Seasons Greetings from the UK

I think Christmas is a big deal in a lot of places... many stores in the US will start playing Christmas music by the beginning of November, items are rolling out on shelves before Halloween.  It's a constant bombardment of holiday cheer.  The past few years I've been a Scrooge and avoided it until December, not wanting to participate in the ridiculousness of Christmas for months on end.

The UK does Christmas even better!!  I would say stores started stocking items in early November also, and Nottingham's Christmas Market kicked off mid-November.  But it's just so festive!!  The markets are all these little cottages in the squares selling a variety of goods - handmade artisan items, baked goods, street food, and mulled wine.  

L: The Christmas tree on the square all lit up - there is an ice skating rink around it
C: The Exchange building on the Market Square and you can see some of the cottages
R: Sacha and I at the lighting of the Christmas tree, they do fireworks for every thing!

Mushy peas - an apparent signature dish.
You eat it with mint sauce... I preferred it with some salt.

I also took a day trip to the Manchester Christmas Market to see my friend, Harriet.  It's much larger than Nottingham's Christmas Market.  The centre photo is me with my mulled wine and my cute little keepsake mug.  Mulled wine is essentially warmed red wine, though I think there's more to it than that.

Then my group of friends had a Christmas Soiree before we all go our separate ways for the holidays.  

Us, minus one who was taking the photo

Our Christmas Soiree
L: On the top of the plate is the Cracker - you cross arms around the table, linking with the cracker and pull.  Inside is a crown, a toy and a joke!  (Those of you who know my love for cheesy jokes can understand my giddiness over this!)
C: Christmas Pudding, which you eat warm, and then pour cream over it.
R: Our Secret Santa tree!!!

America 1 and America 2 with our paper crowns from our Crackers

Last, but not least, is my humble Christmas tree for my flat.

I've enjoyed all the preparation for Christmas here, but I'm looking forward to spending it at home with my family!!

Thanksgiving in England

I am thankful for...

My friends (new and old)
My family
My education
The ability to live abroad
And many more things.

Of course, we should be thankful for things more regularly than on an annual holiday; but at least we have one reminder each year that brings us all together.  You've been following my preparation so far, and it gets more interesting, I think.  For an example of my difficulties in buying ingredients:

This is double cream... apparently there is also single cream.
This is what I used for half and half and it was pretty comparable.

I went to multiple grocery stores millions of times, it seems, over the last week to get every thing I needed... or so I thought.  Yesterday, upon returning home from class, the agenda was to bake the pies, prep some other dishes, and clean the apartment.

Pumpkin pie!!!

We had lots of left over filling so we made mini pies too!!

The table is all set!!

Rookie mistake number 1: forgot to remove the pie crusts from the freezer.
Rookie mistake number 2: (or possible ex-pat mistake) When all your recipes are in American measurements, but you're shopping in metric measurements - convert your recipes before buying things so you know how much you need.  This mistake required yet another trip to the store, but luckily just for a few things.

Despite a few hiccups, every thing turned out splendidly!!  Have to say I'm pretty proud of our accomplishments.  See photos below.  We had great company, lovely conversation, and all of our British friends were able to experience a new tradition and even did some of their own research on the holiday!

Brittney basting the turkey

Our Thanksgiving spread (from L to R): macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn on the cob, cranberry mold

And finished off with pumpkin and pecan pie - with whipped cream, of course!
And clotted cream for my British friends who prefer it.

P.S.  I have a deep admiration for people who host large Thanksgiving dinners every year.  And reflecting back on my childhood, great respect for my grandparents who not only prepared dinner but also hosted our entire family for 3-4 days in their home.  It takes so much effort and energy.

My Quest for a Turkey

This year I won't be able to celebrate Thanksgiving in the US, so instead I am hosting it here on Friday.  Initially it's exciting!  I love to host!  Thanksgiving is my favourite holiday!  The food is amazing, I get to eat as much as I want without feeling guilty, and I don't have to buy any presents.  After the initial excitement, the anxiety sets in.  I've never hosted a Thanksgiving.  I don't have a proper table, so it won't be as formal as my family's Thanksgivings.  More importantly, I've never baked a pie.  Or stuffing.  Or a turkey.  I've been a vegetarian for a year - I haven't cooked any type of meat in a long time.  Six of my guests are British and I don't want to disappoint them - even though they'll have nothing to compare.

