mates, but then I take a step back and realize that that is all part of the experience. The experience of interacting with people, discovering more about myself, and what makes me happy. Yesterday I finally had a chance to book my trip to Scotland to see my long lost friend Mary that I've known since I was in preschool. It seems like it was just yesterday that her and I were playing pretend and running around the school yard without a care in the world. Now we're both studying in foreign countries thousands of miles away from home. It just goes to show you how you should always expect the unexpected.

Speaking of expecting the unexpected. We found out today that we have to move into a different flat because of the mold problem that is going on in block K. All of my plans were pushed aside and my homework was put on hold so that I was able to move all of my belongings into Block F. At first I wasn't too happy about the idea of starting all over again, but you know what, it's a new beginning and we even have sinks in our bedrooms now! Another positive thing about this move was that I was finally able to rearrange my room and get rid of some food that I actually had forgotten that I had since the first week we were here! Overall, the move to a different block was not a bad chance, I think that it was meant to happen for a reason. Now we have bigger rooms, and away from that God awful hill that we used to have to walk up every day to get to class!

This past weekend, I learned a lot more about the English language barriers between over here and the states. One of the friends that I made, Rob was telling me how Brits use the word "hash" instead of "pound" on the phone, a cigarette is a "fag" not a "butt", and jeans are called "jumpers" not "pants". It never gets old for me because I feel like every day I learn something new about this culture and how much it does in fact differ from America. Another example of this was when we ordered pizza for dinner today, the delivery man called and said that he was "at the first bar". We had NO idea what he was talking about, and the only reason that I knew where to go find him was because last time we ordered food my friend and I spent about 30 minutes running around the campus trying to find this "first bar" that this man was talking about! Apparently a "bar" means a gate.... Definitely good to know now for future reference.

I am getting a little scared about spending so much money over here. I don't want to have to ask my parents for money because this is supposed to be my time and it's about me being more independent and getting myself through it, which is the main reason I worked every day this past summer. I feel like my bank account is continually dwindling because of the exchange rates and huge price differences over here. I know that while being abroad  this should probably be one of my last concerns, but it's something that I feel like comes to my mind at least once every day. Hence why I miss having a job so much. Not only do I miss the friends that I have from work, but I miss the responsibility and the constant security that I was going to be getting paid by the end of the week. It probably doesn't help that I go into town about every other day and always spend some sort of money, but theres not a whole lot else to do in Oxford besides walk around and site see, eat, shop, and listen to the street performers. I mean i'm no complaining because I feel like most of my stories that I blog about on here are centered around talking about what I did that day in town and what I saw while i was in town. I probably have blogged about this already once or twice in my blog, but it is definitely something that I have on my mind almost every day. 

I was not feeling too great today when I woke up this morning, I had a terrible cough and could not stop sneezing. I'm not sure if it's the sudden cold front that has been coming in or what, but that is definitely the last thing I want to happen while I am here. Getting sick is miserable, especially when you're not home. I know that quite a few people have been getting pretty ill recently either having indigestion problems, rashes, or colds. I don't know if it's the difference in the climate than over in the United States, or maybe people just aren't getting enough sleep but I feel like health should definitely be one of a person's main priorities when they are abroad because not only do they not have access to their primary doctor, it's a foreign country all together and who knows how they deal with medicine over here! Call me paranoid but I think Americans may be the only people I trust when it comes to being in depth and on top of their medical knowledge. 

I am going to Florence, Italy in a few days to visit my two friends that are studying abroad there. I have never been here before so I am pretty excited to experience Italia with some "locals" (or at least people that have spent a whole lot of time with the locals). I think that I am going to write my paper for one of my classes on this trip because it is going to be one of the most interesting and fun-filled trips that I am going to be going on (I can feel it). I always have so much more fun when I get to spend time with my really good friends that are studying abroad in other countries. We just get each other and we are so energetic and are going through this experience together, and understand each other better than anyone that you may have just met. I do definitely miss a lot of my friends from the states, but I feel like being away from them all for so long has almost made me appreciate them all more and how good of friends they really are. I could get into all of the gushy sensitive details of it all but I would probably bore these blog readers to death. So for now, Cheers!

