Super Bowl Sunday

**note to self: never go grocery shopping on a Sunday **

Apparently the buses don't run on Sundays (at least not the free ones), so my flatmates and I took a 25ish-minute trek to the Bridges to get our grocery shopping done for the week. It's so wild, they have two grocery stores and an international market inside of a mall, so it really is a one-stop shopping center! You can get your groceries, clothes, beauty supplies, electronics, and pretty much anything you can think of all within a one- or two-block radius. Some of my groceries included: frozen meals, granny smith apples, strawberry jam, tea bags, a baking sheet, and a small pitcher for making sweet tea.

I woke up to the sound of another maintenance guy banging on the door... somehow, the doorknob in the lobby keeps falling off every time we use it (it's actually quite funny, having to pick up the doorknob off the floor whenever you want to leave, then just watching it fall back down once you've left). He wasn't able to fix it today but tomorrow they'll send someone with the right tools to replace it. I might have slept wrong last night, because I pulled a shoulder muscle in the shower this morning and I haven't really been able to function properly since then (if you don't know me that well, you'll soon learn that I am an expert at injuring myself). The pulled muscle made carrying 10 or 15 pounds of groceries across town a bit more uncomfortable than I would have liked, but I survived. Although ibuprofen (and most every other medicine) makes me break out for some strange reason, I'm thinking I'll be taking some very soon.

Tonight is the Super Bowl! It's a shame that practically none of the pubs here will be showing it though, and with good reason; kickoff wouldn't be until 11:30 pm local time, and Sunday nights aren't exactly a big party night for these Englishmen. I'm not a huge Giants or Patriots fan, but it's the one time of the year I actually look forward to watching the commercials. Even if I were to find a pub that was staying open late enough to show it, my friend Katie noted that they would probably have different commercials here anyway, which I hadn't even thought of. So I suppose I'll just stay updated on the game via people's status on Facebook, and catch up on the commercials once they get uploaded to Youtube in a few days. Thank the Lord for modern day technology!

It's officially been a week since I first arrived, but it seems like it's been ages. I feel like I know my flatmates so well already, I can almost predict what they'll say occasionally. I've come a long way since my first night. Last Sunday, I regretted coming over here and felt like I had made a huge mistake. But now that I'm finally getting settled in a bit more, I can tell that this is going to be a good semester. I'm presented with new challenges every day, whether it's getting to my classes or reading street signs or understanding the locals or paying for things in a different currency, but every day I'll learn/notice little things that make my time here a little easier. Such as:

- When a car is at a stoplight, the light will turn yellow both before it turns green and before it turns red.

- They're suuuper eco-friendly here. The heat turns off automatically, public transit/walking is the main source of transportation, and you either have to buy plastic bags or bring your own at grocery stores.

- "Bangers and mash" is a really common meal, which just consists of mashed potatoes and sausage.