I'm an International Student?!

On Wednesday I arrived here in Norwich, UK, which was about a 2 1/2 hour bus ride from London. Upon arriving on the campus, we were all greeted by a sign that said, "Welcome International Students" and it was quite strange, but we are international students! After getting all sorts of useful information and my room key, we were bused to our flats.

O little town of Norwich!

A hill and three flights of stairs later, I was finally in my own room with my own bathroom. The room is rather cosy, with a long desk, a very board-like bed, a closet and the toilet/shower/sink-in-one bathroom. It is a cross basically between a portapotty and a cruise ship bathroom, but it really is not bad.

The rather spacious room.

The shower/toilet/sink all-in-one!

After getting settled in, we were invited to our professor's house for a dinner and some goodies. Apparently every year the professor invites over his students and lets them divide up things left from the previous year's students. There was everything there from coffee makers, comforters, lamps and pots. Basically we all picked a number, waited for our numbers to be called and got to pick out one item for three rounds. After three rounds it was a free for all. It was a bit crazy! I did manage to get two pillows, one comforter, silverware, a pan, a skillet, a towel and some plates. Not bad for it all being free.

View of the flats in The Village.

We did pay a price for it all being free though, for our professor lives about a 30 minutes walk from campus. So after we collected all our spoils, we had to carry them all back. Everyone's arms were sore the next day, to say the least.

Today my flatmates all moved in and I have 5 in total. All are from Britain and are freshman. It was definitely quite strange because, just like Americans like to talk to British people because they are from Britain and they like to hear their accent, they were doing that to me! I got such questions like, "Say 'aluminum" or "You say trash instead of rubbish, don't you?" The best ones though, are when people want to know what state you are from. Of course, I answer with Pennsylvania. One answer I got was, "Oh, isn't that above New York?" or "Are you from California then?" They are generally nice though and are just curious about various American customs.

They are particularly interested in our schooling system. Apparently there is no "high school" here, it is called "college" and it lasts for 2 years. So when I say I'm in college, I'm really in University. I guess some English schooling systems are beginning to take the "American" approach of having a 'high school', etc. All in all, I am an international student and I am having fun both learning about their culture and teaching them about mine, however strange it may be for me...