FDOC

First day of classes. Whew those 50 minutes really wore me out. Try not being in class for about 7 weeks and it gets your head spinning.

The class I sat through was Investment Analysis - my only class on Mondays and Fridays, one of the classes I managed to drop last night in my pursuit for a better seminar (aka recitation), and a class with a 100% final. So why am I not dropping this course for good? Hmmm great question. But, after a day, I already love the other internationals taking it, the professor, and even the material.

This morning was full of lost faces, campus maps, and reception desks. I think I walked in at least 3 circles trying to get my student id, join the international society, buy a bus pass, and fix my class schedule. My id is one of those pictures they take before you're ready, so it's me smirking into the camera. Also, it amazes me how here a term bus pass is more expensive than a parking pass. But I guess that's just Europe for you.

Another surprising aspect is that the English use cash for everything. I find it very inconvenient since:
a. They won't except bills greater than 20 pounds
b. They don't seem to have enough cash machines, so at the ATMs by my dorm there's always a queue of at least 20 people (and basically everywhere else you go, it's the same thing)
c. Their 1 and 2 pound denominations are coins instead of bills, so you have to carry around loads of change

Anyway, tonight's a celebration of FDOC and my half birthday! We're going into town for the first time, should be fun!

First days

I don’t even know where to begin. But I’m going to try chronological.

Thursday

I set my alarm for breakfast, which is served between 7:30-9:30am and when did I wake up? 1pm. But hey, cut me a little slack, I could've made it to breakfast in the U.S.

I met up for drinks (yes, in the U.K. it's appropriate to meet up for drinks at any point in the day) with 2 other girls from UNC and one of their mentors. We conversed about all the differences between U.S. and U.K. life, ranging from tipping practices to dancing styles to what girls call “hot” boys (in England, they say “fit,” and “cheers” and “mate” and so many other words I’m trying to bring back to the U.S.)

Oh and don’t even try “pre-gaming,” they’ll have no idea what you mean. Here it’s really creative – “pre-drinking.”

I almost kill myself in the shower every day. You literally have to do hurdles to get in and out of the tub. So if you hear about me hurting myself, I’m going to bet there’s a 99.9% chance it’ll be from this.

Later I met up with the 2 girls from UNC again, a girl from U. of Missouri on my hall, and about 10-15 1st year British students from a different block. This block had just started a Clue/Assassin game, where everyone got a person, a room, and a weapon, and had to “kill” them, while trying not to be killed themselves. For example, one of them was Lexi, in the foyer, with a pair of boxers.

Anyway, they took me out to my first pub experience, where I finally got to use my id!

Friday

Friday morning was the business school orientation. And jumping on a random bus with no idea where to go, I surprisingly found the bschool very easy (well, after asking 3-4 people for directions that is). There’s about 80 of us here on exchange, mostly from North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia/ New Zealand.

We played get to know you games. Yes, the whole name, school, interesting fact you do at the first day of summer camp. We toured around some of the business school (definitely not as impressive as Kenan-Flagler). And we ate a catered lunch, where, in true English fashion, they served wine.

Manchester Business School:

In the afternoon, some of us walked to the city center, did a little bit of shopping, and found a nice hidden pub.

City Center:

The Salisbury Pub:

This group consisted of 4 kids from USC (Southern Cal, NOT South Carolina), who have proceeded to adopt a boy from Sweden and me into their group. Peter, the Swedish boy, has never met American girls before… so glad these girls from L.A. and I are defining the stereotype for him. It’s pretty apparent that while foreigners seem fed up with Americans, they do indeed love our accents and making fun of us.

Later that night at the last second, the 6 of us scored tickets to the much coveted Bop. Now Bop is this crazy, dirty, bad 90 music playing party that happens every Friday and has a theme each week, with this week’s being Geek since exams for all the other students had ended today. Here one of my 8 year old dreams came true: dancing to the Spice Girls in England.

Saturday

Saturday morning we woke up and went to Trafford Shopping Center, a huge shopping mall that took us 2 buses and about 40 mins to get to. And of course, being Americans, we were fascinated by nothing but the food court. Honestly though, it was a cathedral (architecturally speaking) compared to what you find in the U.S.

Food Court:

Coming back into town, we met up with more of the bschool exchange students to catch the end of the Manchester United v. South Hampton football match. Man U., my new favorite team seeing as I can’t catch Carolina basketball games online, won!

