The First Week (ft. Ecclesall Road, being called Beauty by an English gentleman, and a rant about churches)

"Mar-ma-dukes! Mar-ma-dukes!" --a little girl, jumping up and down, overheard in the park

"Necessity exists." --Liad

It's crazy that there's still so much new and exciting going on that I think I have enough for quite a long post at this point, even though it's only been, what, four, five days since my last post? Something like that. 

First of all, I've been surprised at how quickly my language is adapting while I'm here. I still sound like an American--the number of people who ask "where are you from?" as soon as I open my mouth attests to that--but I've started saying "sorry" and "yeah" like a Brit ("sohrey" and "yeh", more or less) and I've definitely picked up the question inflection--the one that goes up, but then down at the end of the sentence. I've had to, else they don't understand what I'm saying! I had been reflecting, while on the way here, on whether it would be honest to purposefully pick up an accent, because it would seem both to be fake and to be repudiating my heritage. But I've not needed to do so on purpose--it's just happening! One less existential crisis to deal with, yay. I've also found myself thinking in a British accent a bit, which is funny to me--I've only been here for three full days! I can't tell yet if I'm 'putting it on' or if I really will be thinking 'in British' by the time I leave. It doesn't hurt that I've been exposed to British literature since before I could even read (the first books I ever remember listening to on tape are The Wind in the Willows and Winnie-the-Pooh), so I'm quite familiar with how they phrase things.

Enough linguistics. I find it fascinating, but I'm sure not all of you do! Now, where did we leave off...Goodness, I have an absurd amount to talk about. I'm going to try to put it in some kind of order.

After I'd written my Sunday post, I ventured out in the general direction of the Botanical Garden and Tesco (more on Tesco in a moment) and ended up, since the botanical garden was closed, wandering down to Ecclesall Road, which has become one of my new favourite places.

Reasons Why Ecclesall Road Is My Favorite Road So Far, Discovered on Sunday and Tuesday
-Endcliffe Park, which connects to several other parks and contains several places of interest, including an old knife-grinding mill that's still in working condition and now is a museum, a memorial to a crashed American plane that had to make an emergency landing there during WWII, and a superior cafe. I walked about four miles in it, out and back, and enjoyed myself muchly.
-A bookstore called Rhyme & Reason, where I acquired a book called Murder Most Unladylike that seems to be a British school story (I'll tell you about it when I'm finished) and a beautiful copy of "The Canterville Ghost". (It's a tiny little shop, very colourful, with barely enough room for perhaps five people in the front room of it, and not too many more in the two back rooms.) 
-St. William of York, a Catholic Church that I simply stumbled upon--not a common occurrence here (more on that in a moment, too).
-A used bookstore that wasn't open when I walked by but that I will be visiting when it is open.
-Marmaduke's, the existence of which I was alerted to when I heard a little girl chanting at her dad for a visit there when I was walking in Endcliffe Park. It turned out to be a rather modern cafe that reminded me of Portage Bay Cafe in Seattle, and they served me a delicious chai latte that was very cardamom-y and two huge slabs of sourdough toast with bacon on top. 
-There's apparently a library on it which has issued me a library card which I will go pick up from them as soon as it stops snowing (because currently walking almost anywhere isn't super feasible).

Tesco
When I got to the UK, I didn't have a blanket or a towel, which is slightly problematic because neither of those things were provided. I also didn't have sheets. 
At which point I made an amusing discovery...I have Random England Literature Trivia, Quotes, and References out the wazoo (and am much more able to decipher 'Englishisms' than the other American student I met yesterday, which I find very amusing), so for instance when I saw snowdrops (of which there are many, and they're quite beautiful), immediately in my brain it was "this is no thaw! It's spring!". But I am completely ignorant of How To Live Life In England In The Modern Day. 
At which point I was texting a friend about this conundrum (the sheets and towels one) and despite him never having been to the UK, he shoots back "Why don't you go to Tesco?"
Which begged the question from me of "What the heck is Tesco?"
Turns out, my friend-who-does-not-get-my-literary-references-about-England knows exactly where to find the British equivalent of QFC/Hy-Vee, which is, in fact, Tesco. I made a run there the next morning and acquired a towel, blanket, and sheets, as well as some other necessary items. The only downside is that it's downhill from where my flat is, so I'm always walking uphill carrying groceries.

