A Quick Lesson in Geography/History

I know I said my next post would be about British life, but I'm feeling compelled to give a brief geography lesson.  Not to insult your intelligence, but to enlighten you on some interesting geographical facts that you may or may not be a bit confused about.  First, I am in England, which is also in Great Britain, which is also in the United Kingdom.  Now, I don't know about you, but I've always been very confused about all of those names.  So, here is a diagram to put it simply for you.  (Photo courtesy of Reddit.)  Click on the photo to enlarge it.

*Note: I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on European/British history, because I definitely am not, but this is a quick and dirty version.  If you're particularly interested, you should research it further.

So, as you can see, Ireland is not related to England/Great Britian/United Kingdom at all.  In fact, Ireland was about as assertive as the USA when it separated from the oppression of the British.  Thanks to my Australian roommate, who is half-Aussie, half-Irish, I now know that the British absolutely took over Ireland and made the Irish their slaves.  (You might also remember that the Scottish also did this if you have seen Braveheart, but they still didn't quite create a republic like the Irish.)  

The Irish fought for their independence and defeated the British in the Irish War of Independence from 1919-1921.  This, primarily, was a war of religious freedom.  The Irish are, as you might know, Catholic and the British are Protestant.  In short, the British came in to Ireland, took over the land, turned the Irish in to their slaves and forced them to practice their Protestant Christian religion.  Sound familiar?  It should. (Think Spanish/Native Americans.)  We can see from this that the British have always been pretty good at pushing their beliefs on their colonies.  Look what came out of that--a brand new nation completely founded on the concept of religious freedom.  So, that actually worked out pretty good for Americans (and the Irish!).  

As you can see, Scotland, Wales, and England all create the Great Britain, which refers to the union of those countries that make up the island itself.  These three countries as well as Northern Ireland (which isn't technically its own country) make up the United Kingdom, which means all these countries are directly under the Queen.  

The Republic of Ireland has no part in either of these bodies and most certainly does not have any connection with the Queen or British monarchy, much like the United States of America. 

Then we have the topic of British Commonwealths, which I have also learned about from the Australians and the Canadian upstairs.  (We, literally, have the "gathering of nations" in Clarence Dock.)  Okay, so Australia, for example, is a member of the Commonwealth, which means that they, technically, are under the Queen as well.  Even though Australia has a sovereign parliament, the Queen still "oversees" the nation.  Australia has a Governor General who will sign legislation "on behalf of the Queen," but if the Queen wanted to intervene, she could.  In fact, the Australian constitution is an act of the British Parliament.  If Australia ever wanted to become a republic (like Ireland or the USA), they would have to completely rewrite their constitution and declare their independence from the British Crown.  Australia's form of government is called the "Washminster" model because it is a mix between the Washington way of government, and the Westminster way of parliament.  Australia has the Queen on their money and in their national anthem.

There are 54 countries who are still members of the Commonwealth.  Each of these countries have sovereign governments and voluntary remain connected to England and are usually countries that were colonized by the British.

Sound confusing?  Don't understand why any country would feel connected to the British monarchy BESIDES England?  Then you are probably an American or from another nation that aggressively asserted its independence from whatever nation was oppressing it.

It is difficult for Americans to even grasp this type of concept since we were so assertive in declaring our independence from the British, but other countries just don't feel the same way about independence and individualism as we do.  Take the European Union for example.  The EU established a collection of norms for European nations to take to, essentially making them all quite similar, and effectively diminishing individualism.  If you are an EU citizen travelling within the EU, it is literally like you never even leave the country, the currency is the same, the immigration laws are practically nonexistent, you pay EU taxes (which could go to any member of the EU), the list goes on.  Can you imagine the US joining a union with Canada and Mexico and standardizing everything?  The other day I casually noted that I didn't notice very many British flags flying and my German roommate responded that the flag flying was quite American and that you wouldn't see a flag flying on every corner in Germany either.  

That was a little scattered, but it was something I wanted to talk about because it has been on my mind.  Comment if you have any other thoughts!  

The Life I Leed(s)

The life I Leed(s), a set on Flickr.

