Fresher's Flu

Alright, now I promise this blog will have slightly better spelling and grammar than my last few. The one only reason for this I’m healthy again. YIPPEE! If you did not know, which you probably didn’t because I don’t think I mentioned it, I was very sick last week with what is known as Fresher’s Flu. And of course my hippie-like view of modern medicine and doctors meant that my antibodies weren’t going to get very much outside help.

I don’t like taking medicine, mainly because for things like the common cold (which Fresher’s Flu is really just a glorified cold, commonly mixed with alcohol poisoning) modern medication only masks symptoms not cures them and it also leads to mutations in the disease. So there is some science behind my reasonings, but mostly I just don’t care to spend all that money and cheap cover ups when my body is perfectly capable of taking care of itself. I would like to point out that if it had come to the point of me coughing up my lung, which it seemed likely to happen earlier in the week, I would have sought medical attention. I’m not that much of an idiot and now i’m completely off topic.

Anyway I was very sick and sore, but I’m doing much better now although my voice is still a little hoarse it no longer hurts to talk. But I’m afraid that because of the the Fresher’s Flu I didn’t do anything exciting except go to class and watch movies at night. I did walk into Cirencester a few times, mainly to get sore throat lozenges. I was very excited to see that Superdrug sold Fisherman’s Friends, which for anyone who suffers from a sore throat they taste like butt, but they work amazing. And just for Jacob Hunter they had black current flavored Fisherman’s Friends and I’m going to bring a pack back for you! (Hopefully, if I remember).

On Monday the 19th (which would have been yesterday) I felt like the creepy foreign exchange student for the first time since I got here. I went to my food science lecture/class/module and in one section of the class there was several UK students all chatting amongst themselves. (I should also point out before I go any farther that this was a second year class which meant I knew nobody in the class. ) Then around this small group of UK students were all the Asian students so you could clearly see the segregation of the classroom. I, having not be in the previous lecture like everyone else, came in late and was shunned to the outside of both groups making it painfully obvious that I was not one of them and there for must be some creepy foreign student. Needless to say I felt very awkward and that is not an easy task to accomplish, I’m normally the one making other feel awkward while I am perfectly comfortable.

Saturday I’d planned on walking to Kemble (a town about 3 miles away and the location of the nearest train station) with some friends. We’d actually thought we’d do it Friday night, but I thought that walking back in the dark might not be the best idea but only because we really didn’t know where we were going. Unfortunately, when we woke up on Saturday we thought laundry would be more exciting because we are lazy and didn’t feel like walking anywhere. That’s one good thing about campus compared to Iowa State you don’t have to leave 15 minutes before class to get there on time because everything is really close to your dorm. In my dorm you walk down the stairs and the laundrette, dining centre, and student union/Tythe bar are all right there.

I do have one other piece of news to share with you! I have started planning my Easter break. I have 4 weeks to do what ever I want so my friends Kim and Naomi and I are going to travel around Europe. We’re going to start in Paris (which is where Naomi is from) and we will then travel to Germany (where Kim lives) and hopefully Denmark (where I have family) and a few other places along the way. We’d like to visit Spain, Italy, and Amsterdam to name a few places but it will all come down to time and money.

The irony of having started to plan my Easter break is that I still don’t know what I’m doing for Christmas break. And if you know anything about the calender you’d know that we will have Christmas before we have Easter. I’m not worry, although other people seem to think I should at least have some vague idea of what I’m going to do.

Also, the first week in December Naomi, Kim and I (and maybe a few others) are planning on heading to London for the weekend. This means I’ll actually have some exciting stories to tell you! It’s not that exciting things haven’t happened already, it’s just mostly what I’ve done is what I’d do back home, but London is obviously something that I can’t do at home.

And for anyone who cares to know. I’ve started reading Twilight, and it’s not completely horrible. Don’t get me wrong Harry Potter will always be better than Twilight, but Twilight isn’t all that bad. I still don’t like Edward Cullen though.

Sorry this blog was kind of all over the place. I’d promise the next one will have more structure but that would just be a lie.