I haven’t done anything dreadfully exciting recently, or at least I haven’t done anything that seems as exciting as it might have been the first couple weeks I was here. I’ve settled in and this is starting to feel normal. It baffles me that being in England no longer baffles me. I did take a trip to Scotland last week, which was nice. I don’t think I enjoyed myself as much as I did in Ireland, for whatever reason. I felt like I didn’t stay long enough, or that I didn’t have enough exciting experiences there, or maybe I just got used to traveling. Yeah, I’m a world traveler. Scotland. *sniff* Whatever. I will say, though, there are a surprisingly large number of Australians in Scotland, and no one has been able to give me a definite reason besides, ‘They both hate the English.’

Picture with Nessie next to Loch Ness

This weekend has been wonderful, though. I spent most of last week sitting in my room watching TV. All of my classes were canceled for Reading Week, or'”Catch-Up Week’ but I didn’t really do much catching up. I’m not friends with many people in my building, KF; rather, most of my friends here are two buildings down, in ER. I caught wind of a Disney movie marathon happening on Friday, for all the other people who had nothing to do, and I ended up in the ER common room watching Disney movies all day. It was great, because there were a bunch of other people doing the same thing.

Saturday night I decided to be productive and go to the library to work on a 1500-word paper due on Monday. I got some good work done and afterward ran into a couple girls on their way to ER to play a game. I went along and we ended up playing cards and movie trivia for the rest of the night. And of course, tonight, I came back to the ER common room to finish my paper, and I’ve got a couple people convinced that I actually live here.

Trip to Lake Windermere

Basically, I’ve been missing out on socialization for a couple weeks. I never thought I wouldn’t enjoy having my own room, but after a couple weeks in a single room in a different country, I got a bit lonely. And I just found an environment where I can get work done and also talk to people. It’s great. And it probably all sounds really cheesy, but I feel like I’m getting to a comfortable spot in my social life. It’s kind of awkward because I don’t actually live here but I know people here. So I think it’s okay.

I still have classes, by the way. I haven’t had much homework for the last six weeks, but I think this next week at least is going to feel like school. Lots of assessments coming up.

I probably won’t do a lot more traveling, at least outside of England. I’ve still got a bit of England to see, including London (but I’m not the only one who hasn’t been yet so that should work out) and Blackpool, where I’ve heard tell there is a Doctor Who museum. I also haven’t actually been out of the UK yet, I realized, but I’m  not sure where outside of the UK I’d like to go. Honestly, I wouldn’t be too upset if I didn’t make it out. But if I got the chance Rome would be cool. Maybe Greece. Maybe Spain. But again, my priorities were Ireland and Scotland. If you think I may be forgetting a place, let me know.

I know, I know, I got behind. I had nothing to talk about last week, and the longer I waited, the less I felt like writing. So after a week and half I feel very little like writing, but now that I’ve started I’m alright.

I suppose one of the little cultural quirks here that I’m still figuring out is the perception/portrayal of Liverpudlians (I don’t think anyone from England will read this so hopefully no one will get offended). The colloquial term for a person from Liverpool is “Scouser,” after “scouse,” a popular dish in Liverpool pubs. From what I’ve been able to figure out, “Scouser” isn’t really an offensive term. Slightly derogatory, maybe, but only as much as “redneck,” or possibly “trailer trash.” I’d say, actually, that Scousers (how they are usually portrayed) are the closest English equivalent of rednecks. (Like I said above, I’m not trying to offend anyone. Just telling it like it is.) I’m not really sure, specifically, why Scousers are often portrayed negatively (crude, uneducated, “blonde,” etc.). I know the Scouse accent is often made fun of, because it is significantly different from that of the rest of the North.

A couple weeks ago I watched an episode of a show called Red Dwarf. It’s a cult sci-fi comedy. Very British. One of the characters in the show, Lister, is supposed to be from Liverpool, and the show uses this as an opportunity to make Scouse jokes. I only saw the one episode, but at one point, when things got heated between Lister and another character, Lister put the cigarette he had been holding completely in his mouth.

“Did he just eat a fag?” One of my fellow-audience members asked (and in case you weren’t aware, fag=cigarette, inoffensive).

I had my own pictures, but lost them all in SD-card-related technical difficulties. Also you can click the pic to read an article/blog about the rollers in public.

“Yeah,” another audience member answered.

“Why?”

“Because he’s a Scouser!” As if this should have been obvious.

Also, if you haven’t heard of Desperate Scousewives, it is worth looking into. It’s basically the Liverpool version of Jersey Shore. One of the trends the women in the show follow is wearing curlers (or rollers) in public. This isn’t an exaggeration. When International Society went on a scavenger hunt in Liverpool, we were told that we would get five points for every picture of a woman in rollers. My team saw around ten, half of which were all together as a group of friends. It’s an interesting trend, one that I’d be curious to know the origins of but which would be difficult to actually track down. It’s another one of the things that Scousers may be made fun of for in the media.

