I'm dreaming of a white Thursday?

Most everyone around me has been sick the past three weeks and my body, emphasizing my studly demeanor, has fought off the plague sweeping across Beaumont Hall and the other Uni denizens of Oadby village.... until this morning. I slept terribly last night and my throat has been killing me all day. On top of that I noticed snow cascading across my window in a violent flurry for the second time since my arrival at Leicester. In lieu of all this, I still managed a smashing presentation on the late Howard Hawks in class today which concluded to the cheers and whistles of my classmates (all 6 of them). Winston Churchill would be proud.

Following the presentation I sat in class (no clue how I woke up in time, but that's another story in itself) just taking the time relax a bit as I slipped off into daydreams. As I stared out the 17th floor window of our classroom, it dawned on me that this was one of those "abroad" moments people grin and talk about upon their return to America. I had a a king's view of a telltale English city in the dead of winter. To the south was the city center bustling with cars and pedestrians, just west of that the redundant allure of domestic English roofs powdered with snow creating a mock skyline like something you might remember from Mary Poppins. Just below my building some teenagers were having a snowball fight in the parking lot of their school while the cemetery across the street sat in stoic idleness. From this view I was able to really study the leafless trees that usually just blend into the fray of brown and red brick buildings. With the clean, white snow holding onto the gnarled branches they rose out of the ground as if they were the veins of the earth.

It was about this time that the lecturer said my name and the similarities of university life at England and back home came out to play. Just like in most every small class no one wanted to answer the profs questions which meant that I was volunteered to be That Guy. You know who, the guy who MUST answer every question just to keep the teacher from flipping out and giving a pop quiz. And since I've been here I've noticed lots of similarities.

• People are people, not matter where you go. Most of my friends here are hardly different from the ones back home. Alastair (I'm never gonna spell his name right) always talk with or about his girlfriend. Charlie is the nicest guy ever which means he gets picked on a lot. Phil is the big friendly giant who's more like a freakishly overgrown child than a soon-to-be lawyer. Craig is the person eager to talk with everyone and get involved. Fev is the funny girl who always has plans and the Americans are... well for once we're the foreigners.
  
• Sports is something people get passionate about no matter where they are. I watched the Super Bowl in a pub amongst an array of Bears fans (Peyton Manning > Rex Grossman... sha) who screamed strange British obscenities towards players at the exact same time as most Bears fans were probably doing back home.
• People never really grow up, their responsibilities just evolve. I've spent some nice mornings talking with a fellow in his late 40's over tea and he still likes to talk about most of the same stuff that kids do. His interests, his family, his friends and himself.
• Drunk people are drunk people in any part of the world. Some are loud, some are reserved, but a fact's a fact.

And some differences....

• Nobody, and I mean nobody, wears baseball hats here. What's up with that?
• Dressing up is huuuuuge. Students in my classes dress nicer than I did to my internship last summer, and that can be saying a lot at times.
• Young people and cars do not go together. I can't really explain distance or the sheer size of America to Brits very well cause traveling by car here takes forever. Imagine I-35 at 6 o'clock on a Friday all of the time.
• DVD's are standardized by regional codes for viewing? That's not cool.
• I don't sleep in here at all. This one is still baffling me.
• They put milk in their tea. I've had a tendency to do this back home... and when I say tendency I mean I can count the times I've had hot tea on one hand.
• Speaking of tea, where's the ice tea? Or to take it another step (academic writing 101) where's the ice? The only ice I've found here is on the ground.
• Clothes fit a person like me better. Being tall and relatively thin, I have a really hard time shopping for clothes that fit well back home. Most of the time I just end up looking like a scarecrow with fabric draped over my torso. As my friend Sean here put it, "Yeah they make clothes for anorexic people in England."
• This one blew my mind. The tap water gets carbonation bubbles in it if you let it sit for too long. Again, I'm still mulling over this mystery.
• Watching TV is a group event. There seems to be only 5 or so channels, so people watch The OC like it's The National Championship.
• On that note, they love American TV here. I think it's funny when the Brit's start talking to me about The OC, Grey's Anatomy, or Lost as if I keep up with all of them regularly. They honestly know more about these shows on a more regular basis than most Americans.
• I don't like walking anymore. In Austin the weather is usually nice to walk to class, here I just traipse around trying to avoid puddles or snow and stay in doors which works in my favor because I'm pale and so is everyone else. And if they're not pale they at least look cold all the time.

So that's about it, I'm randomly going away to Berlin in two weekends so planning that is in full force (in reality Annie is planning in full force). I've rediscovered my love for cooking since I've been here in reaction to the cafeteria food which makes Castillian or J2 seem divine. On a side note, not having a TV and thus something to watch is killing me and totally keeping me out of touch with life outside of Leicester. Hillary Clinton may run for President? The Spurs aren't leading the NBA? It's snowing outside? These are things that blindside me like a Mack truck. But just like all abroad students should, I'll just keep rolling with the punches.