And my true love, England, gave to me….
12 -crazy nights (some crazier than others)
11-(thousand) meetings
10 -Airborne tablets I consume a day
9-hours of sunshine I’ve seen (probably a bit more than that, but not much!)
8-(million) bottles of water
7- days of Freshers week
6-VKs
FIVE-really good friends 🙂 (actually much more than 5 but in the 12 days of Christmas song you sing 5 golden rings for a long time so they deserve the long pause)
4- trips to Liverpool
3- days of class (and 4 day weekends!)
2- hour train rides (the Windermere)
1- nasty sinus infection. Ugh.
To all who have an interest in my travels abroad: I apologize for having not posted until now. Since I left home 12 days ago my life has been topsy tuvey…in a good way. I’ve meet some amazing people here and have gone on some incredible trips. Not counting Ormskirk where I go to Uni (not college or university but Uni) I’ve been to Conwy (Wales), Liverpool (four times), Southport, and Crosby. Tomorrow some of us are heading north to the Lake District. I’m dying to see Lake Windermere! Also walking from Windermere to Grasmere. It’s an 8.5 mile walk. But we’re hoofing it!
On the 23rd, (two days ago) I got a tickle in my throat which has progressed into a full out sinus infection. I usually get the same symptoms/cold when the seasons change so I’m not that worried. I didn’t let it hold me down yesterday when we took the train from Ormskirk down to Liverpool then back up to Southport, down to Crosby, Liverpool, and then back up to Ormskirk. I got to see the ocean for the first time (see the picture at the end of this post). I was in awe upon seeing it. One of those things that really makes you feel small.
I’m excited and nervous for classes to start. Excited mainly for all the partying on campus to hopefully calm down a bit…and also to get back into a pattern of some sort. I’m a creature of habit so living all free and easy and willy nilly is fun for a bit but I crave structure and time tables. I’m also nervous because the style of teaching here is different and the way they assess you is different (two papers make up my entire grade in one class!). I’m also taking a lit class and two IS classes…not at all my areas of expertise so I’m nervous that I won’t be up to par with the other students. And, for completely selfish reasons, I’m afraid that I won’t get to travel everywhere I want to in these 3 short months. Yes…short months. Before I got here 3 months seemed like eternity. Like it was 3 months between me and my degree and a real job and living in the big city with my roommate…but now 3 months hardly seems like enough time. They say time flies when you’re having fun…time is like in turbo mode right now because I can’t believe it’s already been two weeks here. It’s not often I pray for time to slow down…but if you’re listening God…please make these 3 months last forever.
In future posts I’ll go back and detail things here…the market, the weather, the bugs (so may bugs!), my dorm…but for now I’ll leave things be. Have some reading to do on Windermere…and you know…sleeping.
The Ocean at Crosby
