Your ticket does not apply

So those of you that know me pretty well know that I tend to get lost pretty frequently! Well you would think that I would struggle in the UK, but this weekend I was very proud for finding my way around. Portsmouth (the school I go to) is about a 1 1/2 hour train ride from London. Well on Saturday I went to go meet my dad at the Heathrow airport in London. He is going to Nigeria and had a layover for a day in London.

Well on my travels I got an all day pass to take all train routes in London. I ended up having to take a total of 3 trains to meet my dad (and I navigated everything myself thank you!!!!). Well you know me, something always seems to happen. I get on the final train, and they come around and check your tickets to see if you paid. Well again proud of myself for not loosing my ticket (since I do tend to loose things a lot), the guy looks at my ticket and says this is not valid on this train. I was on an express train and apparently they are a private train so my ticket did not apply! I was like “um I did not know that, my ticket got me into the station, so I was not aware it did not work!” He then was like I am going to have to charge you 19 pounds and fifty pence! Ahh are you kidding me, I already spent 21 pounds and 30 pence for this trip and now you are going to charge me more! You all are probably like no big deal but keep in mind the conversion rate, 19 pounds and fifty pence is really about $30! So that put me in a bad mood, I was so pissed because I was proud of myself for finding my way, but mad because I got on the wrong train and had no idea! Oh well, you live and you learn I suppose! But my day got better because I got to see my dad, and he brought me my contacts (which of course I forgot at home), and a new ipod!! Yay!

My time in London was not too long we went and ate at a Chinese restaurant, did some shopping, and then I headed back on the train to go to Portsmouth. I got back to Portsmouth around 9:30, and met up with some of the international girls. We hung out at Frida and Sarah’s (Swedish girls) flat, and then proceeded to head to Babylon. The club is known to play all the 90’s hits. We get in to the club and it is definitely not “my type” of club. Let just say there were some WEIRD people in this club (a range from 50 year old drunk women/men, emo college kids, a guy dressed in a peguine suite, to slutty girls drunk off who knows what). I was like whatever I will make it fun, so it was a fun night of jamming to some 90’s hits with the other girls. BUT I will not be going back to that club!

After the club we went to Ken’s Fried Chicken (the only thing open), it’s a spin off of Kentucky Fried Chicken..lol! Can you believe McDonald’s closes at 11, but wait Subway is open till 3, interesting!??!

We had to eat outside because some of us got subway and some of us got Ken’s (they have security at the door). So outside we meet random English people. They were nice, but there was another group of people near us and a fight broke out. One kid was punching this other kid hardcore in the head! I was a little freaked out, so I called a cab and went home haha!

Otherwise that is really all going on with me. I will be taking a hip hop class every Monday! Last week we learned a dance to Justin Timberlake (I will show you all upon my arrival back to the States)!!, so I can’t wait to see what we learn this week! Also on Monday (the hot night to go out here, kinda like the Rusty Lizard on Wednesdays lol) we went on a pub crawl! It was fun, except we didn’t really end up going to any pubs that I have not been to haha but I still had fun!

I went to Vwarhe’s last week (this girl is a cooking machine). She taught me how to make jellof rice (a Nigerian dish)! I can’t wait to cook for my parents; I think they would be impressed I know how to make it! And on Friday I went over to Kristina’s and Corynnes and checked out their flat and watched the movie Australia. We all got tired so we only watched the first half, so we must finish the second half soon!

Well that’s all I have over here in the UK! Miss everyone!! Talk to me on Skype!!

Will you be my Girlfriend?

On Thursday I went to Vwarhe’s and had stir fry it was very good! She has been overly nice in showing me around and giving me tips on how to get by in Portsmouth. I also met Vwarhe’s two roomies, and it was so cute! They had never met an American before (don’t worry I’m giving America a good name)! And you will never believe this they love the way “I” or “American’s” talk and I told them I loved the way “they” talked! So maybe I shall learn the British way from them haha.

