“You must be completely knackered!”

Hello, beautiful people of Canada (and elsewhere)! So sorry for the delay in writing this post – university life has a sneaky way of letting you think that you’ve got all the time in the world to get started on work, and then BAM! It’s the second week of classes and you still haven’t decided which History elective to take, lol. But more on that later. For now, I’ll start off by saying that as per usual, my life here at Essex is busy busy busy! I’ve got tons of travelling plans already made, plenty of readings to get caught up on (anyone wanna give me a synopsis of Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy?), and something new to do and experience every day here (I’m kind of amazed my body has been able to keep up – hooray for good health!). But as a result my brain is all scattered and hopped up on Twinnings tea. So with luck, this post, while all over the place, will at least be coherent. What shall I kick off with? Oh what the heck, let’s get to the good stuff right away – London and Oxford!!! :D

Only three weeks into my year and I’ve already managed to check out two of the most famous college towns in the world, and arguably the most historically significant city in Europe. How, you ask? Well, a few weeks ago I joined the Essex Travelling Society, and boy, was that ever a smart decision! They organize cheap trips for students and conveniently one of my flatmates, Ali, is a leading member of the society. Every Saturday of first term I’ll be visiting a new city in England (hence the gratuitous amount of photos already on Facebook), and before Christmas I’ll be spending a weekend shmoozin’ it up in Amsterdam! It’s such an awesome and easy way for me to get into tourist mode without the stress of planning it all myself (although it is good practice for when I actually will have to make travel plans for the holidays).

The first city we visited was merry old London, the home of the Queen, afternoon tea, big red double decker buses, and a gratuitous amount of mangy pigeons! Me, Stephanie, Amberle, and our friend Silja from Norway decided to take an open-top bus tour of the city so that we could get a sense of where the major attractions are and build up the confidence to eventually hop on the London Underground and make our own way through London using public transportation. We caught glimpses of the London Eye (the huge ferris wheel), Westminster Abbey, The Tower of London, St. Paul’s Cathedral (where they filmed the “feed the birds, tuppence a bag” scene in Mary Poppins), Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, and of course, Big Ben (which for some reason is becoming an obsession of mine, lol). So while I knew London would be huge, I was blown away at how jam-packed with people it was. There were throngs of people just waiting to cross at the intersection, or hundreds of people lining up for hours to get into the London Dungeons. So while it was tremendously exciting to be in one of the world’s biggest cities, at the end of the day, it’s certainly that: a really big, really noisy, really crowded city. It’s the kind of place that can easily overwhelm you if you don’t have a plan to follow. So the next time I visit London it’ll be for a specific adventure, like seeing a play or visiting its museums. I think that’s when I’ll truly fall in love with it.

This past weekend we had the chance to visit the beautiful town and colleges of Oxford (and it was worth getting up at 6:30am on a Saturday for, I’ll tell you that, lol). The city is gorgeous and full of history, so it was very similar to Cambridge in that sense. However, we had a few more hours to spend in Oxford, so I feel like we really got to check out the downtown core in addition to the fancy colleges. We saw Christ Church College, which is where they filmed part of the Harry Potter movies, and we also ate lunch at a pub called the Eagle and Child, where two dudes named Lewis and Tolkien wrote some of their Narnia and LOTR books, or something. I had a tasty lentil and cashew nut tart - possibly the best thing I've had to eat in England so far! We also did some browsing at the Alice in Wonderland shop (because apparently Lewis Carroll attended Oxford as well – I bought some Mad Hatter tea to celebrate!). AND we got to shop at Primark, which is this discount clothing store in the UK – I’m wearing a blouse I bought there for 3 pounds! Fashionable and financial score! :P Next up is a crazy hectic trip to Stonehenge and Bath followed by a late night partying it up for Halloween (anyone got any costume suggestions for me?)

Now, on to the everyday-life stuff………….