In Type-A Cathy fashion I started planning really early.  I made lists of what I wanted on the menu.  I am co-hosting with my fellow American friend, so we talked about what things our families do and what types of food we have.  I looked up recipes for every thing, made lists of ingredients, broke down the lists into dry ingredients and perishable ingredients.

Saturday I went to ASDA, the English Wal Mart.  I figured it'd be the easiest place to find every thing I need (hopefully) and for the best price.  I went with my dry ingredients list and it took my probably two hours.  Some things are named differently, but I found almost every thing.  For example, I need jello mix to make a cranberry mould, they call it jelly.  I need corn syrup to make pecan pie - ummm, I'm not sure what exactly I bought but it was the closest thing I could find.  I have my fingers crossed it works well enough.  I needed marshmallows to top my sweet potato casserole, and the only marshmallows I could find are bigger than any one I've ever seen in America.  But beggars can't be choosers.

So far the only thing I can't find is fried onions to top the green bean casserole.  To solve this problem I think I'll just fry my own onion slices - or mix in onions and top it with breadcrumbs... haven't fully decided yet.

Anyway, the whole point of this is actually about my quest for a turkey.  While I was in ASDA I looked for a turkey to see how much it would cost.  All I could find were chickens!  So I went to my local grocery store, the Waitrose.  They have signs "order your turkey now for Christmas!"  I asked the woman in the butcher section, and she said they wouldn't be getting their shipment until 22 December.  So I went to Tesco Local, nothing.  So I went to Sainsbury's Local, nothing.  Finally I went to the big Tesco and FOUND MY TURKEY!  Since I had such a hard time, I decided to buy it.  It's frozen, so it'll take a few days to thaw in the refrigerator any way and then it should still be good by the time to bake.

Now I'm just researching how to bake a turkey!  I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.  Have a wonderful celebration of your own! X

Traditional Afternoon Tea

I presume every one has heard of afternoon tea, but I doubt any one has done it.  Hot tea isn't much of a thing in the US, and definitely not a structured meal around it.

Here afternoon tea is set between 3 and 5 pm.  It's certainly not a daily occurrence for every one, it's sort of a treat.  One of my classmates is from Nottingham and has made it her personal mission to play tour guide of English culture, and one of the goals is to try different tea houses.  This week we went to Tiffin in West Bridgford just outside the city proper.

We actually browsed around West Bridgford a bit before heading to tea.  Since the holiday season is upon us we were able to pop into a little craft market.  We also stopped in a few boutiques on our walk through the town.

Tiffin is a quaint little spot tucked into a small row of shops.  It has a bicycle outside displaying it's sign and a basket full of greenery.  It's small when you walk in, but can accommodate a decent number of guests.  And it's totally what you would think of a tea room.  It has a flower patterned wall paper and white table cloths on the tables.  We settled into our table and browsed the menu.

We ordered the Traditional Afternoon Tea for 5 and decided on two pots of tea... English Breakfast and Earl Grey.  These are both traditional black teas.  I prefer Earl Grey to English Breakfast, to me it's a bit lighter in taste.  I don't like to put milk in my tea, just sugar and I find that English Breakfast is too bitter for me like that.  The tea comes first, in these lovely vintage pots.  Each pot and cup is unique, I doubt they have any two the same.

Then the tiers of food arrived!  The bottom tier is sandwiches - the one in the photo is all vegetarian sandwiches: cucumber and cream cheese, egg and cress, tomato and cream cheese, egg and pickle*.  The other tier had things like salmon and cream cheese and some kind of chicken salad type sandwich, and possibly a ham one also.  The second tier is cakes and the top tier is scones, jam and cream.  So you eat it in a certain order... sandwiches first, then scones, then cakes.  It's all small so it doesn't seem like a lot at first - but we were so stuffed by the end!!

