Welcome Week

It's difficult to know where to begin because a lot has happened, so I will start with a list of things that I have learnt in Indiana so far.

 1. Americans are friendly. I sneezed on the plane from Boston and the man next to me said 'bless you.' If I say 'thank you' after someone opens a door for me they always say 'You're welcome!'. It's a little alarming. Earlier I passed some people and they all said "Hey, how are you?" I was left awkwardly turning back to them as I walked away so that I could say "I'm fine thanks, how are you?" It's weird. This would not happen on the London Underground.

 2. The food is amazing. The clothes shops are amazing. I've been exploring with a pack of fellow Kent students and some Glaswegians we adopted, and we've been going to the mall a lot. I can't go to the mall without getting 'Let's Go To The Mall' by Robin Sparkles in my head.

 3. Americans really do love English accents as much as everyone said they would. One girl said to me this evening that she just liked hearing me talk. It literally doesn't matter what I say. I said 'toilet roll' rather than 'toilet paper' and she was delighted.

 4. I knew this already, but people have names like Tyler, Ashley, Jesse, Casey, Bailey etc. Whenever I meet an American called 'Alex' or 'Sarah' I feel as though I've been let down a bit.

 5. Fraternities and sororities exist, but no-one has given me a satisfactory explanation of what they do and why, so I'm going to assume it's like on Buffy and they worship lizard gods and use their blood to summon demons.

6. They really do have the red cups at parties.

7. Americans are extremely proud of their college. Take this video as an example. We were played it at orientation, I heard it twice at a party, and I've had it in my head all week. It reminds me of primary school when we used to sing:

  We are the children of Fleetville school 
  We take a pride in the things we do 
  Learning together, and having fun 
  Who's for a good day? Everyone 

Except I think when we sang that in primary school we sang it ironically, whereas the feeling behind the IU one seems to be genuine.

 

 Funny Questions I Have Been Asked

 02? So is that the largest phone company in Australia then?

 Have you, like, met the Queen, or the prince?

 So you go to the University of England?