Monday, January 9, 2012

Kingston: T-Minus Two Weeks

So, I’ve only just now been doing research on my home for the next sixth months. I blame finals and holidays and a trip to Buffalo to see my boyfriend and—well, to be honest, it just hasn’t hit me yet. And for a while, I didn’t want it to. As I’ve said before, it’s scary. I had a lot to do around finals, what with lots of paperwork to catch up on, and then my best friend, who had gotten to a school a couple hours away from Kingston, couldn’t go for various reasons. Emotions were high and I didn’t want to focus on it, because if I did, I’d freak out. I’m leaving my family and my friends and my boyfriend who is graduating. It’s scary and at the time, I wasn’t ready to think about it.

But now, it’s exciting. Still nerve-wracking, in that way that living on your own in a new city that is 6 hours away by plane is.

I will be studying at Kingston University, in Kingston-upon-Thames, which is about 20 miles to the southwest of London, on the banks of the river Thames. (I bet you guessed that all on your own, though, what with the name and all.) Oddly enough, Kingston does not have any anthropology classes. Strange that an anthropology major like myself would choose it. Silly me, I didn’t check the classes before I applied and then I got in and then there were no anthro courses. Sad. But it’s a good thing that I’m on track to graduate, because, according to my advisor, I can take anything I want and I’ll be solid. All the classes I need, I can take senior year when I get back. And so, I went nuts tearing through the English Lit/Language and the TV and Film Studies classes. (The former because, if I didn’t choose anthro, I would definitely be a Lit major and the latter because I love tv/film and because I’m very interested in the anthropology of media. So.) I’m not sure what I’ll actually be taking, as we can’t sign up for classes until orientation week, but I’ve been approved to take a Shakespeare class, an English class on Genre Studies, a class on British television, and an Arabic class. (I just got the paperwork I need to fill in to take said Arabic class; and I need to put in a second choice language, so I may actually be taking a French class. We’ll see.)

Two weeks from today, I will be arriving at Heathrow and then chauffeured to the family I’ll be staying with in Surbiton. I’ve emailed with the lady of the house and she seems very nice; they’ve had students before and loved it, so they’re prepared and I’m still a little unclear about how it’s all going to work, but I’m positive. Apparently the husband works from home and they have two girls who are about the same ages as my cousins. After emailing with her, I felt a lot more relaxed about the whole thing, and so did my mum.

And that’s really all I know. I shall fill you in when I learn more, which will most likely be when I show up in a fortnight. (Eeeep!)

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