My experiences studying abroad

Me and the awesome waterfall

Tue, 22 May 2012 17:25:04 -0400

Me and the awesome waterfall

Waterfall in Llanberis

Tue, 22 May 2012 17:21:00 -0400

Waterfall in Llanberis

Llanberis

Tue, 22 May 2012 17:17:52 -0400

Llanberis

Side of Castle and Steam Engine Train

Tue, 22 May 2012 17:13:00 -0400

Side of Castle and Steam Engine Train

Conwy Miscellaneous

Tue, 22 May 2012 17:09:00 -0400

Conwy Miscellaneous

Conwy Castle

Tue, 22 May 2012 17:03:00 -0400

Conwy Castle

Wales (flag and signs written in welsh)

Tue, 22 May 2012 16:57:00 -0400

Wales (flag and signs written in welsh)

British fashion

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:52:00 -0500

So, at some point in time on this blog I wanted to talk about just random British stuff so that one day I can look back and think about how silly I was or something like that. Due to lack of brain effort, this would be one of those posts.

Overall, British fashion is just a lot more fun than American fashion. People take more risks on a daily basis. Girls who would probably be considered preppy girls still where like hipster accessories. There is a lot more personality in most people’s outfits (including the guys) which is awesome. Also, people don’t really get judged for wearing crazy stuff.
I’ll talk girl’s fashion first. Lots of accessories. Lots. I’d say 75% of girls on a daily basis are wearing scarves. Cool hair accessories are also super common.
In terms of clothes, lots of dresses with tights and boots or jeans with nice shirts. Once again, lots of personality. Ruffles, prints, embellishments galore.
One thing that is not cute in girl’s fashion over here is that it is really common for girls to wear like shorts with tights and boots. Imagine colored tights with destroyed denim shorts and boots. Not cute.
Heavy eye makeup is really common, but that’s really the only difference in terms of makeup.
Guy’s fashion. They actually once again have personality. Guys I would say wear scarves like 50% of the time. Messenger bags are common. Hats are also common.
I don’t think I have seen a single person wear like a polo shirt or anything super boring like that.

I think that is all I got. Sorry if this was boring :)

Durham and Metrocentre trip

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:38:25 -0500

Ok, so I know I haven’t posted in a while, like over 3 weeks, but I’m going to start posting more stuff soon. Tonight, I’m just going to talk about this trip and do a random post on British stuff because I wanted to do that at some point too. I’ll post hopefully more interesting stuff later including stuff about the last 3 weeks and such. This was another fun day trip that I took last Saturday. Here are some random tidbits.

We went to Durham first which is a really pretty small city. The main attractions are obviously the cathedral and the castle. Seriously, I feel like every town in England has some majestic cathedral and castle. Anyways, we wanted to go into the castle, but you can’t go in the castle unless you go on the tour and the tours didn’t start till 2 which is when we were leaving. So, no castle.
We ended up taking a tour of the cathedral instead. The cathedral was beautiful. Obviously, you couldn’t take pics inside, but it was gorgeous. It was just my flat mate and I who went on the actual tour led by some very official ladies in like robes. When I say it was just my flat mate and I who went on the tour, I mean that it was just the two of us that were on the tour with these two ladies not just that we were the only people we actually knew. It was awkward. Possibly because when the tour started they asked if we were members of any church and both of us were like “No, no, I’m not.” I’ve never felt more judged in all my life then when both ladies just kind of made like an “ahh” noise. I feel very awkward in a church.
Moving on, we went to a market place afterwards and got lunch and shopped.
The bus then took us to the Metrocentre which is like a fucking humongous mall that has its own rail station and like is sectioned off into other malls by color. It’s big. Like real big. We for some reason decided at first to walk around to find the stores we wanted, but very quickly realized that was a dumb idea and got a map.
I got a new scarf and a dress from Primark which is like my new favorite store. All for like 8 pounds too.

This is really all I can think of. It wasn’t that exciting of a day trip, but it was still a lot of fun. I really need to do these things the night of, so I can actually remember shit. Pictures are below :) (btw the reason I’m not in any of these pics or in a lot of the other day trip pics is because at some point of the day it usually ends up raining and then my hair is like standing on the top of my head so …)

Durham Mainly of the outside of the cathedral

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:10:00 -0500

Durham

Mainly of the outside of the cathedral

Lancaster Town Hall Tour

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:58:00 -0500

So last night there was a kind of weird tour of the town hall led by the mayor and mayoress for all the exchange students. Here are some of the highlights lol. Most of my pics were crape because the lighting was so bad.

The courtroom in the pictures was used in the Alice and Wonderland movie.
The mayor was talking to all of us throughout the tour. He asked where I was from and I tried to explain where North Carolina is and where I live in North Carolina. It was kind of funny.
The mayor was joking the whole time and even danced at one point. He was wearing some very official shoulder thing though so it was just a weird combo.
Nothing really else exciting lol. We tried to find someplace that served food in Lancaster and not just alcohol at like 8 pm after the tour was over and seriously could only find like mcdonalds and super fancy places with like hour waits. We just went back to the university.

