A New Roommate Saturday, September 9, 2006

I thought I could beat the jet lag thing, but I guess it beat me. Yesterday, I went to bed at 1:30am (or today I suppose). I should say, “I TRIED” to go to bed. It didn’t work out so well, but I finally went to sleep between 3 and 4am. Then around 10am the doorbell rings and I tell myself, “You’re not getting out of bed yet.” But, I went downstairs, somewhat presentable and found that the people who knocked had let themselves in already. Great I thought, out of bed for no reason. Pam, my hall advisor, was showing a student an available room for her study. She just showed up from France with no place to stay! Hey Mom and Dad…I don’t even procrastinate that much! Anyway, I probably looked horrifying, but they took the room regardless.

I finally got out of bed about 2:30pm. Pathetic I know, but I could not help it. I did a little bit of arranging and made a list of some things I needed from the store. My list was somewhat long, and I knew that I would not be able to get it all. I found a grocery store today and I went to pull a cart out of the cart area and was shocked to find that all of them came towards me. I could not believe it, the store charges 1 pound to use the shopping cart (yet another good business investment). Heck No! I will not be charged $2 to use a shopping cart that’s ridiculous. I figured that since I had to carry what I bought back to my house I wouldn’t need a cart anyway. So there I was, a cheap American, only buying what I could balance carrying. I bought some bread in an aerated bag, some fruit and veggies (all small and prepackaged), and paper towel. Oh! I almost forgot, I also bought 2 plastic bags for carrying my groceries home. Can you believe it; you have to pay for the cart and the bags! TINSTAFL (there is no such thing as a free lunch [12th grade economics]). Next, I went to a small store (like Walgreens) and bought a laundry basket (good for carrying stuff) some hangers, and Diet Coke. It’s true guys, they have diet coke, but is not very cold and sold in small bottles (500mL). Everything is bigger in Texas, everything in England is smaller. The walk home pretty much sucked but I will either have very strong arms by Christmas, or have a very good friend with a car.J

So back to the new roommate, Nadia, I mentioned that she was from France, but did I mention that she really doesn’t speak or understand English very well??? Thankfully, her cute French brother (luckily I looked like crap when I first met them this morning) was here and he speaks English well, but he leaves Monday, and I am really scared for this girl. How is she going to understand what is going on in class? On a positive note, I might learn some French. Tonight we went to eat some fish and chips, just about 30yrds form the house, and it was great! We had cod and chips and it was packaged in butcher paper. I really wanted to take a picture of my first fish and chips experience in England, but decided not to look like a freak in front of my new friends. There will be plenty of other opportunities for me to look like a freak, and to take pictures of me eating fish and chips. After dinner, we watched the movie, Shall We Dance. We watched it on Nadia’s laptop in her room, so we were in somewhat crammed quarters. Nadia and I were going to sit on the bed while her brother sat in the desk chair, but somewhere in me asking where she wanted to sit, she scooted over on the bed and made a place for me to lie down next to her. Now I know the French have a reputation, but you could say I was a little shocked. I politely said I would sit on the corner of her bed and her brother laughed, she really has to work on the English thing.

Well, here I am, writing. I plugged in my laptop today. This was scary because of all the “connections”. I first plugged in the surge protector, followed by the US converter plug, then the two to three prongs converter, and finally my laptop. As a daughter of someone who works for the fire department, four plugs out of one socket just doesn’t look safe, but the computer did not explode and it charged. Hooray! Most of my day was wasted sleeping, but maybe tomorrow will be better. It is now 12:30am and I am not sleepy, but after I read my scriptures maybe that will change.