Potpourri

Time for some random observations and tidbits that haven't really fit in to any of my posts up to this point.

~*~HERE WE GO~*~

—Mind the gap: Everyone has heard this, right? It's one of the quintessential things people think about when they think of Britain. What I wonder is why they say it so much. From what I've seen, in the vast majority of tube and train stations, if you were actually to have an issue with the gap between the train and the platform, you would have to be extraordinarily clumsy, almost to the point of actually trying to fall down, or you would have to be very very small. Like, green army man size.

—Arachnids: I am really surprised "Charlotte's Web" was not written in Britain (rhyme!). Nearly every morning on my walk to to bus stop I notice a new spider web on someone's bush or flowering shrub. And these are not your Tulsa sized spiders or webs. These are big, fat spiders that sit in the middle of huge, beautifully constructed webs. I don't think they are any sort of dangerous variety, but they sure look menacing. Since it rains so much here, it's usually really easy to see them, covered in little water droplets. It's a pretty amazing thing.

—Fun fact: You know those Princeton Review college ratings, like Happiest Students and Dorms Like Prisons or whatever? Well, there's one called Town/Gown relations. That term comes from Oxford! Because of the weird little robes they wear to meals and graduation and stuff. You've seen pictures, I'm sure. And the funny thing is, Oxford and Cambridge both have terrible town/gown relations. In Oxford, although all the buildings are mixed in with the town, there are just certain places the townspeople always go, and places students always go: especially pubs. Apparently if a student walks in to a townspeople pub, the whole bar goes silent and everyone puts down their drinks and stares. How creepy. And in Cambridge, the college and students are in a completely separate part of town as the Cambridge locals.

—College sports: are just really not as big a deal here as they are in the States. From what I can tell, there's not really any sort of NCAA equivalent for like, the elite or whatever. For example, my roommate, who, granted, is really athletic, was able pretty much to walk on to the ladies' football (soccer) team here. Tomorrow I am going to try out for the volleyball team, and if my suspicions are correct, I will be able to join without much of a problem. (This is great for me; I am really looking forward to competing in something organized again.) They are sort of more like club sports, much like the rugby team at TU. I wish TU had more club sports like this; something in between intermurals and the legit school team.

—Gents: The don't call anything "Mens'." It's always "Gents'." Which I love. Gents' toilets. Gents' barber. There are a surprising number of those, by the way. Barber shops. Just for gents, just for ladies, just for ethnic hair. There are also ones fashioning themselves as unisex, which I'm sure means open to both, but to me sounds like the give the same haircuts to both ladies and gents.

—Gardens: I'm sure you've heard of English gardens, and for the most part this is really true. Most people have tiny front yards, which they line with cute little flowerbeds planted haphazardly with flowers and shrubs. Or, if they have all brick in front of their houses, there are still flower beds at the edges, or at least pots and flower boxes. All the houses are really close to the street, which means even in the suburbs the yards are a lot smaller than in the States, which is great, because it makes it much easier to see when there are

—Cats: or kittens in the windows. One house on my way to and from the bus nearly always has a different kitten in the window. It's one of my favorite parts of the day.

That's all I can think of for now. My classes seem great so far; I had Gender, Sexuality and Popular Culture today, and I felt a lot like how Mary must feel in her classes all the time. It seems really interesting, and I am excited to start. One of the lectures scheduled for later in the semester is called Laura Croft's Breasts (It's about gender portrayals in video games. I am going to bring up all that stuff Mary told me about World of War Craft.). Friday is the class I'm most excited about, in which I'll be learning how to do video journalism. I am going to have such a great range of journalism skills!

Now I'm off to read an article about gender in the media, some stuff about 18th cent. lit, and some Jonathan Swift poems.

Catherine