Surprisingly not a whole lot is new here. Now that I am three weeks into classes, there is a lot of studying going on! This week I played in a Flat 5 vs. Flat 2 pool tournament though and we won! (Although pool is a very different game here then what we play in Canada!) We have also been busy planning a surprise party for tonight for our friend Caroline and made her a cake last night! Then Friday and Saturday we are going out for her birthday, Sunday is Carnage (and my mom's birthday!), Monday is Halloween and Tuesday we are having a house-wide toga party for someone else's birthday. All of the guys in my house want me to bring red plastic beer cups from Canada ("Like from American Pie") because they think that they are really cool.....strange.
I've also booked a ticket to go up to Scotland for the Christmas market at the end of November and am going to Liverpool at the beginning of December to stay with a flat-mate. Also working really hard to plan a trip to Cadbury Land because chocolate is WAY better here then in North America!
Just for interest, this is my new favourite British band, "One Direction". They were 3rd(?) place in X-Factor last year and everyone here loves them. I have a feeling that you will particularly enjoy them Katherine :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJO3ROT-A4E&ob=av2e
Hope that you've all survived your midterms and enjoy your Halloween weekend!
Alexis
Thursday 27 October 2011
Thursday 20 October 2011
What I've Been Up To...
Okay, since I have a whole hour between classes, here is a longer explanation of what i've been up to. I've been really enjoying my time here, especially because of the college system. I live in Lonsdale College (colleges are kind of like the equivalent to Harry Potter houses - we're obviously Gryffindor). And then within my college there are a handful of houses - I live in House 44, Burton. Then in each house there are floors and on each floor are two flats. A flat has between 6-8 bedrooms and a shared kitchen - I hope that this makes more sense Lorraine! My house is really close which is great :) There's also a lot of other international students which is cool - my floor has two Germans and a Bulgarian and there are also two Spanish people and an Irish person in my house. It's really crazy how close you get to people in this system....i'm already dreading having to leave them all!
There's also a lot less lecture time here, I do about two hours a week - but there are tons of readings! My classes are really interesting though! Textbooks are also WAY cheaper which is nice :)
The city, Lancashire, is also really cool. It's really old, the other day when I was coming back from the Lake District one of the guys I went with pointed to a building and said, "that building is older then your country". Kind of puts things in perspective! Everything is close together which is cool, and there are a lot of shops and bars and restaurants for it being such a small city!
Finally, the most fun part is the culture. I still have my accent mocked on a semi-regular basis thanks to my wonderful housemates, and now I can even start to hear the difference between the Northern and Southern english accents (Lancashire is in the North i've learned). The South have a way more "posh: accent. We also have a great time trying to understand each others' slang but some things, like dead baby jokes, are universal (we had a late night last night). I'm also getting really annoyed with being asked if i'm American!
In other news, I joined the Harry Potter Society and got sorted into Hufflepuff - lame; and i've booked a trip to Amsterdam from the 10th to the 13th of November! And I need to figure out a halloween costume pronto because in England people only dress up as scary things so all of my ideas are no good - let me know if you have any creative ideas! Also, Guy Fawkes day is coming up soon - it's pretty cool, it has to do with burning terrorists - google it if you are bored.
I hope this gives you a better idea of what i've been up to!
Cheers,
Alexis
There's also a lot less lecture time here, I do about two hours a week - but there are tons of readings! My classes are really interesting though! Textbooks are also WAY cheaper which is nice :)
The city, Lancashire, is also really cool. It's really old, the other day when I was coming back from the Lake District one of the guys I went with pointed to a building and said, "that building is older then your country". Kind of puts things in perspective! Everything is close together which is cool, and there are a lot of shops and bars and restaurants for it being such a small city!
Finally, the most fun part is the culture. I still have my accent mocked on a semi-regular basis thanks to my wonderful housemates, and now I can even start to hear the difference between the Northern and Southern english accents (Lancashire is in the North i've learned). The South have a way more "posh: accent. We also have a great time trying to understand each others' slang but some things, like dead baby jokes, are universal (we had a late night last night). I'm also getting really annoyed with being asked if i'm American!
In other news, I joined the Harry Potter Society and got sorted into Hufflepuff - lame; and i've booked a trip to Amsterdam from the 10th to the 13th of November! And I need to figure out a halloween costume pronto because in England people only dress up as scary things so all of my ideas are no good - let me know if you have any creative ideas! Also, Guy Fawkes day is coming up soon - it's pretty cool, it has to do with burning terrorists - google it if you are bored.
I hope this gives you a better idea of what i've been up to!
Cheers,
Alexis
Monday 17 October 2011
Keeping Busy
This past week was our first week of classes here at Lancaster, so that has been keeping me very busy! I also went down to the Lake District on Sunday which is where Beatrix Potter and Wordsworth are from, it's really nice! Sorry for such a short post, but I will put more later!
Alexis
Alexis
Sunday 9 October 2011
Are You Alright?
Hello all from England!
Now that I have time to properly post, here goes nothing. This week has definitely been one of the crazy busiest weeks of my life! But I am definitely paying for it now as I am sick (down with a case of the Fresher's Flu as they call it here)! I still can't tell directions for anything and somehow manage to get lost on campus at least once a day, but I can at least find my way back to residence now! They have had a million events planned for us this week and my voice is all but gone from all of our Lonnie chants. One of the most interesting ones was the silent disco - everyone wears wireless headphones and you choose your music station to dance to. The strangest part is taking the headphones off! We've also done several bar crawls, both in-town and to all of our campus bars. Classes start tomorrow which will be strange - it doesn't really feel like school yet.
Here's some of the things I've found the most different so far:
Now that I have time to properly post, here goes nothing. This week has definitely been one of the crazy busiest weeks of my life! But I am definitely paying for it now as I am sick (down with a case of the Fresher's Flu as they call it here)! I still can't tell directions for anything and somehow manage to get lost on campus at least once a day, but I can at least find my way back to residence now! They have had a million events planned for us this week and my voice is all but gone from all of our Lonnie chants. One of the most interesting ones was the silent disco - everyone wears wireless headphones and you choose your music station to dance to. The strangest part is taking the headphones off! We've also done several bar crawls, both in-town and to all of our campus bars. Classes start tomorrow which will be strange - it doesn't really feel like school yet.
Here's some of the things I've found the most different so far:
- Slang - don't EVER use the word soccer; also, "are you alright?" is just slang for hello in England (I was worried that I looked really sad or something!); supper is called 'tea' and so on
- There's no Kraft Dinner in England!!!! Or Pop Tarts, or Gravol. I offered one of my flatmates a Gravol, and they thought I meant like the little rocks.
- Food is REALLY unhealthy. For real - one of the options for breakfast in the cafeteria every morning is deep fried toast. (Or just deep fried bread I guess...it's not really toasted)
That's all I can think of for now......Happy Thanksgiving!
Alexis
Wednesday 5 October 2011
Quick Update
Hey guys,
Just for a quick update I have moved in and am having a great time....Freshers Week is insanely busy, so I promise that I will post more later and will try to get some pictures up as soon as I can!
Cheers,
Alexis
Just for a quick update I have moved in and am having a great time....Freshers Week is insanely busy, so I promise that I will post more later and will try to get some pictures up as soon as I can!
Cheers,
Alexis
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