Okay so this story is a bit old (it's like so 3 days ago!) but after careful consideration I decided that it was just too blog worthy to not post! So I was at the Victoria Center Shopping Mall in downtown Nottingham earlier last week and we were just kind of walking around getting our bearings. We were looking in all the shop windows and saw this place that was called something along the lines of Happy Feet. All we saw were a bunch of ladies sitting with their feet in these tubs of water. I was like hmmm that must be the English version of a nail salon and they are all at the soaking stage. Upon further inspection I realized that the water had things moving in it...FISH to be exact! According to an Australian girl I have met (her name is Allison) who has been to one at home, the fish swim around and attach to your feet and eat the dead skin off them. I just stood there fascinated for like 10 minutes watching the little fishes nibble away. I think that is one rite of passage that I will pass on!
So anyhoo...today was my first real European sightseeing adventure. We didn't have to adventure far though because we went to Nottingham Castle, a mere 15 minute bus ride away! We decided to meet at 11:30 to catch the Y-36 bus. Now for those of you that are not involved in my day to day life (this would be just about all of you!) you are thinking, cool, why does it matter what bus route Stacey is taking. Well, the Y-36 isn't just any old bus! It is the bus of all buses, the cream of the crop, the cherry on top of the ice cream if you will and this is because 1. it stops RIGHT outside my dorm (instead of all the other buses that stop on the complete opposite side of the giant hill in the middle of campus) and 2. it is only £1 as opposed to the £1.60 the other buses are. So we found the Y-36 stop and waited...and waited...and waited. We ended up waiting for about 35 minutes for a bus that is supposed to run every 20 but oh well, it only cost a £1 and when it pulled up it was a DOUBLE DECKER! I have never been on one of those so I was pumped to climb into my window seat on the top level and cruise away.
After reaching Nottingham in double decker fashion we got a map and started searching for the castle. Luckily we had Beck (another Australian girl) and she magically knew where to go. In England things are a bit more confusing because streets are not in a grid patter like in the US and there are no street signs, just the street name attached to the side of a building, which can be quite hard to see at times! So we found the castle, paid out £4 to enter and were off on an adventure back in time. Okay so like a lot of things in life that castle was not quite as cool as we thought it was going to be but we did get some sweet pictures and it proved to be a nice day and relatively warm (40 degrees! but it feels SO much warmer than 40 at home would!). The castle itself was quite small because the majority of it was destroyed after the English Civil War so that it could not be used as a military stronghold again. I'm going to have to do a little more reading on my own time because the things I learned were really quite interesting!
After spending a couple hours wandering the castle we all decided we were starving and needed food! On the weekends at Uni (Rae and I have started talking British and saying "uni" but we are all awkward and American about it and say things like "I'm heading back to...uuuunniii" because we forget to say it and get tongue tied!) there is no breakfast served, just brunch and dinner but our journey started off before brunch was served so none of us had had a proper meal for the day. We decided to head to Trip to Jerusalem Inn, the oldest pub in Britain. The pub itself is partially in the giant stone that the castle sits on so a lot of the walls were stone and it was really neat. We headed in to find it quite crowded and had to find a table to fit all 7 of us (I know 6 people now, score!). We ended up squeezing into a table that was really suited for 4 (the one large table in the joint was occupied by 2 ladies having a beer...we were a bit upset about this) but we got comfy and made it work. We ordered, waited for our food, received some strange looks when we ALL asked for ketchup to go with our chips (chips are french fries, crisps are potato chips and curly fries are curly fries...what the heck?!). The food was really good (I had a burger for those of you who are wondering!) and after eating we all realized that we were genuienly full for the first time since we got to England. Now, I promise I am not starving or anything but the food has just not been that great that I want to stuff myself with it (my body is probably actually thanking me for this!). We were all lingering at the table when a group sat down next to us and one of the girls I was with got this panicked look on her face and was like we need to go. We hustled out of the restaurant with confused looks on our faces and asked what was up once outside. She said that her boyfriends ex-girlfriend had just sat down next to us. Now, this girl is from AUSTRALIA which is not exactly close to Nottingham so it was a bit of a funny series of events.
After lunch we made it back to campus pretty easily...the Y-36 was just sitting there waiting for us this time! Except for the fact that we got off the bus a stop early and had to walk a couple blocks (live and learn!). Since we ate lunch pretty late Rae and I decided to head to dinner later than usual just to see what was there and we ended up sitting by some people on her floor and had a really good time. They were teaching us "London Slang" because one of her neighbors is from London while the other is from up north somewhere. They taught us to say have you got your p's, which means do you have your money. When we heard this we were puzzled for a minute then Rae asked...oh p's like short for pounds?! This caused the two English students to think for a second and go "hmm...I never thought of why we said that but now that I think about it, probably!". They also explained to us all of the words for fries and chips (this conversation lasted a while and resulted with a lot of exasperated noises on the American's parts) and us explaining that in the US you would never find packets of vinegar at a restaurant for your fries (chips, whatever!). I've learned that it is a lot of fun to talk to people from other countries and compare how things are different (I'm trying not to say weird because things aren't weird, they are just different. okay, well some things are just plain weird but oh well!). between our homelands. Also, as I get more comfortable in my surroundings I'm slowly figuring out how to reach out to more people in the hopes of making some more friends (I'm sure I won't have much of a problem with this once people get to see my dazzling personality!). Tomorrow is the start of my first full week of classes and there is talk of a possible trip to Liverpool this weekend?!
That's about it for my first weekend in Nottingham. (Saturday night was pretty uneventful with a movie night in a girls bedroom. We watched Heavyweights with Ben Stiller...a personal favorite from my childhood so I went to bed happy!) I'll keep you all updated on how classes go and everything! (I'm wondering if I will get points off in essays for spelling things the American way?!)
Love from London,
Stacey
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| Robin Hood! |
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| Me at Nottingham Castle with Nottingham in the background. |
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| Look! I'm Robin Hood now! |
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| The Oldest Pub in England |