The weekend

Another very eventful weekend has flown by in Oxford. We thought that we were going to go into London on Saturday, but me and my two friends, Emily and Courtney, decided to stay in Oxford and do our own thing. We all slept in until about 12 in the afternoon, and then we went into town to get some food. I'm not sure if it was a big holiday this weekend, or down town was packed because of how gorgeous the weather was, but all of the lines were extra long and there were street performers left and right playing music, juggling, singing, etc. When we went into McDonalds (I know, a very american choice) there was no where to sit. It took us about 10 minutes of walking around to finally wait for someone to get up and grab their seats as if we were diving for our lives.

After that experience we decided to go to the boots pharmacy and purchase some hair dye. Mainly because we are all blondes and our roots were beginning to show because we are unable to go to a hair salon over here without having to pay an arm and a leg. I had only dyed my hair out of a box one time other than this and when I did it, my hair came out as red as a firetruck! So needless to say, I was a little nervous to try it out again. The moment we got home, Courtney put the dye in my hair. I had to let it sit for a half an hour or so and then wash it out with just warm water. As I was waiting for the half hour to come around, the color of my hair started turning pink! I freaked out and ran right into the shower to wash it out before it got any worse, but when I finally blew it dry, the color came out perfect! It was such a relief and I was happy to say that I can now save a lot of money by dying my hair out of a box!

Later that night we decided to try a new club called Propaganda because my friend from my Communications, Culture, and Organisations class told me that it was the place to be on a Saturday night. After buying the 6 pound tickets online and attempting to navigate ourselves to this strange new place, Courtney, Emily and I found ourselves walking into some sort of a hard rock concert. Keep in mind, none of us listen to that type of music, and we were definitely not dressed like the majority of the people that were there so we sort of stuck out like sore thumbs. We tried to make the best of it and have a good time trying to meet new friends and such, but everyone seemed so mean and pushy. It was as if they knew we didn't belong there and they wanted us out! About an hour later we decided to give up on trying to "fit in" for our 6 pounds, and hit up KFC, which I don't think i've had since I was about 5 years old, but it was good nonetheless and held us over for the cab ride home.

Today was more of a lazy day. We went into the city centre once again to get some food and starbucks coffee, and ended up seeing this amazing group of street performers playing some music. There was 2 guys and a girl and one of the guys had a stereo set up and connected to about 3 different instruments and he would play one and then press a button and the sound would keep playing while he was playing a different instrument until they all came together to a very rhythmic beat. Then the other guy would chime in and start rapping while the girl would stand on the side and try to sell their CDs. Eventually the girl and the guy singer would switch and when the girl got on the microphone it was as if I was listening to some sort of famous celebrity! She had an amazing voice and she would sing while she was rapping and keeping along with the beat of the music all at the same time. They were so good that we decided to walk back towards them so that we could hear another song before we left to go back to Clive Booth Hall.

Back at home, the three of us made some pasta salad with a bunch of vegetables and this really yummy italian dressing. Ever since we have been here I have rediscovered my love for cooking. Cooking used to be one of my passions and I actually almost went to college for it, but then changed my mind my junior year of high school. The pasta salad tasted amazing and hit my craving spot on.

For some reason I feel so exhausted here recently, as if the days are flying by and I'm not doing much but at the end of the day, when my head hits the pillow I have no problem going to sleep. I don't know if it's the excitement of being in another country that makes me so exhausted or if its all the walking we do here, or if it's just because I'm still not very used to the time difference over here, but I almost always feel exhausted by the time that I go to bed.

This weekend I have realized a lot about myself, my friendships, and how I handle a lot of things in my life over here. I know that whenever I feel uncomfortable around someone or a certain group of people, I distance myself from them. It's just the way I am, I run from drama and uncomfortable situations. It's as if my mind automatically shuts down the whole "trying to make things seem different" or understanding their perspective part of my brain just shuts down. I have realized who my true friends are that are here and who I want to spend the most of my time with while I am abroad. This is my one and only chance to be able to explore Europe at this time in my life and I want to make the best of every minute of it. Sometimes I do wish that everyone could get along more and just put their differences aside. But like my mom always says, you cannot be liked by everyone and the only person that can make yourself happy/not happy is you. That has been some of the best advice that I have ever gotten and although sometimes it is definitely easier said than done, it is SO true, and I need to acknowledge that and stop just blaming myself.

