JETLAGGGGGG

It has been over a week and I am STILL jetlagged. I cant fall asleep any earlier than 4am!!! Couldnt fall asleep till 6 this morning and now its 3 PM and I have just barely woken up. It feels like morning not midday...and I feel like a sloth not like a student.

Luckily I didnt have classes today. Tomorrow though I have two.

I had my first class here yesterday. I really like the structure. Its really independent. You go to lectures and there are readings each week, but ultimately there is only one assignment a term and no final test. at least not for the visual cultures department.

I am getting sick of people on my flat.Tovah is a fucking girl in the worst possible way...cheerleader, country music, juicy outfits etc etc. Paul is fun but seriously quite dim and is hard to talk to about anything. I really like Esther..the girl who is Goldfrapps niece but everyone on the floor hates here. I stand up for her though. but she makes it difficult. she was telling us at dinner last night that she has sex with someone who had a cat fetish....No one found it as funny as i did.

okay so this Friday some people I met are going to FABRIC. I am determined to go. I am not much for raves but its fuckin FABRIC and I am dying to go. And then go again when gloria gets here. Its fabriclive this weekend and the DJ is FreakNasty...clearly not my thing but couldnt hurt right.

okay gonna go try to do something with my life.

Uhhhh I am so irritated. Even loads of booze cant help the most awkward that means me! Adam who lives cross the hall from me thinks that I tried to hit on him. He has like a girlfriend thing and I am not even interested. He is like this posh southerner. Not really my thing. Considering Daniel pegged me as having crushes on guys that look like they are strung out on heroine. Apparently when I was drunk I asked to come in his room. I don’t think that means I want to BONE. I was just bored. I do that all the time in the dorms back home. If I can’t sleep I keep people around me up. So he started acting all awkward around me. Wouldn’t talk to me wouldn’t look at me. I was getting really annoyed. I didn’t know why he was acting that way. I asked Paul and he explained the situation to me. So of course what happens when I get drunk and am irritated with someone? Cambray repeat. I was the only one in my flat who went out last night and as I came stumbling back a destroyed mess from something called “Nail the Cross” where I had managed to steal loads of beer when the bartenders weren’t looking. Whats wrong with me…….. Anyhow Came back and started pounding on Pauls door. I don’t really remember the details…but I guess I started yelling things about Adam. I was only joking!! Then he came and knocked on the door and asked to borrow a dvd. I suspect this was a way to make me shut up. nope only made it worse. As he was stepping out the door I yelled “Hey Posh Spice I don’t wanna have sex with you!!!!!!” among other things. Well this morning I feel barely alive and now my floor thinks im insane. As Christina might say DON’T CARRRRE. I am curious to see how this pans out.

I can hear Tovah belting miley from her room. Not helping.

Some more predictions:

Jess- Will change her name to Guadalupe and become a crack whore in Ecuador……

Jeff- Become gay probs

Sean Shannon- Get a 65 year old pregnant.

Daniel- after many more futile attempts at relationships settle down and marry Mac. Gillian is not happy about it.

London will probably be the death of me. Well I dont have any kind of schedule till school starts and I am still jet lagged so I didnt get to sleep till like 6:30 AM
My flatmate Adam thought i had been kidnapped and apparently was knocking on my door all night and even got a security to come open my door but I was out till like 5 at a friends place. Its not even anything different than in seattle but for some reason I dont fall asleep everywhere like I used to back home. I am sure once classes start this will all change.

I neede sleeeeep.

Clubbbs eerywhere. Its insane. Its like they want people to be bankrupt and alcoholics. Classes on Monday thank god.

ARTHROTEC

Thursday September 25 2008

So I have finally figured out what my schedule is. Classes only meet once a week and I only have classes three days a week. So that means a nice long weekend.

I got this prescription filled at Rite Aide before I left, its for these god awful cramps I get. I just went to take them the other day and I noticed that I actually got a prescription filled for something called ARTHROTEC. Not only is my room already filled with random pill bottle that I leave all over the place. I now have arthritis medicine that I can’t do anything with. I don’t suspect it goes for much to sell it off. Any ARTHROTEC addicts?

I am thinking I will just save them for Christina and Daniel so they can snort them and get really buzzed off of having super agile limbs, before a good night of partying or something. I think that sounds good.

I am missing everyone back in Seattle a ton. Its weird to hear about whats going on. You know I really figured things would kind of stop completely for the next six months. I have some predictions as to what will happen with people by the time I get back.

Mat-Gets AIDS from a freshman puzzzy who is actually only 14.

Gillian- Due to not having schoolwork will drop out completely and become a dog trainer to spend more time with Mac..