This is a really boring post …

Lancaster Town Hall

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:44:00 -0500

Lancaster Town Hall

The bridge house in Ambleside

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:39:00 -0500

The bridge house in Ambleside

Grasmere

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:32:00 -0500

Grasmere

Glenridding

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:26:00 -0500

Glenridding

In between places Taken out of bus window

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:18:00 -0500

In between places

Taken out of bus window

Kirkstone Pass

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:56:00 -0500

Kirkstone Pass

Lake District trip

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:52:03 -0500

Quick summary of the amazing trip I took today to the Lake District.

I went with flat mates and some other exchange students. These trips are organized by the university and anyone can go on them. It only cost like 15 pounds too.

Today, I visited Kirkstone Pass, Glenridding, Ullswater, Keswick, Grasmere, Ambleside and Windermere. Yeah. It was awesome.

I honestly don’t remember a lot about it besides it was absolutely beautiful. The pictures do not do it justice. The Lake District is gorgeous. Between the lakes, the streams, the mountains and the adorable little towns, the Lake District is awesome (even in January).

As previously mentioned, I had hot chocolate on a snow covered mountain in the most adorable little mountain lodge ever.

I visited the grave of William Wordsworth and the cottage he lived in for a lot of his life.

I got “world famous” gingerbread and fudge. The number of like sweet shops in these small towns is ridiculous btw.

I can’t really think of anything else, but it was too beautiful to be real at times.

Life

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:50:00 -0500

Okay. So after the semi-angry blog about my sexuality, I thought I would just give an overall analysis of my life right now. Honestly, I don’t know if I believe that life could be going any better than it is right now (besides one point that I’ll get to later). I couldn’t be prouder of the person I am and how much I have accomplished/grown in the past year (hell, the past couple months). Sexuality completely aside, I have never been more clear on what I’m all about and what my goals in life are. I’ve come so far in dealing with issues or things that I’ve struggled with my whole life. I still have things to work on, but I think I have a pretty good idea of what they are and I’m trying to acknowledge/deal with these issues as much as possible. Also, I’m in fucking England. Like what? I still don’t believe it. Today I went on a tour of the Lake District. I drank hot chocolate at 1500 ft above sea level on a snow covered mountain in Northern England. Like seriously? What the fuck. I’m meeting new people and seeing some amazing new places. I seriously had difficulty sleeping the first couple of nights I was here because I was so excited. Now being here is amazing, BUT what’s even more amazing and the thing that seriously brings me to tears when I think about it (I’m really not kidding … like seriously no sarcasm) is knowing that I have the most incredible friends back home who love and accept me just the way I am and who will be there when I get back. The only way this experience could get any better is if you guys were here to share it with me. So in honor of my amazing friends, I plan on doing a post about each one of them to tell them how much they mean to me and how amazing they are. I really do miss all of you guys! I’m probably going to start with members of certain cult and then move on to my other amazing friends. This will probably be drawn out over a little while because I want them to be well thought and not have a hundred grammatical errors like this post probably has. Cheers!!!

Random Stuff

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:47:00 -0500

So, meeting new friends while studying abroad has raised the question, “How long after meeting someone new do you tell them that you are bi?” So, in the previously mentioned conversation that I was having with my flat mates about hot guys, it dawned on me that this was probably when most people would mention their sexuality. I hadn’t even thought about telling them before this because I had known them for like a week, but if you are having an hour long conversation about Gerald Butler and Ryan Gosling with someone than that sort of implies some sort of friendship. I, however, did not tell them because I’m kind of a crazy person who has to already have it planned out and be in control of the conversation before revealing ANYTHING personal to people. Sharing details about myself has never been my forte which is very much something I’m working on (and the main reason why I’m writing this right now). The only other time I really saw the opportunity to tell my flat mates is when we were discussing the kind of art we were looking at in my women’s studies class. One of my flat mates was like joking and sort of mockingly said of feminist artists “I love boobs!” like pretending to be one (It was a joke and it made more sense in context). I thought about saying “Omg, me too,” but I thought that would be awkward. Haha. Otherwise the opportunity hasn’t really presented itself for me to mention it, so stay tuned.

So Bob. Btw his name is not actually Bob (see next point). Bob is the boy that I met at the airport. I know enough about him to know that I want to know more, but I wouldn’t say this is an actual crush yet. I’ll give kind of a list of pros and cons. First off, he is cute and nerdy. He is confident, but socially awkward which is kind of my type. On the other hand, he is a little bit too socially awkward. It takes a couple of minutes in a conversation with him for him to become not awkward. After those couple of minutes, he is not really awkward at all and is actually pretty charming. Seeing him talk with other people, he is like this with everyone. It’s fine to be awkward for a while, but the more conversations you have with someone the less awkward it should get with someone. I don’t know if it ever will with him.

I’m going to refer to anyone I’m interested in on this blog as either Bob or Sally. If there is more than one boy or girl that I am interested in during my term here (which there probably will be), they will be referred to as Bob2 and Sally2 respectively. I’m not very fond of the name Sally, but I can’t think of another common girl’s name besides Sally which is sad.

Yes, the British boys here are amazing. They do smell amazing, they dress like models (lots of scarves and pea coats), and they really do add like darling to the end of their sentences when talking to you (once again, would normally make me hurl, but couldn’t be sexier in a british accent). Sadly, I’m still in exchange student land and only really hanging out with other exchange students. I will change this soon. I promise. (This point is included because it was directly asked by some girl named Lark and I’m sure she will eventually read this because she is a creeper.)