From the Industrial Revolution to the Millionaire's Playground

I have come to realize that I update this in spurts. It's most likely due to the fact that all of us have been forced into hiding to do our 2000 word paper on the Industrial Revolution and seeing as it's bank holiday, nothing is open and we're all dying of boredom and overwork. Luckily I have this trusty blog to kill time.

Last week covered the Industrial Revolution. We were met by two new professors who were as serious and dry as the Sahara Desert (and when I say dry, I do not mean dry humor). They knew their information, but found it was very important to go on tangents about things that we did not need to know. We learned about the "very different" political system of Britain that in actuality is not completely foreign to the American system but that obviously did not matter. By the end of the course, politics seemed to have come out and the professors decided to egg us on about our views. I have to say, as Americans, we were very diplomatic in answering his questions and definitely looked as the winners due to the fact that we were unhappy with having to talk about something so controversial. One thing I have noticed about the Brits - they love to provoke.

Wednesday, the class traveled to just outside of Manchester to go to Quarry Bank Mill. The actual mill was quite long, boring, and repetitive. I think that the English don't realize that we had an industrial revolution ourselves. All of us have realized we need to accept the "dumb American" persona. The village where the mill workers lived, however was absolutely quaint and cosy. I could see Mom loving the town. There is even a primary school for local kids and a Methodist Church (3rd picture) all still in use.

After a week of paper writing, Matt's 21st birthday - complete with Mexican dinner & homemade birthday cake - and lying low, I made a trek down to visit Mike. I learned that British rail transportation is extremely unreliable compared to that of America & the rest of Europe. My first train was stopped for 20 minutes due to a "signal malfunction" which the nice English ladies I was sitting with explained as "They needed to stop all the trains to figure out where everything was". Lovely. This would not have been a problem if I did not have a connecting train 10 mins after I arrived, which the conductor kindly informed us that had left. Luckily, I got a ticket for a train an hour later, and after the nice British ladies made sure I got situated, I was on my way. It was great to see Mike after so long and it definitely made me realize how much I miss home, finally connecting with something that seemed so familiar. That and he brought me a proper grease laden pizza for dinner that I devoured quickly.

Southern England, especially along the coast is one of the most beautiful places I have seen in England. The tiny town where Mike lives is just like Boiling Springs, where everyone knows everyone's business. It's located about 20 minutes from the beach and the drive there seems like it's out of the movies with beautiful homes covered in ivy and wall lined roads that twist and turn through the British countryside. Poole - the nearest beachside town - is set with a harbor on one side and the Channel on the other. With areas called the Millionaire's Playground, it's a popular spot for the British to vacation and go to the beach. When we got on the beach I was comfortable in my long sleeve and jeans but the natives were sunbathing in their tiny swimsuits. I guess they take whatever they can get. However, Mike & Simon (his best friend) along with his mother, showed me what they enjoy doing - hitting golf balls out into see. Probably one of the coolest things to see while staring out at the Isle of Wight (Dad will be proud to know I got quite excited to see the Isle of Wight and kept singing "When I'm Sixty-Four"). I spent the rest of the weekend getting a lesson on British life, food, crazy golf [mini golf], politics, music, television, automobiles, and football. I was sad to go (and a little disappointed I didn't take many pictures) but definitely returned in a better mood and less stressed. I think I actually can do this whole living in a foreign country thing.

The trip has been changed due to lack of funds (we knew we could do better) so I will now be traveling through Amsterdam, Prague, Rome, Florence, Sardinia, and Girona, Spain. Elena has done a brilliant job looking up cheap flights and I'm about to work on the hostel situation. The backpack Europe book has proven to be much more help than the Travel Agency (who knew?). A good $15.99 well spent.

Today was the first day of the English Reformation part of the course, and we are very interested to see how this goes (at the moment it's looking unbearable). Hopefully, I'll be updating much sooner because this weekend we are taking advantage of the Gettysburg students in London and going for a nice weekend visit before our two-week adventure starts next week - Can't believe it!

Love from across the pond!

