The Paris Chronicles: pt. 2, Shopping

This post will be a summary of shopping in Paris. I’m not an expert by any means, but I did buy things, so I have a bit of experience. This is mostly for touristy stuff (t shirts, key chains, mugs, etc.); I didn’t do much clothes shopping.

First things first: don’t buy things under the Eiffel Tower. There’s a couple of shops under there and they all have expensive touristy things. There’s also a little stand thing near a corner before you go under, and I’d recommend not buying anything there either. My brother and I got cheated.

So everything was fairly expensive, like I expected, so I wasn’t that put off. The cheapest things at the stand that I just mentioned were key chains for 1.50 (euros). We thought, wow, what a good deal compared to the rest of this stuff. Then I bought a pocket mirror for 10 euros because I thought it was really cute. After walking around under the Tower and then going to cross the street to get a better view, we were approached by guys selling stuff. Their arms were full of key chains and model Eiffel Towers. We automatically said no and kept walking, but as we got closer to crossing the street we actually heard what one of them said: “3 for 1 euro.”

My brother and I both paused and said, “Wait, what?” We went back and bought more key chains. It was then that we realized we had been cheated. By the end of the day those guys were selling 10 key chains for 2 euros—and we had spent 1.50 for one! So if you see a bunch of guys (mostly African) with tons of merchandise in their arms, go to them. Their prices are cheaper, and you can bargain. Across the street there were men sitting on the ground with displays of what they were selling, and they had a bit more than the guys directly under the Tower. I got a little glass figurine of the Eiffel Tower. Actually, it’s one of those figures with the image inside a glass square thing. I don’t know what they’re called, but I love them, so I got one. They wanted it for 6, I paid 3.

Don’t know how to bargain? Never fear. I already had experience having been to Ghana before, so I consider myself something of a pro. *Brushes shoulders off* First thing is, be willing to spend a minute or two talking to the seller. Whatever the original price is, you can bring it down. There are a few exceptions, like with the key chains I said before. 3 for 1 is a good deal; asking any lower is just being stingy. I don’t know, just use common sense. Think about what price you want to pay, think about whether it’s reasonable, and then ask that price.

This is an example scenario (if the grammar seems bad it’s because that’s how they talk):

Shopper: Ooh, this is nice.

Seller: Oh yes, *insert description of whatever it does/looks like here*

Shopper: How much is it?

Seller: 6 euro.

Shopper: Oh…

Seller: No, it’s okay! Tell me how much you want to pay.

Shopper: 3.

Seller: Oh no, that’s too low. Okay, okay, 5.

Shopper: I don’t think it’s worth more than 3.

Seller: Come on, 5, is good deal.

Shopper: Mm, no thanks.

Seller: Wait, okay, 4.

Shopper: Mm…nah, no thanks. *start to walk off*

Seller: Okay, okay. *nods head, extends hand for money*

Whenever they do that I always confirm the end price. So in that case I would say, “3 euro, right?” and then they would nod. I always do that because once I went through this whole thing and at the end the guy acted like we had come to the conclusion he wanted. Always confirm.

The walking off thing makes them desperate. It’s like, oh no, I’m losing a potential buyer. I think the starting price they offer is usually high because there’s always that one person who goes, “Oh, whatever,” and pays for it without bartering. But you can bring it down. It might take a little longer than the scenario I gave you, or it might not. It all depends. If you’re willing to spend 5 minutes you could probably get it down a lot, but it takes time.

Now, this ONLY APPLIES to the people you see on the street. Don’t try it with someone in a shop. Regular rules apply there.

For regular touristy stores, be sure to shop around. That mirror I spent 10 euros on? I found similar ones in a shop that were selling 3 for 10. I felt dumb. (Just a side note here, it’s not like I spend tons of time looking in mirrors. I’ve just never had a pocket mirror and I’ve actually started looking for one recently and haven’t been able to find one, so when I saw it I thought it was my lucky day and decided to buy it, despite the ridiculous price.)

So remember, if you see something in one tourist shop, it’ll be in another, and it might be cheaper. There’s tons of shops, and a lot of them are close together, so don’t worry about not finding whatever you’re looking for again.

They sold a lot of scarves along the streets too. Scarves, hats, gloves, and some purses. If you cross the street at the Eiffel Tower to that…museum/building place (I don’t actually know what it is) and you go up the stairs, there’s guys up there selling purses on the ground as well. They weren’t knock offs, they were just regular purses. I’m not a name brand person so it didn’t bother me. If you’re looking for Prada or Louis Vuitton or whatever then you’d have to go to a regular store. Champs d’Elysees has tons of rich stores so if you want to spend some hardcore money, go there and walk up and down. There’s a giant Louis Vuitton there. There’s some regular stores there too, so non-rich people can find some stuff as well.

