Monday, April 10, 1989

Back to the Routine ...

Well, I slept very well this night, waking up at 11 a.m. with the realization that my Social/Political Structures essay on journalism is due tomorrow. No mail today, and I spent my remaining change to purchase two sausage rolls.

I don't like being broke.

Went to my 3.15 class, which was on T.S. Eliot with Dr. McLauren, so it wasn't too exciting. When we returned I was able to have my first full meal since breakfast yesterday... meat and potato pie. And it wasn't too bad. Cleared my plate and left satisfied.

I did my laundry and put the clothes away, then began to continue working on my essay. It was going well for awhile, and my coffee maker made the last of my remaining coffee for me, but soon I hit the usual writer's block, so I stopped a little less than half way through the rough draft, and went to bed. It was late, besides.

The picture is of St. Martin's Hall at The Grange in Hull. Look closely in the window, and you can see me and Sam waving from my window.

Monday, January 9, 1989

Back to the Routine ...

Once again, it's time to start worrying about writing an essay, this time for Social/Political Structures class.

But oh, the mail that was awaiting me when I returned to college! Several Christmas cards and letters from friends and relatives - 14 in all! So I ate breakfast with a smile, then went back to the room to read all of the mail.

One of those letters was from Scott Reed, who had some interesting items to share. (Picture is of Scott's letter, not actually from Oliver Cromwell or Neville Chamberlain.)

"They're trying to start a Democrats Club at school (Yes, at Liberty University!) This has prompted jokes like, 'Hey, there's a Dem's Club meeting at 7:30 in the Science Hall Broom Closet! Bad joke, but still...

"I'm home now, wish you were, yes I do miss you, bud. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to come out this summer... I considered using my graduation money, but decided it would have to go to a ring and honeymoon fund.

"No, I'm not getting married. But Tammy and I talked about it for the first time on Friday (she was here for three days.) It would be for over 2 yrs., so we're not thinking too much of it. Still, I've never talked so seriously yet. It has been over 8 months now... Wish I could have you here to babble a bit.

"How is your situation? Did you snag the one you were after? How are classes? And most importantly, how's life in 'jolly old England?' ... Do you have a job? How about an accent? You rogue, you! Well, I have a lot more to say, so keep in touch. Sorry again for my forgetfulness.

"Your pal, Neville Chamberlain"

Afterward, I went to my Poetry and Drama class, unaware that I was supposed to have read something for today. So after class I went to the library and checked out the book in order to catch up.

Following that, J.P. and I returned to The Grange to eat some dinner. Ugh! The food was as unappetizing as I remembered.

In an effort to spend less money, I stayed in this evening, read a bit, and cuddled with Viv. Isn't that cute?

Wednesday, October 19, 1988

Toga! Toga! Toga!

Woke up at 9 a.m. and decided not to go to class this morning. I got myself awake, and after a little chat with the maid, I took a shower (conveniently located across from my room) and then went to meet J.P. and Doug to go to the Finance Department at the Cottingham Avenue site to pick up our food money. We had £50 waiting for us, which certainly helps.

Then Kenny, J.P. and I went into town to buy some odds and ends. I got my pictures back (some look pretty good), a flash for my camera, two photo books to hold my photos, a cassette of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” another cassette of classical music, and some hangars for my clothes.

We returned for some leisure “hanging about” until 7:30 p.m., when we watched our weekly “Doctor Who.”

Then we got ready for the Toga Disco, being held at the Student Union, located at the Cottingham Avenue Site. With the exception of Kurt, we all took our sheets off of our beds, wrapped them around ourselves, and began the long cold walk to the Union, where along the way we encountered a high locked fence to the entrance we usually use, so we were forced to climb over it to get to the disco. During our walk, Big Jon suggested that Kurt (who is of Spanish heritage), should’ve come to the dance dressed up as an Inca.

When we got to the Student Union, there were a good number of people already there dressed in their Greek/Roman garb. We all had some Foster’s Lager, bitter or cider, then went dancing on the dance floor for awhile. Later we got a little more bold and went up on the raised stage that they have there, usually reserved for better dancers than us. That was good fun.

The DJs started playing some unusual selections, including “YMCA” by the Village People, and music by Abba and from the Grease soundtrack, but it was all great. All-in-all, I though this dance was much better musically than what they played at LA’s last night. The DJ also played three songs by The Beatles, two by Prince, and a number of older tracks.

