Saturday Nights Spent Blogging in a Tiara

After a Saturday spent resting, watching Orange is the New Black, food shopping I now feel the need to update my blog with both recent events and adventures along with some internal musings about life in the UK. I even made a list of topics to cover. Yes, my gold is showing.

Brace yourselves, lots of words are coming. 

Alright. So one of the goals that I have for my time in England is to see as many Shakespeare plays performed as possible and on Thursday I had plans to see a live broadcast of Coriolanus (STARRING TOM HIDDLESTON) at the local cinema with one of the friends I made here. We were both so excited to see the play because of its Shakespeare origin, Tom Hiddleston, and the fact that it would be a live broadcast and we were dressed up super cute and had brought Jammie Dodgers along as our treat. HOWEVER, due to technical difficulties the cinema was unable to broadcast the play and so there was a mass exodus of saddened/angered Shakespeare-loving Britons (and at least two American English majors). Our only solace was the fact that we would be going to one of the local pubs for dinner that evening.... Until our hearts were crushed when the attractive bartender told us that the kitchen had closed when we finally wandered in at 9:30 p.m. Frustrated and hangry we were forced to return to the flat to scrounge for food and send snapchats to friends from home about our sadness. 

This still does not accurately capture or represent our feels. 

With heavy hearts we accepted the fact that our wonderful Thursday of wonderful plans had sadly become The-Day-When-Every-Thing-Went-Wrong. That was until my flatmates decided that we should be more spontaneous and go out for the night (note that this was decided at 12:30 a.m.). While I was absolutely exhausted at my lecture the next morning, I am really glad that my flatmates decided that we all go out. Everyone had been having either a terrible day or a terrible week that could only be cured by singing/screaming along with Ke$ha. 

Speaking of my flatmates, I should really get on with talking a bit about flat life. We technically live in one of the residence halls that is provided by UoG but it is super different from the halls I've grown used to at MU. There are 9 students living in my flat, 5 English and 4 American, and each of us have a bedroom with a bathroom (bless!) to ourselves and a kitchen we all have to share. I am really so, so glad to have been placed on my flat because the English students are all pretty close as friends and they have been super welcoming to us Americans. We'll watch movies, go out, shop, adventure, eat, laugh, and dance together and it really feels like we have a wonderful little community together! We've also adopted one of my other American friends as an honorary flatmember because her flat is unfriendly and, in her words, "full of ghosts." I can't help but worry a little bit about this happiness simply being a "honeymoon period" and ending in the next few weeks (I seriously blame my Res Life brain for this!) but I don't think this will happen because we're three weeks in and already on such good terms!

While I'm so glad that I've made friends with my flatmates, I really hope that I can make other English friends else where. One of the downfalls about living in my flat is that all of the English students in my hall are all "freshers" (ie. first-years) and two years younger than me. While I haven't had a problem with immaturity, I can't help but want to talk or meet with people my own age and one of the only places I can do that is while in class. When I first started classes at Uni I felt so, so awkward because not only was I the novelty American student that everyone threw sideways glances at but some of my classes run throughout the whole year and since I'm here for Spring term I was literally dropping in on the middle of a class full of people who have already bonded and made friends with one another. For the first time in years I didn't act like a total Hermione Granger in class because of how uncomfortable I would feel when I spoke (which was really hard because I'm taking courses that I really, really love! Like literature and art history!). However, now that I'm three weeks in it's getting easier to make friends and I'm finally greeted with a few friendly and smiling faces! Now I simply need to get used to the fact that classes actually exist which is hard because I only have two hours of lecture per day for four days a week and very little homework. My course load is so light compared to last semester (which is really good considering how awful the past fall was!) and I sometimes forget about the "study" part of studying abroad. 

While most people would be really pleased with so much free time I'm still struggling to figure out what to do with myself here. If I was still at home I would have a plethora a tasks on my "to-do list" -- Res Life activities, newspaper editing, paintings to paint, people across campus to visit, you name it! Now I'll get home from lecture and sit in front of my computer and either watch movies or look at Facebook and long for my friends from home to talk to me if no one in my flat is available. This time missing people from home was really disheartening when I first got here, but now it's actually become a nice thing. I've enjoyed having some quiet time to myself or having the change to go on a quick adventure into town (so long as I have my umbrella!). And I've also made friends here that I can be social with (either by going out somewhere or just talking in their room) when I have moments when I need to be with people. I'm also really glad that my friends from home and I are still able to keep in touch and talk and laugh. Again, I'm can't help but worry a little bit (who am I kidding, I'm a constant puddle of worry!) because I've seen people who have studied abroad and have lost touch with their people at home which makes for a difficult transition back. Thankfully I have messages like this to calm me down. 

The front is Union-Jack-tastic and says "Keep Calm and Carry On." It's kinda perf. 

Right now I'm just trying to do my best to maintain a balance between my two homes. I want to be as social and as connected to life in England and to the people here as much as possible while also maintaining my connections to people at home. So far I've gotten pretty good at this balancing act and I just have to remind myself of all of the awesome opportunities I have by being here.

One such opportunity is a three-week long spring break that I am now beginning to plan! If everything works out correctly I will be spending the days between April 4th and April 18th traveling by train to Paris, Venice, Vienna, Prague, and Amsterdam with my friend Rebecca (the same friend I tried to go to Coriolanus with). I'm so excited to go traveling with her because we are interested in visiting and exploring similar things like the Louve, the Van Gogh Museum, the old haunts of artists and authors, and more! At some point when we are in Paris we hope to be found by Parisians riding in a Model-T to take us back in time to the Twenties. I also hope to make it to Spain once again during the term to visit Madrid and Barcelona once again and to find my way to Rome so that I can cry in the Sistine Chapel for fifteen minutes. I will not be happy unless I return home with stamps in my passport from at least ten countries. 

At last I have finally crossed all of my topics of interest off of my list! Tomorrow I will be traveling with other international students to Birmingham for the Chinese New Year so prepare yourselves for plenty of information about the art museum I'll visit and all of the Chinese food I will eat. And plenty of pictures. 

Much love, 

Emily