A week of transition and excitement

I have arrived in Nottingham! Momentarily I will describe it and what I've done here so far, but first a word on the past week of Marshall Orientation.

A week ago today I traveled to DC and met 38 other Marshall Scholars (the 39th had to come over early to start her program). They are a lively and charming group! Meeting so many new people over such a short span was quite overwhelming, but as of today I feel like I know enough about each of them to carry off an nice conversation if I randomly met them on the street. Of course some I ended up talking with more than others, including Emma, Steve, Kelsey, Brian, and well actually quite a lot of people that I won't bother to list here. The guy to girl ratio of the group is a pathetic 1 to 3, aka ten girls and thirty guys. Still I think the quality of the girls makes up what we lack in numbers :)

The first night we went to the house of Nic (from the British Embassy) and played a very difficult quiz game. I will stop to note that apparently "pub quizzes" where you usually have a chance to win a round of beers are very popular here! Almost every pub I've seen so far has a designated night of the week for it. Anyhow, aside from feeling terrible motion sickness both to and from Nic's house, that was a pretty good night. One of the questions on the quiz asked about the Connecticut state song, and everyone turned to me (being the only scholar from there) and I had no idea! One of the teams answered "If Michelle doesn't know, why should we?" and we all had a good laugh about it. Another side note: I wore Jenny's T-shirt with all the music notes on it and probably got 10 different compliments on it that night- so Jenny if you're reading this, thanks again!

(Me, Steve, and Emma in DC)

Monday we went to capitol hill and had a really delicious lunch with Congressmen John Spratt. We also visited the state department and had a chance to ask questions to the top (un-appointed) guy in command. He was very knowledgeable and I feel more comfortable with our foreign policy situations knowing such a competent guy is in charge ( though obviously he has to carry out the wishes of Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and the administration). Monday night we went to the British Embassy where the British Ambassador held a little party in our honor and a bunch of Marshall Alum came. We mingled and tried to eat the snacks between conversations. I'm pretty intimidated by these mingling situations and probably didn't take advantage of the opportunity to its fullest extent. I did however manage to meet and shake hands with Thomas Friedman and Peter Orzag, the latter of which gave an address (no disrespect but his voice was much higher pitched than I expected for such a tall guy). The speech was quite entertaining though I would have loved to hear something relating more to economics (though I'm sure the majority of the room was glad he didn't go there).

Both Monday and Tuesday were filled with more speakers, including a panel of recent Marshalls (they gave us a lot of good info) and the founder and ceo of unigo.com (website for students picking colleges). Bruce Babbit gave a compelling talk on climate change. In general I was pretty interested in everything they all had to say, though by Tuesday late morning I had a hard time paying attention. A bunch of us went out to a Japanese karaoke bar Monday night and we were rather tired.

I didn't sleep at all really on the flight (red eye on Tuesday night- we arrived at 7 am UK time on Wednesday) so I was really tired by the time I slept Wednesday night. We went on the London Eye (which was surprisingly cool, though expensive if someone else isn't buying your ticket).

(Parliament and Big Ben at night)

Thursday we went to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (UK equivalent of State Department) and listened to some more interesting talks on foreign policy, often as it related to the US (again we were so tired that it was a bit difficult to stay engaged). The FCO held another mingling party for us that night. We had a chance to meet some of the 2008 Marshalls which was nice. We'll go on a trip with them in the spring.

Friday we got our bank accounts and then I finally made my way to Nottingham! My mom would be proud that I didn't talk to any strangers although people seemed like they wanted to chat. They seem really friendly around here (as opposed to Londoners, who didn't seem friendly at all). I took a taxi from the train station, signed my housing contracts and moved in. So far I've met 2 out of 4 of my housemates and they are so great! The other 2 girls should be arriving today and tomorrow. Camille and Ben and I went out to a Beeston pub on Friday night and the same group plus Ben's brothers (who are visiting) and really cool friend, Sarah, went downtown last night to a really cool pub there. Both had live music (last night was Latino music - I got to practice my spanish!) and were very relaxed. Unlike most things, beer is the same price here (possibly cheaper). Going to the pub is apparently how all socializing takes place in the evenings, though there are a bunch of clubs I can get involved in to meet people through other routes.

A note on the weather: it has been beautiful (sunny skies) pretty much every day since we arrived in England. It's rather chilly (need a light fall jacket usually) but crisp. I took a lovely walk around my beautiful new campus Friday afternoon. And it is so pretty! I'll want to get a bicycle soon to make the travel time a little shorter though. It only took maybe 7 minutes to walk to the West Entrance of campus, but then it's probably another 10 or so to get to the economics building.

Beeston is sort of like a borough/suburb of Nottingham proper and it has it's only little downtown (I live just off the main strip) with everything I need. The supermarket is really close and gigantic! It has every food item I'll probably ever need (and some clothes and house furnishings- strange). I bought a comforter and pillow from a tiny bedding shop 2 blocks down. There is a bakery super close (breakfast on the way to school!) and Chinese "take away" across the street. My house is actually set back off the main road on the back side of a tiny parking lot. The letting agency that rents the property is the shop directly in front, and they're the ones who use the parking lot. Right near my house the main road (High Road) turns into a pedestrian walk way during the day, and there are lots of little coffee shops with tables outside. I'm so glad I picked Beeston, it's the perfect size town center for me and I feel very comfortable with it (and happy!). Most of the postgraduates live in Beeston.

(I snapped this one on my campus, you can see students playing "football")

Well that's all I'm going to say for now. It's time to make some lunch. I now have a skype phone number (based in Rockville, CT so local for those in the area) that will ring my computer, so let me know if you'd like it (you can call from any phone like I'm right there in CT). I also obviously have my address and would love mail, so ask away for that too!