*Pickle is not like American pickles.  It is still pickled vegetables, but it's a mixture of onions, cucumbers, sometimes beans or cauliflower.  And it still pickled in vinegar, but it's more of a spread used for sandwiches and it's brown.

The Simplicity of Nature to Restore the Soul

My friend Sacha is an avid horseback rider.  She had been looking for a place to ride close to the city.  She found one just outside the city, about a 10 minute bus ride from the centre, called West Bridgeford Riding School.  Today we decided to head out there to see what it's all about.

We arrived at the stop and it was the typical English countryside: hills, green, a bit damp.  It was so nice to be in nature for a bit.  We ended up deciding to ride today too.  I haven't been on a horse in close to 13 years.  But I was excited!  It's nice to be around animals... they're so peaceful.  Sometimes I wish I could have a pet here to keep me company, but I'm not allowed to have animals in my apartment and I really don't want the responsibility of one right now any way.

So the staff got us two horses ready... Dream and Miss Marples for us to take out on a hack.

Sacha getting to know Dream before going out

We went out for an hour and walked around the surrounding fields and was also able to see the Water Sports Centre, the canal (I think), swans and ducks and barn cats.  Miss Marples and I weren't the best of friends, but she did trot for me a bit.  Apparently she's shy.

Miss Marples wasn't too keen on me at first,
but after I fed her an apple she was alright

And my new friend, Domino.
He seemed blue so I tried to cheer him up.

It was very nice to relax with some fresh air for a while!  And then we finished off the afternoon at Thea Cafe English Tearoom. 

Rosebud Herbal Infusion tea

Diwali

The other night I had plans to go out with some of my classmates.  We were meeting at the left lion on the Square at 7 and would decide where to go to dinner from there.  I put on a smart outfit - appropriate for dinner, but dressy enough to go out afterwards.  I bought the most amazing oxford-style heels from Debenhams and have been dying to wear them wherever I can.

So I headed out to the Square to meet every one and as I came upon it there were tents and lights and crowds of people.  The smell of curry filled the Square and reminded me how hungry I was. And there were men playing music and people dancing.

Turns out it was the Diwali celebration.  Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights.  Lamps, called diyas, are lit to welcome Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, into the homes.  Apparently depending on the region different Hindus celebrate Diwali for different reasons or gods, but the basis is "The festival celebrates the victory of good over evil, light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance."

We didn't stay long since we were just waiting on the Square for every one to show up.  But while we waited I watched and admired the festival.  There is always something going here and I love it!  It's also fascinating to see things like this since the town I grew up in doesn't have many ethnic activities like this.

I got my information on the celebration from BBC

My favourite past time: going out to eat

As many of you know, I really love going out to eat.  The great thing about living in a new place is that I haven't been to any of the restaurants!

Last weekend Brittney and I stopped into this tea shop, Lee Rosy's Tea Room, that I walk by regularly.  I had seen it mentioned in some things about Nottingham - and it's new, so why not.  Plus the day was cold, so a warm cup of tea is perfect!

Well they have what seems like a thousand types of tea.  It's probably less than 100 but it's a lot.  You can order by the cup or by the pot.  They also have some other things like lattes, mochas or smoothies and cakes.

Lee Rosy's Tea on Broad Street

Today I went with two of my classmates to a place called Delilah.  It's a market that specialises in really high end and unique foods and also a cafe.  They have coffee, cake, and meals.  This is one of my classmate's favourite places.  She had mentioned it to me a few weeks ago.  I had actually seen it and every time I walked by it got store-lust.  But sometimes when you're in a new place you're not really sure if you can go in certain stores.  Or maybe that's just a personal problem.  Anyway, we went today for lunch, coffee and cake and it's delicious!  My classmates both ordered goat cheese salads, and I got a brie, grape and cranberry sandwich.  Then for our cakes I ordered a blueberry stacker and Lucy got a caramel and chocolate chew (it was like a rice crispy treat and then caramel and then chocolate all layered together).  All very delicious!

Delilah on Victoria Street

Bonfire Night

The 5th of November is Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes Night in the UK.  It is a celebration held to commemorate the failure of a plan to kill King James I on 1605 by blowing up the House of Lords.  Guy Fawkes was the man found in cahoots with the plot to kill the king, though it was a host of people who had put it together.  Now it's celebrated by bonfires and fireworks, and according to one of my friends a wooden man representing Guy Fawkes is normally dangled above the bonfire to burn.

