29 January 2014: Betty's Tea Room

Today, two members of the Butler staff invited the three people at York from the Butler program to go to lunch with them at Betty's Tea Room. Betty's is a rather famous tearoom in England. People from all over the country come to York just to eat at Betty's. So when we found out that we were going to be taken there (and not have to pay for it...not the cheapest place in England), we were more than excited.

Of COURSE I didn't get the word "Betty's" in there...

Display in the window. Just look at those macaroons!

Along with the tea room, there's a sweet little shoppe where you can purchase different tea things.

Will and I decided to meet up in the parking lot outside of my house so that we could take the bus down together. Instead of going the usual way to the bus stop that I generally take, he took me through this muddy back path. I had no idea that that area was even back there! There was a great big field with a couple of horses, some little pubs, a few cute restaurants...I was shocked. How had I been living here for nearly a month and not known that this existed?! Perhaps I should leave my room and explore a bit more...

On the bus, we met up with Valerie, who had just gotten out of class. It felt really nice to reconnect with the two of them. We all talked about our classes, some of the difficulties we've been having, our houses, cooking...it was just really refreshing to communicate with people who are going through the exact same things that I am. It almost made me feel more confident. They even convinced me to buy a student rail pass!


 Even though I'd only met with them both over a few days back at the beginning of the month, I felt like I was meeting with relatives. There wasn't a moment of awkwardness whatsoever. It was absolutely lovely.

For lunch, I ordered a dish that's made out of shredded potatoes, cheese, and British Bacon. (I say "British bacon" because it's kind of like American bacon and Canadian bacon had a baby. Quite tasty though!) Although it was quite filling, it was absolutely delicious! To drink, I got a soda called Elderflower Bubbly. I'd never heard of it before and it sounded rather European, so I had to try it. It was nice for sipping, but I don't think that I'd ever sit down with a whole bottle of it.

My mouth is watering just lookint at it!

It's just so fancy! 

While we ate our lunches, we all chatted about York, upcoming Butler events, current events in the world, the weather, fashion, our home schools...just everything. I'm not sure how, but I even worked camp into there. You know what they say about camp counselors...meet one of us for 15 minutes and you'll know what we do with our summers.

After we'd eaten and I swore that I'd never be able to eat ever again, the waitress brought out the dessert cart. On it were the most delicious looking desserts I'd ever seen. When she described what each of them were, our eyes all popped. I ended up ordering some cake looking like thing with meringue and almond and hazelnut and yum and alskdjfalwejksf. We also each ordered some tea. I didn't understand most of the words on the tea menu, so I got a pepperment one.

Both were beyond fabulous.

It was so nice! It didn't even need sugar! But then again, I've always preferred my tea without milk and sugar. But still.

Oh yeah. There was a delicious sweet on top. And like a puddle of berries. And then she put some sweet cream on my plate as well.

 Now, I'm sitting in my room trying to write two papers, both due on Monday. *sigh* Oh well. I guess that you have to "study" when you "study abroad." ;)

23 January 2014: At The Cinema

It's no secret that I've really been missing home lately. It's funny. I've wanted to live in England ever since I was a little girl. I used to watch the old BBC shows on Saturday nights on PBS and think that the whole country just seemed so much classier and more polished. I would try to perfect my British accent so that if the Harry Potter casting agents ever wanted me to come and be in one of their films, I'd be more than ready for the task. So I almost feel like I'm letting my younger self down whenever I sit in my room going through old pictures and wishing that I was back at home.

Yesterday evening, as I was stalking my Summer 2012 Facebook album, a few of my friends knocked on my door and invited me to come to the cinema with them. They were leaving right that minute. Without hesitation (or knowledge of what we were even seeing), I put on my coat and shoes, grabbed my purse, and left.

Since the cinema is about fifteen minutes from Halifax, we had to get there by car. I realized a couple of minutes into the journey that the last time I'd been in a non-taxi car, it was when my parents were dropping me off at the Akron-Canton Airport all those eternities ago. And even though I was having a lot of trouble comprehending the fact that the driver was sitting on the right-hand side of the front, everything felt a lot more homey than it had felt in a while.

When we got to the cinema, we got our tickets to go and see Last Vegas. The man behind the ticket booth told us where our assigned seat numbers were. I commented that it was a bit strange that we had assigned seating in a cinema, and Tyler told me that that wasn't typical in most UK theaters.

((I didn't order these, but I'm happy that they exist. It's almost like a doritos locos taco. Almost.))



We sat down just in time to miss the previews, but we didn't miss a single second of the film. The second that it began, I couldn't stop smiling.

