england in october: a week spent (mostly) at home

7-13 October

Fall (or as the Brits will constantly remind me, AUTUMN) has really started to set in. Manchester is starting to get chilly but they say it won’t snow here. It has rained a bit more but its not bad, usually just drizzle in the middle of the day with sun and clouds. It does get dark here quick, but I think Ohio is starting to follow in England’s footsteps so no complaints here! Sometimes the rainy weather is nice because I want to sit down and study revise and catch up with people. And I’ve tried to limit my travelling but its been hard! Here is what I’ve been up to this week..

As mentioned in my past posts, I have joined the equestrian team meaning I have regained the title of *~*horse girl*~*. I’ve been learning a lot about the way they ride horses here which is a little different to the typical American version of English pleasure: they have tighter reins and the saddles have knee cushions to name a few differences. (No horse expert here as I only showed in contesting but these are the big ones I’ve noticed!) During our lessons we work on dressage flat work and jumping. I’m a little stressed to start jumping because I’m not sure how the British healthcare system works yet so I really hope I don’t fall off (!!!). The best part about being on the equestrian team though is being surrounded by other super fun horse girls who are genuinely the sweetest people ever. It has been a big step out of my comfort zone but its been the best decision so far. On Wednesday, the university’s societies had a giant welcome week event (again, hosted by the uni which is so, so odd… UT would never). Every society had a theme and ours was Racing Stripes so the new members were zebras and the returning members were jockeys. It was a really fun night meeting people from different clubs and meeting up with my UT friends who came with their respective societies!

On Friday we had our first graded assignment which is kind of a big deal because they don’t grade things a lot here. It was a little stressful especially when the professor told us our project was “very, very well done” and gave us 24/30 (??) but a 80% here is the standard of a 100% so I just have to remind myself not to get so sad over little things like that. Other than that, classes are going very well right now and I’m interested to see how stressed I’ll get when our finals roll around in… less than 3 months (yikes!).

*Now prepare yourself for way too many fall themed pics*

On Saturday we woke up to amazingly beautiful fall weather. Crisp air, sun, literally no clouds in the sky. We had to go do something outside and what more yeehaw Ohio activity than go to a pumpkin patch! So that’s exactly what we did. $8 later on the train (that for ONCE didn’t get cancelled) we arrived to a cute little farm that definitely is not like an Ohioan pumpkin patch but did enough for our basic PSL fall selves. But honestly the best part of the trip was seeing chickens that I couldn’t resist but hold. I’m tearing up thinking about it, I miss my chickens so much!! I had to explain to the owner why I was running after her hens to grab them but I think she thought I was a weird American that for some reason took the effort to come all the way out to a mediocre pumpkin farm that was 100% meant for kids.. but I have no shame lol. I enjoy going out to the country because it reminds me of why I love England: the brick houses with perfectly trimmed hedges, rolling green fields dotted with sheep, and quaint little villages. The people are also so nice and excited to talk to Americans. And I enjoy having those conversations to make connections with them and give them a small glimpse of a typical American life outside of exagerated Hollywood media. Overall, the day was lovely and we definitely freaked out over our pumpkins too much.

Sunday brought another new English town: York! I was lucky to have good friends with good connections in Britain. My best friend’s boyfriend’s cousin Oliver lives in York and invited me to come up for the day to experience the cute little Viking/Roman city. We spent the day wandering through the walled town and he showed me the street that inspired Diagon Alley in Harry Potter!! There were even Harry Potter shops along the street with very intense storekeepers that probably knew more about the Harry Potter series than JK Rowling. We then stumbled upon an American candy store (which had barely any candy that you couldn’t find in Tesco) so I bought Oliver a bottle of rootbeer since they don’t sell them in the UK. It wasn’t his favorite but I assured him that in a rootbeer float it would be even better. It’s hard to say why I’m obsessed with them because you can’t describe the flavor of rootbeer (try it) its just really good to me. After the American store, we walked along the river which he explained floods quite often and sometimes shuts down businesses. But it was pretty, especially set against the very old medival buildings. Finally, we spent the last few hours of the trip at this really good Italian restuarant and talking about the rules of cricket, the most British game ever. I then got back on the train and rode home to Manchester, the perfect little day trip and end to a great week.

And to end this blog post…