Over the past day and a half or so things have been getting a little more straightened out. I've completed registration and have my student ID, and I opened my bank account today, although it won't be ready until a week from today and I won't get a debt card for another week after that. Ian would probably say it's due to the British having perfected what he called a culture of obstruction. In retrospect I should have brought more cash than I did, but everything should be fine. And housekeeping came by earlier to give me a beautiful present - a shower curtain that might actually be long enough for the shower. When I asked about the shower curtain and then found out there wasn't one in my bathroom, I was a little irked, but it turns out they were just waiting to give them out, apparently. The problem with Shower Curtain #1 is that it's too short - these shower hooks are abnormally high so a normal shower curtain hangs about a foot off the floor. I was resigned to deal with this annoyance for the rest of the year and just mop up the entire bathroom floor every day but now it looks as if I won't have to. Maybe they'll show up with some toilet paper tomorrow - who knows? Now, if I could get the shower water to run hot, I would be truly happy. The most it will do is tepid, no matter how far you turn the handle or how long you let it run. This is also true of the tap water and sink faucets.
Apart from the culture of obstruction, I have found everyone to be very friendly (although granted, almost everybody I've seen so far is connected to the university). There have been a few culture shocks, probably the most noticeable the whole "driving on the other side of the road" thing. I keep looking the wrong way when I cross the street, and as I was on the bus coming in I looked out the window and almost had a heart attack when I saw a baby in what should have been the driver's seat. Speaking of the ride in, one of my very first impressions of this country could have gone straight to Headlines with Leno if I'd had my camera on me at the time - we were passing through the outskirts of the city, stopped at a red light, and off to the left was a garage with the sign, "You've Tried All The Rest - Now Try The BEST! $5 Hand Jobs!" No other explanation, but I'm assuming that's the British way of saying a lube job. It was glorious, and probably the most Jay Leno worthy sign I've ever seen. Oh, and I now know what a bacon butty is - it's essentially a sandwich made of bacon with maple or some other brown sauce poured over it. Butty is apparently another term for sandwich.
Apart from the driving differences, the other main thing I was unprepared for is the prevalence of men wearing very tight pants. These pants generally come with pointy shoes or boots, and more often than not are worn halfway down or entirely below the butt. Although so far all the men wearing these pants have seemed very pleasant, I hope this is not a fashion trend that makes its way across the Atlantic. Everybody seems to be dressing very preppily; it's as if they all walked out of an Urban Outfitters catalog. Coming from a college where the primary uniform was sweatpants, it's quite a change. I don't know if everybody is dressing this way because this is a city or because this is England, but I stick out like sore thumb; it's beyond evident that I'm not from here. I've only met one other American, also a postgrad, and we ran into each other at the financial office this morning (apparently American loans are so complicated that they require a specialist who does nothing but deal with them . . . the same one who wouldn't answer my emails for a month because he took a 4 week vacation this summer and there was nobody else willing to talk about them). I asked her if she thought that university communication had been a bit . . . fragmented, for lack of a better word, and she said, "Oh my God, yes; I thought I was the only one! At several points I was ready to throttle someone." At least it wasn't just me.
It's only rained twice since I've gotten here but it's colder than I thought, and it seems to be always, always windy. I don't know how much colder it'll get, but the students from warmer climates are freezing to death already; I chatted with an Israeli undergrad freshman this morning for a minute and she said she was about ready to keel over and die. One other thing that we all seem to have in common (besides being cold) is frustration with the hours of operation for places on campus. Most offices, etc. that we need this week or will need in the future are only open from 10 to 4, which I can sense might be inconvenient in the future. And we were told that all the cafes on campus close at 6 pm, which makes students really angry. Apart from sleeping and drinking, the thing college students like to do most is eat, and if everything closes at 6, late-night food runs will be challenging. I don't personally plan on making many, but it's the principle of the thing.
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