At about 11:30 p.m. we left the Student Union to begin the chilly 20-minute walk back to The Grange. It wasn’t long before we encountered the same locked fence that slowed our progress when we walked to the Union. I grabbed the iron bars and pulled myself over the sharp edges at the top, and I thought I cleared it with no problem. However, I later discovered that my sheet caught the bar and ripped, and must’ve cut my heel in the process, because there were blood stains on the sheet as well.

If that wasn’t challenging enough, it started to downpour. With the rain drenching us, Kurt, J.P. and I broke into a sprint for a good bit of the way… which was quite humorous, now that I think about it. When we returned we ran right into St. Michael’s, with our sheets and clothes muddied and soaking wet (and mine ripped and blood-stained). As we approached the St. Hilda’s TV room, Viv “kidnapped” me and took me back to her room, where Liz, Viv and I sat, talked, and watched the movie “The Thing” on Viv’s TV.

I was a bit worried about what would happen with the sheet when housekeeping came to take it for the wash, but I just couldn’t get myself too concerned about the muddy thing at this time. I stayed in their room until after 4 a.m., when I made the decision to return to my room for some sleep.

Fortunately, my first class isn’t until 2:15 p.m. tomorrow. Needless to say, I slept without a sheet tonight.

Tuesday, October 11, 1988

'Write My Girl…'

Today is my sister Angie’s 11th birthday. It’s also a very busy day for classes. I woke up and casually got prepared for my Literature in Context class at 10:15 a.m. It was a pretty good class. Following that, J.P., Doug and I went over to the Inglemire Site Refactory for lunch. We then returned for our 1:15 p.m. class, which was Social/Political Structures.

I’ve been noticing some extreme left-wing tendencies (or at least slight) in most of my teachers. Oh well, grin and bear it, I suppose. It might be kind of fun.

After class, we returned to The Grange in preparation for, ahem, “dinner.” Following that, it was off to St. Hilda’s, where we were planning to play the board game Risk. Unfortunately, the game never occurred because the people who were going to loan us the game board weren’t in.

So we decided to play a little live action Risk, mimicking a war in the hallway, using fake guns, grenades, “petrol bombs” and dramatic death scenes. It was highlighted with lines like: “Write my girl… tell her I love her.” And my favorite, “Hey look, it’s a dud…!!BOOM!!” This game ended when we got a noise complaint.

We proceeded to break up into various rooms for chat, and Sid even bought me some chips before I retired to my room. I hope Angie had a good birthday.

Monday, October 10, 1988

Bonk

Well, it was another slow, lazy day here in Hull. Since I didn’t have a class until 3:15 p.m. (that’s a nice set-up to start the week!), there was nothing to worry about. Around 10 a.m., Doug, J.P., Sean Furness (or “Bonk,” as Kurt has started calling him, which is “Knob” backwards, short for knobhead) headed over to Cottingham Road. Doug and Bonk are switching rooms, so we were heading over to make it official. Bonk will take over Doug’s single room, and Doug will now reside in the double room with Kenny.

It’s actually a pretty cool double. There are two separate small rooms for Doug and Kenny, and then one large living area that they both share. It’s a pretty cool place to hang out. Hopefully the move will boost Doug’s spirits.

After the change was made, we dropped Bonk off at the Student Union, and the three of us Americans went to register with a doctor for the national health service. (My NHS card is pictured, right) Doug, who has a bad sore throat that has chewed up his voice good, made an appointment for Wednesday.

Next, it was back to my room for some more sleep… until 2:45 p.m., when I rejoined Doug and J.P. and we headed to our Modern Poetry and Drama Class. It was an interesting lecture, with an interesting tutor, Don Ward.

After that, it was back to The Grange Refactory for another revolting and unsatisfactory meal. Following our meal we sat around, talking with Sid, Kurt and others in St. Hildas before J.P. and I took a much-needed chips and gravy run up to Double Happiness. However, when we returned, we realized we had forgotten to get Doug some as we had promised. As my punishment, Doug shook up my can of Coke, then rolled it down the hall.

This alone was funny enough, except it got better. It stopped rolling right in front of where a shoeless Bonk was coming out into the hall, and thinking that this was an empty Coke can on the ground, decided it would be funny to kick it back. Oh, the pain he felt when he discovered it was a full can.

Well, the evening continued, with people poking fun at Bonk (as per usual), and sitting around talking in Kurt’s room, even though Kurt wasn’t there. When I left to go to bed, I was to encounter Jo, whom I now simply refer to as “The World,” and her friend, and they decided to come into my room for a bit to chat. It wasn’t long before they left for bed, which I think is a good idea.