Even though this film primarily takes place in Las Vegas, a city that I've never visited, and all of the characters grew up in New York City, a place that I've only been to once in my life, I just felt like I was at home for a little while. Everybody was using American money and had American accents and were talking about American cities...I know that it sounds stupid, but it was just what I needed. Plus, it was a really cute movie that had the entire audience laughing out loud the entire time, so that's always a plus :)

In the car on the way home, I was much chattier than I had been. Instead of dreaming about my home friends and Taco Bell last night, I actually had a dream that I was hanging out with York people (and eating Heinz ravioli, for some reason...)

You know what? I think I'm going to be just fine :)

21 January: It's Been 3 Weeks

I've officially been in England for three weeks now, and I'm really starting to feel it. It's not that I'm not having fun. On the contrary, I'm having a great time! I absolutely love England and do not regret coming here at all. However, I'm really starting to miss home.

As a camp counselor, I have to deal with this problem quite a bit, and I must say, I've gotten quite good at it. Usually, these conversations follow a simple formula, so I have all of my lines memorized. So I guess that the only person that can talk me through this is...me.

Camper Ellen: "I really want to go home."
Counselor Ellen: "Oh, honey, it's okay! You want to sit here and talk about it?"
Camper Ellen: *Nods and sits down* "I just really want to go home!"
Counselor Ellen: "But think about everything you'd miss out on! Don't you want to watch Eurovision and go to the clubs and go sight seeing?"
Camper Ellen: "Yes, but I still miss my friends!"
Counselor Ellen: "And I'm sure that they miss you, too. But it's okay, because once you get home, you'll have so many cool stories to tell them! And they would hate to think that you're sad! They want you to have a good time!"
Camper Ellen: "I miss my family, too!"
Counselor Ellen: "Your family loves you so, so much, and they don't want you to be sad either. And you know what's really cool?"
Camper Ellen: "Hmm?"
Counselor Ellen: "They trust you enough to send you all the way to England by yourself. They think that you're responsible and mature enough to be able to do this. Doesn't that make you feel so proud of yourself?"
Camper Ellen: "I guess so. But I still miss them."
Counselor Ellen: "What are you looking forward to doing most of all?"
Camper Ellen: "Harry Potter Studio Tour."
Counselor Ellen: "That's going to be a lot of fun, isn't it? That's actually what I'm the most excited for, too."
Camper Ellen: "But I miss the food at home. I miss mom's food."
Counselor Ellen: "But there's so many good foods here, too! You can't have all of the chocolates that you have here at home, do you?"
Camper Ellen: "No, I guess I can't."
Counselor Ellen: "And can I tell you a little secret?"
Camper Ellen: "Yeah!"
Counselor Ellen: "The second you go home, you're just going to want to turn around and come back."
Camper Ellen: "Really?"
Counselor Ellen: "Really. That's how I was when I first came, and now look at me. I never leave!"
Camper Ellen: *giggles*
Counselor Ellen: "Alright. It's super, super late and I don't want you falling asleep on your walk to campus tomorrow. You think you'll be able to fall asleep now?"
Camper Ellen: "Yeah. Thank you!"
Counselor Ellen: "That's what I'm here for! Goodnight!"

I know that you're probably all making this face right now o.O but I'm feeling a lot better.

I guess that everybody misses home sometimes...especially when they're all the way across the ocean...but as long as you remember how cool it is that you are wherever you are, then it'll all be okay.

      ((Camper Ellen. I was 14, but sadly, none of the "little camper Ellen" pictures are on Facebook))

19 January 2014: A Sunday Roast

Today, two of my friends invited me to get roast with them. I wasn't quite sure if roast was a slang term for lunch or if it was roast beef or something, but I still happily agreed to go. As we walked to the bus stop, I learned that in England, it's traditional to have a roast beef or roast pork dinner mid-day on Sundays. Since I haven't had real beef since I was in Cleveland (Unless we want to count whatever was inside of my pasty or that Whopper I had at the airport in Charlotte), I was more than excited.

When we got into town, we walked a bit until we found Melton's. When we walked inside, I smiled a bit. As cliche as this is going to sound, it looked just like the movies about British restaurants. Instead of checking in our reservations with a greeter at a desk, we walked up to the bar near the front of the restaurant and told him that we had a table for two o'clock. We also ordered our beverages at the bar before we sat down (although I only got a water).

When we got upstairs, the three of us ordered some roasts (Amy and I got beef and Fiona got pork), then talked for a while until our meals come. I loved getting to know my new friends even better. We talked about our jobs, our families, similarities and differences between our countries...you name it, it came up. I'm really starting to feel like I'm not such a stranger in this new country.