Silent Language

Silent Disco Recap
If you ever get the opportunity to go to a silent disco...go.  It is the perfect type of thing for music lovers.  It goes like this:  There are two DJs that play a monstrous variety of music that everyone from all over the world can sing along to.  They have a typical DJ table with all the equipment.  The lights, media screens, and visual elements are all the same, you just can't hear any music without your headphones on.  There is a switch on your headphones so you can switch between the two DJs' stations.  When you take your headphones off, you hear about half the crowd singing one song and the other half singing another.  When the song changes on one station, you hear a roar of excitement for the next song and if you're' not on that station, you have to switch over to hear what all the commotion is about.  Then, occasionally, one DJ will talk into the microphone and half the crowd will start screaming or cheering while the other half is singing to Michael Jackson, Guns N' Roses, Usher, Drake, Katy Perry, and yes, even the Spice Girls.  Sometimes you have to make a tough decision on which station to listen to because both are playing great songs.  Here is a clip I took with my iPhone of, what seems like, the majority of the audience singing along to Wonderwall by Oasis.

Can you repeat that in American?
This afternoon I stopped at a sandwich-type place for lunch.  It was a madhouse--tons of people and a whole bunch of different processes and lines, and I couldn't understand anything anyone was saying to me.  The point of the story is that I was really feeling like a foreigner.  Leeds is located in the west part of the state of Yorkshire.  The Yorkshire dialect is famous for being completely incomprehensible by anyone not from Yorkshire, and is most definitely different from a London accent.  It sounds like a completely different language to me, and it is far from a pretty sound and might potentially be damaging to the eardrums.  I am constantly saying "What?" and "Excuse me?" and sometimes I just nod my head and laugh when I can't make it out after asking them to repeat what they said two or three times.  Sometimes when I focus and make eye contact with the Yorkshire speaker, I can understand, but if I am overhearing a conversation between two of them, I'm hopeless.
Here are some examples:

American       Yorkshire
House              'Ahse
Round              Rahnd
Boot                 Booit
School              Schooil
The                   Teh
Him/her            'im/'er (never say H)
You                  Tha (they are trying to say "thee" but the ee sound is always pronounced "a

If you're bored, you should Google/YouTube Yorkshire accents.  It's pretty bad.  I hope none of my professors are natives to Yorkshire or there is going to be some serious language barriers.  For some more entertainment, I've compiled a list of vocabulary differences between British English and American English.  My Australian and half-German/half-British roommates helped me come up with this list (because Australians lean more toward British English, and the German learned English from her British mother (mum)) and these are all differences we have noticed just within our conversations.

American English                                      British English
Restroom ("Where is the restroom?")          Toilets ("Where are the toilets?") hahaha
"What?" (informal)                                     "Pardon?" (informal)
Line ("Look at the long line.")                     Queue ("Look at the long queue.")
Pants                                                            Trousers
Underwear                                                   Pants
Trash                                                            Rubbish
Trashcan                                                      Rubbish bin
Dinner/supper                                              Tea
"Hi, how are you?"                                     "Hi-ya, Yah'alraght?"
Stove                                                            Hob
Laundry                                                        Washing
Elevator                                                        Lift
Subway                                                        Underground
Cookies                                                        Biscuits (this one KILLS me)
"Call me tomorrow."                                    "Ring me tomorrow."
Ground beef                                                 Mincemeat
College                                                         Uni
"It's 10:30."                                                  "It's half-past-ten." Never say the actual minutes.
Chips                                                             Crisps
French fries/fries                                           Chips (unless they are from McDonald's--then they are fries)
Dessert                                                          Pudding (this one also kills me)

As you can see, the languages and cultures are actually quite different (in American English, "quite" means "really" and in British English "quite" means "somewhat").  However, I can understand my roommates much better than the local Yorshirians--that's a bit more of a struggle.
I hope I'm not as bad as this guy.

Okay, now that you've had a language lesson, I promised I would post some photos, but I am discovering that posting videos into this text editor is actually difficult, because I have just spent the last hour of my life reading about HTML coding to figure out how to format photos on here, and I regret even attempting to understand that.  Now, I am considering starting a photo blog as well for photos only and having it supplement this blog.  Hopefully that will be up soon.  More on British customs to come in next post.