We did go into some normal clothing places too. I got some boots. By the way:

BritBit 1: Girls love boots. I don’t know why, but it seems like every single girl has boots here, and it’s annoying. Seeing a girl in sneakers is rare. If she’s wearing sneakers she’s probably also wearing a punk sort of outfit, or a…I don’t know what the word is. Skater, maybe. I guess the only reason it’s annoying is because everyone looks exactly the same: shirt, leggings/tights, boots. Leggings have taken over.

BritBit 2: They wear shorts with tights. I’m used to it by now, but when I first arrived I thought it was strange. They even do it in the winter. As in 30 degrees outside (Fahrenheit). How can people stand the cold?

Anyway, French stores are just the same as other stores. You don’t really need to know French to buy anything. Like I said in my last post, I bought some earrings in another store and it was fine. No advice needed here.

Okay, so that’s my overview of shopping in Paris. I’ll post again soon talking about…something French. I haven’t decided yet. Au revoir!

The Paris Chronicles: pt. 1

…Wow. I have a ton to report.

I’m going to be posting several times over the next few days. Remember last post when I said I had the feeling I would be posting more often, or something like that? I actually have more to post than I thought, due to the failure of Eurostar.

So my brother came to visit. We were planning to go to both London and Paris. Guess what happened the first night? It snowed. A lot. We were supposed to go to London the next day, a Friday.

The buses into the city were all cancelled, so I had to reschedule the bus for the next day. That worked out, I guess.

But then guess what happened? We made our way to London on Sunday to go to Paris. We got up at 5 in the morning, arrived, and were told that all the trains were cancelled due to bad weather. The security guy actually said something about condensation, but I couldn’t understand his thick French accent so I’m not sure what that means. All I know is, the train was cancelled, and I was out of a lot of money: the train, the hostel, the bus to London—that all costs money, and it was all down the drain. Needless to say I was not pleased.

The train was also cancelled on Monday. Sarkozy finally got involved—he ordered that the trains resume on Tuesday. They were all reserved for people who didn’t get to travel on Sunday and Monday, so my brother and I decided to try and go again. That time, it worked. Instead of going by time they just stuck people on the next available train.

So we FINALLY made it to Paris. Overall grade: C-. I wasn’t impressed to be honest. First of all, it was overcast. Second, when we got there on the first day it was already dark, so we didn’t do anything except go to the hotel. Speaking of which, I still had to pay for the first night at the other hostel I booked. Thanks Eurostar.

We went to Champs d’Elysees the second day. Unfortunately we went down the wrong way so we didn’t go to many shops, because there weren’t many around. I fail at directions. We also got lost on the way to the hotel the night before. My mistake.

We then walked to the Eiffel Tower. The top half was covered in fog but later it cleared up and the sun came out. There were these hardcore armed guards there patrolling the place. There were also some pigs towards the middle with a sign close by, but since I don’t read French I have no idea what they were doing there. We also got cheated on some souvenirs, but I’ll mention that another day.

The city is kind of gross. There’s spit all over the ground and we saw a guy peeing in the street the first night. Charming. Plus my tickets for the underground didn’t work several times, and I had to get someone to open those doors that are attached to the machines you stick the tickets in to go through. I’m not sure if there’s an actual word for that.

We also saw the Louvre. The Louvre is a nightmare. If you ever plan on going and you want to see the Mona Lisa, do that first. The museum is huge. I mean, I knew it was big, but I didn’t realize it was so big that the map didn’t even make sense. There were two drawings for the same floor…I think. Basically, we got lost inside, and by the time we asked someone where the Mona Lisa was we were already tired, and then it took another…I’m guessing 15 minutes to find it. The museum, I reiterate, is HUGE. Plus it was far away, you couldn’t walk right up to it. There was a rope that designated how close you could get to it, and there was a crowd around it. Plus the painting was protected by glass. I can’t help but think that the painting is difficult to locate because they don’t want it to be easy to find for anyone trying to steal it.

After that we got something to eat and then went to Notre Dame. This sounds silly, but it looked bigger in the Disney movie. I love that movie by the way. Hellfire? One of Disney’s best songs.

Anyway, it was nice looking inside. I liked the windows. Honestly though, it was kind of…I’m not sure what the word is. I don’t want to say creepy, I just got an odd feeling while in there.

Afterwards we wandered around some more. We went into some shops to find stuff for family members back home. I got a bunch of stuff for myself too. I’ll go into that on another day as well.

The next day we went back to Champs d’Elysees and went in the right direction. There’s tons of shops there. The Arc de Triomphe sits at the end, which is pretty cool because we hadn’t even realized it at the time. It was...tall. I'm not sure what else to say about it. I wanted to visit Sacre Couer or however you spell it, but we were out of time. We rushed back to Gare du Nord and caught the Eurostar back to London. As it is, we could have stayed longer because we got back two hours or so early for the bus back to Brighton. Oh well.