So this weekend, Valentines weekend wahooooo (well not so much if your single) lol….Well people it was another valentineless weekend for me, booooo! One day when I’m 80 I’ll have a valentine I guess better late then never though right?!

Oh you just gotta love clubbing on valentines day! So the evening started off with dinner, then off to Chamali’s for a house warming party/pregame before liquid/envy.

When we arrived at the club the bottom floor was called liquid and it played techno style music it was ok but we wanted to dance to you know “hip” music. We danced downstairs for an hour until I realized a sign for envy upstairs and I suggested we check it out! To our surprise Envy was where it was at (the music was so much better)!

So I had lots of fun dancing the night away! Nothing too crazy happened (except for of course my CRAZY dancing haha) Some guy kept bugging me and said that I am so beautiful and need to be his girlfriend, I replied with a sarcastic um You!?? I don’t think so (he actually wasn’t too bad looking, he had an exotic look but seemed like a total creeper)…but OF COURSE he didn’t get the hint and kept dancing with me after I rejected him so I finally just walked away but he followed me, but I was eventually able to get rid of him with the assistance of Fnaan (a girl from Amsterdam)!! There is also a girl with us who is muslim who had a scarf on and he kept asking me if she was muslim, I was like use your common sense ahhh he was SO annoying!

Oh did I mention I can count how many cute “British” boys I have seen on one hand…its kinda depressing, I was expecting cute Brits left and right lol, apparently I need to go to London to find cute boys though ha ha! BUT EUREKA, I finally saw a cute boy who was totally my type (bad boy of course) he had his ears pierced which i love, he asked me to dance towards the end of the night and I had fun with him, but we kinda got pushed our separate ways by the crowd, I tried to find him but couldn’t , so just my luck I finally see a cute “British” boy but have no idea his name or anything! Oh well!!

Next week I do not have anything too crazy in store! On Monday I plan on taking a hip hop dance class, then some of the international students are going on a pub crawl (to check out some of the bars/clubs in Portsmouth), we have to wear something that represents where we are from, so I’ll probably be wearing red white and blue haha go USA! Other than that I need to do some reading for my seminars!

Thanks for all the emails, messages, and keeping up with my blog everyone! Getting all your messages and what not keeps me grounded and less homesick! I’m meeting wonderful people and having a great time, but at the same time it is nice to hear from the people back at home! I miss everyone so much!! I will update soon! Who knows what will be in store for me this week!

There is always a catch

God is very brilliant. When you drink alcohol you get drunk and have a good time, but the next morning you get sick or have a hangover. When you smoke cigarettes you get a buzz, but a few years later you'll get lung cancer or have breathing issues. When you eat burgers, fries or any other foods that taste so good, you will end up making you fat, or have a heart attack later.

Well there is a catch to my schooling in the UK. So far I'm having a great time, I've gone to some pubs, and I have had excellent food but that all takes money(its more expensive here) and time. What I'm trying to get at is my class schedule. So I end up hardly actually being in the classroom. The way the British do it I have a lecture and seminar each for 50 minutes so for each class you go two hours a week. So my total classtime ends up being 8 hours a week. I'm taking 40 credits which equates to 12 hours back in the states so four different classes. The seminars consist of understanding the lecture better, making presentations, discussing readings or other interactive activities that you must do outside of class preparation. There is another catch though I don't actually have test, quizzes or midterms like in the state Wahoooooooo NO STUDYING haha (but booooo on all the assignments throughout the semester i will have, and keeping up with loads of reading). I am evaluated either by essay questions at the end of the term that cover everything in the semester or by a project. But from what I have been hearing if I keep up with the reading I should be fine (hahahahah if you catch my drift). But the essays and projects are time consuming and difficult ( word on the street).

But being in the classroom during lectures many things are very foreign to me. The way the british spell or prounounce certain things are very different than American English. And even on one of the slides my professor was going over the word orginazation was spelled with a Z and he was like sorry for the American spelling because they spell it with a s (orginisation), although that is a very minor example. In addition there are businesses or places in England they talk about that I have no clue what it is. For instance my professor was talking about Curry's I thought it was perhaps a food store, but to my surprise its actually Curry's digital so they sell electronics!

