Another disappointing day... sorta

Well guess what... I didn't make it to the beach, again! Cyril decided that he was too tired and Matt went and did some work at school. Even though I was looking forward to it, I did spend about three hours in town looking for a new pair of trousers (which I didn't find). I remembered to take my camera this time!!!! So here are some pictures from around town. It isn't anything extremely special but it is really nice and pretty all the same! I hope you like them! Sorry I'm not really artistic with my photo taking!

I must go and read some more about the Red Cross. Enjoy! x

This is at the top of High Street. There isn't too much exciting at this end but nice all the same.  

This weekend there was also a french market in town. It was really good for bread! I didn't find any good cheese though.  

A bit more of High Street - Marks and Spencer in the red and white building on the right! I almost bought a pair of boots in there today.  

The art :) 

This is right on High Street. As you can see from the sign it is mostly a pedestrian area so it is easy to walk around here. On the left is Tesco Metro (a little version of Tesco - a big food shop). The building in the center are just gorgeous and underneath are some pubs/inns. On the side of the end building is a mural painted to look like the front of the building. I'll put that on here, too.  

I just like this street - it is also by the Cathedral but it is something very different than the rest of the town. In fact it is leading away from the town so that is probably why!  

These three buildings are across from the Cathedral and The Royal Clarence hotel. The building on the left is a church - I'm not sure what the other two are - but i thought they were very attractive. I like sitting on the Cathedral green/wall and looking at them.  

Sorry this is blurry, but this is also frequented by famous people! Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin have been seen here a lot because his parents live in Exeter. It is a really pretty building and nice place for good food as well.  

The Royal Clarence Hotel is not only amazing inside and outside, but it is owned by Michael Caine! He is often seen here, too. I haven't been that lucky yet though.  

The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter in Exeter. It is completely amazing itself but also because though it was bombed in 1942, it was structually undamaged. It has a really amazing history. If you are bored or interested, there is a website which is pretty cool (and you can see inside, too!) http://www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/Welcome.html 

A New One!

Hello!

Well this week was full of excitement! Lessons have become fully intense and the work load - wow - not going to think about that for a moment. Friday, however, was a historic day. On 29 October, 2004 EU heads of states and/or governments plus lots of other people met in Rome to sign the constitutional treaty of the EU. They did this in the same room that the original treaty of Rome was signed by the six founding member. Very exciting - but not as set as you would think. Even though the constitution has been signed each member-states has to ratify it by parliamentary vote OR public referendum - that's 25 countries. Fortunately, Denmark and the UK, the two countries that are most likely to not pass the constitution have their referenda last (in about 2006) hoping that either that A) someone else will fail to pass it so it doesn't look like it is their fault or B) if everyone else passes it, the public may be swayed to vote the same. If you want to read about it or the almost United States of Europe :) go to http://www.europa.eu.int (don't forget to select English as your language!)

So in honor of this monumental occasion, the University of Exeter Centre for European Studies and the Centre for European Legal Studies put on a workshop. We had lecturers from our school but also from all over Europe. We even got a free lunch in the new Xfi building (Exeter finance and investment). In the afternoon, we had these small group discussions covering differing topics - I went to one about the historical perspectives leading to the drafting of a European constitution. My friend and I were volunteered as the spokespersons for our group when we joined everyone else - but I worked my way out of it and let him do it alone. It wasn't necessary to have to speakers. After all this however, I came home and was completely exhausted! I was ready to go to bed.

But in the end, I found a little energy and went to the International student party held every Friday night in the postgraduate centre. It is called The Souk. Mostly it is a mix of Turkish, Greek, Arabic, etc music with a little French and English thrown in. It was really great. Everyone from my department was there - I even learned a Greek and Turkish dance.

As I was writing this, I watched the clock change from 1:59AM to 1:00AM because of the clock change. It was a very strange feeling! (My computer is still set to US time - it is actually 9AM here.)

Well, today I must work on a presentation for Diplomacy. It is about non state actors in Diplomacy and I am doing a case study of the Red Cross. It is proving to be quite difficult but hopefully something will show up! I might also be heading to the beach - trying again - today for a few hours. Hopefully the weather will co-operate.

I miss you all lots and lots! Send me and email or something - I would love to hear what everyone is up to! xxx

Taking a break!

Hello! Well I am currently sitting in the library IT lab for a well deserved break. Well at least I think it is. My brain hurts from reading so much but I have to keep going because of another presentation in Diplomacy next week. This time my focus is on non state agents of diplomacy which is sorta interesting I guess! We have to cover topics such as commercial diplomacy, the UN, the EU, and other organizations that have used non-traditional actors (bypassing professional diplomats) to communicate and uphold peaceful situation internationally. The only problem is there is so much information that it is really hard to find out what is necessary! Hopefully it will all start popping out as I continue reading today.