We went to one of the celebrations here in Nottingham that was actually turned into a mini fair along with the bonfire and fireworks display.

The bonfire from the tram stop (shortly after it was lit)

By the time we got to it

Let's Be Witching!

Britishisms of the week: Fit - attractive, fine, hot; "She's fit!"
                                       Fancy Dress - costumes

Apparently Halloween isn't a big thing here, but since Brittney and I are American and our friends like Halloween we decided to throw a costume party!  As a group we tried to do a female villian theme.

If you do Halloween here your costume has to be good and scary. Or so we were told. Now the scary thing I wasn't entirely buying into.  The main thing is they don't do the "sexy Halloween" like the US does.  Lucky for me, I never bought into that either.  There is no need for me to leave the house in lingerie claiming to be a costume.

I got so excited I decorated!

And made themed snacks!

Spider cookies and Babybel eyeballs

Mummy dogs and fingers

And this was our group photo before heading out for our Spooktacular evening!

We specifically picked a student-based club because we knew they would all be dressed up.  And we were right!  We had a wonderful time out dancing and seeing every one else's fancy dress!

Oh - and PS, I was Poison Ivy

Altruism... by whose definition?

Disclaimer:  You do not want to read this post if you do not like opinions, sensitive subjects, mild foul language, or the thought that I'm not always nice.

If you have not done so already, please read the Introduction: My Outlook.

We have to read the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Progress Report 2013 for the Theory and Practice class.  The MDGs are 8 goals that were created in 2000 by the UN under Ban Ki-Moon.  They're target completion date is 2015, some have been met but others need more conscious efforts.  The goals pretty much centre around decreasing inequalities in the world: health, education, poverty.

As I'm reading this I came across one excerpt that really irked me, "There is less aid money overall, with the poorest countries most adversely affected... In 2012, bilateral official development assistance to these countries fell by 13%, to about $26 billion."

Ok... HOLD THE PHONE.  SHUT THE FRONT DOOR.  Every emphatic phrase you can think to PAUSE.

Decreased to TWENTY-SIX BILLION US DOLLARS.  We are arguably still in a global recession, and the UN is complaining about $26 billion dollars - and that is just for bilateral development assistance.  I can't even fathom how much money that is actually.  And goals are obviously created with the intention of meeting them, so giving up would be failure, but in 2000 there was no expectation of a recession half way through the process. Now, recall my second life principle about altruism; I feed the homeless, I donate to charities.  I'm not sure at what point I sound like a total asshole, but is there not a point where I get to keep what I earn and not feel guilty about it?

This is what I've been talking about that some of the topics in my classes are incredibly hard for me.  There are many advantages to global development: longer lives, more productive societies, political stability, etcetera.  And I've always thought of myself as being considerate of others and conscious of needs, but then I'm faced with topics like this and it really makes me question my sense of self.  I haven't yet determined a good balance.

Opinionated Post Introduction: My Outlook

I set to live my life by a few basic principles... the first two are the most important, the last three are really more for giggles.

1. Live and let live.  Ie. religion, political party, sexual preference... doesn't much affect me.
2. Those who give to others are richer than those who do not.  This can basically be summed up into one word: altruism.

- - - - -

3. Money can buy happiness.  The joy I get from shopping is pretty much unmatched by any other activity in life.  Call me superficial, wouldn't be the first time.
4. With that money, purchasing proper food should be almost every one's top priority... And I mean quality, nutritious, colourful, flavourful, balanced food.  Not rubbish potato chips, though I do love a good sour cream and onion Lay!
5. Sarcasm is an artfully crafted skill that hinges on taking something absolutely absurd somewhat seriously.

Understanding my general outlook will be necessary for the next post.

Being a student in the UK

Being a student in the UK has really thrown me for a loop! And for those of you who read the previous post, no, it's not just the size of the paper. There are so many subtle differences to the environment and the culture of a classroom, and also the structure of the program. Granted, I have never done a masters program at any other university, but from my undergraduate experience to now there are some changes that I'm finding challenging.

