Hello from Cold, Wet and Grey Colchester

Hey there! Did you miss me? I'll pretend you just said yes.

Well I made it to Colchester in one piece and after 2 flights and 2 busses, had most of my first terribly English sock done. After standing in lines for registration and mandatory check-ups by a very odd British doctor, I got it done! But who really wants to hear about socks right now, right? (They are the Picadilly Circus socks by the way...the pattern is Jaywalker from Grumperina)

Classes start monday and as of right now, I am currently signed up for 2 lit. classes, 1 history and 1 film. Ideally I'd like to be in a different history class so that it transfers back to Purdue as a core class, but I'm still working on that. I just got internet in my room last night, so things are starting to come together...slowly but surely. *These are the flatmates that have moved in already. We'll get a few more within the next couple days. Joe is the one I'm next to...he's a manwhore in the making.*

It's amazing how difficult it is to do things here. They'll get easier with time, I'm sure but it's the little things like going to the grocery and turning on an oven that I just can't figure out. It's learning to live life all over again. I feel like I'm wearing a post-it in my forehead at all times that says, "I'm American and I have no idea what I'm doing here." Yesterday the flatmates (the ones that are here so far...there's about 10 of us right now) went to Tesco, which is the Queen's Wal*mart and bought food. But getting there was a half-hour walk and then lugging our groceries back was not all that fun. I really miss being able to get in the car, go to the grocery and drive back home in 15 minutes flat. Now if I need to do something, I better have all day to do it.

Campus is nice, and very compact, which will be very nice when it gets colder than it is now (It gets COLDER? Are you SERIOUS?) and all of my classes can be walked to in 5 minutes flat. There's a pub and a nightclub on campus and a store for stocking up on things like toiletpaper (loo-roll) and non-perishables (curry flavoUred ramen noodles). But to get anything other than toiletries and noodles, you have to walk to Tesco. Bleh...

I really can't wait for classes to start so that some type of normalcy can be obtained. Plus one of my classes is about Fairy tales, and not the Disney kind and I'm so excited for it.

That's about it for now. Still just wandering campus and trying to figure out how to live life the British way. May go down to the pub for a snakebite later (you must try one, they are beer, cider and blackcurrant concentrate. Delicious. Will knock you on your ass much faster than you think.)

Oh! And a new terribly British project: My Trafaglar Squares. The first person to guess what they are (pattern, not just a random noun) gets a terribly British gift over Christmas break!

Cheers!

(Should you feel the need to send me souvenirs from home (ie sock yarn and Hershey bars) one would send it to this address:)

Paige

William Morris Tower, Floor 6 room 4

University of Essex

Wivenhoe Park

Colchester

Essex

C04 3SQ

(The British are very keen on long addresses, walking sticks, fish and chips and mumbling if that explains anything)