Christmas Plans!

Hey everyone!
I hope you all are enjoying December & the holidays and all that!

My life has been pretty boring lately. I finished my first 4,000, 2,000 and 800 word papers. I just have another 4,000 word paper to complete by January 16th and I'll  be done for the semester!  4,000 words is about 13-15 pages so the work hasn't been too difficult but I am DEFINITELY counting down the days til my Christmas vacation. I'll be busy every day until vacation starts and I know I won't have time to post as much so I figured I'd give a preview of what posts to expect in the coming weeks.

Carly and I are taking our first (of hopefully many) adventures to continental Europe for Christmas.  We leave December 17 and return to Newcastle December 28.
Here's where we'll be visiting:

I'll include a map for reference.

We're starting out in Paris, France. We'll be there for a few days (just enough to see all the important stuff) and then we're off to Madrid, Spain.  We're spending a bit more time in Madrid so we can also take a day trip to Toledo.  Christmas Eve we're travelling to Barcelona, Spain where we'll spend Christmas! And on the 28th we're returning to Newcastle :)

We're going to hit all the major tourist spots in each city and hopefully have a really awesome time.

I'll have a bunch of photos to post and I'll make sure I get them out ASAP!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays :)

xoxo

Becstar

Fire Drills and Pokemon Cards

Hello all my readers on this delightful Friday night!

Let me tell you the tale of what happened to me in the last 30 minutes.  What I am about to tell you may seem unbelievable, but I swear its true.  Just ask Carly, who was on the phone with me the whole time for reasons I will state later.

At approximately 10:33 pm, I was relaxing in my room about to start watching a movie on my computer.  The opening credits were playing when I heard a muffled whistling sound.  I sighed, "God damn it," and got out of bed just as the fire alarm was blaring on full volume inside my tiny yellow room.  I had to find sweatpants, shoes, a jacket, remember my keys, phone and glasses as I trudged out of my room.  My flatmates were screaming in their native language to each other which only added to my dislike of the situation.  We all safely made it outside.

I was used to this quick emergency action late at night because last Friday we also had a fire drill.  The same no-fun-on-Friday-bunch of us who were there last week were out in full force tonight.  I was rocking my red wool coat, yoga pants and flip flips and I was one of the better dressed in the bunch.  I'm not sure what was more embarrassing: my outfit or the fact that everyone in St. Mary's now knows I also do nothing on Friday nights.

Anyway,

As a preemptive strike against awkward conversations, I immediately called Carly.  This was the opening of our conversation:

Carly: Hey what's up
Me: Nothing, just enjoying the night air.
Carly:...you had a fire drill again didn't you? And you're standing outside right now aren't you?
Me: Yup.

Click Read More to see the rest!

Who Invented a New Alphabet?!

Hey readers!

Before I get started I want to let everyone know that I have a Skype and would love to chat with people from home that I haven’t seen in a while J My Skype name is on my Facebook in my contact info section so check it out and add me! No, seriously, please talk to me it gets really boring around here sometimes  :/

I actually Tweeted about this next thing a few days ago but I feel the need to elaborate about it here.  One of the first things all little kids learn to sing is the ABC’s.  You know, A B C D E F G etc.  Well in England, the do it a little differently.  Their alphabet goes A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Zed.  Yeah.  Zed.  I didn’t spend my formative years learning the alphabet of my language and fighting against evil as the Pink Ranger only to have this guy show up at the end of it, out of nowhere, 19 years later:

If you were a child between 1993 and 1995 and you don’t know who this is, get out.  If you weren’t a child between these years, this is Lord Zedd from the Power Rangers.

Click Read More for...more!

CAUGHT RED HANDED!

BIG NEWS EVERYBODY BIG NEWS!

I decided I wanted some hot chocolate on this chilly fall evening so I grabbed my Cadbury Instant Hot Chocolate Mix and opened my door to head to the kitchen...and lo and behold...

MY NEWEST ROOMMATE WAS TAKING OUT THE GARBAGE! SHE IS THE NOTE WRITER!!

The Situation was shocked too. 

Let me explain how I deduced this:

After I previously posted about the Note Writer.  I kept trying to think of how the Note Writer didn't know about our weekly cleaning service.  The cleaning lady had been coming every week since we first arrived so there would be no reason to not know. And then it hit me.  My newest roommate moved in in the middle of October, a month after we received emails letting us know about the cleaning schedule.  My new roommate was just not aware of the cleaning lady to begin with.  It's now understandable why she would try to organize us to keep the kitchen clean.  

So it looks like my annoyance was misplaced.  I'm still not going to take out the garbage but at least I can now understand where the Note Writer was coming from.  

I have to get back to my readings about amputees during the American Civil War but I will probably post more during the week since this post was relatively short

xoxo

The Sherlock Holmes of Flat J

What Grinds My Gears? Note Writers!