In one of the articles that we read this past week was about always just telling the truth and being honest about what you're thinking and feeling and just write it out in your journal. That is what I tried to do in the last paragraph. It was hard, at first, to think of something to blog about because that has been on my mind so much lately. I just wish that once I wrote it down it would be out of my head. I mean of course it takes 2 to tango and i'm not pointing any fingers at anyone, but I just do not last very long in situations like that filled with drama and constant back stabbing. Anyways, I am falling asleep at this computer like I said I was going to so I am going to go to bed nice and early tonight. I think I might be narcoleptic or something because recently I have been falling asleep in the oddest places, in the oddest positions, and at the most strange times. Unfortunately it happens a lot to me in class, but I've been working on that since I was in the 5th grade.

Isis

**I wrote part of this blog this morning before I went on our trip**

We are going to the Isis pub today with one of my classes. I'm not exactly sure what to expect or what it's even really all about, but I have always been up for trying new things. My teacher says that it is a pretty decent walk from the bus stop, since that is the only way you can get to it (no cars or buses etc.) so I decided to wear comfy clothes and sneakers. As I was getting ready this morning I realized that I may need to do a bit of shopping while i'm here because I mean come on, clothes are part of the culture just as much as the places we visit are, right? I guess that can be my excuse for spending money on clothes while I'm over here.

Everyone is sound asleep in my flat, I feel so bad waking up and opening doors with a loud creak only to have them slam shut a few minutes later. I think we all plan to go into London this weekend and check out the open markets that everyone has been raving about as if it's a historical structure. What I picture is something very similar to Fanuel Hall in Boston. With the scattered carts of souvenirs and hundreds of food places to choose from. This blog is a little bit of rambling because I am trying to keep myself busy while I wait for everyone to meet outside.

As we get off the bus, the only person that knows where we are going is Dr. Sweitzer. Everyone else is sort of just following along, enjoying the beautiful weather and the gorgeous surroundings that Oxford has to offer. There are so many house boats and random people along the sides of the river. I think they either are homeless? or maybe poor? I'm not really sure. I could never imagine living on a boat, it would be way too small for me first of all, and I feel like I would always worry about whether or not the boat was going to sink! Anyways, we also saw people jogging and bike riding along the path to the pub. I thought to myself how much I would love to do that, and how relaxing it would be. I've always loved running in random places and finding my way around, it's my way of relaxing and getting to know the streets and places around me.

We keep walking down this long path, which for all we know it could've led us to London, and finally we see the pub up ahead. There was a sign outside that said "Serving drinks from 9am and lunch from 12." It was about 11:50 so we decided to walk further down and check out the lock. This lock has been here since before America was even thought of! This sounds absolutely crazy to me because if you think about it, America really is a baby of a country compared to everywhere else in the world.

When we finally got to go inside and check out the pub, there were signs everywhere advertising events and things that were going to be going on there. How do they get this stuff out to the public? How do people even know about this place since the only way you can get to it is by walking? Nevertheless, when we finally ordered our food it was absolutely amazing! I got this dish that had 3 types of cheeses, bread, a salad, and coleslaw. Also, I had gotten a beer earlier that I was a little nervous I wasn't going to like but it ended up tasting a little bit like a blue moon from America, so I couldn't complain!

After the experience at the pub I decided to meet some friends in the covered markets and they were eating sushi at a random little place, which did look a little bit sketchy, but the food still looked pretty good! Tonight we plan on trying out a new club called Clems and experiencing a little more of Oxford's nightlife. So far it has been amazing, so I'm hoping that tonight will be just as successful!

