Fulham vs. West Bromwich Football Match

Our marketing professor brought us to Fulham stadium to watch a football (soccer) match today!  We took the train from Richmond station into Putney, and walked for 20 minutes to arrive at the stadium.  The fans there were absolutely crazy!  There were families with young kids who were just as into their home team as the adults were!  Older men with lots of friends use this as a social gathering event.  Lots of chanting and singing from the fans of both teams accompanied the game.  Fulham was up 1-0 almost the whole match, but then with 6 minutes of added time at the end, West Bromwich scored on a corner kick.  It was a big upset for the home team fans but an exciting game to watch nonetheless.

At the beginning of the game my professor announced that there would be an extra credit opportunity for us.  We had to purchase and consume half of the above drink, known as "Bovril", and he had to watch us drink it.  I was the first one who volunteered to purchase it.  It smelled like a barn.  The taste was a very salty, "beefy drink", as shown on the cup.  It was just about as tasty as the container appears, but I finished my half before anyone else, and earned my 10 extra points toward my final grade in the class.  I washed it down quickly afterward with a cadbury hot chocolate.  Cadbury is popular and apparently quite delicious here in London, but I have yet to try just a plain candy bar.

After the game we split up in two groups to go to different restaurants for dinner.  I chose Pizzeria Rustica, and boy was it an excellent choice!!! The pizza was amazing!! It was very thin, not too much sauce, and was huge for only around 7 pounds.  It was interesting that they served the pizzas whole and we had to cut them ourselves.  I'm not ashamed to say I ate the whole thing by myself...The service was great, and I definitely want to go back again soon. It's about a ten minute walk from school!

As expected, there are so many changes that I've had to adapt to while here in London.  Culture shock has been a regular occurrence for me with all sorts of things.  The pictures above just show a few of those examples.  The hot and cold water do not come out of the same spout; instead you have to move your hands back and forth between the two to get the full effect.  They also have tons of different coins from one pence, two pence, five pence, 20 pence, 50 pence, 1 pound, and 2 pounds.  It's hard telling the difference between them in the middle of a store when I'm trying to pay for something.  Also, the keyboards in the library are different.  They have a key for Euros and Pounds, and the @ key is with the apostrophe, while the quotation mark is on the 2.  The shift keys also don't say shift, and are smaller than the shift bars I am used to.  Typing has been a bit of a challenge on these computers, but maybe I'll get used to it.  A few other random culture shocks were like when I met a girl in my Psychology class from Bulgaria, and an hour later she gave me a hug to say goodbye.  The ground floor is actually the first floor here, so finding my class took be a few extra minutes.  When we figured out how much gas would be per gallon in U.S. dollars in comparison to what it is here right now, it came out to around $8 per gallon which is crazy! Their version of a dollar store is known as Poundland, which makes sense!  Also, they have a TK Maxx instead of a TJ Maxx, but I wasn't able to find out why.  Here, they call french fries chips, and potato chips crisps.  Emails with professors are also very formal here, as they address students with "Dear..." and end them with "Sincerely...".  Rain boots here are also called "Wellies."  There are so many more that I can't even think of right now, but I'm slowly started to adapt to all of these changes. Stonehenge and Bath tomorrow! Pictures to come!

New Student Boat Cruise

Last night we went on a boat cruise along the Thames River in London.  We saw some amazing view like the Tower Bridge pictured above.  The boat cruised along the river one way, so we were able to view everything in the daylight, and then again at night to see the city lit up.  It became a bit chilly as the night progressed, but we lucked out with absolutely no rain.  The DJ played some familiar throwbacks, and everyone took advantage of the bars on the upper and lower decks as well.  The whole trip only cost us around 10 pounds, and we had free transportation back to school around 10:30pm.  It was a fun way to start off the semester with all of the new students.  It's crazy to think we've already almost been here a week!

