Zip Zap!

It's shocking!
Moving to another country is shocking. Let me tell you!

On the way from Manchester to York

Some typical English country side

I got into York at 9am on Saturday. I didn't get to my house until around 2:30. My house is all right. It is kind of like 2 houses connected by a walk way. I am not sure how many people live here yet or if they are all here but it hold up to like 30 people.

My Room Before I did anything to it. 

Some of you may have heard, but I live in a closet. It is so very small. I'm ok with it because I am small and honestly don't need too much room. I live on the third and had to lug my 40+ lb bags up two flights of spiral staircases. (I'm surprised I haven't fallen on my face yet on those things.) My house has a little back yard with a BBQ, I don't know when we will use it but it is there. Unfortunately the common room and more importantly the kitchen are on the other side of the house.

stairs down from my room.

My first day here was very stressful everything closes at 6:00 in the UK so I couldn't buy and food until really today. I did go out to eat my first night and got some kind of chicken which turned out to be a half a freaking chicken! needless to say I couldn't eat it all and didn't really know if I should ask for a "to go" box. I'm not sure if that is a thing here. Tipping is not which is good, less to figure out. I got really upset my first night trying to connect to the internet. All I wanted to do was talk to people from home and my internet was being a pain connecting. I was tired and stressed out and asking myself "what the hell was I thinking?!" and feeling quite alone. But once I did get it up I felt better after getting some home contact.

I have still to figure out what are reasonable prices here and what their change looks like. I just keep collecting it at this point because it all looks the same and I don't like holding up lines and looking silly.

I have definitely gotten over my fear of asking for help. That is all I have been doing lately is asking the people what to do and where to go. They are very helpful and lovely.

I do have friends here. Most are other members of the house so far. We all ran into each other in the kitchen last night so we ended up talking and hangout until 11:00. I did meet people in my department but I'll get into that later.

So in conclusion I made it! I'm still alive! I'm adjusting, a bit slowly but I'm adjusting. Now if only I could remember peoples names.

You're gunna miss me when I'm gone.

Well I hope you are going to miss me when I'm gone... The above song is there because I love it and plan on watching Pitch Perfect during my 4 hour layover in Chicago.

Anyway, this is an appreciation post to all my friends and family who have been giving me love and support as I get ready for this trip and freak out. I especially want to thank my friends who took the time to hang out with me this last week while I was in my crazy state. Even those of you who couldn't hang but got on Skype to talk and catch up before I left and all around keep my mind off leaving. Thanks a lot guys, you are true friends.


I'm going to miss everyone so much so you all need to Skype, facebook, email me, whatever.
Wish me Luck!

The art of Packing

My theory on packing clothes... "Go though drawers once and try and slim down from there. If you didn't pull it out the first time you aren't going to wear it and therefore do not need it."

Over all I thought my first go at packing clothes went successfully the piles are not unbearable and I divided things into function. Pants, PJ's, tanks, sweaters, long sleeve, t-shirt, skirts and dresses, etc. etc. ... and then I was SO proud of myself when I got all those clothes into 11 (various sized) storage air tight bags. I was like damn look at that it looks so much smaller now! ... Then I discovered that suitcases are a LOT smaller than they look. I had to go through some of the bag again and take things out (ended up being about a laundry basket's worth of clothes). I had to make hard decisions like to take my x-men shirt or to take my batman shirt that my boyfriend gave me. and ask questions like "Do I really want to wear hot pink while I'm there?"

I understand that I'm not going to a third world country. I get it. But the idea of buying stuff while I'm over there that I already own at home kills me especially since I'm worried about money to begin with. I should also point out that I'm limited to two suitcases because I am taking a free bus from the airport to York provided by the school. They limit your luggage so that they know everyone's will fit. If you have too much stuff they wont take you on the bus and will make you take a taxi or train. I don't want that headache so I am trying very hard to "pack light"... ish.

But after a lot of complaining, and staring at my stuff I got all my clothes into the big suitcase with a little room for some of the shoes I am taking too, and all of it weighing only about 30 lbs. so I can still stuff more!
Level Up Katie!