Free Corn

Good morning to most of you, although it is just past lunchtime where I am.  Today I am writing to you from the Leeds Corn Exchange.  I've been on a bit of a wild goose chase to find free wireless internet here.  There are about three Starbucks and five McDonald's on my walk between my room and Uni--all of which would have free wifi in the States--and I struck out miserably there.  There is free wifi here in the Corn Exchange for one hour per day per device per customer.  So I am able to connect my iPhone and my computer for an hour each.

This is a historic building in the Leeds City Centre.  It was built in 1864 for the purpose of-- yep, you guessed it--exchanging and trading corn.  This is one of only three remaining Corn Exchanges in England that is still being used for its original purpose of trade.  Today, there is an upscale restaurant and several boutique shops for clothing, chocolate, salons, etc.  Here is a picture.

I know most of you are itching for more pictures, so I will try to have some more pictures posted in tomorrow's post, or later this weekend.

This morning I had a welcome meeting with the School of English on campus.  I managed to sneak a picture of Mr. Scrooge for those of you who are still concerned.

It seems as if my classes have worked out nicely.  I'm taking three classes; one English (which will be my final English credit to complete my degree from UNM), one art history course, and one course that explores the history and culture of the city of Leeds.  My English course is called September 11th: Fact and Fiction, and it explores how the media and publications post-9/11 have shaped American cultures (I hope you can see why I'm very excited for this course).  My art history is somewhat of a broad overview that teaches the different types of art forms by studying significant works in architecture, paintings, sculptures, photography, and the time periods that surround these works and the different ways to interpret their meanings.  Classes start next Monday.

Tonight, my roommates and I are going to a "headphone party" or "silent disco."  It sounds like a riot.  Basically, the venue give you headphones that have several different stations programmed in.  You can change stations on your headphones and listen to whatever you fancy.  Everyone in the room is listening to their own stations and dancing to all kinds of different music.  You can talk to each other but everyone is jammin' to something different (unless, of course, you choose the same station as others).  So, there is a bunch of random dancing and singing.  I was the only one who hadn't heard of one of these parties--so Jordan DiMaggio... I instantly thought of you when I heard about this, so if you're reading this... start a new trend in the USA!  I'll be sure to take pictures so you all can see how entertaining it is.

I got a bit distracted and FaceTime'd my dad, so my hour of free corn internet is running out.  More to come later.

First Things First

I suppose I should start with a little bit about myself.  My name is Chelsea for those of you who don't know me and have somehow stumbled upon my blog.  I'm 22 and I'm about to finish up at the University of New Mexico where I study English Writing and Political Science.  However, I am spending my final semester studying abroad at the University of Leeds in Leeds, UK which is in northern England.  I've been here in Leeds for about one week.

I'm from Artesia, New Mexico a small town in southeastern corner of the state--shout out to all you Artesians reading.  Just four months ago my parents moved from Artesia to Dallas, Texas (which is a whole different story I may write about some day).  I spent the past three months of the summer with my parents in Dallas before coming to England last week.

Obviously, a large part of this blog will be about my European travels, adventures, and days since that is what's going on right now.  I'll post pictures and talk about the different cultures I experience.

I'm living in apartment-style university accommodation here in Leeds.  I have my own room and bathroom, and there are five rooms that share a kitchen.  My four other roommates are great.  I'm living with two Australians, one Bulgarian, and one German (who will all remain unnamed or with aliases for all you Facebook-stalkers out there!).  Anyway, we don't have any Brits living with us, so we're all kind of clueless, and our first order of business is to befriend the Brits so they can tell us all the cool things to do and places to go.  We all were hoping to have at least one Brit living with us, but it's working out okay, because we all get along really great, and it is important for all of us to learn about each others' cultures.  Isn't "world peace" part of the point of studying abroad?

We live in an area called Clarence Dock.  It is on the River Aire on the area before the river separates into the Leeds canal and the Liverpool canal.   It is only a few minutes walk from the City Centre (downtown) where there is world-class shopping, fabulously historic architecture, dozens of cafes, and is buzzing about with loads of different cultures--it is very European (although my German roommate says that it is very "British," not European--shows what I know).  We get to walk through the City Centre on our walk from Clarence Dock to campus.  It is about a 35-minute walk, but it's a nice walk when you get to see all of that.    