Lancs Uni

As promised, Elena & I spent the lovely, SUNNY afternoon doing homework & taking pictures

My Room: My lovely bed, work station, and the cute collage Cait made me

My door & bathroom door, the shower & tiny bathroom :-\

My building entrance, My room is the 3rd window up on the right, The view out my window

The blue building will be home home mid-Sept to Dec, Student Union, Sultan's - On campus Indian Restaurant (Review after tomorrow's lunch ;))

The quad, Diggles Milkshakes (Note: Cadbury Caramel & Hobnob as choice flavors), Spar - #1 Grocery Store on Campus

The On-Campus travel agent, In front of my college (Fylde) bar, The underpass

Pretty England & The place where the games on Nokia phones were invented :D

Lookin' Good in Lanc City [vol. I]

Welcome to the new blog series of Lookin' Good from Lancaster, England, courtesy of Sarah Dusinberre

What to wear: Glitter anything.
What not to wear: Anything pastel
What to shoe: Ankle boots and chunky sandal heels
What to handbag: A cute clutch - as long as there is glitter!
Must have accessory: Belts - worn with casual wear or going out wear. And not for the purpose of belts, but to cinch that waist!
Biggest shopping splurge: Ben and Jerry's Half Baked ice cream at £4.19 is worth every pence for the reminder of a beautiful place called America where there is flavor and calories in every bite.
Favorite designer: Top Shop, River Island, and Monsoon
Saucy sale: Anything found at St. John's Hospice Cancer Care Charity Shop
What to read: Anything on Roman Britain - especially information on Boudica or the Roman Navy
What to see: FOOTBALL! The boys are in Glasgow as we speak watching a game.
What to hair: Super straight hair or the British form of a mullet - Short and choppy in the front, long and smooth in the back.
Favorite bad movie: Inglourious Basterds - The American boys said it was spot on and hilarious if you were American - 80% of the laughter was coming from them. Very interesting the different viewpoints on WWII.
What to TiVo: Anything American - British copywrite laws forbid any television shows to be shown on-line leaving us Americans in the dust about our favorite shows for the next 4 months.
What to listen to: Number 1 song in the UK - I Gotta Feelin' (The Black Eyed Peas)
What to eat: Chicken Masala and Naan
Where to eat it: Moghuls Indian Restaurant - Family run, with friendly staff and Happy Hour 4:30 - 7:30 Sun thru Thurs, offering half off meals
Mobile Service: O2 - the AT&T of the UK
Best & Worst Vice: Jammie Dodgers! £1 at Farm Foods!
Dream Vacation: We're in England! Might as well explore this beautiful country.
Makeover regression: Amy Winehouse - she loves being crazy.
Looking extra foxy: Sienna Miller is gracing the covers of Brit GQ causing the American lads go ga-ga in every supermarket (and the cover is too racy to even show on this blog - Welcome to England)
Couple of the moment: The Speidi of Britain - Peter and Jordan (real name, Katie Price) have split, sending the Brit Tabs in a tizzy.
Drama of the Moment: The Scots are afraid of talking to us Americans with the release of the Lockerbie bomber. As one Scotsman told me last night, "I'm afraid you're gonna turn my English mates on me - that's what your government is doing." We can never win.

Totally Overrated: Being British. They may have nice accents but we've been told everywhere we go that we are the most attractive people in the place. Thank you, American dental care.
Crush of the Moment: Jay Sean. Adorable Indo-Brit singer who is starting out in his late 20's due to getting his medical degree.
Obsession of the Moment: All the Americans I spend my waking moments with :)

One Week in England and I have learned...

I know I have not updated the blog in a while. It's been a manic week but that's a good thing, right? Between class, travel plans, setting up house and making friends, I've been kept busier than can be imagined which has made the homesickness beyond rare. We have found that discussing our families back at home and complaining together about how "England [explitive] sucks" on the way back from grocery shopping bring a commradery that is very nice.

This past week was the first week of summer school. The class was taught by a jolly british archaeologist who found the topics of Romans and Beer to be the most fascinating. We have never experienced a professor who would use the phrase "good fun" to describe a quiz on the Romans and then say "so have you found the good pubs yet? my sons would love to show you the party scene of Lancaster". He took us to Hadrian's wall - more or less the fort at Chesters and Vindolanda. It was quite close to Carlisle, by the way, and one of my friends here and I decided we're gonna travel up there so I can represent the hometown. It was almost surreal to see something from so long ago. The actual wall was a little bit disappointing. Many of us "dumb" Americans were under the impression that the wall still spanned the 73 miles across England from Carlisle to Walls End... but apparently not. Overall, the weather held up quite nicely until we left.
[Picture of the fort at Chesters]

#1 - The weather in England is a lot more unpredictable than any born American can imagine. Today while having lunch with my friend, Elena, she mentions how it's so nice and sunny out and she's going to stop in the bathroom. When she starts to come back, I chuckle to myself because I see that the "nice and sunny" outdoors has a downpour. Always bring a rainjacket and never bank on sun.