Grocery Shopping & The Park

                       

 The food here is a bit different to get used to.  A few of us girls went into town today to find the grocery store in London, and needless to say a lot of the food is different.  The strawberries are tiny, but they looked pretty good!  They had weird styles of Milky Ways called "Crazy Caramel", and 3 Musketeers is called "Wild and Whippy."  Even their Goldfish look exactly the same but have a different name.  And their Coke bottles are narrow and taller.  All of these things are weird for me to see, but they are normal to English people who are used to living with them.  I have yet to try some infamous Fish and Chips, but I hope to do so this weekend.  The food at the dining hall here is quite bland, but I manage to eat bread, meat, and salad at lunch and dinner.  It will all definitely take some getting used to, but I'll survive.  I could really go for a PB&J sandwich from home right about now...

My roommate Brooke and I went over to Richmond Park which has some beautiful views and gardens everywhere.  We even saw a wedding occurring at one corner of this giant piece of land.  It is just a short walk around the corner from campus, and it was such a nice day out that we just had to get outside.  There was a small blonde girl probably about 2 years old wobbling around with her grandparents and they asked in their formal accent "What's that you got there?" And she responded with her miniature version of their accent "App-le!"  I still can't seem to get over hearing children with the accent we all envy.

We attended a Welcome New Students Reception in front of the school later in the day, and got to drink wine and meet some professors and other students.  The man who spoke to welcome us told us that Richmond has students from over 100 different countries, which sounded crazy to me!  However, most of these students are here for all 4 years as opposed to just 3 and a half months like us, so it's even more drastic for them.

We went to a pub last night, and were able to order drinks at the bar, which is still such a new and intimidating thing for me.  But below is a picture of me and my roommate, and we are getting along great.  She is from Connecticut, not too far from WNE.  There is supposed to be a New Student Boat Party tonight from 7-11pm, but it may rain so I'm not sure what we will be doing.

Central London

I have blisters on my heels from walking in Sperry's all day.  It was around 80 degrees which is extremely warm for England, so everyone was out taking pictures and touring the beautiful city.  I couldn't believe how close we are to London. A quick 25-minute train ride from Richmond took us right to the heart of the city, and we walked out to find the intimidating London Eye towering over us in the distance.  The London Eye is the world's largest ferris wheel.

Due to the long lines and our excitement to see as many things as we could, we decided we'd save taking the 45 minute ride for some other day.  There were lots of street performers including a singer named Charlotte Campbell, a young man performing with a soccer ball, and this "statue"...

We took tons of pictures leading up to and then right next to Big Ben, which was breathtaking to see.  There were various vendors selling I <3 London gear in shirts, bumper stickers, lanyards, and signs. People speaking all different languages were rushing by, bumping into me, and giving me weird looks listening to me talk.  I still can't get over the English accents.  Whether it's an elderly person, a small child, or an announcer on the train. "Mind the gap" was constantly said as we prepared to enter and exit the train. The large gap between the train and the concrete is  bit of a jump, but that's how I've felt since arriving in London. Although there are some familiar foods and faces, the culture shock has been hard to get over. It's hard to remember to look the opposite way when crossing the street, or not to panic for a second when seeing no one driving the car but then realizing they're on the other side.

We were able to stand right outside the gates of Buckingham Palace, and we had just missed the changing of the guards.  It's amazing to me how they stand out there all day, guarding the Palace.  Hopefully I can go on a tour sometime during my stay. We stopped at a restaurant on the way back and then tried to retrace our steps as best as we could. We ended up finding our way back to Richmond by train, and stopped at a local convenience store to purchase things such as laundry detergent, shampoo, and tape to put pictures on our walls. Unfortunately, I found out when I returned to campus that an ATM I used withdrew money from my account that I didn't get, so I've been trying to sort that all out. We took the traditional Western New England picture with the Sophomore Experience Abroad banner in front of the school...while everyone stared at us...I don't think our style is really up to par according to the English students. Hopefully we'll all warm up to each other a bit more after the New Student Boat Party on Friday!