Thanksgiving, Christmas markets, and Bournemouth

Hello guys! It has been a great couple of weeks since we last met on this blog. I am completely moved in to our new apartment. It is in Ocean Village which is a part of Southampton that is located by the marina. You can even see the sea from our balcony! :) It is lovely being settled in. It is about a 30 minute walk from the apartment to school so I need to leave plenty early for my classes. I walk everywhere here, so 2 miles or so to school does not really bother me. Hopefully I will take this habit back to the states with me.

 I decided that even though I could not be with my family in Sodak for Thanksgiving, Harvey and I would cook a huge dinner at our apartment. We invited Grace and James (you should know them by now!) and it was just the four of us. Even though many many people asked me, England does NOT celebrate Thanksgiving. I know. Its surprising. hehe.

We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cheesy beans, sweet potato casserole, corn, and even cherry pie! Everything turned out really well if I don't say so myself ;). It was delicious. I think Grace and James were particularly surprised by the sweet potato casserole and cheesy beans. Since apparently no one in their right mind makes pumpkin pie here since I looked EVERYWHERE and could not find canned pumpkin, we had cherry pie with ice cream for dessert. A very American feast with very English people.  It was lovely.

I decided to stay in England for Christmas instead of heading back to America. I will miss my family tremendously. Harvey and I also booked our flight to Abu Dhabi for New year. We will stay for about 10 days and try to make a trip to Dubai as well. There are only a few weeks of school left until Christmas break. I have a few tests and assignments but I am not overwhelmed.

Christmas Market

This past weekend Harvey and I walked into Southampton and visited the christmas market. The christmas market in Southampton consists of vendors up and down the streets. A lot of items sold are food. German sausages, sweets (candy), hog roasts, and more. Other vendors sell jewellry, hats and scarves, etc. There is also a large German beer garden in the middle of the vendors. Fun!

German Beer Garden





This past weekend, Harvey and I went to Bournemouth. Bournemouth is about 30 minutes away from Southampton by train, an hour by bus which is what Harvey and I took. Bournemouth is on the English Channel. The weather was really cold on the beach but it was beautiful. I couldn't believe it when I saw the surfers in the water. What were they thinking!! Bournemouth is also a big shopping area. We looked around for a few hours, went to an arcade an wasted a few quid, then headed home.

Bradford on Avon

This past weekend Harvey, Grace, James and I traveled to Corsham for a birthday party. Harvey's dad's wife's sister's best friend (phew!) was turning 40. Corsham is an hour car ride northwest of Southampton and is near Stonehenge and Bath. We left Saturday at 6:30 or so to make the journey. We arrived in Corsham around 8 and headed to the town hall for the birthday party.

We got a little lost but eventually found the hall and headed inside. The birthday party was like many other birthday parties. We sat with Harvey's dad Gerald and his wife Karen along with Karen's nephews Duncan and Alex and their girlfriends. We drank, we ate, and we danced. I could only laugh when songs like "Summer of 69" or the "Macarena" started playing. It just goes to show you that people from ALL countries love cheesy music!! The party only lasted until midnight and then we headed to Karen's sisters where we stayed that night. The party did not end when we arrived home, however. When I get back to America I will definitely be testing my family on the new game I learned. You take a cereal box, cut off the top and a few inches around the perimeter, then set it on the floor. Each person has to get the box with their mouths without using their hands or placing their knees on the ground. It was pretty difficult but I made it to the last round between me and Alex's girlfriend Charlotte. I never stood a chance. :)





The next morning we woke early, were made bacon sandwiches and then waited for Alex and Duncan to wake up. We ended up waiting until about noon before anyone was really ready to do anything so unfortunately I never made it to Bath. We did however head to Bradford on Avon to take a walk around the canal and then off to the pub at 4 for early dinner/late lunch.

The canal was really cool. I mean, it was really really cool. Bradford-on-Avon was one of the prettiest old towns I have ever seen. I try to hide my excitement when I go to these places. I don't want to be the tourist. However, I was enamored the entire car journey. I wish I could explain it better but going to a historic town where buildings have been around for 100's of years is so interesting. To these people who grew up here, it is just another town. To me, it is another world.


Now for the canal. You can see the boats that sit in the canal in this picture. You can rent these boats for holidays (trips) or special occasions. People have their own boats and live on them. (hippies ;)) The coolest thing I learned about the canal is the "lock." The picture on the bottom is what the lock looks like before any boats come through. Basically, it is a gate.