Next week I will be starting the Industrial Revolution and it should be interesting to see if these "tutors" (what we call professors) will be as laid back as Jim. Oh yes, he has us call him Jim. Gotta love it.

I have set up my group for my 2 week travel - 2 girls - Me & Elena from NCState - and 3 boys - Craig from Gburg, Josh from Allegheny & Matt from Rollins. Elena and I thought the boys will be good to have around while traveling through Europe - especially since Matt is a 6'3" football player. They don't know this is our reasoning for their company, however. As we speak, Mike from Uni Travel (yes, our University has a travel agency) is helping to find us the most epic deals for our 2 week excursion. The plan is Amsterdam, Milan, Cinque Terre, Florence, Rome, Munich & Prague. I never thought there would be a day I would be backpacking through Europe let alone telling someone I will talk to them when I'm back from Prague. Prague was very enticing to us due to how incredibly cheaper it is than Western Europe. [Picture 1: Craig, Matt & Josh planning our trip for us... they told us where to go and made me the "group leader". Thanks, guys. Picture 2: Me & Elena out at Walkabouts - Australian Bar]

#2 - We are most definitely prefecting our frugal skills and trying as hard as ever to stop converting everything we try and purchase. We all skip breakfast if it's not a Nutri-Grain bar (I have given up coffee... mostly), get meal deals for lunch (sandwich, crisps [chips], and drink for 2 quid) and see what we can scrounge together from the frozen meats and deals we find at the grocery store. I found 10 pieces of naan for 4 quid which made my life. On the Indian note, due to the lack of cooking utensils and options for us abroad students on a budget we've been searching for the best restaurant deals. Elena and I had a date last night in town, yearning for the wonderful Indian food of England. Our drinks and both dinners together cost 8.60 <- 4.30 a person. When I told native Mike this, he about died and told me he'd be up here as soon as possible. Can't get better than that in this expensive country. We also realized that Indian here is much more spicy. That was fun....

Family dinners with the Gburg crew have fell through. Elena and I eat many meals together usually cooking for the boys who in return pay for our drinks - great system. The shower is still difficult as ever, but I have finally mastered the maximum water pourage that does not drain out into my room. We are still ok on toilet paper. We walk everywhere for everything. Campus is about as big as Gettysburg but there is so much everywhere. We have to take a bus into town to do our major grocery shopping. That becomes quite interesting after purchasing massive amounts of forzen food, at a quid a bag. My work outs are definitely with all the walking I do. However, I'm starting to act like a real British person, buying what I want to eat for the next 3 days, eating things without condiments, wearing girly shoes, always carrying a raincoat and umbrella. I've even become pretty good at figuring out money. Not totally good but getting there. The pound and 2 pound coins drive us up a wall, however.

#3 - Cherish your pound coins. They seem to go the most (because we like anything under 5 pounds) but they are what you want with you for the bus, the clubs & bars and for renting a "buggy" at the supermarket. Virginia & I went grocery shopping today only to realize that we had to carry our loot (which was quite heavy) from the other store in baskets because we had no pound coins.





As probably known from who I am traveling with, I have made some great friends here which is very nice. The 4 that I'm traveling with plus twins, Adam & Arik from Wisconsin, are my partners in crime (haha just kidding!) around England. They are a bunch of fun and it's definitely making my trip worth it. Tonight we are going out on the town - a huge event on the weekends. The boys have been totally in their element, but Elena and I stick out like a sore thumb (as I described to Mike "I look like a nun") but we are determined this weekend to mix with the locals and truly know what it's like to be a Britain. [Picture: Apparently Croc wedges are something acceptable?]

#4 - Dressing here is miserable. We dress for the weather but apparently brits take advantage of the weather and wear close to nothing in 60 degree weather. This is much more apparent out in the night life. Apparently if you think someone can see your butt peeking out of your dress, you're in appropriate attire. I don't think Elena and I will be going that far, but many of the girls here have been telling me where to shop so we'll see if we can pull it off.

I'm going to try and create a little do-dad called Lookin' Good in Lanc City over the weekend with little notes of what people wear and drink and eat and listen to, etc. Look next week for updates! I'll leave you all with some photos :) (And I promise to take some pictures of the actual school...)
[Picture: Lancaster City's Town Hall in the Market Place]





[Picture: Vindolanda - Roman ruin civilian town (vicos)]

[Picture: The Roman fort at Chesters]












[Picture: Some of the group teaching the international kids how to play Flip Cup]




[Picture 1: Elena, Me & Akira - Akira and I were going to take a picture when he threw up the peace sign... so we felt we had to be an "honorary japanese" as he called us. Picture 2: As you can tell, I'm not a huge fan of the weather]

Welcome to England!