Let's start with the basics of the grading scale...

70-100 is Distinction/Excellent

60-69 is Very Good

50-59 is Satisfactory

Anything below that is failing

Anything 70 or over is amazing! And from what I hear, somewhat rare. This has the potential to hurt my ego a bit once we start turning in assignments.

Which brings me to turning in assignments...

Each of us is assigned a number and that is what we use in replacement of names on any assessments turned in. We have to upload it online through a program called Turn-It-In that evaluates levels of plagiarism as well as submit two hard copies at the main office to be graded (marked) by two separate people... anonymously. And once graded work is ready to be handed back it is put into our specifically assigned cubby hole.

Class Schedules

Classes start at random times in the semester... Some start this week and carry through until next year, some start this week and end in 5 weeks, some start in November and only last a few weeks. It's quite a lot to keep up with!

Instructors

I have no idea who my professors actually are. Well, that's somewhat a lie. I have no idea who is running the course until pretty much the day of the course and then that person will introduce the class, go over the assessment (usually one presentation or one test or one essay). After our initial meeting we may not see that professor for weeks as the subsequent meetings will be led by a "guest speaker" on their field of expertise as it relates to the course objectives. 

Professionalism

Students call every one by their first name... Not Dr. Jones or Professor Smith. That is a norm that I am not accustomed to, and I'm not sure I can become accustomed to it either. Instructors in the US, especially with PhDs are very attached to that title. They earned their doctorate and expect to be addressed as Dr. So-and-so.

Resources 

We have no textbooks (so far) which is flipping AWESOME! But we do have endless lists of "suggested" readings on top of required articles, excerpts, and sound bytes such as radio interviews.

Field Trip

Our last day of induction week we took a field trip to Thackray's Medical Museum in Leeds. This was my first field trip since I was a kid!

The museum used to be a workhouse back in the day. It has several different sections in the museum. Part of it is directed specifically for children... With things like the photo below that identifies what part of you mouth tastes what, like sour or sweet.

Then it had a very large section on the transformation of modern medicine. Specifically infant mortality and the advancements in medicine that have decreased the rate.

The pregnancy "simulator"... That joker was heavy! 

But my favorite part of the whole museum was the recreation of a Victorian Era street in Leeds. You chose a character to follow and see what happened to them. I chose a woman named Mary Holmes, she was a dressmaker, a widow and mother of two. The replica was so detailed... Down to the stench from poor sewage. 

The butcher

The outhouses

This is the replica of my character's living quarters. It turns out she had TB. She worked lots of long hours to try to provide for her children. She suffered with TB for 2 years before it killed her.

Anyway, then it went through the public Heath initiatives that were taken to clean up Leeds and make the population healthy and functioning again. It was quite interesting! The first week we had talked a lot about the transition to industrialized society and how it damaged public health, and then the initiatives taken to change it all.

All in all a very enjoyable outing!

I'm officially a student again

So we had introductions and lectures from 9-5 every day this week. There are about 30 students starting this fall across the three concentrations: Masters of Public Health (general), Applied Epidemiology, and International Health. Six are part time students, and then there are apparently 13 part time students who are starting their second year that will join us in some classes starting next week.

I am the only student from the US. Otherwise we have students from 12 different countries: Ghana, Uganda, Oman, Pakistan, Indonesia, Cameroon, Lebanon, Nigeria, the UK, Kuwait, and one other I'm missing. I have made friends with a couple people, in particular a girl named Sacha who is half French Canadian and half Pakistani. She most recently came from Pakistan, but she did her bachelors at the University of Georgia, so we were instant friends!

Most people already work in public health sectors such as running clinics for palliative care for children with HIV and cancer in Jakarta, or clinics in an urban slum in Pakistan, and several are doctors who have decided to change career paths. One man from Cameroon said he got frustrated as a doctor because he wanted to treat more than one patient at a time.