School So Far
A common question I'm being asked by various personages is "how is school so far?" School so far is good...I haven't found my rhythm quite yet, but I'm started to get there. (Please God, because gosh I have a lot of homework that I need to have done by Friday, and I want to have it done by then so I can do some walking on Saturday and Sunday morning, if it's done snowing by then) (Mass is Sunday evening, for the record. I am still going to church.) 
But I've quite enjoyed my landscape architecture classes so far (and I've been to both--there's one that's 'normal' and one on ecology that I'm super excited about). I met several British students, who helped me figure out the lay of the land, both literally and metaphorically, which I much appreciated. It was funny to me, though...it seems that landscape architecture students are the same the world over, because everyone was concerned about and talking about very similar things, and also making things in similar ways, especially with rubbings. Rubbings are big...both here and in the US. 
One of the coolest and most disconcerting things about the building that my studio is in is that it has a Pater Noster--not the prayer, but a lift system where it's always open, and platforms go up and down without stopping, so you jump on and then jump off. I'm not explaining that well, so here's a link to the Wikipedia page, with diagrams. I'm assuming it's called a Pater Noster because you're praying you're not going to die while using it. I was too terrified to try it my first day but have subsequently ridden it three times and ended up really enjoying it, although there's definitely still some adrenaline there! It is apparently one of the only three working ones left in England, and the biggest one in Europe. 

Churches
I've found the Catholic centre here and went there for Mass on Sunday and again on Tuesday for a meeting of 'Cathsoc', which is what they call the Catholic Society, which meets every Tuesday for Mass, dinner, and a talk (or in this case a social). It's unfortunately farther from my place of residence than I'd like (a good 35-minute walk) but it's actually not far from the main building with the studios &c in it, so I'm eagerly anticipating doing homework there on the days where I'm not either in studio all day or trying to cook. Because it's a small Catholic centre and not something with dorms for 600 attached like at my 'home' Newman centre, it reminds me a lot more of the Newman Center at the University of Washington, in layout, events hosted, and general 'vibe'. The liturgy is very orthodox, although the music on Sunday was a bit more praise-and-worship than I either am used to or appreciate for Mass. But they have confession and Adoration (nearly) every day, and that makes up for a multitude of musical sins. 
Moving on, though, from the actual church I'm attending...something that I find extremely irritating about England (despite my general love of the country and my joy to be here because gosh am I happy to be here) is that there are many (many!) old churches (and here they're nearly all made of limestone because that's what's quarried here, and they're lovely) that are now being used for things like a University Drama Studio or as a residence hall. While the Catholic centre is located right next to the residence-hall-that-used-to-be-a-church but looks more like a conference room. And St. William of York, in Ecclesall Road, which was built during the reign of Pius X (around WWI, I think), is one of the more egregiously modern (and rather hideous, sorry) churches I have ever had the misfortune to come across. (Although I was still glad to find it, because Jesus was there). CHURCH OF ENGLAND, IF YOU'RE NOT USING THE CHURCHES YOU STOLE FROM US YOU CAN JUST GIVE THEM BACK, OKAY? 
/rant over

The Botanical Garden
Just down the hill from where I live is the Sheffield Botanical Garden, which is a joy not only because it provides a scenic route to Tesco, but also because I love Botanical Gardens, and the fact that the plants are tagged makes my job of learning about English plants much, much easier. It's also delightful in that the snowdrops and hellebores have already begun to bloom, and that reminds me that I need to reread The Little White Horse. XD
But in the Botanical Garden, there's an old bear pit that (thankfully) no longer has bear(s) in it but is now open for visits. Basically, you can go into it through a little tunnel in the wall that looks like a castle gate, or you can look into it from above. I went through the little tunnel and was standing in it, taking pictures, and I noticed that they'd put a bronze bear statue in it, which was cute. And then an old English gentleman, with an overcoat and a shock of white hair comes up the path, stops in the gateway, looks at me and the bear statue, and says "Ah! Beauty, and the Beast!" and then turns around and starts feeding the squirrels. 

