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
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