So! Stuff about France:

1. Everyone speaks French. Duh. All the signs and everything are in French.
2. Some people speak English as well. It’s actually not that hard to get around without knowing French. I bought a pair of earrings at this store and the cashier didn’t speak English. She tried to tell me that I couldn’t return them, but she only knew a bit of English so it just came out as, “No…change,” with a lot of gestures towards the earrings. I figured it out eventually and we laughed about it so it was no big deal.
3. It reminds both me and my brother of New York. I hate New York.
4. They really do have snails on the menus at restaurants. My brother got frog legs on the first night. They weren’t that good, but only because they weren’t seasoned. I’ve had them before and they can be delicious if cooked properly.

I don’t know what else to say. I think you can leave comments, right? If anyone reading this has a question, just leave a comment.

I’ll end here. I’ll try to post again tomorrow and talk about buying things in Paris. Fun stuff.

P.S. I look really young in that picture next to the pyramid...ugh. I just turned 20 (happy birthday to me!). I'm told I will like this "looking young" thing in the future. Is the future here yet?

Some quick BritBits

Time for another update!

I went to get my hair done today (braids, if you care) and I learned a bit more about British speech. Well, I knew these things, but I had forgotten about them, so it was a little refresher.

BritBit one: British people pronounce the beginning of some words with an ‘f’ even though there is no ‘f’ there. For instance, they’ll say what sounds like “froo” when they’re saying “through”. They do it in other instances but I can’t think of any other examples right now.

BritBit two: Just a bit of slang—“bang out of order”. It basically means someone has done something wrong, or said/done something uncalled for. If you’ve seen the Harry Potter movies (woot!) in the fifth one Ron says to Harry, “Seamus was bang out of order mate,” after Seamus had accused Harry of lying about Voldemort being back and said something about his mom nearly not letting him come back to Hogwarts. If you didn’t understand any of that you need to pick up a Harry Potter book ASAP. Here’s another example for you: If you’re having an argument with a friend and you snap and call them…I don’t know, a slut, they might gasp and say, “That’s out of order.”

BritBit three: I can’t remember if I’ve written this already (story of my life) but they call a five pound note a “fiver” or a ten pound note a “tenner”. It’s shorter, it’s easier, it makes sense.

That’s all for today. I get the feeling I’ll have a lot more to write about in the upcoming days…muahaha cliffhanger.

Bye all!

Free at last, free at last...you know the rest

Sorry sorry sorry! I’m overdue, I know. But the good news is, the term is over! I’m free!

Let’s give a few quick updates: I had my band concert last night. It went really well, apparently the audience said it was the best the band has sounded in a while. This is my first term so I’ll just take their word for it.

I finished my two essays. Yay me.

I haven’t started editing my nano yet. Boo me.

That’s it for my personal life. Let’s move on to more interesting things.

BritBit numero uno: While at the concert they had little snacks for people to eat, including cookies (or should I say biscuits?), wine (it’s still weird for me that alcohol is not even a problem for college-age people), and these things called mince pies. Now I’d heard of mince pies before, but I had no idea what they were. I asked two girls sitting next to me and they had a difficult time explaining it, beyond saying that there were raisins and the pies are really sweet. So I tried one, and they were right. They do have raisins, and they are sweet. It’s like a mini pie with really sweet fruit filling. I didn’t like it. I’m not a fan of raisins.

But if you don’t like raisins, you must be thinking, then why did you try it at all if they said there were raisins in it? Well imaginary questioner, I just like to try stuff sometimes. It might’ve been so delicious that I didn’t mind the raisins. Unfortunately…it wasn’t.

BritBit numero dos: I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this (how many times have I said that? I can’t remember) but here they only go to school for three years. In the U.S. college is four years. Also, here “college” is like “high school” in the U.S…I think. So, if someone here says that they took maths in college they don’t mean university, they mean the equivalent of high school. Oh yeah, and they say “maths” not “math”.

BritBit three yo: I have no idea what a surgery is. I went to the pharmacy to get something and the ladies there mentioned going to the surgery. In the U.S. surgery is a procedure in which stuff gets cut up. And by “stuff” I mean your body, and by “cut up” I mean operated on. The first way was simpler.

Let me look it up now…okay I give up. I keep getting links for the actual practice of surgery, not what the UK version of the word means. Hm…it’s a mystery. I’m guessing it just means the doctor’s office, or the hospital.

BritBizzle number fizzle: Does parmesan cheese have to be refrigerated? I’m almost certain it doesn’t, but everywhere I look here it’s in the refrigerated section. This has nothing to do with England except for the fact that I discovered it here. How weird. England is challenging all of my previous beliefs about food.

Sidebar: Glee is the most amazing show ever. I say this now because the songs are stuck in my head and it’s hard to concentrate. If you have a TV, watch Glee. It’s on Fox. By the way, not a fan of Fox. They cancelled Firefly, and therefore they suck. What is Firefly? Watch it on hulu. If you’re not in the U.S. and therefore can’t watch it on hulu, buy it. It’s a sci-fi western. Yeah, that sounds weird and kind of stupid, and I was reluctant to watch it at first, but it’s amazing. The pilot starts off slow though, so be sure to stick to it. Also, they cancelled Dollhouse and it just started getting good. Fail.