That’s all for now, I suppose. I’ll keep it short. I think I’m having trouble finding things to write about because I’m starting to adjust more. I hit the trough of that acclimation graph on Thursday night, though, and I hit pretty hard. I had been starting to worry that I wasn’t more homesick, but on Thursday, I suddenly really wanted to go home. I’m alright now though; I already started to climb back up. Overall, I think I’ve become pretty well-adjusted, and I’m finding it harder to be surprised.

Bonus fun fact:
umbrella = brolly

Marissa

I love the library. I love going to the library. I love looking at books. I love pulling out a stack of reserved items with my name on it. I love self-checkout machines. I love renewing items over and over because no one else wants them. The library’s great, and a library in England should be even greater, right? I mean, it’s in England.

I did my research ahead of time to make sure there was a library in Ormskirk. I like to read, but I also love watching movies. I watch a lot of movies, and I rely heavily on the library system to do this. I didn’t know if the campus library had many movies, but I figured probably not. A day or two after I got here, I applied online for a library card (because I didn’t know my address before) and I got it in the mail a couple days later. I had been keeping a list of movies I wanted to see that I couldn’t find in the U.S., and since almost all of them were English movies, they were all available in the Ormskirk library catalogue. (WordPress is flagging this for misspelling, and now I’m not sure how I usually spell it. The Ormskirk library site spells it that way, but I guess it can also be spelled “catalog”.)

Well, I finally made it over to the library today. I had a book and a few movies waiting, and I wanted to look around and see what the library had to offer. When I walked in, I saw a big display of movies in the center of the building, so I walked over to check it out. They had a surprisingly large collection, including some surprisingly new releases, and it looked like they accepted media donations from people. I found two more movies that I had been wanting to see, and I took them up to the front desk. I hadn’t been able to find a reservation shelf, so I asked if this is where I pick up holds.

The man seemed a little confused — apparently I had missed the reservation shelf right in front of the desk — but I think he realized I was just American and inept. He scanned the two movies I had brought up and said, “Ok, so that’ll be £4 for these…” and started to point out the reservation shelf for me.

I said, “Wait . . . what?” (I probably said something a little more than this, like “It costs to check stuff out?”)

“Yeah, it’s £2 for each movie, and then 60p for the book.”

I probably sputtered something like, “Oh. Oh, I didn’t realize . . .”

“They didn’t tell you when you were signing up?”

“No, I didn’t realize.” I am embarrassed.

He had pulled out my reserved stack by this time and laid it all out on the counter. “So do you want to keep any of these?”

“Um . . .” I tried to analyze quickly. So many movies, so many good movies that I had wanted to see, so many good English movies. “I’ll just take the book for now.” It was Faithful Place, by Tana French, the third in an Irish murder mystery series that I had been reading. Funnily enough, I had just yesterday come across this book for £1 at a book sale in a cathedral in Chester, but decided not to get it because I would picking it up from the library the next day.

While he pushed the movies aside, I attempted to count the change in my wallet, and discovered I was just short. I gave him a fiver. I had a scarf and a heavy coat on, and was feeling overheated and awkward. He gave me change and I left quickly, silently grieving over the loss of Benedict Cumberbatch and Iwan Rheon facetime. I took the bus back to campus and spent my feelings on an EHU hoodie.

I forgot about it for a couple hours and just now came back to do some research. I found the spot on the Lancashire library website where there is a list of charges:

So, apparently, the 60p I paid for the book was actually a reservation charge, not a charge for the checkout itself. Checking out books is free, according to this. This put me somewhat at ease. I could still check out things out,  I just couldn’t reserve them. But I could get over that. I’d just have to mostly checkout what they already had available in the library, which shouldn’t be too much of a problem because it looked like they had a pretty large selection.

No, then I remembered. DVDs are still £2 to check out, whether you pick them up in the library or reserve them. It’s very sad. I’m not sure what I’m going to do, especially since Hulu doesn’t work here, but I have a free trial of Netflix for now. My movie addiction was cheaply supported in the U.S., but England doesn’t seem to be as accommodating. Also, I’m sure some people would argue that I shouldn’t be watching movies while I’m here anyway, to which I say, fair point, but every artist needs inspiration. That’s right. I am an artist, of film, and I need my movie time.

I feel justified now. That’s all I have to say, and I think this is my first grievance filed against England. I doubt there will be very many, and I’m sure I’ll find a way around it. People here watch movies too.