June 2012
5 posts
“Miss someone until they come back, or until you come back, until their absence...”
– Stephanie Georgopulus, How To Miss Someone (via akidnamedcudi)
Phrases for a night out
So I’ve already told you about queuing. Now it’s time for the juicier stuff. It’s about to get real up in here guys. The three phrases you’ll need for a night out in England are…
‘On the chirpse’
‘On the lash’
‘On the pull’
To chirpse means to flirt. So if a guy comes up to you at a bar and starts chatting you up, he is...
How to get dressed from English to English
Something I never realized before I came here was how different the way we describe our clothing could be from the way the same things are described in England. Here is a list (translated from British English to American English) of clothing items.
Trousers - Pants
Pants/Knickers - Underwear/Panties
Track pants/Track suit bottoms - Sweatpants
Trainers - Tennis shoes/Sneakers
Jumper - Sweater...
Special Post of the day!
First of all, I have to say happy birthday to my wonderful roommate Elnaz Tahanha! She may be ancient (she’s a ripe old grandma today at age 22), but I still love her. I was so incredibly lucky to share my time at Nottingham with such a generous, kind girl.
So in honor of Elnaz’s birthday I have to use her favorite phrase as my phrase of the day. Well, maybe it’s not her...
Phrase of the day
‘You alright?’
Among us interntional students, this phrase was probably (and maybe continues to be) one of the hardest things to get used to over here. ‘You alright?’ is kind of like ‘What’s up?’ or ‘Hey! How are you?’ It is the kind of expression that people use when they are briefly passing you in the corridor or when you first walk into a...
May 2012
9 posts
Word of the day
‘Rubbish tip’
A tip is a dump, like a garbage dump. The way I hear this most often is when I’m headed over to a friend’s room: ‘Hold on and let my tidy up a bit. My room is an absolute tip.’
Phrase of the day
‘Don’t take the mick out of me!’ or ‘MacKenzie is so witty, always taking the piss out of everyone.’
To take the mick or piss out of someone is to make fun of them or tease them. For example, our friend Andreas (Andy) is Greek and very spirited about it. All of our friends like to take the mick out of him by making jokes about Greece.
Word of the day
‘Queue’
This is one of the most commonly used terms among Nottingham students. A ‘queue’ is a line, usually at a club, restaurant or store. It can also be a verb. As in ‘It started to rain when we were queuing at Ocean last night! What a mare!’
English to English Dictionary
Over the semester, Elnaz and I have suffered our fair share of abuse due to a tendency to use what the Brits believe to be an inferior version of their language. Along the way, we’ve kept track of our differences, shamelessly judging which way we think is better (ours of course) and in the process, we have compiled a list of ‘translations’ which we have lovingly titled The...
I'm back!
Yes, I realize I’ve been AWOL for a while. I’ve been crazy busy since I got back to Nottingham writing two super long papers and revising (that’s what the Brits call studying) for my exams. My first exam, Rural and Provincial Writing, was on Wednesday and yesterday was my Metaphysics exam. If you were to ask me how they went I would tell you that they’re over. That’s...
“I beg young people to travel. If you don’t have a passport, get one. Take a...”
– Henry Rollins
April 2012
7 posts
Decadence
After the fun of Amsterdam, my parents and I departed for Italy, halfway through our trip and ready to celebrate Easter Sunday in Milan, the fashion center of the world. I admit I had high expectations for this part of the trip. I mean really, how much more glamorous can you get than Milan? What I certainly wasn’t prepared for was how quickly Milan would dazzle me.
With the fresh memory of...
Amsterdam, the City of Tolerance
Last Friday we touched ground in Amsterdam, the city my dad has always wanted to see. Built on the banks of the River Amstel, this surprisingly compact capital is positively chock-full of canals and bridges. Chaotic by nature, it is a land of marijuana and alcohol, teeming with tourists indulging in unique legalities and locals whisking by on bikes, ready to run you over if you aren’t paying...
Planes, Trains and... Waterbuses?
