This marks the beginning of my blogging to record my time as a Rotarian-sponsored scholar on this British Isle. I apologize that it's taken so long for me to get this up! I'll catch you up on the happenings.
I arrived on the 24th of September, and Mike Poole, a Rotarian from here in Colchester picked me and my two GIANT suitcases up from Heathrow customs. Maybe it's because I'm from Texas, but he seemed wary that I might have brought a chainsaw as per the horror movie based in the Lone Star State.
That first night I attended the Rotary meeting with Mike, and was informed that there are proper "real ales" and then the others. The meeting was good - The speaker talked from personal experience and a lot of research about a prisoner of war camp housed here in Colchester during the second World War. It's like living in history here. Colchester is the first recorded settlement in England, and we even have a Roman wall!
Mike and Gill invited me to stay with them while I sorted out housing. Staying on campus is way easier but pricey. Gill fed me, and taught me to make porridge, and drove me around and talked me through making a housing decision for about a week, and I am not officially a co-renter of a duplex with a British Phd student girl! The garden sold me. This is the view from outside my bedroom window:
And because I live off campus, I get way more space for way less money, and I get to master the city bus routes to get to class, and I'm getting pretty good.
Signing off for now. I have to do a ton of reading for class on Monday, and this weekend is a statistics/STATA software bootcamp, so I'll be in a math lab for 16 hours! Numbers. Who needs 'em? (Me, apparently.) I'll add more stories and pictures soon!
Abby
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