nets!

I finally got nets at my flat! For the past few days, I have not been able to connect at home because they did not provide us with the correct cord. (Note: I only have dial-up. Skype does not work on dial up, so I will not be able to use Skype at my own house. Boo town, ya know?)So today I was able to purchase the correct cord from the University and am now happy to report that I am able to waste time and avoid homework in the good old fashioned way.

I am getting a little nervous for some of my classes; kids here are smart. In my Irish Writing seminar today, this kid named, I kid you not, Daniel O'Brien was just throwing things out there that I did not understand. However, I felt smarter at the end of class when he spilled that he had just heard of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Seriously. Who doesn't know that.

My class schedule is pretty easy compared to DePaul. I have a lot of time to myself, but that will be consumed by the tons of books I have to read each week. Profs here are demanding. I'm excited though. I think I will learn a lot more than I would if I was at DePaul for these classes. While there are a lot of things that I have yet to discover and understand about the English university system, I have already learned that the British politeness extends to assignments. Profs will say things like, "You might want to have a look at these poems for Thursday" which means "Do a close reading of each of these poems and analyze them according to various literary theories before you even think about coming to seminar." Ahhh. Our professor today also made fun of Americans for saying "z" not "zed."

It snowed in Sheffield last night, just a slight dusting. It has been snowing lightly all day, but nothing that you even really notice. Everyone here is complaining like crazy, as if they've just gotten hit by a huge blizzard that wiped out three counties. I honestly heard less complaining in December when Milwaukee got hit with about a foot or so of snow. My goodness.

Not much else to report. A fun night of karaoke at Stephenson with the international students gang was a blast, with Carl (New Zealand), Natalie, Emily and I dominating. We belted out Bryan Adam's "Summer of 69," No Doubt's "Don't Speak," and a lackluster John Mellencamp. The hit was an English guy singing "I'm So Excited." It got crazy loud in that place. The Spanish girls were pretty into it too. Only the Spanish girls, Americans, Carl, and a few Aussie's would dance. No one dances here! It is something all the foreign kids have noticed. Maybe British people should all move to that town from Footloose.