Trish in England: January 2011

Hey everyone!

So I'm on a six month exchange to the University of Exeter, which is in the Southwest of England. As if you didn't already know.

I arrived last Sunday. The trip was a bit of a hero's journey and it was an odd experience travelling by myself. Especially since I'm bad at reading maps and following basic directions (not unlike every single contestant ever on America's Next Top Model) . It turns out the good news about going to the wrong place is that you can always turn around, look like a colossal idiot, and try again. Which I've done at least once ever frakin' day since I got here.

So my trip went like this: Victoria to Toronto, Toronto to Heathrow airport, Heathrow to the train station in Reading, and then from Reading to Exeter. Getting to Heathrow was the easy (but exceptionally long and boring) part. I did take these photos:

High Five!

Crazy super-highway between the national and international terminal (symbolism).

My last look at Canada. Goodbye!!

Once I got to Heathrow, I had to find the bus depot to get on the shuttle to Reading. I was promised that this was 'very well marked and easy to find'. This was my first experience of getting places in England, and in retrospect, it is very well marked and easy to find relative to any other place I've had to go to in England. The mile long hike through an underground tunnel with the seemingly ever increasing weight of my luggage while being guided by signs that were (only slightly) misleading was rather annoying in the moment, but in retrospect, not that bad. Getting to the shuttle and then to the train station once I found the bus station was simple and I made it to Reading no problem.

The train station was another entirely confusing situation. So you don't buy a ticket for a specific train, you buy it for the destination. So I bought my ticket to get to Exeter... but I had no idea which train to catch. I still don't really know how one finds out which train stops at which place. Actually, I just googled it, and it would not have been that difficult to figure out ahead of time. At the train station, they assume you've done that, I guess...

Anyway, I ended up asking someone (the best method of learning how to do anything here, because its not going to be readily apparent) and they were like "Just get on this next train" and that was that! While at the train station I had my first English food.

One would imagine that bacon and pastry together would be an excellent choice. Surprisingly gross. I would not recommend it.

This is what the English countryside looks like from a train window while its raining.

Amazing! There are like old building everywhere! and sheep! and ponies! and other adorable/awesome things.

So I got into Exeter and was exhausted but got my room, went into town and bought some bedding and fell asleep at like 7:00. The 'accommodation' as they call it is pretty similar to the other residence's in which I've lived. Except their aren't any drawers to put my clothes, and the residence has an ensuite which is pretty... sweet! Confession: I still haven't unpacked yet and my room is already a huge mess.

The next day was orientation and module registration. Orientation was dull, but I met someone who is also doing archaeology and she happens to be in a couple of my classes. This never happens to me, even in Victoria, so I'm pretty stoked. I then went on a campus tour in the pouring rain. Since last Monday however, the weather has been sunny but chilly, which I kinda love!

The campus is currently undergoing tons of construction, which makes already confusing paths even more confusing. For example, this is how I get to my residence:

There is a gate

In addition, Exeter is very hilly. Its great exercise getting to class... is the less pessimistic way of looking at it. Luckily my residence is right on campus... so its a ten minute climb every morning instead of the thirty minute one that my friends who live in town have to face.

Module registration has been the worst part of being here so far. For some reason Exeter doesn't have online registration so everyone who registers has to go to a meeting with a coordinator. The modules which had been chosen for me were the ones that are being offered this term that were the most similar to what I had requested last March. Of course these were not the ideal set of modules. So to begin with I went to the wrong meeting, because I thought I was in Social Sciences but I'm actually in Humanities. Then I walked to the Humanities meeting. Then I didn't have the right form. Then I wanted to switch some of my Social Science modules. So then I had to see Social Science coordinator again, but then I had to see the Sociology/Anthropology coordinator. Then I had to go back to the Humanities coordinator. Now keep in mind all the hills that were involved and the construction that lay between the two buildings. Frustrating! Also, the modules being offered are not the same as the ones on the website. All in all, I'm taking one stellar class (EGYPTOLOGY!) and three decent but non-ideal modules.

On Wednesday, I had the most British evening ever! It started with a 'cream tea'. Which is tea and scones with jam and clotted cream.

enough said.

I then went with some others girls who are on exchange to the pub for a pint, and had some greasy pub food.

They charged me 25p for ketchup but it came in a cool packet.
I swear they also have healthy food in England, and that I've eaten some of it.

I then went to see the King's Speech with The Firth!! I'm so glad I waited to see this movie in England. People applauded at the end! All in all it was a super fun evening with Britishness and new friends.

On Friday I went and finally got a cell phone. Its pink and it plays fm radio.

This costs this. Only 7 pounds!

Yesterday I went on my first trip outside of Exeter to this place called Wells. We went on this tour of the Wells Cathedral which is the oldest Gothic cathedral in England. It was massive and amazing looking.