Hello readers

Today I discovered something terrible about my flat...we have a note-writer.  I've never had the misfortune of living with one before, but my luck has changed ladies and gentlemen!  All you readers who have roommates (parents don't count on this one since they pay for the house you live in) or have had roommates know EXACTLY what I'm talking about.  A note-writer is someone who posts notes about things that need to get accomplished in the apartment/house/flat in hopes that all chores can be divided up evenly with everyone doing their share.  Passive-aggression to the max. Dividing up chores is definitely important and keeping the living spaces clean is paramount, however, considering the living situation I'm in, I really don't think it's necessary.

Let's take a look at the evidence:

Click Read More to see the evidence!

My Flatmates Continue To Be The Best

Hola amigos!

I have ANOTHER flatmate story to tell and it's the best one yet! So a few days ago I heard a knock at my door and it was my flatmate Joanna (shout out to the Joannas who read my blog! :) ). She and another one of my roommates had made a pumpkin dish and wanted to know if I wanted to try it.  I had tried the last successful pumpkin dish they made, which was really good.  This time, Joanna made a sweet mashed pumpkin dish.  Now if you recall the previous pumpkin post (click here to read it) pumpkins as we know them are gross to eat just mashed but, Chinese pumpkins are slightly different and can be eaten in this way.  Joanna told me she realized that the orange pumpkins are gross and the more yellow ones are better and more similar to the ones in China. I agreed that orange pumpkins are gross (because they are have you ever tried to eat one? Nasty.) and that one of the few foods Americans eat from pumpkins is pumpkin pie.
Then my flatmates asked me what pumpkin pie was. This was my reaction as portrayed by Lauren Conrad:

Shock. Pumpkin pie is my favorite fall food, which I won't be able to eat this year because there's no Thanksgiving over here since this is where the Pilgrims were running from. But that's a topic for another post.  I explained what pumpkin pie was and they agreed that it sounded delicious!

My flatmates asked me why people carved "faces into pumpkins." and I said oh you mean jack-o-lanterns?They were excited that I knew exactly what they meant and then I explained how they're related to the Halloween/fall theme in October. Then, they asked me a strange question.  They asked me if I ever interacted with Chinese people who were learning English before.

I actually had to think about it for a moment because I wasn't really sure.  I guess I have encountered people who use English as a second language many times before just because of the area where I live.  There are many people from many nationalities so I suppose I'm just used to it.  I told this to my flatmates and they told me probably the best thing anyone's ever said to me. They said "We like talking to you because you always understand us. You always know what we are trying to say even when we can't express ourselves properly*."  I was really surprised by this statement because I figured that the understanding I extend to them was extended by other people as well but they've said that their British classmates have a much more difficult time understanding them when they participate in class.  It was really cool to know that they like talking to me just as much as I like talking to them! We really learn a lot about each other's cultures which many people don't get to do.  

*My flatmates English is fantastic by the way. They have had excellent teachers in China (who they've told me were all American) and they get daily exposure to the language here so understanding them is very easy.  

Then, they asked me another question. They asked me why I don't wear shoes in the apartment. Now before I go into this conversation, let me say that I DO wear shoes in the shower (I went to La Salle so I'm damaged for life on that one) and I DO usually wear socks. But if I'm going to the kitchen quickly to put a dish away or get some quick food, sometimes I don't because I just don't think of it immediately. Anyway back to the story.  I basically explained those things I just mentioned to them and they were so surprised.  They said that they never go barefoot in China because they are taught that it's bad for a woman's health to be barefoot.  I mean I'm sure being barefoot in many situations is bad for health but I guess I never really put too much thought into it.  So I learned another cultural difference between American and Chinese women. Needless to say, I now wear shoes around all the time because I now know they judge me for it.

As I was leaving the kitchen, they showed me a secret that I didn't know our apartment had.  There's a closet next to our kitchen that says "CLEANER" on it. I've never opened it because I assumed that the cleaning service that comes to clean our common areas in the flat stores their cleaning supplies in there.  Well I was wrong.  Take a guess as to what's behind the door. Here's the door:

Click the link below to see what's behind the door. Guarantee you'll never guess hahaha :)

Today, I Spoke

Hi Everyone
This week has been crazier than usual so I didn't have as much time to post but I finally managed to have time today!  This week is my first full week of all my seminars and lectures in the same week so I had a bunch of readings to do to prepare. Some of the readings topics were*:
- Pacifism in France
- Balinese cockfighting (Yes there were penis jokes included. Yes they were terrible and corny and I giggled at all of them.)
- Symbolism of Cat Massacres in post-revolutionary France. Yup...Cat. Massacres.
- How to write a Literature Review

*I'd like to take this time to remind you that this coursework will contribute to my Master's Degree.