I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be plugging these things. It’s not like I’m getting paid for it. *shifty eyes*

Seriously though, I’m not getting paid for it. I wish.

Well, I’m done for now. Also, my birthday is next week. I just realized that when I looked at the calendar on my wall ten seconds ago. I always forget about my birthday until a week or so beforehand. Weird. Anyway, you can send presents to University of Sussex room number…just kidding.

‘Til next time! Peace and love :)

Pssh. I thought you said it was a challenge.

50,020 words. I won. I’m awesome.

I’m talking about NaNoWriMo of course. I managed 50,020 words in 29 days. I could’ve added a thousand or two more if I had worked on the last day, but I decided to take a break. So I’m proud of myself. The novel isn’t actually finished, but I’m planning on finishing it this month and editing it in January. This is kind of unfortunate because it means I’m putting another project on hold, but I guess that’s what happens when you write five million things at once.

Well that was probably boring for anyone who isn’t me. Let’s move on to some BritBits because nothing else exciting has happened this week:

Elevators are called lifts. That’s a simple one.

The double decker buses are cool. I really want to go up on the second deck but so far I haven’t. I’m afraid of heights so I don’t know why I want to go up there, but I think it’d be fun.

Free range eggs are expensive. This isn’t really a BritBit because I think it applies everywhere, but it’s annoying. They were out of regular eggs and I didn’t feel like going back to the store later so I just bought them. Life shattering stuff, I know.

Have I mentioned the faucets? I hate the faucets. In the US there’s one faucet in the sink that runs both hot and cold water. Here there’s one faucet each for hot and cold water, which is terrible because when you wash your hands you either burn them or freeze them. I’ve yet to discover a way around this. It’s amazing what a little innovation can do. One single faucet eliminates that problem easily.

Cell phones are called mobiles. Another simple one.

It actually does rain a lot here. The past couple of weeks have been awful, raining nearly every day. Even if it starts out sunny, by the end of the day it’s raining again. Today was the nicest day in weeks. So the rainy England stereotype might be true. I wonder why it rains so much. Hm…

Um…that’s all I can think of right now. Sorry, I’m a bit preoccupied. I have two essays due next week, and I know that’s a horrible excuse and I hate when people use that excuse…but I have to. Duty calls.

I can’t believe it’s December already. It’s good because it means vacation is coming up, but the one bad thing is that essays are due. Oh well. One more week and I’m done until January. Awesomeness.

Later.

Sigh. It's always me.

I know I just posted yesterday, but I have to share this.

So I was on my way to class and decided to get a cheeseburger for lunch. I go into the store and buy one, except they don’t have cheese. I’m cool with that, if slightly annoyed. I can’t even remember the last time I ate a burger without cheese. It’s like eating pizza without pepperoni—what’s the point?

But anyway, I get the burger, and now my mood is a bit down. I suck it up and take a few bites of my burger, going outside and walking towards my class. I’m about to take another bite when out of nowhere something hits the right side/back of my head. I thought someone threw something at me before I noticed by burger was gone. A bird landed in front of me and my burger lands a few inches from it. It was then that I realized it had stolen my burger. A bird STOLE MY BURGER. It was fairly large, kind of like a gull. And it started cawing and other birds showed up to eat their newly acquired meal.

So I paid for a burger that didn’t even have cheese, and a bird stole it from me. Needless to say I was not pleased. I was so displeased, in fact, that I wrote a mini rap about it during my lecture:

Yo I’m walking down the street
With a burger in my hand
I’m about to go to class
When BAM! Something unplanned
Occurs. I get hit
On the back of my head
It’s a bird and very clearly
It wants to be fed
Whoosh goes my food
Right down onto the ground
The bird picks it right up
And makes a really loud sound
It was calling other birds
To eat the stolen meal
I’m standing here in shock
Imagine how I feel.
I’d only taken three bites
And now my food was gone
The bird is clearly the queen
And I’m its lowly pawn.
Oh well. I have to go.
Class will start really soon.
I hope the day won’t get worse
But—sigh—it’s only noon.

Yep. There it is. I’m going to assume getting food stolen by a bird isn’t an England thing, and I was just unlucky. Here’s hoping it doesn’t happen again.

Cheers.

Harassment, a segment title, and a lesson in inflection

Hey there.

It was a quiet week and weekend. It passed by fairly quickly. I have two essays due in two weeks, and my NaNo is coming along swimmingly…which is a weird phrase, by the way.

I guess I could go on about some more British tidbits…hm, I should come up with a catchy title for my British life section, since I talk about it nearly every week. British tidbits…aha! BritBits! Yeah, you know that’s awesome.

Sooooo it’s time for another segment of BritBits!