The middle picture is the entrance to the bear pit

Weather & Environment
I mentioned earlier the snow, which is falling on Thursday as I write this and has given us a good inch and a half or two inches (I feel like I'm in Narnia, but the snowdrops are blooming, so spring must be coming soon!), but that hasn't been most of the weather since I've gotten here. Mostly, it's been very similar to the weather at home (in the PNW, not Illinois, lol) with temperatures in the 40s-60s, and misting rain when it does rain, just like I'm used to. (Not like the bullet-rain we get in Illinois.) So that's been nice, although the snow is throwing a bit of a wrench in things. Time for me to go back to my apartment after tutorials and go to sleep. 
Also like my hometown, it's exceedingly hilly here. Possibly more so than my hometown actually, and I end up walking the hills more, both because it's a more walkable city, and because there's a real culture of walking here. Just to give you some idea of how far I've been walking, I am estimating that since Sunday, I've averaged (averaged!) six miles per day.
Six. 
Miles.
Good grief. (It helps that it's a mile and a half to class from my building, so that's at least three miles per day, and if I go to campus more than once, that's six miles. Or nine. Haven't done that last one yet.)
Basically, I am feeling pain in muscles I didn't even know existed. Did you know your ankle muscles could get sore? That was a new one for me. 
(At this point you might be wondering why I don't take the bus, and the answer is that walking is usually faster. But I may cave and take the bus today, because walking 1.5 miles uphill in the snow is not my idea of a fun time.)
The city itself, because it's so hilly, has beautiful views from many areas, and is largely built from limestone (quarried here, I think, as aforementioned) and brick. I love looking at the limestone houses, and it's amused me to observe that sometimes people will have adjoining houses (duplexes, or whatever they're called) and one side will have just cleaned their limestone, and the other hasn't, so you have a two-tone building. Or that there are some houses that are made of brick, but with limestone facades so they match the rest of the street. Also, most of the 'fences' are actually limestone walls, and I am OBSESSED with that. It's SO pretty! 
Enough of me nattering about the landscape, though...you can definitely see it in some of the pictures. 
Oh, one last thing...it's making me laugh that the people here look so English a lot of the time. I mean, there are people who could be Americans, to look at them, but so many of the people here look entirely like the Brits you see in the movies. It's something about the noses I think--the way they're often upturned, or have a rather ball-shaped end, or have a square end. Or possibly something about the eyelids and the way those fall. Or maybe it's the haircuts. I don't know, but it amuses me.

Necessity Exists (aka how am I adjusting)
I've been reading an absurd amount of Liad this week, because I downloaded the Agent of Change arc onto my kindle app for the flight (along with a whole bunch of other books that I mostly didn't end up reading) and still haven't quiiiiiiite finished the arc. (But I'm enjoying myself intensely, despite the fact that I *intended* to read mostly if not entirely British books while I was in England, and I'm still going to do that...as soon as I finish this sequence. Maybe.) (Okay but can we talk about how much I love Val Con and Miri? And gosh Shan and Priscilla? And honestly Pat Rin is growing on me, too. Plus DAAV AND AELLIANA MY BABIES. Aaaaaaaaanyway...) 
One of the things that struck me in one of the books is Shan contemplating something that seems hard and/or impossible and reflecting that when necessity exists (which is one of the main 'themes' or sayings of Clan Korval) it draws from within one that which is needed to meet the necessity. 
Which is kind of how I feel about moving to England for a semester. I absolutely love it here (the accents, the people the landscape, the food even, although I haven't been to a pub yet), but there are also many things that have stretched me and have been hard to adjust to. But necessity exists, and I'm adjusting. The comparison to Liad isn't exactly fair, because none of the things are impossible to adjust to, they're just hard. Like sharing a kitchen with a whole bunch of strangers. Like cooking with no cooking utensils (I have acquired some, don't worry). Like understanding things people say in thick Yorkshire accents, which, though I love them, are a bit hard to parse sometimes. Like taking British transportation when one knows nothing about British transportation. Like walking six miles a day. And yet, I have learned to do and have been doing all those things, sometimes without even making an effort to learn them, like using British transport, because necessity exists, and it has drawn from me that which is needed to meet it, from patience in listening to strength in leg muscles. 
One of the things that has been most 'necessity exists'-y for me has been learning to look the correct direction when crossing the street. For the first few days I was here, every time I'd cross the street I'd think of Queenie from Code Name Verity, getting caught because she looked the wrong way crossing the street (that's not a spoiler, for the record, and I told you there'd be copious CNV references while I'm in England!) And while I wasn't caught as a spy (because I'm not one) nor have I been hit by a car (yet) (Mom, that was a joke, calm down), I have had a few instances where I just...totally forgot which way to look and what was what. But I haven't even been here a week yet, and I've already started to instinctively look right-left-right instead of left-right-left. And to walk on the left side of the sidewalk, which was also a struggle.

Now! I've got to do some homework and general Emailing Of People About Things before class for the rest of the afternoon, so I'm going to set this post to publish tomorrow, and I'll see you next week! (But I'm also going to leave you with a Lady Maisery song, since I've been listening to them nonstop since I got here. Lady Maisery is a group that's local to Sheffield, which I had no idea about until I was doing research prior to coming. I think that's pretty cool. :D)