Then, in a moment that can only be described as magical, our meals arrived. The table fell silent as we each received our meals. on my plate, there were a few pieces of real actual meat, some cooked potatoes, gravy, and a large puffy pastry type thing with gravy all over it. She then put out a bowl of cooked carrots and cheesy cauliflower. I felt like I've never eaten anything so nice in my life. I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm having a lot of fun eating sandwiches, instant noodles, pasta, and microwaved baked potatoes. But it was SO refreshing to have an actual proper meal.

After we were finished with our meals, Amy and Fiona both ordered a sticky toffee pudding. I'd never had a "pudding," before, unless you count the American kind that comes in a little Snack Pack cup, so I ordered one as well.

I was not disappointed. We each got a dish that had a scoop of toffee ice cream and a large molten hot sticky cake-like item. It was super sweet, but not so sweet that it was inedible. None of us could help but smile as we ate the extremely rich and filling dessert. I somehow finished it down to the last bite.

When we left the restaurant, we took another route back to the bus stop. At one point, I turned my head, and there was a castle, like, right there! I keep on forgetting just how historical York is. You're just kind of going about your day, when suddenly: history!

I'm still smiling from that roast. It's amazing what one good meal with a couple of good friends can do to a girl's spirits.

15 January 2014: English Eating - The Freddo Frog

As a proud citizen of the Internet, there are many delicious looking English foods and sweets that I have stumbled across on a variety of websites but have been unable to consume due to the fact that they're not available in America. I mean, I've got to try and find SOMETHING to fill the Taco Bell shaped hole in my heart...right?

One such food is the Freddo Frog. I have come across this candy bar in two different contexts on the Internet. The first is whenever I stumble across the beginnings of World War 3 on popular blogging sights and the British and American bloggers are getting far too passionate in their discussions of who has the better candy selection. It usually boils down to the Americans getting shut down for not having Kinder Surprise Eggs (the food that I am the most excited to try) and Freddo Frogs.

The other time I've come across Freddo Frogs was when the price of these candies raised from 17p to 20p. The Internet was outraged. I would post a screen shot of one Internet user's rant about this price increase, but I'm trying to keep this a PG-rated blog.

All I can say is this: Don't mess with Freddo Frogs.

So when I was at the tiny grocery store by my house buying a couple of things that I needed and I saw a basket of these little guys sitting there, I knew that I had to try one.

 Notice the 20p. This is what got the Internet so angry. To be fair, I'd be angry, too. You should have seen me when they raised the price of Girl Scout cookies. I think that I went on a ten minute rant about how it's always been a sacred $3.00.

 I unwrapped the candy and smiled at how cute it was. Oh, and at the fact that it's like a muggle version of a chocolate frog. You know, I'm starting to wonder if this is where Queen Jo got the inspiration...

10/10 would recommend. Would buy again. This thing is delicious. Definitely worth the extra 3p.

(Life update: I just snapchatted a picture of myself and my Freddo Frog to a few of my friends here. One of them replied with, "Back in my day, they were 10p." Maybe this problem is worse than I thought.) (But still tasty!)

13 January 2014: "Real People School."

Today, I had my very first lecture and seminar at the University of York. Since the lecture was at 1pm and the seminar at 2, I naturally woke up at 8:30 so that I wouldn't be late. I guess it's good that I did, though, because there was a fire drill at 10:15 and I was wide awake for it...but that's another story entirely. Anyway, I made myself some cheesy scrambled eggs, checked the room numbers 30 times each, got ready, did some daily self affirmations in the mirror, checked the room numbers another 20 times, and left my house at 12:15. You know...so that I wouldn't be late.

After using the map skills that were drilled into me in preparation for my 4th grade IOWA test, I found the building that my lecture was in with 20 minutes to spare. I awkwardly sat on the edge of a bench outside of the room, opening my laptop again to make sure that the lecture was, indeed, in the room that I was sitting near. It was. When it was time to go into the lecture hall, I couldn't believe my eyes. The room was huge. There were layered bench seats with long bench desks that went up about 10-15 rows. The benches were long. Each could easily hold 30-40 people. At Wooster, the biggest class I'd ever been in WAS 40 people! I awkwardly walked up several rows, slid into the middle of one, and took out my notebook.

While the room filled up, everybody was talking. Then, without any cue being given by the lecturer, nor bell ringing, nor anything else that I could see, the entire lecture hall fell silent. The lecturer then began to speak, just diving right into the lesson. There were no notes written on the board, no power points, no nothing. I quickly realized that the teachers in my high school WEREN'T lying when they said that most college professors just spoke and you had to be responsible for writing down what was important. This task was especially hard for me not only because I'd never learned like that before, but because I had to watch her lips to make sure that I was understanding the accent correctly.