In terms of my emotional and mental well-being, I’m feelin’ pretty solid at the moment. Thankfully, I have yet to feel truly homesick. I definitely miss all of you guys and Canada overall, but luckily I have Facebook, email, Skype, the phone, and plenty of photos to help close the gap and make me feel like I’m not so far away (it also helps that my best friend is just up north in Lancaster, my mom is visiting this week, and the rest of my family will be popping by later on in the year). However, what I miss the most about home is Trent. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thoroughly enjoying being at Essex – I’m not joking when I say that there is ALWAYS something to do here (even on a freakin' Monday night), and it’s nearly impossible to feel lonely when there are so many people available to hang out with. But two weeks ago especially I was longing for Trent and everything I associate with it. For example, I had the same boyfriend during my first two years of university, and now I’m single. My two best friends in Peterborough are Andrew and Anelia, and now the three of us are on separate continents. My student card isn’t an all-access pass like it is at Trent, and it really is up to me to find my own way. Everyone here is very friendly and helpful, but only if I ask them questions. We really have to be on top of things here, and sometimes it can be a bit frustrating when we find out important information after the fact, info that could have easily been given to us before we got here (like whether opening a bank account was actually necessary, or that we wouldn’t have our internet connection set up as soon as we got here). School especially was a bit tough to handle at first – I’m used to falling in love with my classes right away and knowing how the system works, but here there are required readings as well as recommended readings, and it’s not always clear how much of them they expect us to read. The professors also jump into the course immediately – it wasn’t until the last class of the week where I actually got a course syllabus handed to me! For the past two years, even though I’ve socialised more than I ever have, school was the biggest source of my happiness. Particularly last year when things were emotionally rough, I threw myself into academia and really let my passion for it flourish – I always left my class happier than when I went in. So especially when it comes to academia here, I’ve really had to learn not to compare everything to Trent, otherwise some of it comes up short (although on the flip side, my social life here is what’s REALLY fun, while school is still sort of on the backburner). Although, now that I have my classes sorted out, things are starting to pick up. For the most part they are very interesting, and I’m eager to find out how each of my professors likes to teach.

My classes for the year will be:

United States Literature Since 1850
Decorum & Decay: Classical and Decadent Discourses in Literature
World Cinema
Sex, War, and Class at the Movies: Britain 1930 – 2000

Essex won’t ever feel like Trent to me, and in a way that’s a good thing (Trent after all feels like my home, and that’s hard to replace). It’s similar enough that I can handle what it throws at me, but different enough that it feels like a new and exciting place. So hopefully I can keep looking at it with fresh eyes!

Whew! These posts keep getting longer and longer! I’ll simply end off by saying that right now, my comfort level at Essex is the best it has been so far. I spend most of my time with Stephanie and Amberle, as well as a few of my international friends, but I’m starting to do things with my flatmates beyond chit-chatting in the kitchen at dinnertime. Last night we went to another (much fancier) flat on campus and watched The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas together, and we’re hoping to plan trips together to the pier in Southend and to see the new Harry Potter movie in November. AND we’re planning on partying hard for Halloween (if I can manage to stay awake after travelling all day, haha). The younger British students tend to stick together a bit more, while the older international students (like me) are out-and-about more often, but everyone is very sweet and making an effort to get to know each other better. So I’m looking forward to spending more quality time with the great people that I live with!


Now on to the last bit………………


British Thing(s) of the Week(s)!!!!!!!!!!! (double feature)

For the week of October 10th to the 17th…….

Galaxy Chocolate! This is a brand of chocolate that you can only get here in Britain (or in some specialty shops back home in Canada – like the Nutty Chocolatier in Peterborough and Sugar Mountain in Ottawa!). It’s essentially not much different from Cadbury or Hershey, except that it’s just a smidge better (it’s very rich and creamy no matter what form it’s in). You can get it in the form of bars, cakes, cookie bits, and my personal favourite, Galaxy “Minstrels” (they’re like fancier Smarties – I’m snacking on them right now!). Deeeeeelicious! :D

And for the week of October 18th to the 24th………

Prêt a Manger! This is a chain of fast-food restaurants in the UK (sort of similar to Tim Horton’s, minus all of the doughnuts). They specialise in deli sandwiches, soups, coffee/tea, and delighting my taste buds ;) In all three cities that we’ve visited so far, me, Amberle, and Steph have scoped out the nearest Prêt a Manger and we have yet to be disappointed (their toasted mozzarella, pesto, tomato and basil sandwich is divine!). So if you ever find yourself hungry in the UK, Prêt a Manger will do the trick! (They should just go right ahead and hire me as a spokesperson, lol).

Until next time, chip chip, cheerio!

<3 Madalyn