Adventures in Sheffield!

The second day of orientation came and went as smoothly as the first. I'm registered for my classes: the Romantic Period, Renaissance Literature, and Decoding the Bible: the New Testament. I meet with my classes a couple times a week and have Fridays off, which is pretty nice if I ever decide I want to travel for a long weekend.

Since orientation meals arent really included, I've been trying different restaurants and pubs around the uni and the city, and I have yet to find one that I dont like.

That night, a group of girls got tickets to see S Club 7 live at the Octagon Centre. Holy crow! There are as good as they ever were! Our group was crammed up against the staged most of the performance until a mosh pit started to form. Girls Can't Catch performed and another band from the X factor sang. Apparently there was a famous dj spinning there, but I have no idea what her name is. She was freaking awesome!

A trend I saw a lot was that most guys are willing to dance in groups before the girls. Also, guys wear plaid shirts only and girls wear lingerie. A new definition has been created. I could wear a bathing suit and throw lace over it and fit right in. It's cold here and they wear nothing!! Unbelievable.

On Saturday, I went to Meadowhall, the biggest mall in the UK. It is like 10 tysons put together. I think I only went into 4 stores within 4 hours. They were huge! From the previous night's dancing and walking on foot everywhere, I think I'll be ripped when I get back to the states. Holla!

I did purchase a pair of brown boots that repel water, but are ridiculously cute. There was a sale for buy one, get the next for a dollar, so I split the cost with another girl and got a real bargain.

I wore them when we all went out last night to Bar One and from all of the hills, my feet are a little blistered. On a happier note, they stayed dry! :)

I moved out of orientation housing and now live in a giant mansion called Stephenson, about a mile or two from campus. I have blue and yellow walls and tons of room to do whatever I want. It really is too much space though for just me. It almost makes me homesick. Sabrina, come to England!

I haven't really had time to be homesick anyway. I've been on the go since last Monday when I left for England. I'm sure after classes kick in and I have more time to be by myself, it will set in a little bit.

I do love it here though. I find myself slipping in and out of accents with others. I'm constantly hearing British and Australian accents so it's easy to pick it up. It feels natural too. The natives are so friendly and helpful. Yesterday, I talked to a woman on the tram for half an hour. Whoever said Brits were standoffish lied. Fo sho.

Today, I actually slept in. Til 12. It was a beautiful moment in history. I'm settling into my new room still so I spent some of the afternoon doing that. But the majority of the day was a failure.
My friend, Claudia, and I walked around Sheffield trying to figure out where our classes were, but all of the buildings were locked up. Then we needed to get some stuff from the grocery store and dept store. Instead of spending money for transportation, we walked like 3 miles to Primark, a killer dept store with great prices, only to find that it was closed. So we walked back and decided to take a tram to the grocery store since we didn't know the other side of the city very well. We got off at the stop the Brit told us to, which happened to be the wrong stop and ended up near a ski mountain. Sheffield is a city. So we were very far from the city. We took some more wrong turns and spent an hour trying to find this magical grocery store called Tesco. It was said to be open 24 hours. We found it eventually but it was closed. Excellent chain of events, right? Then we had to find a tram and wait for 15 minutes before it came. BTW we were in a sketch area of Shef. Sucky!! We had to walk a mile to a poorly stocked grocery store, where I only got sugar. All of the uni restaurants close early on Sunday usually for Sunday Roast so we had to run to a Subway and then walk back to our buildings. It was a disastrous day but at least Marin and Arielle were thoughtful to buy tacs for my room. Now I have pictures up and it's a little less empty.

I am missing the Super Bowl for the first time ever tonight. I am so tired and because of the time difference, kick off isnt until 1130. I dont have cable and I dont want to walk 2 miles to the bar where it's being played.

Classes start tomorrow and I've got some more adventures ahead. I'm thinking of a day trip to Liverpool to see the Cavern where the Beatles played in their earlier days and also the Beatles museum. Only Lord knows what's in store for me this week.

Love all. I'm trying to upload pictures but it's so hard with internet connection. Thanks for being patient!

Fin.