The Dryer Ate My Pound

           I have to apologize for taking so long to write something new. I've literally been busy every morning, day and night with induction meetings, sightseeing, getting to know all my new international friends, eating the sometimes "shitey" food at the Hub, and going to Fresher's week parties. I've also been a little preoccupied with composing a letter to Folgers (To whom it may concern: "the best part of waking up" is not, in fact, "Folgers in your cup." It's actually waking up at home in your own bed that's big enough to accommodate the whole length of your body and in a room that doesn't smell like cigarettes.) 

          But Sunday being a day of rest and all, I figured I'd take the time now to fill everyone in on how my first official week in Coventry went. And if I had to sum it up in a word, it would have to be hyphenated: amazing-and-eye-opening-and-exhausting-and-exciting-but-slightly-confusing. Don't worry folks, I'm an English major so I'm fully accredited to hyphenate sentences and call them a single word.

          Let's start with the confusing bits. I don't know if it's because I've got three years of college at CSULB under my belt, so I know their system really well and how to sign up for classes and find information and all that, but compared to my home university, Coventry is just infuriating. Nothing, I repeat, nothing is ever made completely clear. Even the people who ran the meetings and were supposed to be able to answer all our questions were confused and lost at times. Which begs the question: if the people in charge don't always know what they're doing, how are the students expected to know? I tend to panic and get stressed when things aren't organized or planned out thoughtfully, so this is going to be a hard learned lesson for me in going with the flow. I also don't like to ask a lot of questions for fear of looking stupid, and I'm going to need to get over that as well.

          On the plus side, there has been an endless amount of fun things to do to overshadow my confusion and frustration. I've been writing down what I do everyday in a little journal that one of my best friends back home made me (shout-out to Sam!!) so that I'll remember all my experiences when I leave. I'm glad I started doing that the first day I got here, because so much has happened that everything starts to blur together in my mind. So far this week, I've been to my first English football match (Coventry City vs. Blackpool- we tied, 2 to 2), gone out to pubs with my friends and had my first English beer, been to several parties, took a train to Birmingham to do some sightseeing and shopping (where I bought a gift for a certain someone who shall remain nameless), celebrated Jill's 20th birthday on Wednesday night & Thursday (wooo-hoooo, Jill!!!), and met so many amazing international students living on the same floor at Priory Hall.

          I'd have to say that the best part of this experience so far has been the people. Before I'd left to come here, I'd never really met more than a handful of people who came from other countries. And in just one week I've had the pleasure of getting to know people from Holland, Sweden, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, and England (of course!). I'm constantly astounded at how well everyone speaks English, and it makes me feel a little ashamed that I never really took French too seriously in school. Maybe if I had, I'd be bilingual like everyone else here! Rieneke and Krys have been trying to teach me how to say "Good morning" in Dutch, but I definitely need more lessons.

          Classes officially start tomorrow, and I think we all might take a little break from the constant parties and hang-outs to start focusing on studying. I'm going to be having classes every day of the week, with two on Fridays (bummer), so don't be surprised if it takes me another week to post something new again. On the other hand, this blog might turn into a procrastination method later on in the semester if I don't want to do my homework, so there's also the possibilty that you might be hearing a lot from me.

           Either way, cheers my American friends!

P.S. Did you know that it costs three pounds to do a load of laundry here at Priory?? Two pounds to wash, one pound to dry. Ridiculous. And the washers & dryers don't give change, so they only take coins. And they don't have a change machine in the building, so if one of the dryers eats your last pound, you're sort of SOL.

P.P.S. The dryer ate my pound.