Brrr... and Other Stuff.

I have never known cold that goes down to your toes and stays there.

Granted, I haven't been feeling well, and the radiators in the house are not turned on. So it is partly my own fault for feeling the cold creeping into my bones like death. I'm sure it has actually been colder outside in the States... but I can't seem to shake the cold. I can't seem to really get warm enough, until I'm huddled under the duvet and wrapped up in Stephen-warmth.

The temperature here is currently, according to the weather-woman, surprisingly low for this time of year. At least 5 degrees C less than they expect it to be. May not seem like a lot, but in Fahrenheit-speak that is about 10 degrees colder than 'normal'. And normal is such a loose term. My 'normal' for this time of year is about 35 degrees more than that.

It didn't help that today was rainy... and while I love the rain, it is undeniable that rain, especially cold rain, makes things so much colder. Plus there is such a wind here... it blows into your ears and freezes your brain.

Today was also my first day of University. A lecture that was really only basic information, and a seminar in the small group I'll be working with for the rest of the time I am there. And I was surprised. First at the fact that everyone was SO much more friendly than I expected, and second because of a cultural fact that I saw in action today.

I had read a book by Kate Fox called, "Watching the English". Kate Fox is an anthropologist, who picked apart the behaviour rules of the English people. A lot of them were silly and really difficult for me to accept as being truth, and easy for me to dismiss, being Non-English. (Stephen kept saying things like, "Oi! I do that!", so there must be at least a lot of truth in them, as un-understandable as they are to me.) But one of the things that she said was that names are not something that are given up at first meeting.

We played one of those silly ice-breaker games in our seminar. There are about 30 of us, and we had to pick a number between 1 and 30 and answer questions. Silly questions like what is your favourite movie; things like that. Nothing was said about names at all. And noone gave their names. They all answered the question and at the end I might have known something about them, but not their name. So I guess I'm down to saying things like: "Hey, you, girl who doesn't believe that pastry should be savoury! Come here!" I, being American and loud-mouthed, did indeed tell them my name. And they all stared at me blankly. As though I were the insane one of the group.

One person of note sat behind me at a table full of gigglers. I have to admit a bit of a bias towards those silly girls as mentioned in one of my previous posts. Well, her question was about her favourite movie. With a gusto, she ranted about "High School Musical" for maybe 10 minutes. We couldn't get her to stop, and I now know that she has the pillow and the pajamas and the poster and the DVD and everything else under the sun, that it is the best movie EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, and that not only does she squeal like a pig, but also her accent is so thick as to be almost unintelligible to me. And that she is 19. Our tutor actually compared her to his 6 year old daughter, who also loves "High School Musical". And we all laughed at her, because that is what English people do. They laugh at themselves. (And yes, this girl giggled madly along with the rest of us.) The most disturbing thing about it was the fact that the entirety of her table were chirruping in the whole time in agreement with her, in equally squeal-ly voices. Some of them were a bit more understandable, but all were equally high-pitched.

On a less soprano note, I was not the oldest person in the class! There are a whole group of us 'mature students', as we are called. They are all fairly nice, they invited me into their group, and they seem to have some grasp of what is important in education. NOT that I am saying that HSM girl doesn't... I'm just not entirely convinced that she could carry on a conversation without mad giggling. Imagining her in a classroom... not nice, Amy. Not nice.

Anyway, I have no opinions yet on anything. I have at least the rest of the week to get through. And perhaps a few more before I'll make any sort of judgement. I'm just really glad I'm not the only grown-up.

Now... where the heck did I put that hot water bottle and really heavy blanket? I'm freezing!