Something odd actually just happened yesterday. In the UK you need to have a TV license if you have a TV or if you watch live TV on your computer. Seeing as I don’t have a TV and I don’t even know how to get live television on my computer, I don’t need a license. However, someone in my house had gone to the mailbox and brought a stack of mail into the kitchen, many of the envelopes coming from the same person. It said “URGENT” on it so I assumed it was a bill or something about the university.

It wasn’t. It was a threatening letter stating that I had not informed TV Licensing, some company, that I did not need a TV license and that my house is currently under investigation. They said to call to inform them if I didn’t need one, so that’s what I did today. And what happened? The lady said they were sending someone to my house anyway.

Really irritated by this point, I went online to search what one of these “visits” were like and found multiple comments saying “Don’t let them in.” They have no right to enter anyone’s home. They aren’t the police. They have no warrant. They’re just a company trying to sell something, and being rude while they’re at it.

So basically, it’s harassment, and they’ve been getting away with it for years. They’re like Jehovah’s Witnesses, except they act like they have authority and they get people to let them in their homes. I’m not sure why this company hasn’t been shut down for consistently harassing people, but whatever. I’m ignoring them from now on. Talk about invasion of privacy.

So. There’s that.

Another slightly interesting (if obvious) BritBit is that Thanksgiving isn’t big here. That makes sense, as it’s an American holiday. Still, online I see all these social networking sites talking about Thanksgiving and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I would have forgotten about it if it wasn’t everywhere I looked online. I feel like I should care that I’m going to miss it, but I don’t. I’ll probably end up eating pizza.

And that’s another thing. The UK is extremely Americanized. I mean yes, they have their own culture here, but I was expecting a bigger difference. The food is different but they still have Pizza Hut and Burger King and even KFC. They have Sprite and Coke and Cheerios and Capri Sun. They listen to American music, they watch American television, they watch American movies. I wasn’t expecting any of this, or at least not at this scale. This just makes “culture shock” even more laughable than I found it before I came here. I thought it wouldn’t be that bad, and that was when I was expecting huge differences. I’d compare it to visiting another state. Yeah there are lots of differences, but nothing anyone can’t handle.

I just remembered something else. British people have different inflections in their tones. It drove me crazy when I first arrived. So, for instance, let’s take this scenario: two roommates are looking for…um…a remote control for the TV in their room, but they both realize it is missing at different times. They can’t find it, so they both assume the other has it. So one day the first person finally decides to ask. In the U.S. the conversation might go like this:

Person 1: Hey, have you seen the remote?

Person 2: What? You don’t have it?

In the U.K. it might go like this:

Person 1: Hey, have you seen the remote?

Person 2: Do you not have it?

It seems almost exactly the same, doesn’t it? But it isn’t. The inflection in the tone of the second person is different. The American person’s pitch increases throughout the sentence, so that the last word (“it”) is the highest pitched word. In the U.K., however, the last word goes down in pitch. So it’s sort of like, “do You NOT HAVE it?” whereas in the U.S. it’s, “you Don’t HAVE IT?” That’s how you determine if a question is a question: the pitch increases at the end. Have you ever seen those girls who speak like every sentence is a question? We think it sounds like a question because of the rise in pitch, not really because of the words she’s using. If someone said, “What is the capital of Texas.” with the same pitch throughout the entire sentence, the average person would be confused for a second or two because it would be unclear if it was a question or a statement.

Why is this important? I dunno, I guess it isn’t really. It’s just something I noticed, and it probably doesn’t apply to every single person here. Just generally speaking. I guess it interests me because I’m an English major and language fascinates me. Or something.

Okay, one last BritBit: British people are not reserved. I don’t know where this idea came from, but it’s a lie. They’re just as loud as Americans. This could be due to the fact that the drinking age is 18 so people are wandering around drunk. That, or it was just a misconception to being with. Here I was, hoping for a quiet, relaxing year away from the rowdiness that is America. Nope. Don’t believe everything you see on TV people.

Speaking of which, I miss TV. I had one in my room last year but I couldn’t exactly pack a TV in my suitcase. I guess I could have had it shipped…but then I’d have to pay for a license. Sigh. Nothing is free anymore. I hope this atrocious practice doesn’t spread to the U.S. Though I guess it already has, since you have to have a digital cable thingy in order to watch TV now. Still, that’s not really a license. And now I’m rambling.

That’s it for now. See you next week. Happy Thanksgiving!

Good times, missed food, and more English stuff

Hello there! I am back and ready for action!

I had a great weekend this past…weekend. Let’s just ignore that awkward phrasing, shall we? I went on an overnight trip to a local town with the Christian Union. I had a great time. I can honestly say I have never been around so many nice people at one time. Ever. I mean, the level of niceness was almost of ridiculous, like they had some sort of secret diabolical plan. It’s kind of like fattening up a pig before slaughter. The pig is all excited to get lots of food, thinking their owner is amazing, but they don’t realize the evil intentions behind it, muahahaha.

I’m kidding. I know there isn’t a secret plot against me or anything, it’s just that we live in such a cruel world that sometimes you forget that good people exist.