Click Read More to continue reading!

Edinburgh Tours!

Welcome back! Sorry for the delay but I was exhausted posting last night and decided to take a break before I posted some more.  DON'T FORGET there is a post from last night so please scroll down and read that one first :)

Saturday - Edinburgh Free Walking Tour

We woke up refreshed on Saturday morning and made our way back up the streets of Edinburgh in time for our free tour.  In many European cities, they offer Sandman's Free Tours and they are fantastic! And free! So we jumped at the chance to take one of these tours. Our tour guide was Steve and he was hilarious and knowledgeable.  He's the ginger guy with the red shirt in my photos.  The highlight photos are here and the majority will be on my Facebook page

The former location of the tax collection building in Edinburgh. Many people still voice their disgust for the tax man by expectorating on the brick heart in the middle of the sidewalk.  If you look closely at the circle inside the heart, that's not drops of rain, it's actual lugies hocked by the taxed and disgruntled of Edinburgh!

As we left the area, our tour guide wound up and spit a monster right into the center of the heart.  Carly and I were horrified...but not nearly as horrified as the mother with her baby in a baby carriage that had stopped not 1 foot in front of Steve (the tour guide) as he was spitting.  The little girl started giggling like crazy and the mother said "In front of my child, really?" Clearly she was angry so we made a quick exit to the next important site.

Click Read More to follow the tour!

Scottish Adventures

Helloooo :)
So this post is gonna be kind of long because I have A LOT to share from our trip to Scotland this weekend! Carly and I left Newcastle on Thursday afternoon and we got  back Sunday afternoon.  There are many great stories about the gory history of Scotland as well as some hilarious things that happened to us on the trip so you're definitely going to want to read the whole post if you can! And the very final bit will serve as a warning to all who don't heed the advice of their Scottish tour guides.

Thursday - Arrival in Edinburgh
Carly and I decided to visit Edinburgh after we heard from some of our other international student friends at Newcastle.  They recommended a great hostel and awesome tours for us so we jumped at the chance to go.  We left a few days before they did so we were able to do some touring/exploring on our own (my apologies for the rhyme).  Here are some pictures from the train ride to Edinburgh, our hostel and the surrounding area when we walked around after we got set up in the hostel

Click Read More for more pictures!

The Pumpkin Episode

I totally forgot to write about this until Haley (hey little!) reminded me of it. *THERE IS A POST AFTER THIS ONE TOO SO READ BOTH PLEASE :) *

My favorite roommate was in the kitchen when I walked in last night and she was boiling something on the stove.  It was BRIGHT ORANGE so I asked her what she was making. She was boiling pumpkin.  I asked her if she was making pumpkin pie (maybe that's all the rage in China?) and she said she wasn't and that in China people eat pumpkin boiled all the time.  I was kind of weirded out because pumpkins don't really taste good unless they're in pie form but I chalked it up to cultural differences and finished heating up my rice packet and went back to my room.

Click Read More to learn more about this pumpkin story

Classes Wah

So after almost 3 weeks of being in Newcastle my first full day of classes is tomorrow. I start bright and early at 9am in the library for some good ol' Research Skills and Dissertation Training!  I'm basically going to be taught how to use a library. Boring, yes, but extremely necessary considering I have a dissertation (50 page essay on whichever topic I choose to obsess about) due at the end of the summer.  I've been to the library a few times and it's kind of out of the way but its gigantic! It has multiple floors and classrooms, a Skype Lounge and a cafe.  The cafe has drinks, sandwiches, cookies - the works.  When I hole myself up in the library this summer, it's nice to know I'll be able to get a snack every once in a while.

Click Read More for the rest!

Angel of the North

Hellooo friends!

I’ve survived another week in Newcastle! Pretty soon I’ll be starting my Master’s level classes and I am definitely nervous!  The higher education system in the UK is SOOO much different than in the US.  Most of the classes have large lecture hall sessions and then separate seminars or labs to do more focused group work. And they meet very infrequently. To give you an idea of what my next semester is going to be like, here is a graph of my tentative schedule:

Semester 1 Schedule
	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
9am		9am-11am Dissertation Training	9am-10am POSSIBLE Conflicts of E.H. Seminar
10am			10am-11am POSSIBLE Conflicts of E.H. Seminar
11am
12 pm		12 noon – 1pm Practice of History
1pm
2pm		2pm – 4pm Conflicts in European History
3pm
4pm		4pm-5pm POSSIBLE Conflicts of E.H. Seminar
5pm
6pm

Read it and weep, mortals.  I’ll have classes only Tuesday and possibly a seminar class on Wednesday.  The seminars are in italics because I’m not sure which one of the 3 groups I’ll be placed in.  Whichever group, I would only attend those seminar meetings and not the other 2.  I’m shooting for 9am Wednesday just so I can get out of my room a little more.  Next semester I will probably have a similar schedule so look forward to that post J

Click Read More to see more!

