I'm not in Beloit anymore

Yep, that's the title of my blog. I'm paraphrasing the poem "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth, who used the geography of the Lake District as his muse.

I arrived in London without incident...unless you count being detained at Immigration. I handed my passport to the man at the desk, and after he brought my name up, he asked, "Have you ever been refused a visa?" I said yes, and explained to him that in October I hadn't filed all the proper paperwork for one, and was refused, but I really didn't need one anyway. He nodded politely and then filled out a piece of paper "detaining" me until he checked out my story in a back room. Detention consisted of simply sitting in a chair for ten minutes, but I found it both embarrassing and funny at the same time. Eventually, the officer told me there was no problem with me entering the UK, though I would be asked about the visa on future visits.

Other than that snag, the trip to Lancaster was a breeze. I had to take four trains to get to Lancaster, but this did include a walk through London with double-decker buses and black taxis (and a few scares while crossing the street). Big Ben and the Thames were AWOL, but I'll see them on later trips. Aside from a lot of brick and stone buildings, the outskirts of London look a lot like the outskirts of Chicago.

You can't appreciate (or not appreciate) how flat the Midwest is until you go to the British Isles and see just what you're missing. The countryside around Lancaster is hilly and beautiful, full of grazing sheep and horses. This would be a great place for sledding if the country got more than two inches of snow in the winter, a fact every Brit seemed to be complaining about. Apparently it's one of the coldest winters in decades here--and by "coldest" I mean 30°F. In the few days I've been here, it's only rained a little bit, though that's forecasted to change tomorrow.

The university itself is HUGE...and when I say HUGE, I mean, huge compared to Beloit. To some international students it's small. There are something like 17,000 students here, and too many academic and residential buildings to count. My college is one of the farthest from the center of campus, so it's going to be a trek to get to my classes. However, there is a covered walkway that runs pretty much the entire length of campus, and walking a long way every day is a lot of good exercise.

There are more than 100 other international students, and I've already made friends with several of them through all the events we get herded into. So far I've met five other people from Wisconsin, which is really quite surprising to me. This, and the fact that there are oodles of Canadians here as well, has drawn lots of quips about a Wisconso-Canadian cabal being the real power behind the university. At least, I wish there were such quips. They would be quite flattering.

I've only visited the town of Lancaster once, to buy a phone. There are so many narrow streets and cobblestone roads! The bus is only £2 for a round trip, and it goes right from campus to town; I definitely am going to wander the city someday, since there are castles, old pubs, Roman ruins, and some big churches nearby (one of the requirements to be labeled a "city" in England is for there to be a cathedral; there is one, but it's Catholic, not Anglican, so it doesn't count--though the city has technically been classified as a "city"). I'll take some pictures of it the next chance I get; unfortunately, I left my camera in my room when we went on a tour of the city.

Lost my wallet sometime on Friday. I was convinced I'd been pickpocketed by two people who stopped me to ask where a building was, and I tore apart my room looking for it. After going to security to report it, a friend and I went to relax at a pub...and who should I meet there but an American student who asked, "Did you ever get your wallet back?" I replied, "How'd you know?" and he said he was right behind me in the store where I left it, and ran to find me after the check out lady yelled "You forgot your wallet!", but didn't see me. Talk about your miracles!--I don't know if I would've thought to ask if they'd found my wallet at the store.

That's all about my first few days. I'll be back once I've gone to a class or two. Lectures! Tutorials! Seminars! These are unfamiliar concepts to me.