Clarence Dock is made up of several different apartment buildings with flats similar to ours.  It seems like mostly international students and freshmen live in university accommodation, and the older students live in private residences.  So, most of the Brits here are about 18, so we all feel old since we are all 21-23!  There is a common area with TVs, a bar, and pool tables in the center of the complex.  We've been there a few nights to watch soccer games or just meet other people.

For the past week, we have been shopping, spending time on campus, learning about each others' cultures, and getting acquainted with our home-away-from home.  More to come later on that.

That's the introduction, and I guess I'll pick up with where I left off next time.

For Namesake

If you're reading this, then welcome.  About ten months ago, my friend Alex suggested I start a personal blog.  I thought the idea was great because it would give me writing practice, but my hold-up was that I could never think of a name, and I wasn't sure what to write about.  Alex suggested I write about politics, since that's what I like.  That seemed like a good idea, but I wasn't sure I would be able to say anything worth saying that someone else hadn't already said or thought.  Alex bugged me weekly about the blog, but still I couldn't think of what to call it--nothing seemed good enough and nothing I came up with seemed to be "me."

Until yesterday.

Yesterday, I went to the English department at the University of Leeds in Leeds, UK to discuss my course (or "modules" as the British say) registration options.  I was a bit hesitant about this because for the past three months I have been emailing a staff member in the English department with heaps of potentially annoying questions.  Although this man has been very responsive and very kind in his emails to me, I can imagine his frustration when he opens his email inbox and there are two or three emails from me sent within an hour of each other because I've thought of additional questions after I sent the first email.  Regardless, I was hoping to avoid coming face-to-face with him.  Like anything at a university, finding who to speak to about my issue was difficult and I was redirected half-a-dozen times.  Finally, I ended up at the office of the aforementioned man.  When I arrived outside of his office, I took a deep breath and lightly tapped the door-knocker.  (I should add that I was in a very English, medieval, dungeon-type building.)  I turned the door handle and the door cracked and squeaked as I pushed it open, and I realized that I had entered the office of a man who could have been Ebenezer Scrooge.  The gray-haired, long-nosed, old man who had sent me dozens of emails over the past few months was bundled up in a heavy coat and was hunched over his computer with his shoulders just slightly lifted above their natural placement.  After introducing myself, he said nothing and barely lifted one of his frail hands from his desk and turn his palm upward as if motioning for me to take a seat.  I was seriously regretting not just emailing him my questions once more.  After asking my questions, which were regarding dates, he pointed me toward a calendar posted on his wall and said, "Notice the days in different colors.  The red letter days are the significant ones--the ones you can't forget."

On my walk back to my room from the university, I was replaying the experience in my mind and committing it to memory.  When I recalled his comment about the red letter days, I thought how incredibly significant and relevant that is metaphorically.  Who wants to have a bunch of black and white and lifeless days with no color and energy?  I also considered my current location in northern England where we are heading in to winter and the sky is always gray and there is little to no sunshine.  Since I'm used to having sunshine everyday of the year, I'm going to have to find a way to find the "red" in every day despite the gray and gloomy skies.  Why not try to make every day a red letter day?

When I returned to my room, I turned to my reliable source--Wikipedia to help me out.  I looked up "red letter day" and found the history behind the phrase, and it is quite interesting.  Click here to read about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_letter_day.

So, there you have it--Days in Red, and finally, I've started a blog.  This isn't going to be a politically-focused blog (although I can't promise that won't slip in occasionally), but instead a personal blog about whatever has made my day "red" if you will.  Now, I know not every day is going to be filled with color, but that isn't the point.  The point is that it is important to find some good or "red" in every day, which I hope to highlight in this blog.  I hope you will be coming back for seconds and thirds, and that this will be a good thing for many months to come.  

Oh, and Alex, I hate to admit that you do deserve some credit.  However, even though he scares the bajeebies out of me, I think good ol' Ebenezer deserves some, too.