Three things

**this blog was started on the 9th and I am adding to it today**

The three things of this culture that I would love to take back would be the accents, how casual drinking is all the time, and the fact that I can get to so many countries for a lot cheaper and a lot faster than if I was in the United States. 

Accents. It is sort of funny, but this is one of the main reasons that I chose to come to England. I love the way Brits talk! It is so polite, intelligent, and just makes you want to sit and listen to them all day long. Sometimes it’s a bit hard to understand, but nonetheless I love it! I also am going to miss how people automatically know that I am an american when I start to talk and they ask me all of these questions about America. Especially when I am sitting in class and have a question to ask, literally everyone in the classroom turns around to look at me as if i’m some sort of alien. On another note, the Brittish accent is SO attractive. Pretty much all of the men that I have met here I have been instantly attracted to from the second they open their mouth. (except for the look of most of their teeth of course).

The second thing I am going to miss is how casual the drinking is here. I was talking to a few girls in my class today and they were asking me how I felt about the drinking age in america being 21 instead of 18 like it is here. “I HATE it” was my response, and not simply because I like the way I feel when I drink but I love the social aspect of it and how I feel like I meet so many more people when I’m out having a few drinks with friends than if I went to a coffee shop or to a grocery store. In america, alcoholism seems a lot more prevalent and people look at alcohol like it is such a terrible drug. But in my opinion, as long as you don’t abuse it, there is no harm being done. 

The third thing that I wish I could take back to the states with me is flying to different countries for cheaper and faster than if I were back in America. I have loved traveling all of my life. I have moved so many times in my life, and have been lucky enough to travel around America, but I feel like there is so much more out there to see and experience in the world. Since I have been here in England, I have wanted to go to so many different places, but I feel like I am in such a time crunch and have to watch my money so closely because I can’t have a job here. Although even if I did stay here for an entire year, I don’t think I would be able to go to as many places as I would like to. 

I cannot wait to go back to the states and be back with all of my close friends and family, espcially my mom, but at the same time the amount of freedom and independence I have out here is something that I would never want to exchange for the world. I love being on my own time (except for classes of course) and being able to go where I want to go without having to report back to pretty much anyone. I mean of course I have to let people know where I am for safety reasons, but as far as the decisions that I make while I am abroad, they are all up to me! Some people back in the states say that they could never go abroad because of how homesick they would get, but I think that that is not even an excuse. Homesickness comes and goes whether you are in the states or not. It is a state of mind and as long as you know what makes you happy and what gives you peace of mind, then you will be able to get over it. I feel like i’m preaching a little bit in this, but this is definitely something that I feel so strongly about because I have been there, and I know that homesickness and missing something that you are away from is not the end of the world. As Marilyn French would say, “It’s just a fart in a bathtub”. 

Yesterday I had some time to just sit back by myself and reflect on my thoughts (which is my most favorite thing to do). I have definitely noticed that when I am thinking to myself I am saying everything with a British accent, it's as if my brain is adapting to it already! I am sitting on my bed right now while I am typing this, and my window is open and all of a sudden I start to hear clubbing music coming from outside... a little strange eh? These walls are SO paper thin it's not even funny! I can hear everything that is going on outside at night as well as whenever my flat mates decide to turn over in bed. This is something that I am not used to at all because, especially at HPU, you can barely hear what is going on in your suite mate's rooms never mind your next door neighbors. Speaking of HPU, I have been talking to a few of my friends over there this past week and they are already doing their midterms! I cannot believe how fast time is flying by, then again we're only in our third week of classes over here, but still it absolutely astonishes me. I feel like there is so much I want to do and so many places that I want to travel but time is running so short, as well as the amount of cash that I have in my bank account.... 

Although spending money here does not bother me as much as it does when I'm over in the states, it is still stressful trying to stay inside of a budget when all I want to do is explore everywhere I can in Europe. When am I going to have another chance to see the christmas markets of berlin? or eat a pizza made by a true italian in Italy? Or have the time of my life at Oktoberfest in Germany?! Probably never! I said it once and I'll say it again, this trip is about not only learning more about myself and growing as an individual, it is about experiencing all that Europe has to offer! Who knows, maybe this trip will convince me to move here after grad school and become some sort of an event planner in Europe?

