“Karen, believe me. You just haven’t seen my good side yet.”

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Today is the first day that I really feel myself. Not that I have been unhappy or ill-at-ease. But I have felt the fog of jet let more than I expected and have I have felt more like a tourist than someone who lives here.

In the fourth Harry Potter book, when the Weaselys take Harry to the Quiddich World Cup, Mr. Weasely has to ask Harry for help use muggle money. Each time I have been to a shop, as a queue (not a line) forms behind me at the register, I feel like I am pretending to be a muggle. I feel as out of place as the wizard who thinks that a kilt and poncho a suitable outfit. So many coins! I am not used to so many. Two pounds. One pound. Fifty pence. Twenty pence. Ten. Five. Two. One…Well, I guess that isn’t that many, but it feels so different to dig through a handful of coins than it does to leaf through a stack of bills.

I also made another stupid mistake. One of more importance than trying to pay with a 5 pence instead of a ten. Throughout the whole process of applying to school and preparing to come to the UK, I would just catch silly mistakes and misunderstandings before they became serious. I thought that was done, that I had figured everything out and that I was good to go…No. I realized that my registration, which I was completely positive was Monday, is actually Thursday. This isn’t that big of a deal; I didn’t miss it; I didn’t show up at the wrong time exposing myself as an idiot. The only effect this misunderstanding has is that I will be going to Scotland Monday to Wednesday instead of Tuesday to Thursday. But it just makes me feel unstable and incompetent. It makes me feel like I have little business in a graduate program if I can’t even read an email correctly.

After I realized my mistake, and after I had taken a particularly long time digging for coins only to realize that I didn’t have quiet enough and would have to pay with a bill anyway, I told my roommate about the line in The National song that goes, “Karen, believe me. You just haven’t seen my good side yet.” Eventually, I tell myself, I will be settled enough to know which coins are 50p and which are 20. I will be focused enough to know when I am supposed to be where. I will not feel half asleep during the day and buzzingly awake until 4 in the morning. Eventually my best side will show.



Thank you for…

Enough money that I have a problem sorting through it

Having a registration date to confuse

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