Everyone reading this probably knows already, but I am now on Day 2 of my European Adventure, studying for 4 months in Lancaster (England - not Pennsylvania). Hopefully I won't bore everyone who reads this and can give funny little anecdotes for everyone back in the states to take the sting out of those "mingin' mondays" as they would say here in Britain.



The plane rides over were quite uneventful, which is great. There are 5 of us Gettysburg students (Matt, Ali, Virginia & Craig) who left for the university from Dulles (About 25 more Bullets will be spending the first 4 weeks in London then joining us here). I sat alone (my luck) but had an extra seat next to me, making me have the most sleep out of any of us. We all received our luggage and some obvious looks of judgment (mostly in Amsterdam where we had our layover) but were pretty satisfied with the trip. Minus the screaming babies on both flights.



The university itself is set in a gorgeous area - quite out of a storybook. But Lanc is definitely not a Hogwarts if that is what everyone is picturing. It's mostly ugly 70's style buildings, but thankfully there are newish type dorms which are reassuring. However, nice the actual room is, there are some nice American cultureshocks.

- The bedding they provided us is worse than expected. Sorry mom and dad, but i'll be purchasing some things to make my life a little easier. I hit the bed last night and literally hit the bed. The bed is sitting on a wooden platform and the mattress is so thin that I touched the platform when sitting on the bed.

- Luckily all computers have been plugged in and not fried. Craig & I made the mistake of deleting our Gburg network which makes getting into my iTunes near impossible (I can only listen to one song at a time). This wouldn't be such a problem if Pandora worked but England has yet to apply copyright laws where Pandora, many youtube videos, and all of our favorite shows are online. Quite disappointing (so yes, when I return, I will be hitting up the television to understand what is cool in America).

- Unfortunately, some of our appliances are not so user friendly - Matt fried his electric toothbrush & Ali's hair straightener only switches on for five seconds. I haven't plugged in anything other than my curler (as a test run) and computer but hopefully the camera charger will work. Knock on wood, those are the only "casualties".

- The showers here are made for literally a person under 5'10" (I say this because - shock, I'm the shortest Gburg student) and are just a spout on the wall. There is a slight (when I say slight, like 1 inch) ditch where the bathroom floor and "shower" are... but this morning I learned that if you pull on the shower at full blast, it will take over that 1 inch and proceed straight out the bathroom. I was very quick to chnage that. The overally bathroom is not bad other than tiny, but we were welcomed with no toilet paper - something the cleaning staff "forgot" in our flat and conveniently won't be able to replace til next week. First British purchase - 89p 4 rolls toilet paper. Wonderful.

- We have yet to go in to Lancaster, the city. This will be when we get our toiletries, supplies, food, and cell phones. It sounds like it would be a good thing for us to be away from all the luxuries, but it's really inconvenient. We, as already stated, need toilet paper apparently, and hand soap and everything that we take for granted. The bedding is crap as already mentioned, and they expect us to make every meal for ourselves except the welcome dinner and the dinner tonight. A little hard when many of the stores were closed last night on campus, and many aren't open over summer term. The cell phones will come in handy, especially when we're on our own, but that is the only thing we are living without "willingly". Tonight, the Gburg crew plans on heading into Lanc City early, to discover the town and night life.

- On that note, for dinner last night, we purchased our first pints (2.15 for a Fosters, 2.30 for a Carlsberg, 2.60 for a Guinness, 1.90 for a Tertley - don't worry, Mom & Dad, I didn't drink all of those, that's just the ones the group I was with for the night ordered). We now understand the need for a cool beer after a long day. We all agree that the Guinness is gross but our German comrade sipped it like hot chocolate. I was a Fosters but Tertley seems to be the Natty Light of England. Oh the wonders of being legal.

That's been the most exciting things to report from across the pond. Today were info sessions and tours of the campus. As said before, tomorrow is Lanc City and Sunday is the Lake District. I start class on Mon - 9:30-12:30 everyday, except 3 Wed, and one Thurs where we go on Field Trips. This Wed. is Hadrian's Wall. Keep on the lookout after then for many pictures & loads of fun stories.

I love & miss you all!

Sarah<3