Christina- will still be drunk………

Border Control Nightmare

I still have not decided but I think that I came into this a bit unprepared. But I realize I am doing a bit better than some others so maybe not. The reason I initially came to this conclusion was because upon arriving at the airport after my 10 hour plan ride I had to deal with the British border control. From other travels I was used to them asking a set of questions and then being stamped my passport and going on my way. Unfortunately this was not the case this time. The officer who I talked to had a million questions for me that I had not been prepared to answer. He corrected my answers not letting my reply “yeah” to questions but making me use a more formal response. When I didn’t say please to ask to borrow a pen he also corrected me and told me that was the reason he never visited the US. He also told me I was rather unprepared. I was in such a surreal state I began to believe that in fact I really was unprepared. I can’t even explain my reaction except as a result of pure stress and anticipation but I started crying right in front of the officer in front of everyone else. I couldn’t even talk or control it. I could barely breathe. It was so strange. Luckily after I started acting like a complete mess he became much nicer to me. Nevertheless I was detained and put in this like holding block. Two other people were in there with me, one man who may or may not have been a terrorist. I think his reason for being detained was far more serious than mine. The other guy I am not sure but he looked like a backcountry hick who took a trip to England to go fishing. He was wearing a Jim Bean baseball cap. I think the concern was that he might be bringing back things that he caught here in UK to US. Given mad cow disease and things of that sort it must have been a concern. After a bit they called me out and told me that they were concerned that I would try to take up employment during my stay. I was not allowed to do so as a part-time student. They could have just told me that but this spectacle really let me know that keeping a job was not an option. I was still hyper ventilating when they let me go. I really could not control my reaction. The first night was awful because I had to struggle with my heavy overload of luggage by myself on the train and then find a taxi. By the time I got to my university which happens to be in an obscure part of the city, It was dark and there was no one there to welcome me just a security guard who gave me my keys and some directions. Once again a struggle with my luggage that I had to take to the furthest building that I was staying in---Of course no elevators. I am lucky my arms didn’t fall off. I got to my room which is a nice single studio with a bathroom. I started crying again because I was now in place where I didn’t know anyone didn’t even really know where I was in relation to anything and I felt more anxious and depressed than ever in my life. I slept horribly that night and kept waking up. I didn’t get out of bed until one the next day and went to go get some food and figure out where things were.

The second day went better. I still had my stomach in knots and slept for most the day. I couldn’t eat anything and still have only ate a nectarine and a quesidillla I made from the grocieries I had bought. This whole experience really is reminiscent of freshman year. But I have to commend SU for doing a far better job orientating the new students. Here the RA’s were postgrads and didn’t really seem to care or be involved. The officers of the student union also postgrads looked coked out and like they could care less about the new students. This seemed odd to me. Considering the RA’s at SU and the ASSU people like Natalie shields who were completely retarded but nevertheless devoted to the student body. Anyhow I started meeting some of the people on my floor—or rather my flat as they call it. there are six of us and we all share on kitchen.

First I met Adam. At first I thought he too was younger than I, like most the freshman. But he was also 20 and had just taken 2 years off. He was shy and awkward but still friendly. He is studying politics and was interesting to talk to. He had a pretty good idea of what life in the states was like. Next I met Paul. he knocked on my door and was instantly friendly. He was from the north. As I learned they were more loud, crass and far heavier drinkers in the north. He dressed like a regular guy would in Seattle. Jeans and a cardigan. He said when he wore this attire in his home in NewCastle. He was asked “What are you gay??”. Then there was the posh south where Adam was from. Adam explained to me that Englands North was like our south. I understood what Adam said most the time and Paul more like 25 percent of the time. Paul is also 20.

There was several events going on on campus. It has been interesting to compare the freshman year at SU to the incoming freshman year here. I wondered how old they were. The girls looked heavily made up, mostly fashionable but in a very explicit and overdone way. The guys very mod. With messy haircuts and interesting attire often half mod/half post-punk. Like boots, skinny jeans and sportcoats or other jackets. It was clear that these were all new clothes and that they were trying their very best to make some statement. But when in the herds they travel in they looked like a gang of dilapidated clowns. They were all loud and clinging to eachother much like the Freshman pussy often do. I realized that the freshman pussy was inescapable for me.

So as it went there was some kind of event at the student union. I guess its like a party. They gave us free drink vouchers. The school was really encouraging the drinking clubbing type of social interaction. This seemed weird to me. The social scene I have seen so far really revolves around getting wasted. This seems okay to me…so long as I am with the right people. Me adam and paul went to the union for our free drinks and talked some more. The drinks were not as strong as in the US and the bar looked more like a candy store. No cheap alc here.

After leaving the union we went back to meet with one of other flat mates who I hadn’t met yet. She lived next door to me and was American. She came with a group of Girls from Arcadia University in Pennsylvania. Her friends were really nice and had lots of questions to ask me. They seemed pretty relaxed but I didn’t think were really my type of friends. Tova, the girl who lives next door to me was loud and annoying. She was wearing University of Pink t-shirt with a lacy camisole underneath was listening to really horrible music with her friends. Maroon 5---Also she kept yelling America—Or “American Bitches running this joint”. Things I could only roll my eyes at. Her and her friend jess got drunk very quickly from probably 3 shots of SOCO and a beer. They got completely loud and out of control. I was trying to be as nice as I could but I soon just started making fun of them. Jess was swinging off the table singing spice girls. Tova also screaming songs additionally kept screaming I AM DRRRRUNK YEEEAAAAH. Really classy. Adam asked me “I am guessing this is the kind of thing you thought you were getting away from?” Honestly even girls at SU do not act this retarded. Well maybe sometimes. Tova had a boyfriend but was coming on to some other British boy she just met. He ended up hooking up with her other friend and then trying to come back and get with Tova who was by now completelt trashed and it was all just a big mess from there. the details don’t even matter. So in a sense some things never change and these instances were not really what was part of the culture shock.

So I am kind of making my way around campus. Today I missed my orientation and had to consequently wander around figuring what I had missed. I am getting the sense that the courses will be harder than I anticipated as this is one of the better places for Art History. Outside campus I don’t know where anything is. I just wander around and make stupid mistakes. Its not too embarrassing to not know what I am doing its more just annoying to not have any sense of familiarity or comfort.

I really cannot wait until the classes start. At the same time I wonder if they will be too difficult for me.