After an hour of this, it was time to go. As I closed my notebook, the room burst into applause. I was stunned. I'd never known that people actually clapped at the end of college lessons. I mean, it happens in movies all the time, yeah, but I didn't know that it was a real life thing. I quickly joined in the applause, then packed up my stuff to head to the seminar for that class.

The seminar was in a completely different building and was supposed to start one minute after the lecture ended, so I naturally spent the next 15 minutes following confusing signs, turning around, crossing over bridges (I'm not being dramatic here. My campus is covered in bridges), and having mild panic attacks until I arrived at my desired room. I was obviously a couple of minutes late, but the tutor for the seminar didn't care. The seminar felt a lot more natural to me. There were only 14 students in the class, which is still a bit big for my Wooster liking, but is MUCH better than that 200 person lecture. It was interactive, hands-on, and even involved group work. I felt MUCH more at home and am completely thankful that that seminar exists.

I'm not going to lie. I'm feeling completely overwhelmed from this whole experience. However, to quote The Mountain Goats...

11-12 January 2014: Goin' 2 da Club

As many of you can probably infer from my blog, I've been keeping it low-key and playing it safe since I've arrived in England. While this annoys some of you (Sarah Roman told me that if she sees one more post about me sitting inside and doing nothing, there's going to be consequences), it's really working out quite nicely for me. Contrary to popular belief, I'm actually quite shy. I know that hearing me say something like "I walked around the campus for a couple of hours, bought some eggs, and then came back to my room to watch Dance Moms" makes it sound like I'm not doing anything interesting, but to me, it's plenty exciting.

However, I did realize that my friends from home had a point, so when my York friends invited me to go to a club with them, I happily agreed to go. I rustled around my closet, scrounged together an outfit that both Louie and Meaghan approved of (via Skype, of course), got ready, and then had a moment of panic when I realized what I had agreed to do.

I'm an Ohio girl. I think there's a couple of clubs in Cleveland, but other than Bounce, I've never heard of any of them. I go to school in Wooster, where our idea of a fun Saturday night out is going to Walmart. Heck, until last night, this is the only club that I'd ever been to:

 What business did I have going to a club in York, England?

After I'd worked up the courage to leave the safety of my dorm room and hang out with my friends, I began to feel more comfortable. In fact, by the time the taxi came to pick us up at 11:20 PM, I was excited to go! I finally felt like I was doing something that "real" college students do.


When we got to the club, Club Salvation, I could not believe my eyes. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. It was a rather dark place with a bar to one side, a DJ on a platform, a couple of hundred people, a fog machine, and rainbow lights. The music was so loud that you literally had to shout in people's ears to communicate with them. On the dance floor, everyone was all close and bumping around. My friends and I went to the middle of the floor, which at first terrified me, but soon made me feel excited.

As I danced (well, like swayed in tempo while bouncing my kneecaps a bit...a dance that I've perfected from four years of high school dances), I couldn't help but feel like none of it was real. Here I was, some corn fed Ohio girl who's too afraid to order pizza over the phone, out on a Saturday night at a crowded and trendy night club in England. That doesn't happen! Heck, I didn't even know that clubs were ACTUALLY like that! I thought that was an urban legend that Hollywood invented, like kids making volcanoes for science fair and middle school hall monitors that never go to class because they're too busy patrolling the halls. It was all completely surreal and I could not comprehend the fact that it was all happening to me.

During the night, I somehow attracted a couple of young gentlemen, which was flattering at first, seeing as how I don't think I've attracted a young gentleman since high school, but quickly became annoying. My friends saw my panicked look and rescued me both times. I really realized that these people have my back, which makes it a LOT easier to breathe over here. It's nice to know that there are people who are going to be there for you...even if you'd only met them a couple of days ago.

After we'd left the club (at around 2:45 AM, which was apparently early for my friends, even though it's probably the latest I've ever been out), we went to some greasy fast food place called Salt and Pepper's until our taxi arrived. The best way that I can describe it to the Wooster people reading is that it's like Mom's Truck Stop. From what I could tell, it was near a lot of York's clubs, so everybody in there looked like they had obviously just come off of a night of clubbing. I ordered some chips and was happy to see that they had malt vinegar in the condiment section. Unlike my friends do at Wooster, no one judged me in the slightest for putting it all over my fries, er, chips.

Right now, it's 11:40 AM the next day. I'm sitting in my bed with achy legs, a club stamped hand, and a long list of poems by George Herbert that I should be reading, but I could not be happier. Last night wasn't real, and yet, it was. Maybe it's time to stop being so afraid of life. Maybe it's time to go out there and live it.

    Selfie of me at the club. No, there's no weird photo effects on it. That's how the lighting worked.