The sum of our misadventures

After reading the "The sum of our misadventures", it definitely gave me a whole new perspective on how to think about the traveling I have done so far and the things that have happened to me. When I first got to Oxford, I was a little bit homesick and feeling out of the loop because I was living with a group of girls that had been best friends for the past 2 years. It was like I was intruding on their time or as if I was some burden that they had to drag along with them. Now that it has been a month this feeling has subsided but I look back now and I see that if I did not come with people who I did not know that well then I would probably never had become friends with them, I never would have had half the things to talk/write about that I do now, and I would never have realized the amount of independence and confidence I need to gain.

I look back again at this past weekend and I don't think about how on time we were for the buses, trains, and airplanes, or how annoyed we all were when we couldn't find our hostel that happened to be right down the street. Instead I think about the hilarious moments, like when I was dared to stand on a table and chug and entire Stein at 9 o'clock in the morning, or when we all were trying to decide how we wanted to do our hair on the train ride into Munich, or the amount of times that we cut the line and pulled strings to get into the tents at Oktoberfest. I know that I have already written one blog on this topic, but after reading "the sum of our misadventures" it truly does show me how the only way to have a "good trip" is to have a bad one. By the end of this trip I hope to have so many more memories of getting lost in random countries, trying food that I didn't even know was edible, and planning as many trips as possible (even if it means that I'll run out of money faster than I would like to). I am realizing that this trip is not all about money, it's about the misadventures we have, and the excursions that we choose to go on. I plan on leaving the UK with a completely different mindset and a completely new outlook on life. The important things are not money, or relationships that you thought were going to last from back home. What's important are the experiences that you choose to face, and the paths that you decide to go down; the people that you choose to meet; the attitude you choose to have; and the chances that you are willing to take.

Yesterday was yet another day of exploring. I was walking around downtown Oxford trying to find a place to top up my phone and there were so many people there. I noticed the different variety of clothing that people choose to wear. You wonder if they even look in the mirror before they step out of the door in the morning! One fashion statement that I found quite popular is leggings underneath jean shorts with button ups and ankle boots. I mean I am not an expert on fashion but it seemed a little odd to me. People are also into the different hair-dos here as well, like colored hair, colored hair mohawks, hair that hasn't been washed in a week... The European style is definitely much different than the United States. Although as much as I criticize some of the outfits that people choose to wear, there are some wardrobes that I wish were my own. Such as long sweaters, and skinny jeans, really cute boots, adorable heels, sun dresses that I can wear back in the states. If only I had an unlimited supply of money....

Oktoberfest

I just got back from possibly the most amazing weekend of my entire life! (no exaggerations) Oktoberfest was all I expected and more. From the second we got there we had the best time trying to figure out the German Train and bus station, to finding dresses to wear for the festival on friday, to probably getting a total of about 6 hours of sleep the entire weekend. After a 3 hour bus ride to the airport at 1:30 in the morning, an hour and a half plane ride to Memmingen, Germany, and then another hour long bus ride, we finally arrived in the city center of Munich, Germany. It was a bit of a stressful trip trying to find where our bus was and then where our hotel was that we were staying in for one night because we could not stay in the hostel that we had for the rest of the weekend because we had booked it through Euroadventures. But once we discovered that we needed to take a train to a bus station and then walk to our hotel, it was all smooth sailing from there. We stayed in a Best Western hotel about 40 minutes outside of the city and I think that that might've been the best night sleep that I have had since i've been in Europe. I don't know if it was because I was just so exhausted, or because the beds were super comfortable, but I definitely felt refreshed when I was waking up for Oktoberfest at 5:30 am. That's right, we had to wake up that early just to get ready and catch a bus in order to get to the festival grounds by 8:30 am. (if you get there any later, it is pretty much impossible to get inside of any of the tents). So as we're running in our dirndls (german dresses) to get to the fair grounds, we run into our friends that we were planning on meeting there, Allison and Rachel. Allison is studying in Barcelona, and Rachel is studying in Florence, and so we decided to all meet up for the biggest beer festival in the world! When we got to the grounds we went directly to the HB tent, which mainly consists of americans and people from all over the world instead of just Germany, and bought steins (huge beer mugs) right away. From then on it was the time of our lives. We met so many people from Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, and so many other places. We even ran into a few people that we had mutual friends with from the US! (which definitely proves how small of a world we actually live in). I wish I could describe the amount of fun we had clapping and learning german, drinking beer and "prosting" with everyone. It is an experience that I believe everyone has to have at least once in their life. We liked it so much that a few of us decided to go back on Saturday and do it all over again! Needless to say we didn't think that was the best decision when we were waking up at 5 am for our flight home today, but I would not have traded a second of this weekend for anything else in the world.

