Making Myself at Home

[Just a quick update - I have three essays due next week (well, two essays and one short story). Having so much crammed into my head and trying to sort it out into three concrete ideas is stressful!]

While the cozy familiarity of my dorm room has lulled me into a daily sense of 'home', I hadn't really thought of Norwich as such. When my "charming rogue" of a friend came from London to come visit me, I realized I knew more - and less - about this city than I thought.

The things I did know were where to get fresh vegetables at the market and how to find my way around the city centre. I knew how to use the bus system inside and out and where to go clubbing. But I didn't know where the movie theatre ("cinema") was, or how to tell a cabbie what street I lived on, or where to eat at lunchtime (eventually we found the English equivalent of The Olive Garden). And in a larger sense, I still have to study my coins to see what they are, I sometimes use "line" instead of "queue", and I can't justify calling carbonated citrus drink "lemonade". And I'm still fascinated by the concept of the school uniform...


It's so strange to think I'm only a tenth of the way through my time here. I still flip through my mobile phone looking for the numbers of my best friends from home and I haven't yet experienced "cold" despite feeling chilled every time I walk outside. But I'm used to the accent now, I remember to check drink labels for aspartame (seriously, I can taste it in everything!), and I even bought a pair of slippers. Pink ones.

Water, Water, Everywhere - And Not a Drop for Showers

Today marked the first dreary weather I've experienced since I got here. I'd had gray skies, sure, all the time, and sometimes a light drizzle, but today it was rain. From morning to night. And I certainly wore the wrong shoes for it. My toes are so cold!

But it does make me happy. "English weather!" I thought, a cheerful converse feeling to the day's grim darkness. I even donned my rabbit fur jacket (not needed until now), a multitude of layers, and my pink-and-black umbrella. I did feel sort of bad when I saw one of the UEA rabbits hop by with its cousin 'round my neck, but I also felt warm, which sort of evened it all out.

My room has a skylight and it was just comforting to watch the rain fall this afternoon, listening to the steady rhythm. But I was right in a prediction I made two months ago: rain doesn't smell like it does in Arizona. There's no deep breath of creosote and wet, dusty, desert dirt - there is wet earth and the nearly undetectable scent of water, but Arizona rain trumps Norwich rain in scent(though not in amount).

In other watery news, half the halls on campus have lost access to the main waterline (since about seven a.m. this morning). We've just been given a reserve water tank, which is awesome (you should have seen the load of dishes in the sink!), but showers are still unadvised. I plan on taking a shower tomorrow no matter what (sorry, reservoir tank, but I have things to do and don't intend on doing them without a shower!), but I hope it's fixed incredibly soon. It's a flashback to the horrible apartment (flat) that Brittany and I lived in two years ago. The water used to just stop working all the time!

Finally, I wanted to direct you guys to my current photography project. It's sort of silly, but I love it and hope you'll think it's at least interesting. It's called The Photographer Photographer (or Photog-Squared) and the idea is that instead of always getting the tourist photo, I get a photo of the tourists getting the photos! Well, anyway, I'm hoping to do a photo a day for at least a year. It may just end up being a personal goal instead of a public blog thing, but if you like it, drop some comments on your favorite photographer photographs. There's only one up currently, but they are set to auto-post every day. Tomorrow you'll get one of my favorites.

As always, my travel photos are available through my Facebook (link on the sidebar), where my London photos have FINALLY been uploaded. I swear it wasn't my fault, Facebook has been an unreliable lover as of late. Can't live with it, can't live without it...

A Marvelous Time

It's been almost a week since I went to London, but I hope you'll forgive me for not posting - there was actually a huge amount of homework I had to do! I had two five hundred word flash fiction stories due in one class (plus two short stories to read, Rushdie and Hemingway), four huge packets to read for Words and Music, and I have my next class in forty-five minutes! Luckily, I'm all caught up for that one and so I have some time to write up a blog post.

Last Thursday, my travel buddy (Diana) and I met up, caught a bus to the train station, and then hopped a train to London! I was initially quite nervous about the travel situation. Not the train or the bus (which I'm quite comfortable one compared to Tucson buses), but I knew that once we got to London, we'd have to take the Tube. My one experience with London Underground was two winters ago when, even in a group of five other girls, we managed to get lost and looked like silly, silly tourists. So, to avoid what I thought might give me a tragic panic attack, I mapped out our entire journey. And you know what? Not a single mishap the entire weekend Tube-wise!

We arrived at the hostel quite late and the place was chaos. Luckily, it was the good kind of chaos - they have a really popular pub and music venue right underneath the hostel rooms! It made for a loud night, but us college kids weren't bothered by the noise. We even went to bed early, but that was mostly so we could get a good start on Friday morning.

One thing that's really cool about London tourism is that there are a bunch of programs called London 2-4-1. It's exactly what it sounds like! You buy a train ticket, then fill out an online form to receive vouchers for two-for-one tickets all over London. Our first 2-4-1 adventure was Friday morning, when we joined up with a group of people to go on a "London Walks" tour. It was amazing! The theme of the tour was "Eccentric London" and it was all about eccentrics who have lived in London - Oscar Wilde, of course, but also the man who designed the Sphinxes who guard the Egyptian obelisk near the Thames, the Duke of Buckingham who less than humble about his incredibly shapely legs, and about ten other useless but interesting stories about London's eccentric history. All I could think was that my parents and a number of their close friends would have absolutely LOVED that tour!