If nothing else at all, this whole world-traveller experience has given me a full understanding and confidence in the use of public transportation. I left Nottingham exactly two weeks ago (although it feels like a lifetime after everything I’ve seen) and I have to say… It’s been quite a trip. From taxis, buses, shuttles and trains to airplanes, boats, subways and trams,...
Overconfident
Let me start by saying this: in the last four days I’ve taken eleven different trains in Europe. I purchased tickets, toted around my heavy suitcase, deciphered departure boards, switched trains and successfully made it onto each one. True, most of the time I had Ali by my side so it was a team effort, but the fact still remains that I have never been late.
Well today I broke that record....
Out of luck
Ali and I finally ran out if luck today. Our perfect Belgian experience was a little different in the capital city. Much more metropolitan and naturally much larger than the other cities we’ve visited so far, Brussels was just not up to par. Of course we still made our somewhat failure of a day into an adventure to remember, but from things just didn’t seem to go our way.
The hotel...
Gothic Ghent
Packed up and pumped for another day’s adventure, Ali and I bid farewell to our sweet little seaside Blankenberge with promises to come back some summer to see it at its finest. We had a hearty breakfast in the station as we waited for our train and soon found ourselves stepping into the pleasantly surprising warmth of a sunny day in Ghent.
We splurged on a cab to our hotel in the center...
The Venice of the north
Yesterday Ali and I wandered Bruges, the romantic canal-filled Venice if Belgium.’Brugge’ is the Flemish word for bridges, a fitting title for this picturesque Belgian masterpiece. It was a city that seemed untouched, frozen in a time centuries In the past.
Stepping off the train, we of course took the wrong turn that led us through neighborhoods towards the city instead of the...
March 2012
8 posts
A friend found
I found Internet for five euros per hour in the airport and although it was pricey, it was worth it for the information it helped me get. After mastering the art of a French keyboard (it took me ages to find the @ symbol), I succeeded in signing into Facebook. Unfortunately, Ali missed her train so instead of meeting her at 1:30 I had to wait a little longer, but hey, nothing is perfect.
First...
A long, long morning
4:00 AM: Alarm sounds. Not that I haven’t been mostly awake sense 3:09 having what I can only call a mental panic attack. ‘What if I miss my train?! I only have eight minutes to switch trains in Sheffield. How do I find the second one?! Shit, my bag is too heavy. They’re going to make me payyyy. Fucking RyanAir! Food? When am I going to EAT?!??’ But somehow I get up and get...
The rest of the story
So I got distracted and never finished my Ireland story! Per usual I suppose. Not to fear. All this time on trains has given me ample opportunity to prepare my blog posts.
After he Storehouse and a little tacky souvenir shopping with Ali-I bought an awesome green ‘Ireland’ scarf!-it was dinner time. The girls and I stumbled around our unfortunate room and got dolled up for a night...
Ireland: The first two days
Alright, alright! I know I owe you all an epic tale about my weekend in Dublin. It’s been a busy week! Three thousand word essays, Easter Break planning, overdue Skype dates, nights out at Coco Tang, catching up on Gossip Girl… You know, the essential stuff. Anyway, here it is in all of its glory… Dublin, Ireland!
The flight was short but the line for boarding it was long,...
five months will never be long enough
A few days ago Kat and I were in my room looking at old pictures from last semester of all of our friends in K Block. I was talking about how Fresher’s Week (their first week at Uni, kind of like an initiation week for the first years where they have a themed party every night and pretty much just get really drunk all the time) and how it looked like so much fun. I told her how I so wish I...
Oxford, A very important date!
So… A week ago from Saturday Elnaz and I went to Oxford! As usual, sorry it’s taken so long for me to get this up but I have been working nonstop on an English essay that was due today and… You know what, you’re lucky I’m telling you about it at all so shush! :D So anyway, here’s how the day went once we got off the coach.
We ditched the big group in favor of a...
Assimilated
Yesterday, I confidently, without even having to think about it, looked the right way before I crossed the street. Then, once I realized this epic moment in my life, I triumphantly skipped home to Rutland.
