I started school, I went to the grocery store, and my weather pixie is a liar

She kept showing these partly cloudy skies, but I tell you those skies were leaden today, people.

It was finally the first day of school. And since I've seen Finding Nemo approximately 300 times this past summer (compared to the 700 times Savvymom has seen it) I now have Nemo in my head, shouting, "First day of school! First day of school!"

I think it went okay. I picked up my ID card, wherein I look really nasty. I got a login and password, neither of which work. And the director of the department came in and basically said that we were all going to drop dead from all the coursework, and that he was very excited about it. And that this won't be like the lazy little 3-year undergrad programs we're used to. This was worrisome, since it took me 4 years to get my bachelor's and I have no idea what these lazy 3-yr programs are supposed to be like.

The way they have it set up I have lectures and tutorials every morning starting at 9:00am, with an afternoon lecture and "practical" (which I think means lab) on Tuesday afternoons. On Friday I only have one class so I'm done by 11:00. I had the evil, evil thought of trying to change my elective class so that I don't have anything on Friday, but it's the Gender & Information Studies class that I'm all excited about, so I can't do that. But how cool would it have been to have a 3-day weekend every single week???

There are no classes on Wednesday afternoons here. The administrator who told us about that says it's because that time is dedicated to "running and jumping," and the athletes who wish to do that. I guess since the University is a big sports school and lots of people want to be Olympic athletes or something, they just shut everything down and devote that afternoon to athletics. I don't know exactly what she means by "running and jumping," though. Maybe the athletes go and train, or all the students participate in intramural games during that time, or if everyone is just supposed to drop their books and start running and jumping. Because there's no way that's happening.

I went to Sainsbury's grocery store today after class. I think my Mom should fly out here just so that she and I can walk up and down the aisles and marvel at all the fun stuff on the shelves. There's lots of prepackaged food, but it's things like cheddar & chive sandwiches and chicken tikki masala meals. Also there's squash. Who even thought that up? I noticed lots of organic foods. There's actually a store brand and an organic store brand, and you can see which things are made/grown locally. As much as I would like to be Posh Organic Girl who Supports Local Industry, I'm also Cheap College Girl Who Can't Actually Afford to Support Local Industry if It's Cheaper to Buy Food from War-Torn Areas.

There is a section where every evening they mark down the stuff that's about to expire. So I got this fresh creamy roasted veggie soup thing for 75p. Yay me! I also found a salesguy to show me where the peanut butter was. It was hidden away in with all the marmalades and bramble jams, and the jars are really tiny. This Greek girl next to me asked if the jar of honey she was looking at was any good, and I had to tell her that I didn't know—I was in the same boat she was. I guess there is such a thing as Greek honey, and they had jars there, but it was really expensive.

I finally found tortillas after searching everywhere. They had English muffins and naan breads and pitas, and finally down at the bottom I found one pack of "California-style" tortillas, with directions on how to use them and stuff ("Wrap them around exotic fillings!"). I have to mention, though, that England is dead to me, because it doesn't carry black beans. What is up with that? Do they think I'm going to eat black-eyed peas or kidney beans or some other nasty crap on my fajitas? I'll need to look around and see if any of the other grocery stores sell them, because dang.

But all that was forgotten when I reached the cheese aisle. I could just die over the cheese. There are so many different kinds! I bought medium English cheddar this time, which is more white than yellow. But they also have Irish Cheddar and Red Leicestershire and Double Gloucestershire and all these other things I've never heard of. I think I'll just work my way down the row.

Posted in: England