That bit of philosophy aside, it was a great weekend. We all brought sleeping bags or, in my case, comforters, and we slept on the floor…the very hard floor. Fun times. There were a few sessions where we listened to a speaker about the Bible, which led to some of interesting discussions. We watched Hitch on Friday night, always a good time, and there was a 90’s party on Saturday night that was pretty awesome. Who doesn’t love the 90’s?

And now, moving on, it’s time for a bit of a rant.

I miss American food. I really, really, really miss American food. In particular, I miss American cereal. Cocoa Puffs. Fruity Pebbles. Captain Crunch with crunchberries. Apple Jacks. This is the stuff dreams are made of, and they don’t have them here. The cereal selection is actually pretty limited. And they don’t have grape jelly so I can’t make peanut butter and jelly. I’ve tried looking in several stores for it but I can’t find any. They have this flavor called blackcurrant, which is apparently a fruit of some sort. I haven’t tried it yet and I don’t currently have any plans to.

They also have this stuff that I finally tried during the weekend away. It’s called squash. I don’t remember if I mentioned it before, but it’s this concentrated fruit juice liquid type thing, and you pour a bit into a glass, and then fill the rest of the glass with water. It’s not good. I can stomach it, but I would never go to the store and buy it. It’s just watery juice. I don’t see the point. Maybe it’s healthier or something. Silly Brits, caring about their health.

Oh America. I miss your unhealthy foods. I miss sour patch kids and Twizzlers and those giant blow pops. It’s a hard life I lead.

One thing I’ve learned since coming here is that there are way too many accents. I haven’t learned how to tell the difference between most of them yet, but I can still recognize the difference, if that makes sense. As in, I can hear the difference in a person’s voice, but I don’t know what area that person is from. I can, however, recognize the Manchester accent, because it stands out.

What else is going on…well, my nanowrimo book is coming along swimmingly. I’m thousands of words behind, but I’m not worried. Why? Because I discovered the most amazing tool to ever be invented in the history of EVER. It’s this website called Write or Die. You enter how many words you want to write, and you enter the time you want to write it in. Then you click “write” and go. It sounds simple, but it’s really effective because there’s a clock ticking down to 0, and if you stop writing for five seconds or so the screen starts to change colors. I’m not sure what happens after turning slightly red because I was so unnerved I started typing again. I might just let it run to see what happens. I started out typing 500 words in 15 minutes and I’ve gotten it down to 10 minutes. It’s a great site for me because clocks counting down freak me out. My brother (I have a twin brother) used to play Sonic on his Sega Genesis (old school right?) and whenever Sonic was underwater for too long this intense music started playing and you only had a few seconds to get above water before you died. It always freaked me out. In fact, all video games seem to have scary music whenever you have a few seconds to do something, and it always bothered me. So that’s where my fear of being timed comes from.

That was a strange tangent. Let’s get back to English stuff.

Okay, I’ll talk about one more thing before I go. Actually, two things. One, it’s weird going into a store on campus and seeing alcohol. It’s even weirder seeing students buying it, like they’re adults or something. Psssh. We Americans know better. I’m joking, by the way.

As an avid hater of alcohol, I don’t really like the huge drinking scene here. There’s a huge drinking scene in the U.S. too, of course, but here it’s legal so it’s more accepted. I just find alcohol gross. The smell makes me nauseous. I’m not saying I don’t want other people to drink it or anything. I just don’t see why getting drunk is fun. It doesn’t look fun. It’s only fun for me, because I get to watch people act like idiots. It’s free entertainment.

And the last thing: living in a house is awkward. If you don’t make friends with your house mates it can be uncomfortable. Sometimes you just don’t click. Say, for instance, they’re more of the partying type, and you may not be. Just as an example, say you’re spending the month writing 50,000 words for fun while they think getting wasted is just as amusing. For instance. In a hall if you don’t make friends it’s still big enough that it doesn’t matter. In a house it’s more personal. So if you decide to come to Sussex, or have a choice for a house in general, remember that. You can get lucky and become the best of friends with your house mates, or you could be stuck in an awkward situation.

And that concludes this post ladies and gentlemen. See you next week!

Oh, wait a minute. One more thing. Recently it was implied that all Americans like George Bush. Huh? Absolutely not. I’m pretty sure it’s the exact opposite. Just wanted to clear that up.

Fail.

Oops! I nearly forgot to update. This is going to be quick for two reasons: 1) I’m way behind on NaNoWriMo, and 2) I’m falling behind in school. Being sick 2 out of 6 weeks so far is NOT GOOD.

This weekend I went to Warwick Castle. It was pretty cool. On the bus ride there and back we watched Cool Runnings (always funny), Meet the Fockers (it was fairly amusing) and Forrest Gump (I don’t care what anyone says, I hate that movie). In the castle there were these creepy wax figures of the people who lived there back when it was occupied. You could also climb up these stairs and go to the top of one of the towers, but after climbing a bit I had to go back down because I was terrified. I have a thing about heights.