It was great to start with the tour because it really gave us an idea of where we wanted to go next - we backtracked to Trafalgar Square and the National Portrait Gallery, then to Leicester Square for some lunch. We had just come up to Big Ben when it began to rain, and we had a 2-4-1 for the Salvador Dali exhibit, so we ducked in there to shield ourselves from England's wet weather. This exhibit was amazing. I had no idea about all of Dali's work (of course, I only picture melting watches when I thought of him!). But he has some wild sculptures and even wilder paintings/drawings. It was so cool to see past the initial impression you get of Dali from his more famous works and to see into the really, really strange workings of his mind.

Back at the hostel, we ate some delicious Thai food (that's right, Thai food, at a hostel with a Scottish name and bagpipes on the sign, in London. What's up with that?), and played pool with our awesome Irish roommates (two hefty, but jovial, fellas who were there for a whole month). We then headed out to Old Street to find some clubs... and I'll leave the rest of that night there. ;P I will say that Leicester Square looks AMAZING at night. All the colours and lights - it's like Times Square, honestly.

Next day was the Globe and Tate Modern (amazing! Such a cool gallery), then to St. Paul's and back home for some more Thai food. We were so tired from the night before that it was honestly just a "Let's get it done" sort of day. We did have lunch at a fairly classic pub and we tried some delicious new craft beers and ciders that they have on special there, but otherwise, it was a rather relaxing day. The night was calmer as well - we just walked around and watched the buskers and laughed at the drunken revelers instead of joining in the party.

My favourite day though had to be Sunday. It was ZOO DAY! =D The ZSL London Zoo is absolutely the coolest thing. It's a fairly interactive zoo with a lot of exhibits, including a gorgeous humidified butterfly garden, a walk-through where you can be IN the spider-monkey enclosure, and an exhibition of animals doing tricks (a giant macaw flew right over my head in that! Its feathers were in my hair, it was really cool!). But one of the most amazing things was the lion exhibit. The lions had just had two babies this summer and as we walked up to the enclosure, Papa Lion let out a mighty roar and called his cubs up to play with him! They were SO cute.

After that, we headed to Regent's Park, where my camera promptly ran out of battery. Too bad, because the gardens there were gorgeous. I loved the huge variety of roses they had and all the interesting names there were for each kind! But it was getting dark, and cold, so after a quick trip to the boating pond, we found a tube station and headed back to Liverpool Street Station to catch our train to Norwich.

I can't wait to go back! I didn't make it to the science museum or the British Music Experience, so I'll have to make it soon. Plus, I now have some Londoner friends that have promised to give me the insider guide! It's going to be jokes. ;P Photos will be up on my Facebook tomorrow!

Daytrip to Cromer

New, unexpected differences keep popping up every day - the way you pronounce "risotto", the measurement of a "shot" of alcohol, and the reliance of the English on their amazing rail system.

Taking a train in the States is nearly unheard of, but here, it's so easy to go to the rail station and book a ticket to anywhere in the UK. Greyhound buses got NOTHIN' on trains here! And plus, who doesn't want a chance to see more of the English countryside? It shocks me sometimes that this place really looks like this and a train journey makes it incredibly easy to drink it in.

So where did I take the train? Well, my flatmate Lois and I both have free days on Fridays and have declared them our Day-Trip Days! Destination One was the beach at Cromer, a seaside town which we decided to visit now before it was really too cold. It was gorgeous, though a bit chilly. The town is really quaint - lots of older folks about this time of year, but Lois reckons it gets pretty busy in the summertime!


The sea was very pretty and I went in up to my ankles, which was pretty brave for an Arizona girl. But the sun came out for a little while and warmed us up! It was actually a lovely afternoon. And when it got too cold, we went down to the end of the pier where they have a theatre (nothing good was playing) and a Lifeboat viewing center (sort of interesting, but in the end, it was just a boat. We thought we'd get to see it launched when an alarm went off, but the alarm might have just been a phone ringing).

We had lunch on the pier at Tides, and we were pretty excited for it because Cromer is supposed to be really known for its crabs and we'd never really had proper crab before. Unfortunately, the pier restaurant didn't even sell crab. Boo! I consoled myself with my second English fish'n'chips, while Lois had a classic - beans on chips. Beans are on everything here (except in tortillas, which confuses the Mexican food lover I am)! Most notable, and strange for me, is beans on toast. Beans on toast! Ugh, everyone eats it and I cannot wrap my head around it. There was even a Tides menu item called "Things on Toast" and several options (including, of course, beans). Maybe when it gets colder and I need something warm and hearty, I'll give in to this crazy notion of beans on toast, but for now, I'll just have toast and jam.

Some other highlights include - a proper English sweets shop, brightly coloured English dressing tents (I'm not sure what they're really called!), and more of Norfolk's beautiful churches (amazing, amazing architecture here!).

Don't forget to look at all the new photos I've put up on my Facebook! There's a link on the sidebar. There are photos of the Uni campus and the town of Norwich, plus some silly things like a nice picture of my cat, Yaya (who I miss dearly).