After being nagged by agitated fans I finally agreed to cave in and write another blog. Sorry! I just didn't have much to write about for the month of August and September as it consisted of me couch surfing with family friends and relatives throughout England. At the beginning of September my parents were able to come into London to visit since my dad happened to have a show to attend for his work for a week and my mum happily tagged along. After, we were supposed to enjoy a relaxing few days on a southern spanish beach but we were cursed with horrid weather and there was a massive storm which wiped out any and all options for us to get a suntan. Shame. Consequently, we went to Paris instead, yaaaayyyy, which was the second time for me in one summer. Awesome. I slept in and worked out in the hotels fitness facility while my parents did all of the touristy things and then met up with them for the meals. It was lovely to see the 'rents though and i'm glad they got to come out for quite a while, even if we didnt get the vaca we had hoped.
I was dropped off in London after our Paris trip to meet up with my study abroad program. It was so much fun to meet all the students and have a couple more nights out in soho before we took off for Canterbury. I met some lovely girls both in and out of my schools program all who I stay in touch with! Jessica and Houston from IFSA-Butler both go to school with me and we are quite the team. Jess is from AZ and Houston is not from Houston. She's from Alabama. It's hilarious when we introduce ourselves to brits at school as the conversation usually goes something like this:
-So where are you from?
Houston- Im from Alabama
-OMG like the song!! Sweet Home Alabama! (starts singing song)...or scenario 2: Oh like Forest Gump!! Love that movie.
Me- I'm from California
-ooooo California!! Where in California?
Me- Orange County...
-WOW!!! Like The Hills? And Laguna Beach? Very famous, thats amazing!
Jessica-I'm from Arizona
-....wheres that?
This is fairly standard and if I had a quarter for every time this scenario played out there is a fair chance that I may be able to buy something cool, like my own island or jet or maybe just the world. Anyway the entire first week was orientation and was full of themed events which catered to our every desire. Campus was one giant party and unlike America, you can legally drink when you're young...basically when you can see over the bar. This means that there is no shortage of bars on campus and you drink constantly...no, really...for example it's Monday night and everyone is out at the bars. I don't know how their livers handle it. My birthday was Monday of orientation so I lucked out and pretty much had a built in party. Although, I wish it had been later in the week because I hadn't gotten a chance to meet many people yet but throughout the night I easily recruited some new friends to join us. This includes some guy with a giant inflatable banana. Priceless. Just like God did on the 7th day, tuesday was my day of rest x 1000 and it was much needed. Throughout the week we went downtown to Canterbury to take a tour of the Cathedral and after we went to the pub for a pint, is that unethical? The brits do it so we figure when in Rome...The city of Canterbury is everything I expected and more. It is beautiful & quaint but it also has every necessity...like Topshop, H&M and a mexican restaurant with good food and margaritas. Those are all necessities. My school sits up on the hill and overlooks the town and on a nice day our massive field will be crawling with students hanging out and enjoying the ambiance. The campus is big and takes up many
many acres but it doesn't take too long to walk to class, maybe ten minutes or so. I live in the Parkwood flats which is a (no so) little community of apartments which house freshers (freshman) and international students. My flat is shared with 4 other girls, two are from france and two are from california. I was a bit bummed because I was hoping to live with some brits, specifically hot men, but they usually stick the internationals together...who, may I add, make up 30% of this campus! In fact, most of my new friends are not british simply because everyone is from somewhere else. Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose?This past weekend I had volleyball tryout and guess what? I made the team! haha They definitely aren't up to American university standards and people actually asked me if I play professionally. I can tell already that this season is going to be incredibly fun as both the mens and womens team have great chemistry. It will be nice to have a proper scrimmage with guys! Its nice to be back on the court again as I haven't played in 8 MONTHS because of my mono. During the tryouts I literally forgot how to do my standard jump serve and made myself look like a bumbling idiot! It took me five minutes to even figure out the footwork and got so frustrated I probably nearly busted my spleen. Don't fret, I didn't really, and I eventually figured it out. More practice needed though, my vert has gone down more than I want to admit... On a positive note the president of the club suggested I try out for the England Uni squad, a kind of national team I think. Im busting my butt to get back into shape again so maybe my pro beach dreams aren't so far off after all.
First day of class, so far so good, minus my polisci prof convincing the class the the 9/11 attacks and apollo landing were conspiracies. Could have done without that one. But I like taking international relations & politics courses...maybe it should have been my major?? I love it here and I feel like i'm not going to want to leave when the time comes. I'm trying not to think about that :-( All in all, i'm incredibly happy!
ttfn,
-V
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