The next hard part was getting the not clothes stuff in my suitcase. I had half of a small suitcase for this stuff and all the nooks and crannies. My advice keep all the little stuff out to shove in the nooks and crannies. Stuff your shoes with stuff and all the pockets. every little space can and will be used!

I almost had a HUGE problem in that I forgot to leave room for my teddy bear. Now I see you all shaking your heads and going, "she's 23 years old and taking a teddy bear?" Hell yeah! I'm not moving to another country all alone without SOMETHING to make me feel better! so I had to rearrange stuff to make room for my teddy bear. Crisis avoided.

Anyway I'm pretty much packed now. Just a few more little things to go. I'll probably have my parents send me a package with some other stuff that isn't super important and didn't fit.

Power Up

This is just a short little list of my Power Up Playlist. I am making a playlist for my trip. It's going to be songs to give me courage, a few songs to remind me of home, but mostly songs to make me feel like I can take on the world and that everything will be fine.

If you have any ideas of songs like this shoot me a message. :D also if you ever need a Power Up these are great songs to make you feel better.

Nate's Theme- Uncharted
Castaway- Chasen
Firefly Theme - Joss Whedon
Alice- Avril Lavigne
There's a Place for Us- Carrie Underwood
Run- Benton Paul
Brand New Day- Fireflight
This is our Town- We the Kings
Possibilites - Teddy Geiger
Starships- Pentatonix
The whole Pitch Perfect Sound Track
Requiem for a Tower- Escala

1 Month

So today is the one month marker until I fly out of here and start my adventure. I'm not going to lie I'm kinda scared to go. I am also excited. I keep trying to focus on all the exciting things and stuff to keep me from freaking out.
But it kind of caught me off guard I knew it was coming up and yesterday I was even talking about it. but then I found it was suddenly here.
Good news I got my visa today too! all of that work and trouble just for a sticker in my passport. annoying.
The next 4 weeks are going to be a wherlwind of cleaning (my room is a mess) before messing everything up again to pack, doctors appointments, work, and to do lists. Sounds like fun huh?
I think my biggest challenge with packing will be to pick out which shoes I will take... sucks that I can't take all of them.

Also! I will soon be posting my address and how to post mail to me if anyone wan't to send me things. I believe packages will be different from letters and things that will fit in my mail box.
Which leads me to say I can't take much to decorate my room so I want everyone to send me Postcards. That way I can put those on my walls instead!

Archy- like Archaeologist

Get it? It's a Pun its Punny. LAUGH!

Anywoo. For those of you who don't know, although I don't know why you would be reading this is you didn't, I am going to York in the UK for a year. A whole year! This is where I'm going to keep everyone informed of my adventures and doings.

So a little bit of background information as to how I came to be in this position. After graduating from Wooster I knew I would need to go to graduate school and get my masters if I really wanted to do something with archaeology. I applied to Ohio State, Texas State and California State LA. In my search I came across York and thought to myself, "hmm that would be fun." and for fun I applied there as well, since there was no application fee I had nothing to lose.
Early on I heard back from York stating that I was accepted under the condition that I got my one more letter or recommendation in. That was a piece of cake and I shortly was awarded an unconditional offer. This is where things got complicated. I still had not heard from any schools in the U.S. and REALLY wanted to go to Cal State LA. Partly because of the program and partly because it fit nicely into my plans for life. Unfortunately I was ultimately rejected from every school I applied to in the U.S. This made me feel a little bit like I was forced into going to York but I still thought it would be an adventure.
To make a long story short. I grudgingly started the process of getting ready to go to York I scrounged up the money got a passport and started the visa process. In the months that these processes to place I slowly got more and more excited about my year abroad.
While the process is not quite complete I am about 4 weeks away from departure. I am still terrified about going to a foreign country on my own for a year, but I have 2 "friends" who I met online who are also studying in York and have been going through the same roller coaster I have. One of them is actually a good friend of one of my friends from my field school in Kampsville and is living next door in the same house as I am and studying my program. It's going to be great fun.

So in a few weeks I will be off to the United Kingdom to feed my brain full of stuff. Wish me luck. I will keep you posted as best I can of my adventure!