Saturday, July 14, 2007
you know whats funny?
i have never wanted a burrito more in my life, and i am about as far away form Mexico as i have ever been. and dont start going off on how close i am to spain. the spaniards do not do burritos. they do tapas. and if i wanted to eggs and sasage and cheese with maybe some peppers then i would definetly go for some tapas. but no i want me a good san francisco style burrito.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
A few Quick Observations
I have noticed a few small things that make England Different From the US.
- every sink and i mean EVERY sink has two faucets, one for hot and one for cold. I thought this might just be because the university is from the 60's but even the new sinks in the remolded building have 2 faucets.
- You can walk across any open field and nobody will get mad. apparently the british are fiercely protective of what they call right to pass laws that allow anyone access to cross open fields and land, even say active wheat fields.
- The whole wrong side of the road thing isn't limited to just cars. People's natural instinct here is to move to the left even when walking or riding a bike. I seem to be always trying to go right and end up screwing up the walking system for everyone else.
- Some things are the same price as in the US after converting the currency and others are twice the price. Like for example, CDs are 5 pounds and DVDs are 8 pounds so $10 for a CD and $16 for a DVD isnt that far removed from what you pay in the US. However an all day bus pass is 3 pounds, which a bus pass for $3 isnt all that unresonalble. however that 3 pound is acually $6.
- Apparently the drinking fountain has not been discovered in England yet. I have yet to see a single water fountain in any airport, train station, subway station, library, university building, or anywhere else. I guess they really want you to have to buy a bottle of water rather than just give it away.
- Also, apparently no one has found out about those little plastic clips we use to reseal bread bags. Every bred loaf in the store is just closed with a sticker, so there is no way to re-close the bread bags.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
A quick tour of where I will be the next little bit
Here are just a few quick pictures I took while trying to remember to walk down the left side of the path through campus.
In case you didnt notice, our campus is fairly green. Much like the rest of England.
This is park place, the area (another word for place) that i am going to be staying for the next 2 months.
That's the playground adn that white dot between the swings is actually a Seagull. I know it dosnt look it, but we arn't all that far from the ocean.
...and this is the East Slope Bar behind the playground. It's amazing, the thing is right across the parking lot from Park Village. That's one of the little differences I've noticed while i have been here. They sell beer and wine and others in the student store, at the cafeteria on campus, and they gave away drinks at the welcome ceremony.
And this is the slope the bar is named after.
That is the most blue sky i have seen since arriving in England and seeing as how the forecast is for rain straight through till Thursday, it will be the most blue sky i will see for a while.
In one of these buildings, I should probably find out which one, i will be taking both my classes.
and here are 2 squirrels running around a tree outside those buildings.
This is the cafe in Bramber House. I'm not sure what a loaded spud is and i'm not sure i need to know.
I just thought this was a weird looking tree.
And this on right next to it is missing the middle. I know its tough to see but belive me that tree is sans a middle.
Even their mail boxes are fancy over here.
Ha! take that soccer, real footballs comin for ya.
Like i said, the campus is very green.
Oh and did i menation under construction. yes, apparently it donst matter how far i go, be it 500 miles south to Riverside or 1/3 of the world away to England, i will always be at a school that is under contruction. The streak continues.
and continues...
...and continues
...and continues.
but hey they got this really cool pond in the middle of on of their buildings.
and these two (this is just one of them) awesome turtles guarding it.
In case you didnt notice, our campus is fairly green. Much like the rest of England.
This is park place, the area (another word for place) that i am going to be staying for the next 2 months.
That's the playground adn that white dot between the swings is actually a Seagull. I know it dosnt look it, but we arn't all that far from the ocean.
...and this is the East Slope Bar behind the playground. It's amazing, the thing is right across the parking lot from Park Village. That's one of the little differences I've noticed while i have been here. They sell beer and wine and others in the student store, at the cafeteria on campus, and they gave away drinks at the welcome ceremony.
And this is the slope the bar is named after.
That is the most blue sky i have seen since arriving in England and seeing as how the forecast is for rain straight through till Thursday, it will be the most blue sky i will see for a while.
In one of these buildings, I should probably find out which one, i will be taking both my classes.
and here are 2 squirrels running around a tree outside those buildings.
This is the cafe in Bramber House. I'm not sure what a loaded spud is and i'm not sure i need to know.
I just thought this was a weird looking tree.
And this on right next to it is missing the middle. I know its tough to see but belive me that tree is sans a middle.
Even their mail boxes are fancy over here.
Ha! take that soccer, real footballs comin for ya.
Like i said, the campus is very green.
Oh and did i menation under construction. yes, apparently it donst matter how far i go, be it 500 miles south to Riverside or 1/3 of the world away to England, i will always be at a school that is under contruction. The streak continues.
and continues...
...and continues
...and continues.
but hey they got this really cool pond in the middle of on of their buildings.
and these two (this is just one of them) awesome turtles guarding it.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Ignoring the Signs
Apparently someone does not want me to be in England. Or at least that is my conclusion after my 12 hours attempt to get into the country yesterday.
At first everything seemed to be going well. I checked in 24 hours in advance and got to print out my boarding pass. Once mom and I reached the airport it was obvious that something was up. First there is no listing anywhere for British airlines in the international terminal. There is every carrier from air Canada to Virgin Atlantic but no British Airways whatsoever. So on the second trip around to see if we missed it two minivans decide to stop in the middle of the road blocking both lanes and any chance of reaching the international terminal. Mom and I get forced down to the lower level where we have to travel under dozens of different overpasses and Bart stations just to get back to the airport. When I finally got inside the airport, things did start looking up and I was prepared to write it all off as nothing more than bad luck. I got to skip the very long bag check line and go right to the front of the online check-in fast bag check. Mom showed up after parking the car right after I finished checking in and I got to say goodbye relatively quickly and without much incident. In fact there wasn’t much of incident until I actually got on the plane.
