Snow!

Sorry, had to get that out of my system---it's snowing here today, which is exciting and rare and I would be enjoying it so much more if I was feeling better. I'm a bit "under the weather" today, partly because my supposedly relaxing weekend turned out to be not so relaxing after all.

I had a lot of fun, though. Saturday I went to Cadbury World with the Cheese and Chocolate Society, where we got lots of free samples and a whole cup of hot liquid chocolate. Mmm...

We got to tour the factory, learn the history of Cadbury's, and take a "ride" (I use the term loosely, considering it consisted of sitting in a slow moving car watching cocoa beans sing---I would have enjoyed it when I was five). I was only disappointed that there were no Ooompa Loompas! ;)

Later that night I went to the One World Party, which is Warwick's version of UConn's I-Nite. So basically, no food and a fully stocked bar. They had all of the cultural and international societies perform, and we got there just in time to see one of our flatmates perform Nigerian dancing, which was great.

Then yesterday I watched the first half of the Super Bowl in the Students Union with some of my American friends and friends from Christian Focus, so that was a lot of fun. It was amazing to see how people actually care about American football. Unfortunately, I missed out on the best part of the Super Bowl, the commercials. The British ones were lame and normal and it made me feel homesick. Of course, I stayed out later than I wanted to, which is probably why I'm so tired today. I've accepted by now that studying abroad is a process of trial and error...mostly error.
So I've decided to hunker down tonight, update my blog, do some laundry, and watch the snow fall with some tea and soup.

And, for my Dad who questions if I'm actually going to class:

English Social History: Just wrote a 2000 word essay on immigration/migration to London during the Tudor and Stuart periods. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, and just because I'm juvenile and immature, I deliberately used words with British spellings, eg:
practise, centre, categorised...ha ha.

The European World: I'm discovering just how much I didn't know about early modern European history. It frustrates me that everyone in my seminar sounds so intelligent (it's probably the accent) and then they admit afterwards that they barely did any of the reading! It's much more difficult for me because I'm encountering this material for the first time, while they've grown up with it, so I have no prior knowledge to fall back on.

Religious Change in England: Also an interesting course, especially with me being an evil Catholic and all. I didn't know the Dissolution of the Monasteries was so important until this class!

Georgian Britain: More familiar territory here. My next essay is on British domestic opinion and the American Revolution. Should be fun.

Watch this space for: Paris next week!