So YouTube won’t let me pick the United States as my location. I had to settle for Canada. Ugh. Anyway, I was searching through the most watched music videos for all time, and guess what came up as the seven most viewed? Tunak Tunak Tun. I shit you not, I am listening to it now.  Canada is either with the times, or really messed up.

So I live in a somewhat Jewish neighborhood, or at least near enough to it that there is a Jewish deli, falafel shop, and bakeries that serve bagels.  I’ve already gone to the deli and gotten pastrami on rye with mustard and pickles. Browsing for lunch, I went into one of the bakeries and picked up a ready made sandwich and also bought a plain bagel to try and eat on the walk back to my dorm.  While it cost 40 pence (a little more than sixty cents), the bagel was smaller than the ones i was used to at home, more the size of the ones you would get at Einstein’s rather than your neighborhood bagel place.  It was a tasty and flavorful bagel. However, the dough was somewhat thick and dense, making it slightly chewy.  But overall, a decent bagel.  It’ll do for three months.

The BBC internet video player’s volume control goes up to eleven. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

So British people LOVE fried chicken.  I don’t know why, but they do.  There are so many cheap-ass chicken places it’s rediculous.  They usually serve burgers and curry too.  But the funniest thing is that many establishments incorporate a US state in their name.  While to us Americans, it would seem logical to only include southern states, such as kentucky.  But that is not always the case.  I have seen these states:

Tennessee

Mississippi

Montana

So they use the word ‘accomodation’ rather than dormitory.  I live in a single room in a really nice and wealthy area of London called Hampstead.  Apparently footballers and rich people live here, which means its very safe too.  Couple drawbacks though.  Its a ten to fifteen minute walk to shops, restaurants, pubs, and the tube.  Which means my commute to King’s College Strand Campus takes about 45 minutes.  But, there is a bar in my residence complex :)

So I haven’t updated my blog in a while. I’m sorry, I was busy. Not really. I was lazy. Anyway, about ten days ago I had a short homestay experience in the English countryside.  I was on a farm in a little village called Mamble, which is in Worcestershire, which is about four hours from London and pretty close to Wales.  The family I was with had a suckling herd of cows as they say-basically for meat.  They also made hay and straw (I learned the difference!) for sale to other farmers in areas of the country which cannot grow their own, like Wales.  Oh and they have a “Bulls for Hire” business, which means they bring them to other farms who don’t have bulls in order to inseminate cows. The English countryside is particularly beautiful, much more like the Northeast than the Midwest of the United States.  Green rolling hills dominated the landscape.  There were sheep, cows, horses, and much more.  My host family was particularly wonderful, having short term students like us, as well as longer-staying students (a German 16-year-old named Felix was staying with them for ten months while we stopped by for the weekend).

Particularly fascinating about England is its great history, which presents itself all across the country.  Less than thirty minutes away was the old town of Ludlow, with a medieval castle and really old pubs and hotels.  Small, but very nice town to spend the day in. We also visited the ruins of this great mansion which was burned in a fire and now owned by English Heritage, which you can surmise is the organization that looks after England’s historical sights. It boasts the second highest fountain in Europe, only on the one at Versailles.

The family I stayed with was amazing.  What struck me as very interesting and satisfying was that they were not the stereotypical yeoman (American?) farmer.  Though there was a love of the land and their lifestyle, and a general dislike of cities, my host family was quite worldly, in which I suspect most Brits are. They have been to Paris, Normandy, Egypt, Sri Lanka, and the United States to name a few.  They enjoy their BBC programming, but are very aware and accepting of other peoples cultures and beliefs, including my Judaism.  The mother is lecturer in midwifery at the local university and works part-time for the National Health Service and has lectured in the United States as well. It seems I would trust the average British farmer before I would his American counterpart.

Tomorrow afternoon I will be heading to my three day homestay in the English countryside.  I am not sure whether I had internet access, so NFASI could be dormant for a few days.  I’ll be chilling on a farm, hopefully getting my hands dirty. A more in depth post, with pictures, will follow.

I have arrived! While my first day has been a bit sleep deprived (no zzz’s on the plane), I was able to safely meet up with my group and got to our hotel in one piece. Horay! A couple shareworthy experiences/thoughts:

I spent almost three hours in passport control at Heathrow early this morning.  They herded all the people applying for student visas on one really, really long line. Interestingly, the different ethnicities and countries of these students is a great example of the historical and continual significance of the British Empire.  There were Indians, Africans, and Pakistanis and more.  Apparently it used to be much easier to get into the country as a student, giving potential terrorists an open door to the UK.  Thus, regulations are now tighter, more documents are needed to prove studies, creating a much more time-consuming and dreary process, just in time for my arrival. I can say that my first full-fledged British queve experience was a memorable one.  As a New York Jew, I tend to have somewhat limited patience for long lines, and generally regard myself as an adept queue’sman.  But somehow I kept the patience up (maybe it was two hour of reading).  Since I am, of course, an American, my individual screening only took a couple of minutes, much to my relief.  But you should see what they did to the others.  The Brits really gave it to their former subjects.

London is a beautiful city, with some interesting similarities to my beloved NYC.  I am finding the accents, dress, taxis, and stores to have this wonderful charm.  I can’t wait to explore the city more.  Well, time to hit my first pub…I’ll post pics very soon.

As Tigger would say, TTFN, Ta-Ta For Now!