The Office is so damn funny!

So.....now what?!?

Ok, after having sometime to digest and recuperate from my 3+ months in the UK.....I'm thoroughly exhausted and terrified to go back to work. I guess it's a good thing that I managed to extend my time away from the island for another 3 weeks or so. Momma of course doesn't like the fact that I'm leaving again and right after Christmas but I guess I just need to get over it.....like pulling off a band-aid!

Not sure what's going to happen when I get back...I know that a lot has changed and there will be lots of resistance/hesitation to the campaign I'm suppose to run......getting slightly stressed just thinking about it.

OH Well..... I think I'll just sit here and enjoy the winter weather while I can - slightly anticlimactic from the fun times in Europe but I really shouldn't complain. Hot, sticky Guam is just right around the corner.

AAAaaaaarrrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!!!

Going insane! I've got approximately 3 weeks left and I've got an incredible amount of work still left to get done! Don't know how it's all going to come out.....but I guess I'll just power through it!

One reprieve - went to Camden this past weekend and blew off steam (and money!), went to the pub and went to the British Museum of Natural History - Yippee!!!! Didn't spend much time there but did get to see their dinosaur exhibit. Takes me back to childhood and my fantasies of being the female Indiana Jones. Yes, I know that he wasn't a paleontologist! But archaeologists dig in the dirt as well!

Oh well if this whole Pride campaign for Guam flops - maybe I can still play around in the dirt!

White (British) men really can't dance

Well, I've tried and gotten frustrated.

It's silly but lately ballroom dancing has been my social life. I've sorely missed my time on the dance floor since leaving Guam. Going from dancing 6 nights a week to barely even 1 night here in the UK is painful!

When I saw that they offered dancing on campus I thought, "Right, now I can get some exercise!" I was sadly disappointed. The Salsa society is nothing but a bunch of overly horny undergraduates. Maybe it's my age talking....but seriously, I don't think I'm bad looking and I know I can dance...but, I can't even get a MALE partner to dance with! I don't know, maybe Guam has just spoiled me. This club dosen't even teach basic steps correctly - backwards, to be exact! I shouldn't complain because it was a very cheap fee to dance for the whole year.

On the other hand, I've also joined the Ballroom and Latin Society for a larger sum of money and to this day, I've had to ask a guy to dance every time I've been there! It doesn't feel good for my ego. I should get some reciprocity since I dumb down my dancing to fool guys into thinking that they are leading the dance. But even that strategy has failed me. When they dance with me, they think they know the steps, can lead and subsequently get an ego boost. With their new sense of empowerment, they move on to another female and try to "bust a move" but sadly they are disappointed. I was the one that was leading the dance!.....And all I can do is laugh as I watch the look of puzzlement and frustration in the newly formed couple.

Oh well, I wasn't sent here to dance. I can wait till I get home.

Gray skies

Finally, the grey English weather has presented itself.

Presently, my head is throbbing but it quite possibly is a result of the change in atmospheric pressure. Or maybe it's the stress that I'm under. Just last week I started to realized that the job I have went I return home is huge - colossal, in fact! Although we are training and preparing ourselves for all the eventualities that might happen when we are alone in our "home" countries, it's still quite scary. We are not alone however, our 24hr consultants are supposed to be at our beck and call......ha! let's see what happens when I called them panicked strickened at 3 am!

Anyway, the stress wouldn't be half bad if I weren't feeling ill, nauseated and anxious about the future.

The English weather is foreboding but then again so is the task of running a social marketing campaign on Guam! Hopefully the weather isn't a foreshadow but only a cliche.

Quirks - "J'aime le chat!"

While going to "uni" is not unlike the US experience, there are some cultural differences already apparent to me.

1. Weather has a lot to do with hygiene. My lecturers appear to have no hesitation in wearing the same clothes 3 days in a row!

2. Food is savory or sweet, in the form of a pie or "pasty" and smothered in creams or jams. Jellies are more of a solid food - Yuck!

3. Tea and beer are always an option at almost any time of day!

4. The English have a high tolerance for cold, displaying their apparent disregard for bad weather via mini skirts and short tees in rain, wind and cold!

5. All sinks I have come in contact with have 2 spigots, 1 for hot and cold water respectively. I have not found a way to get warm water as of yet!

6. "Fresher" boys are bold and cheeky!

7. More food oddities: scotch eggs = hard boiled egg encased in sausage and then rolled in bread crumbs, baked then eaten with some sort of pickled relish?!?

8. Residential and lecture halls are mixed within the same building. Class room sizes are variable and tucked away in odd, hidden corners.

9. Hangover + English breakfast = good day (or at least one without a headache!)

10. "Vintage" shops.....good deals!

11. Shandy - sprite and beer suprisingly tastes good!

12. School clubs are called societies and there is no greek life here!

13. Math is plural.....so you take "Maths".

Cheerio! I'm in the UK

After approximately 6 months and several weeks of severe anxiety, I'm finally in the UK, at the University of Kent in Canterbury to be exact. We just finished our first week of studies here and I must admit that it's all a very different experience. It's nothing like the Grad certificate at Columbia or the first 2 semesters of my PhD at Antioch. I'm actually getting another undergrad degree but in Conservation Education, no less! And so, here I sit with 4 other incredible women from the Bahamas, Saipan, Palau and Mauritius....all ready to tackle this program with force.

As it is, I'm sick! The stress and anxiety of the days before my departure spun me into a downward decline in health. The 1st class seat from HI to NJ did alievate some of my flu like symptoms but not enough to stave off full blown misery upon arrival in the UK.

After convincing the dour-looking immigration agent to let me into the country, identifying my driver and battling the horrid London traffic, I made my way through the idyllic English countryside toward the county of Kent and the town of Canterbury.

Canterbury, from what I could remember from my high school readings of "Canterbury Tales", is a medieval town with a large cathedral at its heart. The university sits atop a hill overlooking its famous neighbor. I'm the 2nd of the RARE participants to arrive and had a chance to welcome the silence of an empty house and quad. I arrived just before "Fresher's Week", or Freshman Week for us Americans, and so all was quite. But that would not last for long.......the arrival of my program mates also ushered in the arrival of the "Freshers" and signaled the end of a quite night's sleep.

Needless to say, although I am a heavy sleeper.....English undergrads definitely can drink and yell till sunrise without getting tired. My fellow housemates, unfortuately are having a harding time adapting to that fact.

Forced cohabitation is definitely one aspect of unversity life I don't miss. Even though, my roommates are genuinely friendly, the idea of communal living and queing for showers makes me cringe. The idea of " action by consesus" never really works, and the thought of having to expend energy of assert my independence justs exhausts me. Unfortunately, I think this is all a way of univeristy life, no matter how old you are or what program you're in.

Besides battling the sinus infection from hell, the English "Uni" experience is definitely different but reminisent of previous experiences. For one thing, there is a pub or cafe in every building, so if you wanted to get a pint in between classes - it's acceptable and almost encouraged! My classes so far are definitely interesting. We haven't gotten entrenched into Social Marketing as of yet, but I can imagine thoroughly enjoying the experience. We finished our first module, Methods of Study - an intro course to our computer equipment and software - good for the jet-lagged and sick. I somehow think that all the other modules will quickly intensify and be more complicated in subject matter and assignments.

Well, that's all for now....I'm heading for the local pub and to get the full "uni" Friday night experience!"