Today, for the first time in about a week, the sun is shining and the clouds have disappeared! It is gorgeous - too bad it is absolutely freezing as well! But nonetheless, the sun is out and it is at least enjoyable to walk to and from school and around campus.

This break will probably last forever if I don't cut off now. Enjoy your day and I will speak to you all soon! :)

Frustration!

Oh what a wonderful day Matt, Cyril and I planned today! The sky was clear and we were ready to leave Exeter for the day. We wanted to head to the beach - see some of the country on the way and have a relaxing time before everything started up again tomorrow. Around 2pm, Thea got home and we were ready to go! We grabbed our coats and cameras and started walking to the coach station. Not five minutes into our journey it started raining. We decided to continue because there is always going to be rain in Exeter (sound familiar?). But it got so heavy that by the time we reached the coach we looked at each other and decided against continuing. Our trousers were absolutely soaked up to our knees and sitting for half and hours in a coach in this condition did not sound so appealing. So I regret to say that our perfect day out was forcefully cancelled and thus there are no pictures to show you!

On our way home we did stop at Tesco for some food - which I later made into a wonderful dinner of pasta, bacon, and fried tomatoes. It was really good! :) The walk home was awful though - it seemed to take forever and the cold and rain just had a bad affect on our hands etc.

Speaking of rain, I am not sure if I have told you about my wonderful night on Wednesday! If I have, forgive me. Wednesday night was the graduate buffet reception of SHiPS (my school - it stands for School of History, Politics, and Sociology). It was fabulous once we got there - the food was great and wine and juice were everywhere. It is really strange to have all these school functions with so much alcohol. This is the third event within my school and all have included wine. What is even more funny is the number of pubs on campus alone - there are at least seven different ones. It is really nice to hang out in one of these areas after lectures with some mates though. Anyways, back to Wednesday. As I was getting ready for the evening - getting all dressed up as it was a formal event - I checked the weather and nothing serious was mentioned. I walked to the end of my street where I was meeting Tom, my friend from my degree, and his girlfriend. As I was waiting, the sky opened! I had an umbrella but it really didn't matter. By the time we made it to Reed Hall where the dinner was (it is on the other side of campus from our houses) the water was so heavy my trousers were barely staying up. We looked like complete disasters. We were almost in the middle of a huge car accident, too - three cars just missed each other at an intersection right as we were crossing the street. The speaker said, unfortunately, the weather is always like it on the night of the reception! Oh well.

After the dinner, we went to the postgrad center to watch some footie and hang out. It was really good because I got to know a lot of people I have modules with but don't get to talk to very often. There is an English guy who has been living in San Jose for eight years so it was fun to talk to him because we both have so many attachments here and there.

Well, that's my frustration with rain - but really I'm not too bothered with it!! The rain here gets heavy quite often but when it's not, it is a really light mist so it easy to get used to.

I must go to bed now... long week ahead! xxx

This is the view of the houses behind my house on Prospect Park. I will have to get a picture from Cyril's room because it looks really "English" when you look at the all the roof tops.  

It looks a lot cooler on my camera but everything looked really red. Anyways, this is my back garden - it is really nice when it isn't too cold or wet! 

This is also my road but looking down. Right at the bottom of the road to the left is Exeter A.F.C stadium. On Saturdays, it is really great to listen to the match. We won today! 

This is my road, Culverland Road, looking up to the top of the road. I really like the clouds and how the lights in the windows look really inviting!  

Attachments

So this morning, I woke up and started my day in the best way possible - talking to Nathan! It always makes things just that little much better. I then decided instead of getting ready for my day, I would start slow an relax for awhile. This week has not been particularly good, unfortunately. I am having problems with the bank and my loan - and just to add another thing I feel that my presentation was absolutely awful. I am beginning to just get over it though and not worry so much. I made breakfast - muesli with fruit, peach yogurt, and a cup of tea and turned on the tv. I flicked through the guide and decided to watch the news for awhile. After 20 minutes or so had passed, I changed the channel to something I will tell you about in a minute. I eventually went and took a shower, where I started thinking about the weirdest things.