Friday, October 7, 1988

The Big London Tour Thing Begins

Karin’s birthday is today. I woke up with visions of London in my head. Doug came in to my room (yes, it turns out he had a good time at the party last night) and we got ready for our trip. Again, it was windy as we walked up to the Cottingham Road site to check with Dr. David Foster and see if our food checks were in, to cover the cost of our lunches (which Millersville University room & board covers, but Humberside does not). The checks were in, so we went to the bank for some money.

With £80, some change, and the weekend ahead of us, Doug and I departed for London. At the bus stop we met Sindy Bajaria, or Sid as she is usually called, took the bus into the Hull Train Station, and then caught the noon Intercity train to London. Thanks to the BritRail Youth Pass we picked up yesterday, thee ticket was £25.75 return, as opposed to £39.00 without the pass. It’s already paid for itself!

After a changeoff in Doncaster, we arrived at King’s Cross station, about three hours after leaving Hull. From there, Sid went to her home outside London, and Doug and I headed down to the Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus.

The big purchase of the day, and one that put a smile on Doug’s face, was tickets for the Duran Duran “Big Tour Thing” concert, scheduled for December 23 at Wembley Arena. (That’s his favorite band.) Tickets were £12.50 each. I also bought the Talking Heads album “More Songs About Buildings and Food” on cassette for £2.99.

Once we left Tower Records, we began to walk wherever around London, ending up on Oxford Street. After dining at a Wimpy’s, we went into HMV Records, where I purchased both albums by The Proclaimers on cassette – their new one, “Sunshine on Leith,” and their first album, “This Is the Story,” for £5.99 and £2.99. That’s one of the bands here that I’m really starting to like a lot. From there we continued to walk blindly, where we stumbled upon a Virgin Records Megastore, where I bought a cool Genesis book for £2.50.

At about 7 p.m. we decided to head to Sid’s house on the outskirts of London, where we were staying for the weekend. At Victoria Station we caught the 7:30 p.m. train (£3.20) bound for Longfield. Sid picked us up there and drove us back to her house, where we spent the evening watching the telly, eating rice, chicken & curry. The three of us talked for awhile, and at one point Sid asked Doug and I if we minded sleeping together. We had a good laugh at her odd wording.

Not long afterward we went to bed to get a good night’s sleep for our “big day” in London tomorrow. After talking to Doug about various topics, we finally fell asleep.

Wednesday, October 5, 1988

"The Girl in the Red Dress"

Woke up much too early, as my Geography lecture was at the ungodly hour of 9:15 a.m. I took a lot of notes during the class, and afterwards just took it easy. I was originally planning on going out this evening with Karin to celebrate her birthday, but when I returned to my room there was a note on my door telling me that she was busy today, but that she was going to go out with a bunch of her friends tomorrow and that I could join them.

Oh, and she also said in the note that she's "seeing a guy named Steve."

So, with my plans totally rearranged for the evening, we started by watching the new season of "Doctor Who" in the common room in St. Hilda's, the residence hall where J.P. and Doug reside. After that we decided to go to "The Oasis," the Inglemire Site Night Club and Disco. It was slow at first, but soon it picked up (for J.P. and I, at least), as we had quite a lot of fun drinking and dancing. We left the club at about 11:30 p.m., when it closed, and we returned as a group to some girl's room, where we sat around drinking coffee for awhile, and talking.

I then left to return to my room for some sleep, but it was not to be. I ran into Kofe, who convinced me to come with him to visit some people. I certainly didn't want to be impolite, so I joined him. When we got to the room at the top of St. Michaels (the other residence in The Grange, located between St. Martins and St. Hildas... you need to walk through St. Martins to get to St. Hildas, actually), sure enough, four girls and one guy were there just hanging out. We all chatted for awhile, and as we lost people to sleep, only two of us remained, "The Girl in the Red Dress," and me. I just can't remember her name now, but we talked until well after 4 a.m. She was nice but was way into astrology (I mean, big time!), which I found to be a bit weird.

Well, eventually I was able to trek back to my room, and this time uninterrupted, so I finally opted for some sleep.

(Pictured is my Student Union identification card from Humberside College. You needed this to get into any number of college functions.)

Thursday, September 29, 1988

Coffee with One Cool Cat

Six a.m. this morning marked the one week anniversary of Doug's and my arrival in England. I woke up around 8 a.m. to wash up for breakfast. Hey, having a sink right here in my room is quite handy! After breakfast we met up with Dr. David Foster, along with the other American students at Humberside College of Higher Education, to prepare us for life at the college. We met a few nice folk from Juniata College (located about 2 1/2 hours from Millersville)... one in particular, Katherine (Kat), whom I talked to for most of the walk on our way to see Dr. Foster.

