Nott What You'd Expected...

Oh, the memories.... One Month Anniversary

In celebration of my one month anniversary of studying abroad in Nottingham, I've decided to present a special LIST Edition of the blog today.

Aside from attending class on a 'typical' (yet atypical with the weather we've been having) day in England, today was again pretty boring. Learned about Puritans, learned about Muslims, did laundry, and started to read Plot Against America by Phillip Roth....awesome book about what would happen if a Nazi Charles Lindberg were to defeat FDR in the 1940 presidential election....

Well, here goes- one month into Nottingham-

Top things I miss about the US (no order):
-Family, duh
-Friends, ok, obvious and boring answer
-Tsing Tsao crab rangoon. the four greatest words in the English? Language
-College Football. American sports for that matter. I love football (soccer), but I can only take so much rugby, cricket, horse racing, darts, motorsports, etc....
-open space- i still remember Nick from Manchester being amazed at the size of the roads in the US...."I've heard that the roads are just enormous... "
-feeling more 'put together' than the general public (they dress well here- nary a man can be seen without hair gel or some kind of purposefully 'messed up' hair get up)
-TV. food network, LOST, ESPN at all hours, Colbert Report, Daily Show
-Cheap things. Cheap food, cheap clothes, cheap books, cheap everything.... it's crazy expensive over here
-happy people. the general British contenance is pretty negative. cold hearted? maybe. hermitesque? kinda. overall, we've been well recieved because we're different, but the fast-paced self absorbed attitude gets old
-decent places to run, to walk, to feel unattatched and unrestrained by busy roads and Noise
-The Noise is rediculous. walking and attempting to talk along the side of the road is like having tea at the Starting Line of the Daytona 500. Traffic is out of control, and the busdrivers are crazy...
-Bad Public Transportation. enough said. See also: Margret Thatcher is a bitch.

Things I do not miss (no order, again)
-Fast food, fat people, white trash, cutoff tshirts, the general laziness and dirtiness that for some reason the Brits and rest of Europeans avoid....
-FOX News, George Bush, Bible thumping conservatives and the South in General. Hearing my American Lit prof talk about America is like Kevin Arnold looking into the mirror on Wonder Years and seeing that huge whitehead... scary, ugly, and altogether disconserting sometimes...
-Lame advertising. maybe i'm a dork because i like creative ads and commercials, but the ads here are amazing. See also: girl drinking oil, funny cigarette containers
-Laziness of language. Here, there is a certain exitement and verbal gymnastics that overtakes the average Brit and turns any conversation into an obstacle course. Hilarious pronunciations, great slang, unusual use of adjectives (beautiful, outstanding, brilliant) to replace the word 'cool'
-Super liberal and overly honest media. Telling it like it is, the Guardian, The Times, The Sun (ok, not so much the Sun), really let the politicians have it. and it's awesome.
-The drinking age. just kidding, i'll be 21 when i get back.

Basic Differences that Stick Out, Things I'll probobly remember, Things that i've become accustomed to:
- Today, our bus driver was drinking tea. while driving.
-every cigarette ad i've ever seen
-ordering a nice pint without feeling like a drunk, without being carded
-tight spaces, small cars (which park on sidewalks, hilariously)
-rapidly changing weather (is this England or Colorado...)
-BBC reporters telling it like it is "If Clinton were still President...."
-pub culture- chilling out, drinking a pint, seeing well kept older people doing the same. mingling with people in a way that is entirely inconcievable in the US. won't happen, ever.
-everything is old, everything has history
-America is awesome- most Brit students would kill to visit, many have been, and with the pound so strong against the dollar, they feel like Paris Hilton at WalMart...

Overall Feelings:
-To summarize one month in a few(what am i kidding) sentences should be easy, or at least it would have been last year. So much has happened, I've experienced so much, I've traveled a ton, Learned a lot, and still realize that I have almost 8 months left. I was nervous at first, and am still aprehensive about the social aspect of our time here, but overall, with engaging yet easy classes and good societies, i'm convinced that things can only get better.

Here's to 8 more months like September 11- Oct 11, 2006. Hell, how about 759 more.....

posted by Kevin @ 7:43 PM