Exploring and Adjusting – Journals from Abroad

Hi and welcome to the first blog about me actually living in Nottingham! We have lots to discuss…

This blog post will cover two larger experiences I have had and a couple of smaller updates

The day after writing the last post, I ended up going to something called the Goose Fair with a few friends, Aki, Chloe, and Abhita. The Goose Fair is a big traveling fair that comes to Nottingham every fall and it’s the biggest fair in the UK. Needless to say, there were a lot of rides and a lot of people. I (along with a mix of the friends that joined me depending on the ride), went on 3 rides: a Ferris wheel, a giant rotating swing, and something called the Xtreme which is very hard to explain but made me very dizzy and feel like i was flying sideways in an airplane. This was a very fun event and it allowed for a few of my friends that didn’t know each other to meet as well.

Clara, Aki, Chloe, and Abhita sitting in a circular Ferris Wheel car high above the lights of the Goose Fair shining at night below — From left to right, Clara, Aki, Chloe, and Abhita, all sitting in a Ferris Wheel car at the top of the wheel.

Ferris wheel on the left and in the background, Swing (looks like a tower with pointed petals sticking straight out from the top of it), lighted, on the right and in the foreground — Ferris wheel and swing rides

The other big event was my day trip to Cambridge! I joined a travel society here and they arrange day trips for us to cities around England. And by arrange, I mean they get us all together on a couple coaches and take us to and from, but once we are there, what we do is almost completely up to us. I went with two friends, Elizabeth and Angela, pictured below,, and we went to everything we possibly could despite the complete downpour of rain while we were there. We started the day with a trip to a cafe that Elizabeth found and got brunch, then we went to the Great St. Mary’s church and climbed the tower. We then tried to get on a boat tour on the river Cam, but unfortunately, because of the rain, they weren’t running the tours. Angela wanted to go see a poem inscribed on a stone in King’s College, so we walked around and started by going into the chapel there. It was beautiful and everyone there was so kind (we were all seeking shelter from the rain so we all felt a sense of kinship).

After that, we went to see this poem. Angela, having studied the poem extensively in her home country of Taiwan, translated the poem, written in traditional Chinese, for Elizabeth and I, and told us what the poem was about. The poet had studied in Cambridge and the poem was essentially his goodbye letter to the city.

After we had seen everything there was to see at King’s College, we walked around some shopping centers and vintage stores before going to get dinner at a traditional Neapolitan pizza restaurant. Once we were done with dinner we hopped back on the coach and came back to the university. I had an amazing trip with Elizabeth and Angela and I look forward to more trips with them in the future.

Two sandwiches sitting on two plates in the foreground, one iced latte with a spiral colored paper straw and two hot chocolates sitting on a tray in the background on a polka dotted table — Breakfast sandwiches and morning coffee/cocoa to start the day

A short but majestic looking apple tree growing in a grassy patch in front of an old English style building at King’s college — Isaac Newton’s gravity tree

Angela, Clara and Elizabeth standing in an archway that look out onto an old historical building — From left to right, Angela, Clara, and Elizabeth standing in an archway near King’s College in Cambridge

King’s College chapel with beautiful intersecting arches carved into the ceiling that make intricate patterns. Stained glass windows cover the walls and shine a little bit of light through — King’s College Chapel

In the left bottom corner you can see a bit of the river that runs through king’s college. Then there is a big open field and behind that you can see some of the historic buildings like the chapel and tower on the king’s college campus — View from the bridge inside King’s College

A poem written in traditional chinese characters inscribed on a light colored stone sitting in an alcove next to a patch of grass — Traditional Chinese poem

3 Neapolitan pizzas sitting on top of a red and white checkered table — Our dinner of traditional Neapolitan pizza

Some other updates on my life so far:

Classes have still been going great. I feel like I am adjusting to the structure of English university well and even though the lectures are rather big, we get to engage a lot with the course material in seminars.

I also haven’t completely lost touch with Linfield or my friends/family. I still talk to people from home quite a bit and I have started planning the courses I want to take in the spring semester. It’s definitely a weird feeling doing that from halfway across the world, but I am excited about what lies ahead for me at Linfield after I return.

Some of my Swift-ness friends will be happy to know that I can now say I have seen the Taylor Swift Eras Tour movie! One of my friends here, Keesha, is a big Taylor Swift fan, and I went to see it with her. It was a great movie and a wonderful performance, and it was so fun to be surrounded by a group of people who you could just tell were having the time of their lives watching a concert performed by someone they all love.

Keesha and Clara sitting in a movie theater waiting for the Taylor Swift movie to start — Keesha and Clara at the Eras Tour movie

That’s my update for now! Next weekend I’ll be going to York, and in 2 weeks I’ll be splitting my time between Italy and Paris for a week, so look out for the blog post that breaks those down coming soon. Until then, I have some lectures to attend and some more memories to make.

Cheers!

-Clara