A lot of students have asked me why, as an American, I chose to come to the UK when we have such great universities, in particular 3 of my colleagues have asked me why I did not choose John Hopkins. Of cours, I have my reasons and I condense them into about three key points: 1. I'm studying international health, why would I do that in my own country?, 2. I've always wanted to live abroad, and John Hopkins is pretty near where I grew up, 3. Since the program is only a year, it's actually cheaper.

Challenge of the week: 

Well there have been several...

1. Being from a developed and western country I sometimes feel hypocritical. Maybe this is a burden I am placing on myself, but we sit in class and talk about health issues and I go home and eat a candy bar. I am aware that every thing is in moderation, but I do feel a pang of guilt. We also discuss prominent health issues in our home countries... And while others are discussing basic vaccinations and recording of these things, or the prominence of malaria, or the availability of food, I am discussing the health effects of people with too much food and sedentary lifestyles. The dynamic of our classroom is vastly diverse and sincerely challenging for me.

2. Being foreign. I may be of European descent, and I may be a native English speaker, but I am not native to the UK and its obvious. You can see it in the way I dress and the way I speak - and not just my accent, it's my vocabulary, my body language, etc. And to some truth but also somewhat naively I think I'm pretty widely accepted. Most people I meet love America and think I'm fascinating. But on a few occasions I've gotten snide remarks. Two examples in particular are one of our postgraduate welcome events was at a bar where the music was so loud you could barely hear any one speaking. This guy was coming around introducing himself to people and he got to me. I told him my name and what course I was studying. I had to say it three times for him to hear me and I still don't think he actually understood me. He stopped me and said, "Are you Scottish?" I replied, "No, I'm American." His response was, "Oh that's even worse" and he walked away from me. That instance I chalked up to some drunk bloke. But last week I was in a small store buying school supplies. The paper in the UK is longer than paper in the US, and they only have 2 hole binders instead of 3. I'm not discriminating, it's just a fact it's different. I wanted to make sure that I was purchasing the right things so I went to the cashier and asked him if that was the normal length for every thing. He replied in a very snarky tone, "In this country." And at that point I realized that I'm not always equal here. My appearance (other than my clothes) may blend in, but I'm not native and many people will never accept me as such. But on that note I would like to say 98% of Brits are exceptionally nice, polite and welcoming.

3. I had a bit of a hiccup with my cell phone earlier this week. I got a text message from my provider about going over my plan and to call, and if I didn't call they would cut off my service. Well I was in presentations all day and by the time I was able to call they had blocked my service. Of course I was still able to call them in particular. I spent almost an hour trying to figure out the problem (most of it on hold). I figured it was that I had gone over my data allowance. I only get 500mb of data per month right now, which is 25% of what I had in the US. And wouldn't be such a huge deal if I had Internet in my apartment, and hadn't been away from the social media world for over 2 weeks prior to getting my phone. So anyway, turns out I did go over my data but more importantly I had been calling 08 phone numbers which are premium numbers here that cost anywhere from 30-80 pence per minute. No one had told me this and all I had been doing was calling my water, electric and Internet companies trying to get my bills sorted. Yeah... Well £12 later my cell provider cut off my service to ensure I wouldn't rack up my more charges. Luckily the man I spoke with was very nice and patient with me as I cursed on the phone about how no one had told me this and I'm clearly new to the UK and I wasn't blaming him but someone could have warned me when I got my phone service about these things because how else would I know? 

Anyway, that's been my week in a nutshell. I have more to post about specific things but I also have things I need to get done and its a Sunday so every thing closes super early here so I'll have to get to the rest tomorrow. 

My Weekend in Solitude

My induction week begins Monday. We will be in classes from 9-5 every day this coming week. So I have decided to take the weekend to spend some time alone, or at least not really socializing with people I know.

I started out by taking a trip to Wollaton Park. It's only about a 15 minute bus ride from the city centre. I think I first read about it in a google search of things to do in Nottingham. I got directions from my favorite local tourism office and headed over this morning. Mainly I wanted to see the reindeer! Luckily I walked in and the first thing I saw was deer!

 

I really was that close! They just ignore people.

After admiring the deer for a bit I turned around to this...

