One Week In

So, I've been in Newcastle just over a week now, and I'm loving this city more and more. (By the way, I have quite a bit to say, so bear with me!) :) I love getting out and walking around the main areas of the city centre without having to worry about being run down by traffic (it's all pedestrian zones). In fact, I love that I am within walking distance of the city centre! It makes getting everything I need really simple. Of course, what is considered to be "within walking distance" here is far different from that of the U.S. - back home, if something was a 15 - 20 minute walk away most people would hop in their cars. That being said, I've noticed that U.S. cities tend to not be quite as pedestrian friendly and more spread out, so it's understandable. I've already become used to walking everywhere, and it's such a nice change of pace. I'm also enjoying the much cooler weather! 50's and 60's feel so much better to me than 90's and 100's that I've become used to in Texas. I've also noticed that British words are very easy for me to pick up. Haha! I'm not sure that I'll necessarily come back with an accent, but I'm already using "lift" instead of "elevator" and some other, more "British-sounding" words.

I also got to experience my first proper afternoon tea this last week. It was lovely! We had English breakfast tea with a bit of cream, a large variety of appetizer-sized sandwiches (some being tuna & mayo, prawn & mayo, ham, cheese, and turkey... just to name a few), and wonderful desserts. There was quite the variety of cookies and scones! The British generally have afternoon tea every day between 2 and 5pm, and also have what they call "elevenses" at around 11am which is basically afternoon tea, but in the morning. I could definitely get used to that! ;) 

Speaking of food, I'm just starting to get accustomed to LOTS of sandwiches and pastries. There isn't very much meat here, which is something I'm not used to at all. I basically have something sandwich or pastry-like for every meal. It's really good, just way different. And a good way to open me up to trying new foods! :) Alli - a girl in my ISA group - and I have become pretty good at finding the best places for sweets in Newcastle too. There are two places in particular that are very worthy of noting here: Shakeaholic is an amazing shake place. You can get pretty much any kind of shake here, from Starburst and tic tac shakes to Nutella, poptart, and peanut butter shakes. They've got it all! The second place is called Cake. It's a cute little cupcake place that has all different flavors. I had the peanut butter cup one with a cup of hot chocolate - it was amazing!

I've also been to the coast (which was awesome!) and have taken a walk around the Ouseburn Valley, which was really pretty. I've seen and toured beautiful castles and cathedrals, which was able to take me back into a whole new time period. I get to walk by this every day when I walk from campus to the city centre and it still just about takes my breath away:

As far as school goes, I've been having quite a few problems getting my modules (classes) sorted out. Since British students focus on only one subject from the time they're about 16, they don't have much trouble with their classes conflicting time-wise since they're all in the same department. Since I (and other study abroad students) am taking subjects from a variety of different departments, it can be difficult getting classes that aren't scheduled at the same time. This, unfortunately, has been my problem. I've been online looking at timetables for different classes for the past few days, hoping that I'd find some that wouldn't conflict with each other and that were still relatively interesting and relevant to me. Finally, last night, I think I got it all figured out. If everything goes according to planned, I will be taking British Culture, Cognitive Psychology, Intro to Developmental Psychology, and a sociology class called Comparing Cultures. I absolutely LOVE how these classes are sounding, so I pray that it all works out! I met with my tutor, Laura, today, and she said that it all looked good to her, so we'll see! For now I'm going to register them and go with the flow. Classes start Monday (October 3rd), so I guess I'll find out then if there's a mix up!