First week of classes!

So I had my first week of classes and it went really well. I met the professor who will ultimately be my MA supervisor and he seems really nice. Hes from Nottingham, which is apparently a pretty rough part of England, and he studied and taught in London before he came here 4 years ago. I'm excited because he remembers me from emails I sent him almost a whole year ago before I even applied here. He introduced himself and I was like "I'm Ashleigh" and he was like "Right! The Canadian! You're interested in notions of self in modernity and Foucault!" and I was like "Yeah!" - It was a nerdy exciting moment for me.
I only have 2 classes this semester (Sept - Jan) and 2 more next semester (Feb - Jun) but I also have to be writing my Dissertation while I do this. I think I am going to need to get really focused to be that self motivated. This semester my classes are Tuesday and Wednesday nights which is good if I want to go to Glasgow or Cannock for a long weekend. The problem is that doesn't actually add a lot of structure to my life. Matt (My Supervisor, Dr. Matthew Wood) was talking about a Sociology reading group and stuff like that. I might just join to give my life some purpose. Of course a job would also REALLY help in this arena, but, alas, there are none to be found.
When I applied it said "30 places available" so I was expecting there to be 30 of us, but there are only 5 people in my program. Its nice because you can get more attention. Maybe. But its not great because with a bigger cohort you can rely on each other more as a group. Either way the people all seem really nice and I think I'm the only international student in the Sociology MA.
What else? I've been staying in more lately to save money and to save my life. I'm too old to be staying out late every night. Sad. Sorry about the lack of photos in this issue. The longer I stay here the less I have to take pictures of.
Tomorrow I am going back to the Market. I'm going to pick up more vegetables. I also need to go to a pound shop (Dollar store) to pick up a dish rack and some other necessities to keep our kitchen clean. I might also bake. We'll see.
Next weekend I am going to Glasgow to celebrate Thanksgiving with Chantel, AJ and Julie. We invited Christy but she can't come up that weekend. Anyway - we're going to buy a small turkey, or something, and make stuffing, and pumpkin pie, and have a good ol' fashion thanksgiving feast. I plan on "Arts and Craft"ing us a cornucopia to use as a center piece. I'll take lots of pictures of that so that you can see how much we had to improv.
I miss you all a lot, but to be honest I miss Canadian food the most. We have no idea how good we have it. Our food is relatively healthy, low in fat, and actually flavourful. Food here is bland, all the same texture, and made entirely out of fat and carbs. Even the Spaghetti sauce is bland and kind of oily. They think "Sweetcorn" is a vegetable, and they put it on their pizza. Blegh. SO if you really love me, you should send me care packages with delicious food. I keep having to improvise flavour and texture into my food. I bought a pepperoni pizza and put Jalapenos on it, which was delicious, and I put pepper on EVERYTHING.

It was actually funny, I made pasta twice, EVER, in my flat, and this Irish guy was like "you sure like pasta don't you?" and this chinese girl was like "Is this a traditional Canadian dish?" - It was whole wheat rotini with spaghetti sauce with Zucchini, Peppers and onions in it. I was like "Um, no, there are no traditional Canadian dishes...maybe KD and Perogies... or Ginger Beef"

Anyway, that's it for now.
Miss you all! Love you all!