Guess what this is.... Well it's really Wollaton Hall, but it's the place where some of Batman was filmed! Inside is a natural history museum, which happens to be a fancy term for a bunch of stuffed animals. But there was quite a variety of animals and I walked around for a while looking at them and admiring the house also.

So many people where there with their kids or dogs or just by themselves to enjoy the day. The weather was perfect! It was the best day for a park outing. I should've packed a lunch and a book so I could've stayed longer!

Freshers

Freshers is the welcome week for all the first year students... And for those students that are returning for year two or three, or are postgraduates it is unofficially called Refreshers.

Most of the events are geared towards the first year students. There are coordinated, themed events every day and night that are mostly arranged by their halls. When I say themed I mean like toga parties. Luckily for postgraduates Uni Nottingham has designed postgrad reps to plan events for us also. We had coordinated bar nights every day this week, and one night a student took it upon himself to coordinate a pub crawl ending at the official PG night. It's a good way to meet people, though if you know no one to start it does take some effort and extroversion.

This is the group of girls that did the pub crawl together

This is Brittney, from Missouri, we were so excited to find "rest rooms" instead of toilets!

Our last night we went to Ocean Night Club. We waited in the queue 2 hours to get in, but had a great time. This photo in particular is of the Baywatch song where all the guys (and some of the girls) take off their shirts and swing them in the air. A tradition totally lost on me, but amusing nonetheless.

During the days for postgradutes we had lectures/presentations on university services like IT and library, internships, part time work, etcetera. I did find the IT presentation helpful as I completely do not understand the Uni website! 

There was also the Freshers Fayre, which was mostly directed towards first year students to showcase the organizations and co-curriculars that are available, but we took a look around just to see. It was the largest student involvement fair I have ever seen! And they have the most random organizations... Like pole dancing and Mah Jong, to sports, debate teams, skiing, volunteers, a vegetarian club, and the list goes on. I didn't make any commitments but I did take some information just in case.

All in all Refreshers was fun! Not sure it was was refreshing, as most of us are taking a lazy weekend to recuperate before our programs start on Monday.

"Culture Shock"

What is culture shock? Many of you following this have left the US before... What was most shocking to you? A language barrier, greetings, how you order food/receive the check, means of transportation, or maybe the cost of items. 

Well I've traveled quite a bit in my life so far and I have many international friends. I like to think I'm fairly well cultured for my young age. I also make great efforts to be accepting and understanding of cultural differences, but you can't anticipate every thing.

Here are some of the things I'm experiencing as culture shock this go-'round... there seems to be zero sense of one's surroundings. People walk down the street and just stop or turn around without acknowledging you're walking behind them, or they'll see you coming the opposite direction and will not make an effort to move over so you can also walk on the sidewalk. Now, I reckon this happens regularly in the US also but my senses are heightened here and I am usually pretty perceptive to my surroundings anyway.

Then there is personal space. It's always said that Europeans have smaller personal spaces than Americans. I think there are countries that are more extreme with this than the UK. However, I was standing in line at a cafe today waiting for the sandwich I had ordered and four people legitimately surrounded me looking at their options to the point that when I received my order and tried to move out of the way I ran into almost every one of them. 

Nottingham has two universities in the city, therefore it has a very large student population. The University of Nottingham has a considerable amount of international students, undergraduate and postgraduate, so the majority of the people I've met so far are not UK nationals. This just adds to the confusion, excitement, and learning experience because you never know what to expect!

Today I had a Coffee and Cake event for my division. I walked into the room and clearly looked a bit awkward. Many people were already at tables in small groups talking. The only person who invited me to join his group was a man from Bahrain who is working on his PhD. He was with two other Middle Eastern students, a man from Iraq and a woman from Lebanon. The Lebanese woman is actually in my program! Anyway, they were speaking Arabic but changed to English when I joined them. The man from Iraq had never met an American before so he had lots of questions about where I'm from, what it is like, the difference between the District of Columbia and a state, how I greet people, if we talk about the weather, etcetera. He said I was much more friendly than the British. I told him it's an American stereotype that we will talk to any one whereas the British are much more reserved, or so I've heard. But then things happen in conversation that you can't expect and don't really know how to react to... Such as I was explaining some of us were out at a bar last night, a girl came over to introduce herself because she had heard I am in the MPH program, but the music was so loud I couldn't hear anything. The man from Bahrain stopped me and said, "you couldn't understand anything, not you couldn't hear anything." Well yes, sir, you are correct in catching that grammatical error... Conversational English is obviously different than proper English, and my dialect is going to be different from here, or British English in general, and especially different from people who are not native English speakers. 