Sunday

Today, the bschool international society organized a tour of the Manchester Museum. Nothing too special, but they did have some interesting exhibits on mummies and a full skeleton of a whale. Then afterwards, some girls from Manchester gave us the scoop on where to go out in Manchester and where to travel to in Europe. I can’t wait to start planning!

I just got back from my first English comedy show. Don’t know if I picked up on all the humor, still trying to adjust to the differences in the language and the hard accents, but from what I got it was very vulgar. Definitely playing to the college boy crowd.

Well that’s all for now, it’s the first day of classes tomorrow, wish me luck in finding the buildings! 

I'm here!

Yayyy I finally arrived in Manchester!

I left Winston yesterday morning for Charlotte, where I started off my travel in a true newbie manner when one of my bins at security was deemed "suspicious" and needed to be searched/ ran through the scanners again - aka I put my coat on top of my laptop.

My connector flight to JFK had about 1/4 its capacity, so I got to lay across 2 seats and was out before we even left the ground. This obviously didn't last long, seeing as I was quickly awaken to sit up-right, seat belt securely fastened. I did get a whopping 3 bags of peanuts and a full can of ginger ale though.

I had a 5 hour layover in JFK, where I ended up people watching most of the time. Good thing I'm not traveling to Asia, I'm sure they'd all hate me for staring.

Then, I finally boarded my flight to Manchester, and I don't know what yall have heard about budget costs on airplanes, but I was served a feast - literally though, a 5 course meal for dinner and a 2 course meal for breakfast. And I was able to watch the Karate Kid, a movie I've somehow managed to never see before today.

So after 8 hours of sitting in the same seat, 3 hours of on-and-off sleep, and 2 hours of desperately needing to pee (window seat = bad choice), I finally landed at 8:30am, which was a huge joke to my body, who was still on 3:30am time.

I got to my dorm by taxi, which was one of these new English models. So not only was it weird that they drive on the opposite side of the road, now with their taxis, the passenger is sitting where the trunk should be, while your luggage is on the floor in front of you.

So I got my keys, directions to my room, I'm all excited, and where do I end up? In the mailroom. No joke. Clearly I'm lost, but thankfully everyone here is proving very helpful, so I had a new set of directions in about 2 seconds. With new confidence, I worked my way into the right quad, where I helped another of my kind: a boy from Boston who had been trying to get in the wrong door for about 5 mins and couldn't figure out why his swipe card wouldn't work.

Then the most challenging part of journey begins... I realize my room is on the top floor, which wouldn't be an issue, but there's no elevator + me + 96 pounds of luggage. I'm sure you can all image the struggle for yourself. But upon arrival to my room, I quickly realize the struggle was worth it as my room is painted nothing but Carolina blue. And I'm already in love.

I've made friends with 2 girls on my hall - Nikki and Holly. However, they both have exams tomorrow so they've been pretty busy all day. Nikki informed me that most exams here are graded 2 points for a right answer and -1 for a wrong answer, definitely not looking forward to that.

I'm trying to adjust to the time change, even though half the time, I have no idea what time it is. It didn't help that my deliriousness from no-sleep was not allowing me to do a simple +5 math (the time difference). But I'll hopefully be back on schedule tomorrow and hope everyone back at home is doing well!!

Awaiting the commencement

I leave for Manchester in T-3 days and, as of now, am completely unprepared. After five weeks of being at home, you’d think I’d be ready to go, but then again, who doesn’t like the thrill of a deadline?

While I’m beyond ecstatic to be leaving, I had to say goodbye to Chapel Hill this afternoon. And even though I was there every day this week (yes, Mon.-Wed. and Thurs.-Sat.), I know I didn’t appropriately say goodbye to everyone – so if that's you, Cheers for now!

I’ll keep everybody updated via this blog throughout my trip, but right now, I’ll give you a little sneak peak of what I have planned so far:

1.      St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin

2.      Attendance at the Royal Wedding (ultimate goal: marry Harry)

So not a lot, but that’s the idea – rolling with the punches this semester. It’s goodbye to schedules and hello to whims.

And you may ask, why Manchester? Well if you’ve ever seen my foreign language skills, you wouldn’t be asking the question. Then there’s my affinity for the British culture. I’ve always wanted to go to England because it’s where my 2 idolized camp counselors studied abroad, and since the bschool only has a program in Manchester, it low and behold became my number one.  

I received my dorm assignment about a week ago and it’s located on the freshman part of campus, but a lot of exchange students end up there too, because all of us (freshman included) have pass/fail classes – aka you can find someone going out every night. Bottom line: there’s a bar in my dorm.