15 March 2014: "You're a Northerner now." - Halfway Through My Program

A couple of weeks ago, a couple of my friends and I were sitting around, talking about where we're from. I cannot remember the direct route of the conversation, seeing as how it was a couple weeks back and I did not think that anything that we said would be poignant, but at one point, one of my friends looked at me and said, "Well, you're a Northerner now," referring to somebody from North England. At the time, I kind of laughed, but now, her words are starting to ring true.

When I got to my Butler orientation in the beginning of January, they told the York kids that we were going to "go Native" in a way that our London friends would not. They said that the kids who study at York always assimilate into the culture in a way that we end up becoming more English than the kids who study at Kings and Queen Mary and all them. When I first got here, I didn't think that would be true. I mean, I love everything about England, but I didn't think that I'd "go native" like they said.

But it's gotten to the point where I crave salt and vinegar oddities instead of Goldfish.
Canned pasta bolognese is better than Chef Boyardee.

Cheesy Wotsits are better than Cheetos.
Eating chips (or fries) with mayo is better than eating it with ketchup.
Chicken and sweet corn is my favorite sandwich filling.
Sausage rolls/cheese and onion rolls are probably the greatest food on the entire planet.
I'm alright without Taco Bell

Heck, I wish that I could add to the food section, but I'm honestly having issues with remembering what's "American" and what's "English."

I'm also finding that my language is changing a bit. I've started picking up on English vocabulary and find myself accidentally using these words when talking to Americans. It's not anything intentional. I'm not trying to show off the fact that I'm in England or anything. I just don't remember which words go with which language anymore. Like, I keep on forgetting that American's don't say "brilliant" that often, and that you never hear Americans say "brill." It's just hard to remember where one language starts and the other one ends.

I also never imagined that I would make friends here like I did at home. In America, I found most of my friends either through marching band or while I was with other marching band people, so I became convinced that unless I'm in band, I won't make friends. So when I got here, I was like, "Oh, whatever. I'll just kind of know people, but since I'm not in band, I won't get along with them properly."

I was wrong.

When I took this, I said, "Come over here if you want to be on my blog!" The entire room came and we accidentally recreated the Oscars 2014 selfie. There was a bit of a fight over who got to be J-Law. Tyler won.

The people I've met here are perfect. And they don't even do band! It turns out that I'm able to meet people without hiding behind a clarinet ;)

So what is the point of this post, you may ask? I'm about half way done with my time here (don't remind me) and I just wanted to assure the world that I don't miss home as much as I used to. Everything here is going swimmingly. I'm having the time of my life. I'm doing just fine.