Cooking Disaster and Strange Costumes

My first week in Newcastle is complete! I can’t believe I’ve been here only a week.  It feels so much longer!

Carly and I have explored most of the city surrounding the university and I think we both feel 100x more comfortable now.  I’ve almost mastered travelling by bus which I’m excited about because I’ve never taken city buses before haha!

I’ve been to England 2 times before and I’m completely aware that the English are not known for delicious food and found some really great restaurants so far.  We found this Italian restaurant that makes AMAZING pizza. If I didn’t know any better I’d say the restaurant was somewhere near my house that’s how good it was.

Click Read More for the rest

HELLO WORLD!

Hey everyone :)
After 3 long days without internet I am SO happy to be posting my first update :)

this is going to be kind of a long post but there are many pictures as well :)

Carly and I got to Newark airport at about 3pm on Monday.  The lady at the check-in desk told me to study something more in addition to European History.  She works at an airport check-in desk so I'm going to chalk that one up to having a bad day.

We got on the flight and sat next to each other across the aisle.  On the plane I accidentally sat in Carly's seat but she didn't mind (thanks girl!) so we stayed in our switched seats.  Next to me was a man who grew up in the Olney area of Philadelphia (which is right near La Salle!) I was wearing my sweatshirt so that's how we started our conversation.  Next to Carly was a man whose voice sounded like the devil gargling rocks.  It legitimately confused and terrified me the first time I heard him talk on the flight.  If we hadn't switched seats, I would have been next to scary voice man ah!

Click Read More for the rest

The Dark Side of Internet Applications

I've accomplished many administrative things to prepare for my travels to Newcastle.  Here is all I have left to do!:
- Get my Visa application approved by the UKBA (UK Border Agency)
- Buy a plane ticket

I'm very anxious to get my visa approved because I went through hell trying to complete the forms.  Let me share with you the story of what happened the first time I attempted to complete the Visa application:

It was an average day in my life.  I was beginning to fill out the lengthy Visa Tier 4 Student form on the UKBA website.  Everything was going swimmingly.  I had paid my fee, scheduled my fingerprinting appointment and confirmed the application.  I decided to check over my printed paperwork just to make sure I had filled in everything correctly.  As I read through my application, my heart stopped and i stared in awe at what I had done.


I had entered this address as my permanent location:
My correct street number and address
Cranford, New Jersey, UGANDA 07016


Yes folks, I had put Uganda as my home country instead of the USA.


After a few moments of panic, I went to my Mom to tell her the stupid mistake I had made.  Not sure if she would be mad or concerned I approached her with caution and explained what happened.  


She promptly burst out laughing.  "Hahahahaha you did what? Hahaha I didn't know they had a Cranford in Uganda. You should Google it and see what it's like in your hometown hahahahaha..." These were only a fraction of the hilarious one-liners my Mom threw out at me.  


Luckily we were able to get a full refund for my first application and were able to complete a second application the next day with my correct USA address.


So let this be a lesson to all who fill out government forms in the internet...watch what you do and don't make dumbass mistakes like I did!

Newcastle

Hi Everyone!

I created this blog so I could keep in touch with everyone while I was at grad school in Newcastle.  Newcastle is located where that yellow star is on the map on this page (If you can't see the star, just Google search Newcastle). 

I'll be in Newcastle from September 2011 to September 2012 getting my Master's degree in European History.  My lovely friend and Gamma Phi Beta sister Carly will be joining me and she will be getting her Master's degree in International Relations: Globalization, Poverty and Development.


I figured this would be a better way to share my experiences with everyone instead of having to make too many expensive phone calls or type 1,000 emails.

I'll try to keep my posts as entertaining as possible and I promise to share many pictures as well. Knowing me and my uncanny ability to attract strange people to talk to me, everyone who reads this will surely be in for a real treat and really good stories every once in a while haha :)

So what is Newcastle like?  Many people have been asking me this so here are some links here for you to check out.

Virtual Tour of Newcastle and the University
This link will allow you to take virtual tours of the city of Newcastle as well as the university.  Carly and I looked at this when we were deciding on which university to choose and it really helped sway our opinion.**To rake a virtual tour of where I'll be living for the next year, click on 'Accommodation' and then click the right arrow until you see 'St. Mary's College


Newcastle upon Tyne Wikipedia
I'm sure the first thing you'd click on when researching Newcastle is the Wikipedia link (because that's what I did haha!)  This link offers a much more detailed description of Newcastle.  It can get boring so if you skip down to the 'Culture' section, you won't fall asleep reading.

Official Tourism Website
This has all the tourist information you could need.