It was really cold there too. We spent the afternoon there but there’s only so much you can do, so I wandered around bored for a bit. There were some beautiful views though. Oh, I took this gorgeous panoramic picture that I'm really proud of. I used some special feature on my camera that I've ignored for a while. It's kind of small on here but it looks pretty when it's bigger.

I’ve joined the Christian Union on campus. It meets every Monday and it’s incredible. Never have I met such a nice group of people all congregated in one place. Everyone is so friendly and caring. It’s a nice way to start off a week.

Ugh. Sorry for another bad post but I have so much to do, so I have to go. I’m determined to win NaNoWriMo no matter what. Oh, and there’s that pesky schoolwork too.

Next week will (hopefully) be more interesting, I promise! I know, I fail. Sorry.

Sick of being sick

I don’t have anything major to report this week, due to being sick. Again. Also, it turns out the first time I was sick I had swine flu. I went to the Health Centre and the doctor said that’s probably what it was, and I was just unlucky enough to get sick again. Go figure. I don’t know what it is I have now. To be honest, I don’t care, I just want it to go away.

Since I spent most of the week in bed I don’t have that much to say. I missed out on any fun Halloween activities that may have happened, as I was too busy coughing up a lung. Ugh. Oh yeah, Saturday was Halloween. I’m kind of annoyed. I wanted to see Saw 6 but I didn’t feel well enough to go.

My classes are going okay, but I’m worried about falling behind since I’ve been ill so often. This week will be spent catching up.

There is something exciting happening this month though: NaNoWriMo! What is NaNoWriMo, you may be wondering. Well, it’s short for National Novel Writing Month. Basically it’s a challenge to write 50,000 words in one month. You don’t actually win anything, but you get the satisfaction of accomplishing something. 50,000 words seems too short for a novel (to me) but you can still work on it when the month is over. It’s good inspiration for me to actually start a novel I’ve been thinking about writing for a while. Unfortunately I didn’t do enough preparing and now that I’m actually writing it I realize I haven’t done enough research. Whatever, I can always go back and fill in important information later. The point is to write.

Speaking of which, I should probably go work on that. I don’t really have anything else to say right now. Wow, what a lame post. Sorry about that, I’ll try to be more interesting next time.

A Nice Surprise

I had an unexpectedly good weekend.

So here’s what happened. I went to the International Office to pick up a ticket for a trip to Warwick Castle (which is in two weeks I believe). Upon entering the room and looking at the various options for trips, I noticed a sheet describing a tour of the Sussex countryside that was planned for the next day (Saturday). Oh, why not, I thought. I’m not doing anything else so I may as well go.

I’m SO GLAD I decided to go. I met a really nice girl on the trip and we ended up hanging out the whole time. It was raining and the fog was ridiculous (you could barely see anything), which was disappointing because it meant we couldn’t go to Beachy Head. Beachy Head is this really huge cliff that has amazing views. It’s also a very popular spot for suicide in the UK. Understandably, we couldn’t go.

We visited the Seven Sisters Cliffs, which was cool, but the rain and wind was uncomfortable. Afterwards we traveled to Eastbourne, a really pretty seaside city. It must look gorgeous when the sun is actually out. We had a bit of free time so we ate at a pub (my first pub!) and went shopping. I finally got a UK phone so now I can contact other people here, and we went to a place called Primark which is my new favorite store. They have great clothing and accessories in there, and even better, it’s cheap! I’ll definitely be going back.

We stopped at the ruins of a castle next. Apparently it's only half the size it used to be (vertically I mean). For a castle it was pretty small. There wasn't much to see so we didn't stay very long. It was an interesting visit though. My umbrella blew inside out. That's always fun.

Our last stop was in a town called Alfriston. It’s a quaint little English town with narrow roads and cute little shops. We went to an adorable tea shop and I finally had a cream tea and a scone. The scone was delicious.

Random interjection here, but I’ve been wondering what the UK equivalent of a biscuit is for a long time. Because okay, an American cookie is a British biscuit, so I wondered what an American biscuit would be—that is, I wondered what the word for it was. I’d heard of scones before but I never had one, so now I know. They’re not exactly the same of course; biscuits aren’t really sweet like scones are, but they have the same texture. I hope that made sense.

Anyway, I now know why British people put milk in their tea. It’s really good. I usually only drink fruit teas so putting milk in that would probably be weird, but for regular British tea milk is an excellent addition.

When we finished our tea we looked in some shops. I bought a mug, surprise surprise. After looking in a few more shops it was time to leave. And guess what? The sky started clearing up about half an hour before we left and by the time we got on the bus it was a beautiful sunny day. Argh. Good job sun.

So that was a good day. Sunday was okay too. I didn’t do much but it was relaxing. It’s always nice to be pleasantly surprised. I liked that trip better than Stonehenge, and I was expecting it to be just average. You never know what can happen.