The last night I have somewhat struggled with is grocery shopping. It hasn't been a terrible struggle, but they call things different names than we do. So it'll be the same product but named something that confuses me. The main example is I wanted to buy sugar in the grocery store and there were like ten kinds. Obviously I knew I didn't need brown sugar or confectioners sugar, but there were two possibilities for what could be normal sugar... In the paper bag, right next to each other. So I had to ask the man and of course he proceeded to explain to me all the different types. I mean, I know what sugar is I just want you to tell me the correct name for every day, put-in-your-tea sugar. Anyway, now I can't even recall the name of it!

I'm sure there will be more shocking cultural encounters over the next year, but so far those have stood out to me most.

PS. I'm dying for a McDonalds sweet tea. I couldn't even tell you the last time I had one in the States though.... funny how when you're around it you don't give a second thought to it, but once removed you miss it.

Festival of Food and Drink

Britishism of the week: timetable - meaning schedule like for buses or classes, but we are going to focus on buses.

Challenge of the week: learning how to read bus timetables correctly.

The international student welcome week ended on Friday. We don't have much going on at the moment so I decided to go to this Food and Drink Festival at Clumber Park.  There is this really handy tourism office in the market square that I've been in a couple times to ask for information. I was able to get a bus schedule there and a man told me what bus to take and what stop to get off on. 

The market square

I invited the girls but they were moving into their apartments and/or had other activities. I decided to go alone to get out of the house. It was a little over an hour by bus and then the man told me I would have about 3/4 mile walk. The bus ride was pleasant; I got to see a lot of small villages through the countryside. We arrived and I started walking... And kept walking and walking and walking. It literally took an hour to walk to the festival from the bus stop. On my walk this man, who was also going to the festival, started walking with me and talking. He writes a food blog and was going to the festival to meet a well-known butcher and also review the event.

The entrance to Clumber Park, this was approximately the 3/4 mile mark

I meandered through the festival, had a falafel, a crepe, bought some fudge, and finished with a pimms and lemonade, which is a traditionally English cocktail. It was an absolutely beautiful afternoon so I sat and enjoyed some of the live music that was playing also.

The bar where I purchased my pimms and lemonade

I ran into my new acquaintance, Phil the blogger, again. According to my timetable the next bus came at 4:38 pm, so we left in enough time to make the hour trek back to the bus stop. Upon arrival at the bus stop I learned that I had read the bus timetable incorrectly. I had read the timetable that was coming from Nottingham, not going back to it. The next bus actually wasn't scheduled for over another hour. So Phil and I strategized a plan to get on the next bus heading north. There was only one stop left on the route anyway, a town called Worksop, and then it should head back to Nottingham. That bus was 10 minutes late. In that 10 minutes I had every opportunity to become overwhelmed with anxiety... I have no cell phone, I am in the middle of the woods, I can't read the damn bus schedule correctly, I've already walked probably 6 miles to the festival and back, and the nearest town is probably 10 miles away. Well finally that bus heading north showed up. We got on and went to Worksop. The next bus back to Nottingham wasn't for another 45 minutes. We contemplated walking to the train station, but not knowing if that would be fruitful Phil and I opted for a coffee and to wait for the bus. Finally, at 5:40 pm, we were headed back to Nottingham. We arrived home shortly before 7 pm, and parted ways.

I enjoyed my afternoon out, but I sincerely need to learn these bus timetables or I'm going to find myself in several more stressful situations. As happy as I am to use public transportation and not have the chore of owning a car any more, it's quite the transition. I'm so used to driving wherever I want, whenever I want, and leaving whenever I want. As I've run into trouble a couple times this week (though less stressful than the wilderness trip) I am now planning on doing a practice run for my route to school this week before classes start on the 30th.