After a briefing on life in Hull (pictured is the park at Queens Dock Avenue in downtown Hull), we were assigned to teachers who were to prepare us in our course load for the year. After a few discussions and some confusion on what we should be doing, I was able to come up with what I thought was a pretty decent academic schedule... three literature courses, a Social/Political Course, and an Introduction to Geography Course. Doug took on the same schedule, since we determined that it was perfect for us.

Once that was finished, we walked around the campus and surrounding area, eating lunch at a pub (since the college does not provide lunch for us, like Millersville does... they give us a cash equivalent so that we can buy lunch, though it's barely enough to buy an insufficient lunch here.) We then bought coffee and newspapers, and just basically mulled around Hull.

Together with Doug and fellow Millersville student John-Paul Cardoso (a.k.a J.P.), who lives in Conshohocken, near Philly. I had briefly met one night last spring by chance at a Millersville University in an apartment just off campus, but hadn't seen since him again until our arrival here in Hull. We headed to a store and bought some posters and putty to decorate our rooms. So they are now a little more decorated. Now I need to find an AC adapter to that I can plug my stereo into a British outlet and not use so many batteries.

After dinner, we gathered a group of Americans (and one Spanish-Englishman) and trekked off to a pub. I started with a lemonade (it's fizzy here), and Doug, J.P. and the Spanish-Englishman (whose name escapes me) disappeared. So suddenly I was the lone Millersville student left with the Juniata students. No problem, though, and soon after, Kat, Buffy and I left the pub to return to the Grange halls. Buffy went back to her room, while Cat came back to my room for some tea. I got to use the coffee maker they provided for us in our room for the first time, though just to make hot water.

Kat and I sat and talked for about two hours, covering just about anything and everything we could think of. I found her to be pretty cool, quite charming and easy to talk to (not to mention, she's quite attractive.) She left my room a little after 10 p.m., and then I did a little writing to catch up my journal.

I still have no idea where Doug and J.P. got to that night. Oh well, I got along just fine without them. I'd say things are looking pretty good so far here in England.

Wednesday, September 28, 1988

'Coast-to-Coast': The Journey to Kingston-Upon-Hull

Woke up this morning ready for the big coast-to-coast journey (which is not quite as daunting as it would be in the U.S.!) Ate some breakfast, brought my bags downstairs, took some final photos of the Morrisons, bid farewell to Dave and Fiona (who turned 18 today), and Dr. Morrison and I were off!

Our first stop was in the town of Disley, near Manchester, where we picked up Doug Schoener at his exchange parent's home. After loading his gear in the car, we had a tedious trek from Disley back to the motorway, which was plagued with construction. However, once we opened up on the motorway, it was non-stop at 90 mph... well, that is, until we stopped for food.

The scenery along the drive was marvelous, and quite different from what I am used to seeing along American highways. We passed by old farm houses, picturesque moors, and even a rainbow at one point added some vibrant color to the scenery. It took us about two hours to get from Disley to Kingston-Upon-Hull ("Hull" for short), and eventually came upon the largest single span suspension bridge in the world, the Humber Bridge (a toll bridge that I was told loses about 1,000,000 pounds a month in interest fees. Nice investment!) It was not long after that we approached our living quarters, The Grange... the residence where Doug and I will be living during the next year. I am living in the building called St. Martin's, and Doug is in St. Michael's. As soon as we got unpacked, Dr. Morrison bid farewell, I thanked him for his hospitality and generosity, and he drove back to Neston for Fiona's birthday party.

The excitement I'd been feeling up until this point gave way to a sudden feeling of unsureness. Not so much with me as it was with Doug. This was not what he was expecting at all. Check-in was fine, but he (and to a lesser degree, I) were not quite sure what was in store for us. The Grange Hall of Residences, where we were appointed to live, was not quite as nice as what we were used to at Millersville. The size of the room was OK, and it was interesting that there was a sink in each of our rooms, but it was an old, converted convent building with very outdated fixtures. There were actually three separate buildings, and right in the middle is an active church.

Well we decided to give it a chance and went for a meal at the dining hall (edible, but just barely), and then prepared to head to the College's Disco. From there, things started looking up again. Although it was very crowded, we were able to meet a few people and get a taste of the student night life in England... quite a change from a dry campus like Millersville, where open, school-sponsored alcohol consumption was not a part of the experience.

We met this bloke from Suffolk, John Heather, and after awhile decided to take off and head to a quieter pub, where we had a nice chat. Things continued to look up at this point. "Take it as it comes," I reiterated to Doug. "Then you can never go wrong."