 This was also my first experience traveling outside of England since we first got here, and it it unbelievable how different things are. I was honestly shocked to see how many people spoke english btu it was pretty awkward sometimes when we would try to talk to people and ask them for help and they had no idea what we were saying. It was a total culture shock! I could never study abroad in a foreign place that didn't have english as a main language, it is way too confusing for me. I did learn how to say thank you! as well as Hello and Goodbye, but that's about it that I got out of this unbelievable trip. The next one that I am planning on going on is to Florence to stay with my friend Rachel in 2 weeks. I'm definitely interested to see how different it is over there, especially to taste all of the amazing food that Italy has to offer! :)

HPU Appreciation

From having the cleaning people letting themselves into our flats uninvited, to having the laundry machines break while our clothes are in the machines, studying at Oxford has given me so much more of an appreciation for High Point University than I ever could imagine. Today, I got awakened by two men talking in the hallway trying to fix something with the heat in our flat. I heard them talking to each other, banging on the pipes, and twisting screws as I was trying desperately to get just a few more hours of sleep in before my first class of the day. Once they finally stop, I decide to get a few extra minutes of shut eye before I have to run out of the flat to my digital media class. Of course, I end up sleeping in late and missing my class anyways, and so I decide to do laundry but I don't have enough coins to do it. If we were at HPU this would not be an issue, I would have been able to do my laundry right away, and the two men that came in early would not have dared walked into our room without our permission first. Now don't even get me started about all the walking we have to do here compared to HPU. That hill that I have to walk up every day to go to the bus, the store, and even class, is should definitely be called the "hill from hell". It seems to get steeper and steeper every time I climb it, and by the time I get to the top i'm breathing as if i had just ran three miles! At High Point, the longest distance and steepest distance that was unavoidable seemed to be the one up the steps from the amphitheater to the UC... I guess you could say that this is just one more culture shock of coming from a school of luxury to a "normal" school that expects a lot more responsibility and independence than HPU. Something about this school that I definitely do love is the feeling of walking outside to the crisp fall air and the trees surrounding you as you walk to class every morning. Comparing this to HPU, I would probably get a similar feeling for it, but there is definitely no sense of "being trapped in a bubble" here. I feel like there is so much to explore and only four months to do it, it's as if I feel like I have so much time to do so much and get a true feel for what it is like to be a brit, but in reality, time is running out already! There are definitely some days where I feel very homesick and I long for my cozy full sized bed at home, but that passes once I am out and about going to new places and meeting new people every day. I will most likely be repeating this a lot in my blogs, but I do believe that this trip and the things that I am going to experience here are going to change me forever. I cannot wait to look back at these posts, some of my pictures, and have memories coming flooding back to me as if I had just experienced them the day before.

I am getting a little bit nervous/stressed out about booking my trips to other countries within the next three months. I keep seeing my bank account number go down, and my weekends get booked up. I'm almost scared that there won't be enough time for me to do everything that I would like to do! I love to plan, and I have so many ambitions to go all over Europe, I just wish that I didn't have the anxiety or the guilt of asking my parents to spot me for money. Ever since I started working, I have hated asking them for money because I like to know that I earned my place and that I got myself where I want to be. I do know that it's all going to work out in the end, it's just a matter of mapping it all out and getting myself there.