Beautiful, Trashy Leeds

BLOGGING LOCATION: This sounds ridiculous, but I'm sun-tanning whilst blogging from my room. I told you it was ridiculous.

.:Trashy:.
The title is not meant to sound as harsh as it is, but it's true... because the bin men (trash collectors) are currently on strike here... I'm guessing it will take some disease or epidemic to break out before somebody does something about it. And that concludes the current events portion of my blog!


.:My Latest Experiences In a Nutshell:.
I've only been in Leeds for a week, in the UK for a bit less than a week and a half, and since then, I've gotten myself lost in an airport, misplaced some of my belongings, been emotionally prodded at by home-sickness, been in the presence of the Holy Spirit at the local church I found called Gateway, bought my own kitchen/living supplies, been bum-rushed by a hobo in an enclosed bus stop, karaoke'd to Backstreet Boys' "Everybody", bought a replacement computer and had rugby explained to me in a Birmingham accent. Truly a full week.



At Costa Coffee with my pal Kayla



Night out with the EAP group!

.:Why On Earth Are You Doing This To Yourself?:.
People ask me why I chose to study abroad. It is none of these reasons:
a. Bring a cute foreign boy home
b. Pick up a different language/accent
c. Party because the drinking age is lower
My honest-to-God answer is that I need to grow up! I've never really been really independent for a long period of time. So far, in Leeds, I've already been put to the test, but more trials to come... Anyways, onward!

.:My Flat:.
So, here apartments are called flats. I'm just a few plates, a knife and a cutting board short of being settled in (if you want to count it that way). I've met all my flatmates and luckily for me they're decent people. From now on, when I refer to my flatmates, I mean 1 girl from Spain, 3 UK guys, and a partridge in a pear tree. Just about all of us are suffering from Freshers (freshmen) Flu at the moment, as are a lot of the other UC EAP people I came over with. I think we're managing quite well though. THINK POSITIVE.

Thistle Do Nicely: Small Update About Updates

I apologize for the terrible lack of updates! I'm completely disappointed in myself. However there is a reason: with a big trip such as mine, there are bound to be big surprises that God just springs upon us, good or bad. One of mine is that I left my laptop on a train. I know it's happening for a reason, but I'm yet to find out what that reason is.
Will post more later. Off to a meeting with the Communications department! Can't be late. PUNCTUALITY.

Hello & Goodbye Edinburgh!

So at the moment I'm sitting in the hotel lobby mooching off WiFi from somewhere... and as my luck will have it, my converter blew. Here I was quietly blogging, and not harming a soul in the world and then *POP*! Having been to L.A. and such and living close enough to it, I don't really notice gun-shot-like sounds until I recall that all electronics have a vengeance against me. Turning my head, I see an orderly and well-behaved little pillar of smoke, my very own smoke signal to get the awaiting sprinklers to do their jobs, unleash their showers and evacuate everyone in the building. Luckily that didn't happen and I don't think Scotland wants me deported... yet. Who knew that my converter isn't for laptops? The guy at the store, I guess.
Good news: I'm electrocution free. Thank God. I've borrowed a converter from the hotel, but it doesn't appear to be working. >.<

I saw Tilda Swinton at Heathrow airport in her silk pj pants, bleach blonde diva hair and crazy-cool glasses. Yay for Hollywood teaching me to spot celebrities... now if only I could make money doing this...

Alongside that event, I went to the wrong terminal, almost missed my connecting flight because they changed gates AND planes and didn't notify anyone (maybe just for fun). Oh, and I can tell that the UK absolutely adores me already. I've been pretty much the loudest person around. Who knew?

The past two days have been facilitated by the lovely EAP people. They've helped arranged meals and tours for us (and of course it's paid by us, but in advance, so it kinda feels like it's free-- it's an illusion like a financial mirage-oasis in a dark, cold desert-- by the way, I love Edinburgh's weather, so not bashing that in the slightest).

On Monday, we took a ghost tour with the Mercat Tours and went into some underground tunnels. A tad cheesy, but still creepy. Edinburgh has a history of body snatching, whether it be exhuming bodies from graves or serial killing. I didn't get to see any ghosts or get beat up by any (the tour guide told us that one of her tourists got slapped over the face by a local angry haunt named "Mr. Boots"). I took a few pictures and caught an orb in one (Google orbs if you're not familiar with this crazy phenom). One of my EAP pals caught one there as well.

On Tuesday we got the pleasure of visiting Edinburgh castle and I caught another orb on camera in the chapel! Me and a couple other gals also watched this street comedian/magician:


Meet Todd Various. Not only is he a great magician and performer, he's also good at convincing people to give donations. He's from Florida, despite the very Scottish or Irish likes of him. I wonder if he was peeved that I gave him American currency...

In terms of the food here, it's not bad. It's not the most amazing stuff, but I'm so suited to American-style food (extra salty, extra sweet, what have you). I've had a panini, lentil soup, chicken tikka kebobs, chicken bhuna, pizza, and various kinds of little deserts. I've also had apple cider. Don't freak out-- I'm not an alcoholic and never will be (in fact, I'm allergic to the stuff: symptoms include the Asian glow, dizziness and a slight itch), but here's something that throws off most tourists: the drinking culture is very, very different and in many ways, these people are more responsible about it. They'll drink any hour of the day, but not to get so wasted they can't see straight or remember the what odd food they had the night before resulting in a horrible sickness (that does happen, but it's not usually the goal). Even after the cider, I still think it smells funny.

My battery is running very very low due to the not working charger, so I will add more later and post some pictures when I get my computer situated! Meanwhile, I'm catching the train to Leeds tomorrow! It's been great Edinburgh, so see you soon!

Cheers!

Not Much To See Here... Yet :)

So I'm still in the process of preparing to pack. (Yes, you heard right, preparing to pack.) I still have a 9 days in the wonderful land known as Southern California and my home. Part of my preparation involves creating this blog and I just finished designing a few of these graphics here. I hope you enjoy it!

Most people have no idea where Leeds is, so I'll show you:

It's in northern England and a good 3-4 hours train ride from London, or so I'm told. I chose Leeds for a couple reasons: it's a good-sized city heavily populated by college students, the living cost isn't quite as expensive as London, and one of it's top departments is Communication (my major at UCSD). I will also be able to study Economics (my minor), Design and Business while I'm there (added bonus!). I would also like to study some sort of performing arts, but I read that it's very difficult to get in, so we'll see what happens...

I'll post more as the date (Sept 13th/14th) arrives and then you'll get to suffer my inane quips and potentially laughable mishaps. Til then, peace and thanks for reading!

-Raechel