You have the check out the link below..It will show you how a lock system works!!

http://www.haworth-village.org.uk/nature/how/canal-lock.asp

Actual picture from Harvey's camera. Beautiful!

After the canal walk we headed to the pub where I had salmon macaroni and cheese, pita bread with hummus and other dips and a chocolate brownie for dessert. YUMMY!

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!

University, not college.

Hello family and friends! It has been a somewhat busy week for me here in the UK. I had an international meet and greet on Wednesday, the 21st of September. I was supposed to meet at the school at 10:00 am but my train was over 20 minutes late and I missed my first meeting (Oops.) It was not a big deal though, there were many meetings throughout the rest of the day that I had to sit through and become really really bored.

My first day of University was ok. They call it University here. It is never called college because college is when a Brit is 16 and 17 and is before one goes to University. They don't have 4 years of "highschool." There were about 200 international students that attended the meetings on Wednesday. I know that there was one other American, but I couldn't find her. It was a very awkward day. At my home university, Black Hills State, the international students hang out with each other. If you are Asian you hang out with Asians, Polish hang out with Polish, etc. It was EXACTLY the same on Wednesday. Languages were being spoken all around me and I did not understand any of them. Every student was looking for another student from their own country. I gave up looking for an American about halfway through the day. I don't want to be that person that only has American friends while I am in another country. I think I will try to find some british girls to talk to in class. British people are more fun anyway. (my opinion.)

On Thursday I skipped my meetings because they were pointless, and stayed home. On Friday I had to meet my international advisor and it went well. I found out that I will meet my academic advisor on Monday and get my timetable (schedule) and student card next week. Next week is Freshers week at the school which is why we don't have classes. Freshers week is a pretty big deal I think. I know that there are massive parties and clubs are crazy with students. A whole week of partying before starting classes? Why not.

O yeah, I thought I would mention that my university has 2 bars. Like, inside the university. Have an hour between classes? Just walk to the Student Union for a pint. This would never work in America in my opinion, where college students drink only to get drunk. Messy.

Boats!

It has been another week here in England. For the most part, it was not very eventful. In an effort to stop gaining weight and fit in the clothes I brought here, I started running again. I ran almost every night this past week and even though I get lost sometimes, I am starting to understand Totton a little better. Harvey and I went down to one of his favorite pubs on Friday night called the farmhouse and had a few drinks and food. The farmhouse is a chain so it is not a unique pub but the food and drinks are cheap!

On Saturday, Harvey and I headed to Southampton. Our first stop was to walk the route from the train startion to Southampton Solent, the school I will be attending. This Wednesday the 21st, I have my international induction programme at Solent. It starts at 10:00 am and I will have to take the train from Totton to Southampton and then walk to the school. I did not have a chance to see the inside of Solent yet, but the outside is modern. Fortunately, the school is not especially large. I am extremely nervous about Wednesday and have no idea what to expect but I am also very excited!

Our next stop of the day was to look for apartments in Central Southampton. We want to be close to Harvey's work and my school so being in the center of town is our best location. We went to a rental agency and have a viewing this weekend so hopefully we can get into an apartment by October.

Around 1pm we headed to the boat show! Southampton is a port city as I have stated before and have an annual boat show each year. This is a HUGE boat show. Mostly its comprised of vendors, but once you get to the docks you can see at least a hundred boats on display. Obviously I am not extremely interested in boats but the best part of the show for me was walking out on the docks. The view was beautiful. It was a windy day so the ocean water was rushing pretty rapidly and would spill onto the docks. I just wanted to sit down and put my feet in the sea! Another highlight was seeing the cruise ships that port in Southampton. There was one you could get really close to and I decided that I was definitely going to book a cruise while I am here.

Harvey's brother in law James welcomed his parents to town on Sunday afternoon. They are from Cornwall which Grace jokes should be its own country. The only thing I know about Cornish people is that their accent is very difficult to understand and also they make a great pasty! Cornish pasties are DELICIOUS! I am hoping his mom makes some while she is here. :) On Sunday night we headed to a pub/restaurant that I had never been called "The Empress of Blanding." It was named after a pig. Absolutely none of this made sense to me. Why someone would name their pig and why name their pub after a pig, I did not ask. However, the pub was really cool. We all got starters, mains, and desserts. The bill was 174 between 7 of us. (Pretty reasonable for 3 courses) The pub was decorated beautifully and also had quotes written on parts of the walls. I posted my favorite below.