Lessons Learned

I felt so healthy at breakfast eating my strawberry jam toast and granny smith apple. With only one class today, I had some time to myself to get some things organized. I managed to e-reserve three books in the library that will hopefully be ready to pick up tomorrow. One of them is actually a textbook I need for class, so if I'm really lucky I'll be able to have the book checked out for the entire semester (with lots of renewals in between), which would save me some money. Tomorrow morning before class I'll also probably stop by the library and figure out how to print things out; the professors/tutors here put all their lecture notes and PowerPoint slides online, so we can just print them out beforehand and bring them to class. It's nice not having to scribble down a bazillion words at the speed of light.

Because I already have my first group presentation to give on Thursday in Financial Reporting, I met up with my group members after class to knock it out. I was not looking forward to talking about corporate governance or remuneration committees to people who have been studying it for years. Heck, I didn't even know what those words meant until a few days ago! But of course the meeting wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated; the two other girls in my group were super nice. One is from Sunderland, the other from Newcastle. Although I'm sure I was the epitome of the stupid American, I couldn't help but ask them question after question. This was my first chance to have an extended conversation with real English folks and find out what it's like to live in the UK. By the end of the hour and a half meeting, we had finished the PowerPoint, and I had found out that English girls aren't too different from us American girls! They talk about the same things (like boyfriends and clothes and how much they like/dislike their professors), just in a much cooler accent than me :)

Another trip to Aldi resulted in breakfast foods, Nutella (!!!), sugar, and a few more frozen dinners. **note to self: make sure you bring enough cash, because Aldi does not like my American credit or debit card. Something about it not having a "chip" inside.** I did, however, finally got my sweet tea fix!! I had to eyeball everything because we don't have any measuring cups yet, and I had never made only 1.5 liters of tea before, but I think it turned out alright. It's so weird being the "southern girl" of the flat, because at home I'm usually the one that tries to disassociate herself as much as possible from the south. There are some people from Maryland, West Virginia, and Washington state, but I'm the only one who drinks sweet tea and knows about the glories of Bojangles and Cookout. And of course the other girls from Germany and France haven't a clue about it.

- Tax is included in everything you buy here. It's so nice.

- Also, people only tip at restaurants/pubs if the staff was exceptionally good.

- Because I'm so much farther north than I was back home, I get about an hour and a half less of daylight. Combine that with an 90% chance of cloudiness on any given day and you'll start to miss the sun.

- If you describe someone as being a "knob," it basically means that they are a jerk, as in the sentence, "He became a knob, so I broke up with him!"

- People from Sunderland are called "Mackems," and they live on the River Wear. People from Newcastle are called "Geordies," and they live on the River Tyne. Even though it's the same river and there are practically no differences between the two groups, you better be really careful that you don't get them mixed up. These are VERY proud people.