Laura the Explorer

I can't believe I've been in Coventry almost a whole week. It's been a whirlwind adventure already. I find myself thinking to myself in a British accent even though I haven't been here very long. I have to keep myself from letting those thoughts slip into my speaking; I don't want people to think I'm putting on the fake accent on purpose... although, having a British accent would be nice. I've also already found myself using British sayings like “getting things sorted.” I haven't picked up “Cheerio” or “You alright,” though. Those sayings sound particularly funny with an American accent.

I came to the University Friday to sort out my housing. Students were scheduled to move in on Saturday, and I had not yet gotten confirmation that I had a room. The accommodation people on the phone told me that there was no room reserved for me due to a miscommunication about visas, that they had no vacancies on campus, and that my best bet was to sign a lease with FutureLets (a University program that partners with landlords from the area to provide student housing). Thinking it was my only option (and in a bit of a state of panic), I signed a FutureLets lease that ended up to be a 10-month contract. You can see the problem as I will be leaving the UK in mid-December. After talking to my dad that night, I realized how ridiculous it was that the University would have me resort to paying for a room for 7 months longer than I would be staying there. I went to accommodation the next day, and they said they did, in fact, have an opening on campus. They asked FutureLets to let me out of my contract and put the open room on hold for me. Unfortunately, FutureLets/my landlord won't let me out of my contract unless I can find someone to replace me in the house. Luckily, I know lots of people in Coventry looking for places to live. ;-) My dad, one of my dance professors here (Katye), and I don't exactly find it acceptable for the University to handle the situation this way considering Accommodation is responsible for providing housing for short-term Erasmus (study abroad) students and considering FutureLets isn't technically supposed to sign leases with short-term Erasmus students. Katye, who has already been enormously helpful to me here, has let one of the higher ups in the dance department know about my situation, and I'm going to see her today to see what we can do to get FutureLets to cancel the lease. In the meantime, I'm staying at the house that my lease is on.

But enough with the less fun news! My housemates are really nice. One is from a town north of London; one is from Norway; and one is from Slovakia. All three are guys. I've lived with floors of 30 or so girls for the last two years, so it's an adjustment. I don't think chick flicks will be a house-bonding event anytime soon. Haha. I got lucky in that a couple of the guys like to cook. My British housemate, Liam, made us a spaghetti dish with some kind of creamy sauce and bacon. I can never remember what it's called, but it's delicious. I'm going to try to remember to get the recipe from him sometime before I leave. It's been cool living with people from different parts of the world too. Liam, Jacob (my Slovakian housemate), and I talked for a couple hours the other night about what different things are like in each of our respective home countries. Don't ever assume that being from a different culture than someone means you won't have anything to talk about: there is actually loads to talk about, because your cultures are different.

Speaking of different cultures, I made a friend from Spain yesterday. She's in my dance program, and she's studying at Coventry for this one term too. I found it really helpful to have someone there who is in the same boat as I am, and she found it helpful to have someone to re-word things that she had trouble understanding: instructors tend to talk really fast during orientations, because they're trying to get through so much. Anyway, she's great; she lives in the residence hall that I'm supposed to be moving into at some point; and we think we might do some traveling around the country together on weekends. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me!

I've also made friends with some people from the Christian Union (an on-campus ministry). Sunday, they had a “church crawl” where representatives from churches from the area said a little bit about each of their churches, and, afterward, students could go with any representative they chose to their church's service. I thought that was a pretty cool idea; it's an idea that I hope to take back home with me. I met up with CU again yesterday for their “grub crawl.” They took us to two houses of students in the group. At one house, we had starters, and, at the other, we had a main course. Then, we all went to a cafe for dessert. I'm looking forward to getting to know the students in this group; they seem like a cool bunch.

I've gotten to do quite a bit of exploring during this week as well. My favorite places in Coventry so far are Coventry Cathedral and the city wall. Both are ruins, but I think they're really neat. In WWII, the British decoded a German message that gave away the Germans' plan to bomb Coventry. This left the British army to choose between saving the lives of the people of Coventry or preserving the Germans' ignorance of the British army's ability to decode their messages. They chose the latter, and Coventry was heavily bombed by the Germans. Now, the cathedral is Coventry's major tourist attraction. The roof is gone, but most of the rest of the building is still in tact. (Though, some of it may have been reconstructed. I'm not sure.) I just think it's breathtaking. Also, it's located right next to campus. It's probably a 30 second walk from my hopefully-soon-to-be residence hall. The city wall... well, the stretch of it that's still there... isn't as central. It's sort of tucked away in a little neighborhood. I found it when I was wandering around the city exploring. There's a pretty little garden area with pathways just around the wall and the gate. It's very serene. If it were closer to campus and if I could remember how I got there, I would hang out there a lot.

Until next time!
Laura