i'm here?

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oh wow.

this is probably the most exciting thing that has happened to me. i can't keep up.

so, after driving to newark with my family and blowing way too much money in the airport's borders, i hopped on a plane and jetsetted across the atlantic.

it was the most uncomfortable six hours of my entire life, and my only source of amusement was the drunk amateur rapper (who continuously drank those little five dollar bottles of bacardi, FOR THE ENTIRE FLIGHT) and his posse. when we got off of the plane, the elderly and fragile british woman who sat next to him was holding him up. and he was a large man. i should've taken a picture. plane food is disgusting. i was hungry, so i had no choice but to eat the coagulated chicken and pasta "platter" which translates to: overglorified tv dinner in very small portions (the rapper, and the man next to me ate two dinners; they're big, hungry men). the breakfast, which was only served about 3 hours after the dinner, was slightly less gross, consisting of a microwaved croissant and a grapefruit/pineapple fruit salad, well, not exactly a salad since there were only six pieces of fruit. we'll call it a fruit sampling.

anyway, i got off of the plane and then i had to walk through immigration. there were two separate lines: one for members of the eu and then one for everyone else. there is a definite "european" look or style of dressing. i was slightly unaware. i got through and then i grabbed my baggage and out i went into the main area of the airport where i was greeted by paul and allie, two staff members of edge hill's international student office, and about 5 other students. we were taxied to campus and could not stop oohing and ahhing at the scenery. a few of us had those "oh, wait" moments after we realized we were on the wrong side of the road (at least from the american standpoint). nothing can actually prepare you for seeing that.

we got dropped off at our respective dorms and i am in katherine fletcher. i was greeted by a woman whose name i could not distinguish. in fact, i couldn't distinguish most of what she said. i combated this by talking mostly about myself and nodding a lot. what i got out of our 20 minute conversation: she went to disneyworld when she was 12.

i wasn't aware that we were going to have our own rooms since jacksonville sent us these roommate survey sheets. it's a pretty nice room. a lot of storage, which means that i wish i had more crap. i have a nice big window, that shows me the lush scenery of the rolling lancashire hills. i'm lying. the view is a "carport," which is not to be mistaken for its american cousin, the parking lot. i'm directly across from the kitchen, which is way nicer than any of the dorm cooking areas at thiel. next to the kitchen is the bathroom, which is exclusively a bathroom. the toilet is located next to the bathroom. each dorm room also has its own sink and mirror, so you can brush your teeth without hogging the toilet, also known as a loo. this is a very informative blog.

so, after regrouping for a millisecond, all of the students headed over to international office and we were allowed to call our parents. for free! then allie, who happens to be american, took us on a campus tour which did nothing but disorient me further, and then we had lunch in some special campus dining room. the food was icky, not as icky as the airline food, but icky enough. while eating, i sort of figured out who my friends were going to be:

marcy is a loud, and i mean loud, puerto rican girl. i love her. she is so glammed out with like gold bangles and high heels; then there's brittany, the preppy black girl who has a white boyfriend and could most likely be a model; and adrienne from louisiana state, she loves showtunes and has a gay best friend.

(we bonded over the fact that you can't buy boone's farm in the uk. how sad. the booze, however, is insanely cheap. another interesting fact: you can buy alcohol ON CAMPUS here. they also have a BAR. extraordinary!)

after lunch we attended numerous orientations about library systems and how to log on to the network... boring, but necessary. i spent most of this time facebooking and talking to scrub.

between the two orientations, we went on tour of ormskirk, yet again with allie. it is a beautiful residential community, and i expected hugh grant to pop out of one of the houses and accidentally spill his drink all over me. needless to say, it didn't happen.

once you reach the marketplace, people don't really drive. there are shops along the sides and tents and merchants in the middle of the street. it looked like notting hill. i'm not even lying. we were being loud and obnoxious during this whole walk, singing various songs, the most notable of these being "i wanna be like you" from the jungle book. the british school children got out of school around this time, and they were absolutely adorable. the uniforms were great and they were horsing around, much like american children. a group of boys were walking home together and they were attempting to tease and one up each other when the smallest boy yelled "well at least i don't have the BIGGEST HEAD IN EUROPE!" at this point we were all so jetlagged that it was the funniest thing in the entire world.

we returned to campus, had some dinner, took a silly little quiz about british culture, and i came back to my room. i unpacked, took a shower, unsuccessfully attempted to watch the season finale of medium on my computer, and went to bed around 8:30. my bed is the most uncomfortable thing. ever. worse than scrub's bed at his dad's freshman year. it was torture. i ended up trying to sleep on the floor, which also proved to be a poor decision. i have no idea what i'm going to do.

i have like an hour now until breakfast and i'm antsy. i miss everyone. i miss my phone. i'm in text withdrawal. i forgot there was that extra a in withdrawal. i hope to keep this thing sorta updated. ajdf;adslfj

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Comments

[Jamie Morlock]

Ally... I miss you I hope you have fun :D