The plane was set to take off at 4:50, but thanks in large part to bad paperwork and an overly complicated taxi rout we didn’t actually get up into the air until 7. It seems that the baggage loaders got the count wrong on that paperwork and so they had to recount the entire luggage contents of the 747 to straighten everything out. That took nearly an hour and a half and then our taxi rout took us all around the airport before putting the plane in a position to take off. So with all this we were about 2 hours delayed.
So despite the shadowy others best attempts to keep me out of the UK it appeared that I was actually going to make it. That was until we landed and they threw together a last ditch effort to keep me from entering. First they left an airport vehicle out in the middle of the tarmac so that the plane could not get to the gate. So we were stuck waiting for them to move the thing for another half hour. Then in their final attempt to keep me out of England, they locked the doors. That’s right locked the doors. I got to the end of the gate entrance just to find that the doors out had been locked. Fortunately I managed to sneak downstairs to a bus out of the tarmac that took me over to another terminal so that I could actually enter the country.
So despite some shadowy figure’s best efforts I did indeed manage to make it into England and eventually to my dorm room.
At first everything seemed to be going well. I checked in 24 hours in advance and got to print out my boarding pass. Once mom and I reached the airport it was obvious that something was up. First there is no listing anywhere for British airlines in the international terminal. There is every carrier from air Canada to Virgin Atlantic but no British Airways whatsoever. So on the second trip around to see if we missed it two minivans decide to stop in the middle of the road blocking both lanes and any chance of reaching the international terminal. Mom and I get forced down to the lower level where we have to travel under dozens of different overpasses and Bart stations just to get back to the airport. When I finally got inside the airport, things did start looking up and I was prepared to write it all off as nothing more than bad luck. I got to skip the very long bag check line and go right to the front of the online check-in fast bag check. Mom showed up after parking the car right after I finished checking in and I got to say goodbye relatively quickly and without much incident. In fact there wasn’t much of incident until I actually got on the plane.
The plane was set to take off at 4:50, but thanks in large part to bad paperwork and an overly complicated taxi rout we didn’t actually get up into the air until 7. It seems that the baggage loaders got the count wrong on that paperwork and so they had to recount the entire luggage contents of the 747 to straighten everything out. That took nearly an hour and a half and then our taxi rout took us all around the airport before putting the plane in a position to take off. So with all this we were about 2 hours delayed.
So despite the shadowy others best attempts to keep me out of the UK it appeared that I was actually going to make it. That was until we landed and they threw together a last ditch effort to keep me from entering. First they left an airport vehicle out in the middle of the tarmac so that the plane could not get to the gate. So we were stuck waiting for them to move the thing for another half hour. Then in their final attempt to keep me out of England, they locked the doors. That’s right locked the doors. I got to the end of the gate entrance just to find that the doors out had been locked. Fortunately I managed to sneak downstairs to a bus out of the tarmac that took me over to another terminal so that I could actually enter the country.
So despite some shadowy figure’s best efforts I did indeed manage to make it into England and eventually to my dorm room.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Some Info
Well for my second post on this blog i thought it might be a good idea to break from tradition and make a useful and informative post. Dont be alarmed, i promise not to make a habit of it. I just wanted to pass along some contact infomation for while i am away.
First off there is my new Skype number.
(408) 914-2894
Skype is a service that allows me to make and receive phone calls over the internet. Its pretty cool. even when i am in England, if you dial that number it is as if you are calling the 408 area code and that is all you get charged for. no weird fees or international rates. also i can use it to make calls to regular phones over here and it's only like 2 cents per minute. Also if my computer is off, or i'm not around to answer it you can actually leave me a message and the next time i'm at my computer i can listen to your voicemail.
As cool as it si, there are a couple downsides. First there is a slight delay, nothing horrible, similar to the delay when talking on a cell phone. Also right now i am using the built in microphone in my computer to talk, but soon i will get a mic/headset so i dont always sound like i am talking on speakerphone with an echo.
You can also send me an email at any of the following 3 addresses:
andrewpellow@gmail.com
apell001@student.ucr.eduedu
ap264@sussex.ac.uk
It dosnt really matter which account you send it to, they should all end up in the same mail client.
This is my actual address where i will be living:
35B Park Village
University of Sussex
Falmer
Brighton
BN1 9RD
I' m going to get a disposable cell phone when i arrive in England so as soon as i find out what that number is i'll let you know. just in case you really, positively have to get my incredibly indebted analysis on so many issues.
Welcome, or as they say in England, Welcome
Hi everyone, and welcome to my newly formed blog. I am continuing the tradition of all great minds and stealing an idea from someone else, this time my brother. I thought I would do my best to keep and update this blog with pictures and goings on of my time in England. I hope it will be easier and more welcome than a bunch of emails, which I don't know if you noticed or not, i haven't been the best at sending out lately. Although i am afraid everyone may have to put up with quite a few more spellking errors and grammatical mistakes than i would let slip on am email, which is defiantly a scary thought to some.
At this point i still have about 1 more week until I leave and I'm still trying to work up the willpower to study for my one last final, but hopefully i will start adding more posts after finals and more pictures after i get my camera. I'm looking forward to sharing my experience with all of you, from the fish and chips to the nine hour plane ride.
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