Halloween!

Well, its been about 3 weeks since my last post so I have some catching up to do! In my last post I was just starting to study at Southampton Solent. Now in my 4th week of classes...I am pretty accustomed to "Uni" life. Harvey and I are still living at his sisters, but we have found an apartment and should be moving in the next week!!! It is in Southampton, by the marina, and is about a 20-30 minute walk to Solent (University). I will definitely take some pictures to show everyone once we have moved in. Honestly, October has been slightly uneventful for me here. I have been laying a bit low this month to make up for the money I will spend when I move to the apartment. (Moving is always a bit spendy!)

I have gotten over the vacation feeling that I had for the first month I was here and now I am really settling in. When I first arrived I felt uncomfortable in a lot of situations, especially being around a lot of people. Grocery shopping, the mall,  and the train station were quite daunting places. Now, however, I am completely comfortable. Sure, I still get wierd looks as soon as I order my meal..or speak aloud in class...but I am over it. I am used to the whispering as soon as I finish speaking in class or I finish ordering my meal. Not to say that everyone does it, but it does happen. The past couple of weeks I have felt a lot better and not as homesick. Since this is my blog and I have always been a pretty honest person..I feel like I can be completely honest in my thoughts. I do miss my family and my friends and it is much harder being away from everyone and everything  than I ever could have imagined. Studying abroad is an amazing experience but it is not completely easy. Don't worry though, each day gets a bit easier and the more comfortable I feel here the happier I am!!

Even though it is Halloween today, Harvey and I celebrated this weekend. I had a girl in my class today ask me what I was doing for Halloween and when I said "nothing" she asked, "Really, but wasn't Halloween invented in America?" (No joke, that happened.)  Apparently, British people have never really celebrated Halloween to an extreme until recently. (This is what I have noticed/heard). I guess I will not expect children knocking on the door for candy. :( Anyway, Harvey and I went to the party on Saturday night as Katy Perry and Russell Brand. I made the cupcake boobs myself! Everyone else at the party dressed in scary costumes because that is how people do Halloween here, Who' da thunk?

Harvey and I are traveling to Bath next weekend for a family friends' 40th birthday party. I don't know much about Bath but I will learn because we are going to see the sites on Sunday before heading home. :)

The birthday hangover effect.

UPDATE: Today, for the first time since I have been in England I used the word mobile instead of cell when talking about phones. The worst was that I did not notice it until Grace pointed it out.....and so it begins...

This was my first week of classes at Solent. Surprisingly, since I have already spent 2 weeks at Solent I was not very nervous about my first day. The 18 year olds that I find myself in classes with, however, are. I am not going to say it is not annoying to be in classes with freshmen...but it is definitely eye-opening. Was I this obnoxious when I was a freshmen? Maybe but hopefully not.

So far what I have noticed about the English university system is that it is not extremely different from an American university. The teachers start with a syllabus the first day of class, hand out powerpoints, tell you about the online portion of the credit, etc. My schedule is a bit different though. Instead of taking 4 classes a semester and changing in December, I am taking 6 classes and they go through the entire year. I have a 3 week vacation during Christmas and another 3 week break at Easter. :) This makes me happy. I don't especially want to bore you about my classes but everyone seems to ask me about them so I will tell you! I am taking Intro to Spanish, Managing Finance, Accounting Skills, Marketing Management, Advertising Principles, and Economics in Business. They sound much more daunting than they are. I am hoping they will be a bit easier since most are first and second year classes.

I met a few people in my classes. I try to sit by girls for the most part and they are usually very sweet. As soon as they sit next to me, most of them introduce themselves. "Hiya", "You alrigh'?" is usually how the conversation starts from their end. As soon as I respond, most get excited when they realize that I am American. One girl in particular talked to me about 10 minutes before I told her I was an exchange student and she had no clue I was American. It was quite funny.

Last night Harvey and I headed to Southampton to meet some of his friends at a bar called Yuzu. A few of his girl friends were celebrating their 30th birthdays and we decided to celebrate with them. We might have celebrated a bit too hard because I am definitely hungover today. ;) To make things clear, Harvey grew up in Totton which is the town his sister lives in and many of Harvey's friends live here to this day. There are about 10 really great friends in Harvey's group and another 10-20 that he knows well and were at the party last night. It isn't exactly easy to jump in to a tight knit group of friends and it is certainly worse when you are 22, American, and do not know any of the inside jokes that have been part of their group for 10 years or more. Anyway, they are great people and all of them are really inviting. I feel lucky because in another situation I might feel awkward but all of his friends makes me feel welcome. Also, I am still new enough that they have not started taking the piss out of me yet.

Tonight Harvey's father who works in Abu Dhabi and his wife Karen are over for a Sunday roast. In fact, I can smell the food cooking right now and it smells beyond delicious. We are also watching the Buffalo Bills play the Eagles on ESPN America. NFL football is a little piece of home and I love watching it or having it on in the background while writing my blog. With all of the rugby and football (soccer) talk, it is nice to know something about a sport and not look like a complete idiot. NFL also reminds me of my dad and I imagine he is sitting at home right now watching the game. <3

Fresher's week.

Fresher's week=chaos. I was a bit spoiled on the first week of school because I was only with international students. When I arrived to school on Monday of Freshers week, things were much different. It was exciting at first..being able to see the school come to life. However, things took a turn when I discovered that I would be waiting in much longer lines with obnoxious 18 year olds. This whole week was waiting in lines and trying to figure out schedules, enrollment, campus cards, etc. It was quite a frustrating week so I am glad that it is finally over.

On Wednesday night, I went out for the first time in Southampton. Harvey and I met up with his friend Stu who works at a nightclub called JUNK. Because Stu works at JUNK, he knows a lot of people at other nightclubs as well. As we were walking to the first bar called POP, we noticed huge groups of teenagers wearing white t-shirts. Apparently, Wednesday night was "Big Night Out" for the freshmen of Solent. Hundreds of freshmen boys and girls were dressed and ready to party the night away. We were literally the only non-freshers in POP. The thing that surprised me most about going out that night were the outfits that the girls wore. The freshmen guys were dressed in their t-shirts and jeans. The freshmen girls had obviously received their t-shirts, cut them up to almost nothing, and then wore the shortest shorts and the highest heels they could find. For the small amount of girls that were not dressed in their t-shirts, they were wearing even skimpier dresses.

Here is a picture of Big Night Out at JUNK.


 I realize that it must be my conservative Midwest upbringing that makes me prude(ish). That is what I blame it on anyway. Maybe by the end of the year I will break out a mini-skirt, high heels, and an extremely low cut top when I go out....then again...probably not... I will try to be less judgemental though! Anyway, the night was pretty fun. I had school in the morning and Harvey had to work so we got the train to Totton around 1.

Harvey and I are supposed to go to a wedding tomorrow in Essex. Essex is a county and is home of the TV show called "The Only Way is Essex." I love this show....and even named my blog after it. :) Unfortunately, I am unsure if we will make the wedding tomorrow. I have school on Monday and it takes 3 hours by train to get there. The train tickets are also pretty expensive. If we don't go, we might take a walk in the New Forest tomorrow or go out to dinner with a few of Harvey's friends tonight.

Sorry if my blog has been a bit boring recently, since I am going to be here for a year I figure I have enough time to do all of the things I want to do and space them out throughout the year. The weather has been really great here so I hope to do some fun things before it gets cold!