In other news, I may be planning a trip to Paris. We shall see. It won’t be for a while though, probably December. Eurostar is expensive unless you book really early, so I’d better make the decision fast. I tried looking for plane tickets but, long story short, it didn’t work out. The train is the best option I have.

Okay, a few more British tidbits for you before I go:

Instead of saying, “Can I help you?” cashiers just say, “Can I help?”

Some British people end their sentences with the word “yeah”, or stick it into the middle of a sentence. I guess it’s similar to an American saying something like, “So I was walking down the street, right, and then blah blah blah”, the “right” being the equivalent to “yeah”.

They ask, “Are you alright?” more than “How are you?” This threw me at first, because in the U.S. people usually only ask “Are you alright?” if you look like you’re upset, so I was worried that I was walking around looking sad or something. Nope, just a cultural difference.

People seem “greener” over here than in the U.S. On my campus one store charges for plastic bags, and when I went to one supermarket off campus the cashier told me that their plastic bags were free, as though it’s a question that many people have. It actually works—I got a few free reusable bags at the Freebies Fair early in the term, and I bring them with me whenever I go shopping. Less plastic bags! Maybe America should consider it…

Okay, I have to go work on an essay. Is it weird that I’m kind of enjoying writing it?

Hm…there’s no trips this weekend (as far as I’ve planned) so it’ll be a bit more relaxed. I’ll update again soon J

Stonehenge and Some Fun Facts

Well, I had a theory, tested it, and it turned out to be correct. Unfortunately, my theory was that every time I say I’m going to do something, something else happens in an attempt to prevent it from happening.

I considered not writing that I was going to Stonehenge for that exact reason, but decided to go ahead and write it just to see what would happen. I got sick is what happened. I still don’t know what it was, but I think it was a stomach virus or something. Painful stuff.

However, I refused to let it stop me from going to Stonehenge because I really wanted to go. By the weekend I was feeling mostly better, though I still had some sniffles. That didn’t matter though, because I was at Stonehenge!

It was really cold out. We walked around in a circle that goes around the rocks. We couldn’t touch them, which was sad but expected—can you imagine thousands of people leaning on and touching the rocks every year? Bad idea. They could fall and crush someone and that’s just a lawsuit waiting to happen.

I saw a mug in the gift shop that I fell in love with, so I bought it. It has a painting of Stonehenge on it and it says Stonehenge along the inside rim. It’s smaller than average but it’s really cute. I also got another little souvenir: some friend/family member back home will be the lucky recipient of their very own Stonehenge keychain! I’m being slightly sarcastic, but it is a nice keychain.

I’ve tried to stop thinking about money in American terms. That is, I’m trying to stop converting the pounds into dollars in my head and deciding if it’s a good deal, because it usually isn’t, and if I continue my head might explode from realizing how many dollars I’m actually spending. I had this dilemma in the gift shop, but I had to have that mug.

Anyway, we also went to Bath to visit this museum. We saw all the ancient Roman baths and stuff, it was cool. The city was nice too. We were free to wander around for a few hours. I just went shopping, not knowing what else to do.

So! Here’s some random English facts for you non-English people out there. These are things I’ve discovered within the past…wow, it’s nearly been a month. Most of it’s about food, because I have to actually buy food for myself instead of relying on a meal plan.

Prawns=shrimp. I already knew that, but I didn’t realize how popular the shrimp flavor is here. They have shrimp flavored chips (which they call crisps), shrimp sandwiches, shrimp…everything really. I tried a shrimp sandwich. It was okay, nothing special.

Indian food is huge here as well. I’m curious as to why. Maybe there is no reason and I’m just looking too deeply into it.

They have this stuff called squash, which is a highly concentrated fruit drink. You pour a little into a glass and then fill the rest of the glass with water. I guess it’s kind of like those powders you mix into water bottles, except it’s liquid and comes in huge bottles.

The packaging here is smaller. I thought maybe it was just here on campus that the juice cartons and food packages were small. I thought it was because it’s more convenient for college students to fit small things into our shared fridges. Turns out, no. I went to a real grocery store and everything was the same size. I saw a “family size” carton of orange juice that is only slightly bigger than a regular orange juice carton in the U.S. No wonder Americans are so fat: the food is cheaper (compared to the pound), AND you get more of it.

Eggs don’t have to be refrigerated! This blows my mind. They stock them on regular shelves. Turns out refrigerating them makes them last longer (obviously) but it’s okay to keep them out for a few days. Weird.

Sprite tastes sweeter here.

Okay, it turns out all of that was about food. You can see where my mind has been this past month.

Guess I'm done for now. I’ll write again soon when something exciting happens :)

Edit: I didn't mention anything about the history of Stonehenge. That's because I don't know it. So when we were walking toward the stones there were these little audio tour things that you were supposed to pick up (they had them at the Roman Baths too) but our leader/guide person didn't tell us that, so we just walked right on by, which is why I pretty much know nothing of the history. Shame, but I can't do anything about it now.