So in the shower this morning, I concluded that one attaches to the strangest things - even if these things meant absolutely nothing in the past - when in different situations. In France, for example, I, along with everyone else, had deep friendships with people I barely knew. We talked about things like we had all known each other for years. In England, it is a slightly different situation, though. As I watched tv this morning, I began to watch shows like the OC, Everwood, and One Tree Hill. In the US, I never watched these shows!!! I didn't get attached to them like many other people I know - I already had my shows (and you all know what they are!) But here, something happened. Seeing life in an American tv show, no matter how fake it may be, I became instantly attached to it. It was like the life I saw there I wanted - it wasn't anything like life here. Sure, the drama of high school life wasn't that attractive, but the simple little things like going to a basketball game, driving a car, and hanging out with friends was so appealing. I didn't want to miss a moment of these shows that previously I couldn't have cared less about.

I'm sure there are more of these attachments that I have made without realising it - but there is definitely something special about these. I once read that reading books (especially if one does not do this often) was a sign of being homesick - perhaps forming these attachments is similar. Being so attracted to tv shows like this is perhaps my way of hanging on to something familiar.

Well, sorry I haven't written so much about what I have been doing and such, but I have taken a couple of pictures of my street and back garden. I went out to get a cup of tea and the light outside looked really amazing because it is really stormy right now. The pictures are not as good as the real thing but at least you get a glimpse!

Feel free to post comments on this site because I would love to know what you think or whatever about the pictures and my random thoughts! :)

Hello Again!

So the work has started to pile up and things are getting very hard - but at least I feel like I'm learning :) I am working on a presentation about defining the territorial area of Europe based on cultural aspects... sounds like fun don't you think?

Well this weekend has been pretty boring, really. I've been working hard - but I did take really long walk on Friday afternoon. I went out to take some pictures of the town to show you all, but, silly me left the camera at home. So, perhaps I should do that again sometime soon! At least it was a nice day.

I've been making some good friends - mostly in my department because we have almost every lecture together. There are only three English people (plus me if you think I am English :) ) so it is really fun to get together with people from all over the place.

I hope everything is great with all of you - write to me :) I'd love to hear from you! xxx

You already know Maria and Cyril, but the guy on the left is Matt. He is the guy that switched rooms with me - amazing. He's English and is doing Arabic Studies.  

This is Maria (left) and Thea (right) - our two Greek girls. Well Thea is half American, but you would never know. Maria is studying Business and Thea is an undergraduate doing Politics and Philosophy. She is the baby of the house!  

This is Cyril. He is our French roommate and very cool. He is studying for his LLM degree (Law).  

Most Of My Roommates!

Here are four of my roommates. The other one is a German guy named Uwe but he was in bed when we took these pictures! They are all great housemates!

This is my new room. I'll just put one up on here, but I have a desk, chest of drawers, and a wardrobe, too! All my pictures are on the wall across from my bed so I can look at you all!  

This is my house in Exeter - pretty darn good don't you think? My room is the ground floor room with the window on the right.  

Hello!

Hello!!
Well I have been here for about three weeks now, I think. It seems like ages ago that I left though. The first couple of weeks were pretty eventful; here's a quick summary!

The first week I spent a couple days in Worthing seeing some old friends and it was a blast. It was really good to catch up and just have some relaxing time before heading down to Exeter.

On Sunday 26th Sept, Steve drove me down to Exeter. This was a complete blessing as I was a little nervous about having to take the train down with all my stuff. I really couldn't lift the two suitcases on my own very well. Once we found my house, I brought everything in and had to say my last goodbye. It was a very emotional week because I said goodbye to absolutely everything that was familiar and thrown into a new city and house!

The room : well it was ok. I have actually moved thanks to the goodness of my roommate Matt! I wasn't sleeping well in there and was really sick for a while so things weren't going too well. There was no fresh air and four of my roommates smoke so it came into my room quite often as it was next to the kitchen and living room. My new room, however, is much nicer. It is a little bigger and has a window. It is a little louder when people are leaving the house, but generally quieter because it is away from the communal areas.

Last week, was the beginning of actual term stuff after a week of introductory programs and meetings. I have four modules which are extremely hard and demanding, but interesting all the same. On Wednesdays, I have The Idea of Europe in History and Economic Perspectives of European Integration. The first class is very interesting - mostly because of the lecturer. He is very animated and has a way of explaining everything just right! I am actually doing a presentation/seminar discussion in this class next week. I am the first to go so I will be quite nervous! On Thursdays, my modules are The Politics of Language, with the same lecturer as the Idea class, and also Diplomacy in International Relations. This last module is going to be the most challenging I believe - even though the general work load is a little bit less.

Other news : well I was elected student representative for my department! So I get to attend a few meetings and will also be the liaison for other students who have problems with the professors and other things! It has been quite fun already. I am working on a schedule change for some students!

Well I don't want to make this first catch up entry too big! I will write again soon with more news from Exeter!