Oh and let me tell you another interesting fact so lemonade you would think when you order it would be freshly squeezed from lemon. Well what I have found is that in the UK and Europe lemonade is "sprite" or "7up" here, I have realized this because I ordered a lemonade and got a sprite and when I told the waiter I ordered lemonade they were like umm that is a lemonade, and gave me a perplexed look...oh the glories of "culture".

But, so far so good! Its a bit funny though because so far all my friends have been international students! Which they all are so nice and friendly, and I am enjoying their company. I also love the fact that I have been able to meet wonderful poeople from Amsterdam, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany and other countries (and I have never interacted with people from there) so its a great learning experience of different cultures, and thats part of why I wanted to have this experience. What I have learned is that in Demark you go to school for free but the catch is you have very high taxes (I think its about 50% taxes, WOW!) or in Amsterdam you pay about 100 Euro's per month (about $165 US Dollars) per month for healthcare, but when you go to the doctor its free ( no copay, or payment for surgeries), but the doctors evaluate you very thorougly to make sure something is wrong, but they have high taxes as well. So its been great seeing how other governments operate.

Another thing that makes me laugh is that all the international students love American television! They end up watching everything online and they are so fascinated its so cute! They also say I am so lucky to turn on the television and get so may shows (although I don't even know some of the shows they speak of because all I watch is MTV, and One tree Hill)!

Ps. speaking of MTV someone PLEASE email me and update me on the real world due to copywright restrictions when i go online to watch it I can't!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(

Also today I was able to see Vwarhe, Amy, and Andrew who were all at Western last semester so they were able to help me and tell me all about Portsmouth!! It was soo good to see familiar faces from "home".

Well like always I will update soon! I think the plan this weekend is to go out clubbing so I'm sure I will have fun stories to write about. As they say here Cheers!!! :)

This would happen to me

So let’s just say my travels to the UK was very hectic. So we get onto the flight, and everything went pretty well, I sat next to a lady whose son lives in London and she was telling me all about what he does and her favorite places to go when she visits….

I got an MRI on my back a few days before my trip and it showed that I had a bulging disc and pinched nerve in my back because I can’t stand or sit without my butt burning, so of course on the flight boy oh boy was my butt/back burning the entire flight (very uncomfortable).

However my butt burning was the least of my worries, usually when I fly I always get a feeling of nausea and really bad headache, and this flight was no different. About an hour into the flight they brought us dinner (pasta, salad and bread) I tried the pasta and it was good but since I felt so bad I didn’t have appetite, the only thing I could eat was lettuce without dressing.

They finally came to pick up our trays and that’s when I started to feel extremely bad, a feeling overcame me like I was going to throw up so in the front of my seat I grabbed the barf bag, of course it had gum sticking to it but all of a sudden the throw up came! I was able to get most of the throw up into the bag, but the barf bags are paper so what do you know it burst! So there I was on the flight with throw up everywhere. It got onto my backpack, onto my pillow, on my sweatshirt, on my scarf, on my ipod it was a disaster. My dad came on the trip with me and he was sitting a few rows in front, he was awesome in helping me clean up, he helped me clean my pillow and sweatshirt and what not in the sink in the bathroom. Thank goodness he was there with me, or it would have been far worse.

The lady sitting beside me was able to find a different seat, I felt bad for everyone around me if they witnessed me throwing up because even myself was grossed out! But the entire time I was just thinking to myself wow this WOULD happen to me! It was so embarrassing because I could smell the throw up on my backpack when exiting the plane and I was like oh lord. We are spending the first few days with my dad’s cousin so I was able to wash everything! Phew!

Well what a great start to my trip (being sarcastic). However finally arriving at the Heathrow airport in London and hearing all the British accents, and seeing the cars on opposite side of the roads I realized I’m really here! I’m really in England and I can’t be more excited! I go to my school tomorrow and start orientation, then start school on Monday (February 9^th)! I will update soon again! Miss everyone back in the states (especially my KKSB).