It’s official people. I belong. (:
February 2012
19 posts
A belated tale
Two weekends ago Elnaz and I joined a bunch of other international friends on a trip to Bath, Stonehenge and Windsor Castle. It was a wonderful, exhausting weekend, the first of hopefully many trips in my time here across the pond. I apologize for just now writing about it, but it’s been a long couple of weeks with my broken laptop, et cetera so you’ll just have to let this one slide....
Getting Sappy in the Sunshine
Today, I went to Wollaton Park, an enormous park stretching along the northern edge of campus. I went alone because the rest of the world was busy studying or being otherwise lame, but I really have no complaints. I spent my time in my own little world, reflecting on everything I’ve been through and simply enjoying the magical sun shiny day. Ultimately, the park is immensely too much to...
MIA
Hello there faithful readers! I know I’ve been missing in action for a while but I promise I have a good excuse. You see, I have no laptop!
Last Thursday I came back to my room to find the lockable drawer in which I keep my laptop effectively jammed shut. Thinking I could simply move some things around to open it, I brought in a couple of friends to help me tip the desk sideways to try and...
Mugwalls replaced
Haha just kidding! Like that could ever happen. But I have found a really nice little coffee shop to read in for now.
It’s called Costa and it’s a pretty big chain here, almost like a Starbucks I’d say. It’s true that I’m usually against that type of thing but with my limited options on campus it will have to do. The shop is naturally not quite as cozy as Mugwalls...
Snow is like sex
Great while it’s happening, but ultimately miserably consequential in the days that follow.
As most of you know from my Facebook or my chatty family, it snowed here on Saturday! I mean real, fluffy, snowman quality snow. I spent the afternoon and most of the evening prancing around in it like a child and simply enjoying the magic of wintertime in a place where winter really exists. And I...
Tis I! Metaphysics man!
Today was my very first Metaphysics lecture! Metaphysics is a field of philosophy that explores the nature of being and of existence itself.
My prof (or convenor as they call module teachers here at Notts) is absolutely wonderful. Any doubts about his class were destroyed for me after the first thing he did. You see the lecture hall is set up so that when you walk through the doors, you can go...
"would you like a donut?
Yup, that’s all it took to get me to pay a pound twenty for a Krispy Kreme donut. All because some beautiful boy with his perfect British accent asked me to. Granted it was for charity and I had just finished lunch so I was on the prowl for something sweet, but I still can’t believe I finally swooned. I guess I’m not as used to it as I thought I was…
Refreshers
From now on I don’t think I’ll be giving updates on entire days. My posts will be a lot more focused on certain events instead. That way, it’s easier and quicker for me and a lot more interesting for you. You really don’t need to know that I ate lunch everyday do you? No.
Now for Refreshers!
Refreshers for me has had a few meanings so far. First, it was my favorite...
The good, the bad, the ugly
(A delayed post from Saturday/Sunday)
It was one of those days for me. And adventure, you know? I always start with bad news because then the good news has a chance to cheer you up. So, the bad things that happened today were:
1. My rolling carry-on was too wide and even though my dad helped me squash it down enough to get it through security, they forced me to check it before I boarded the...
The view from the top
Okay, I know it’s been a while. Right now I’m sitting on an airplane thirty thousand feet above the Atlantic Ocean (that’s just a dramatic phrase I always hear people say, but I really have no idea how high we are), flying at 1000 kilometers per hour (I’m sure abut that one because my little mini TV says so) and it seems to you like I’ve had nothing to report since...
January 2012
2 posts
Death by Chocolate
My first full day (yesterday) here was actually pretty great! I woke up on time and made it to breakfast with Kat, Sarah and Emma before I trekked up the hill to the Trent building to pick up my Welcome Packet.
FYI: The Trent building is like the iconic building at Notts. It’s where anything official seems to go on. It also houses the English department!
Anyway, on the way there (this is...
Day 1
Alright! Now that I’ve got the internet in my room up and running, I finally have a moment to update on my first day on the ground in England! So here goes…
(I’ve got plane stories too but they will have to be posted later because of iPad/wifi/dorm issues. Forgive the out of orderness when they do come up.)
First of all, I made note that the first phrase I heard in a British...
