To This, My 20th 'First Day of School'.doc

Yesterday was the first day of school. I actually have vague recollections of my initial first day of school: the excitement surrounding the various purchased items that signaled the undertaking of a year of study (Laurentian pencil crayons being the image at the forefront of my mind), shoes kicking stones awaiting the arrival of the bus, and of course the separation between parent and child that signals the end of the time when they'll spend every waking moment at home. Twenty years ago I began preschool; I now begin yet another year of study (when you do this many it moves beyond the classification of 'grade' or 'year')

I realize I may be mistaken about my ability to recall that initial day of leaving for Miss Baker's preschool class. Instead, this feeling of nostalgia is probably an image cobbled together from photos of 'first day' departures and memories of a variety of years that blend together. But it's natural, we do this as human beings. In contrast to the undeterminable number of things that have changed from that first day - the fasion (late 80s neons to skinny jeans and raybans...maybe not so much of a change?), the difficulty of the material (Dr. Seuss to Jacques Derrida), and the social elements (recess to kegger) - there is one constant. Every 'first day of school' carries with it a host of new first impressions with professors, students in your classes, the surrounding student community, new material, and new spaces. This explains two things: why the topic of most importance the night before is usually the choice of an outfit for this new beginning - 'I want to be noticed, but I don't want people to think this is the best I've got' - and also that the nervous mix of emotions relates to an anxiety of how we will perform in this initial phase of introduction.

It was with this familiar, but never really familiar, feeling of new beginnings with which I set out from my residence yesterday morning. Heronbank has an interesting placement on campus. It's a short eight minute walk from the centre of the university and is surrounded on one side by a plowed field and the other by a tiny body of water home to many 'wing-ed' creatures. The residence opposite is called Lakeside, and thus would indicate that the body of water is indeed classified as a lake. Having come from a country with the 'great lakes', five to be exact, I consider it more of a pond (and think Lakeside should be named Pondside) 'Pond the river - 'pond the bank. 

The inital class was everything I figured it would be - a seminar format much like those at UofT featuring advanced discussion and a variety of intriguing observations gleaned from making connections between readings, previous concepts, and personal perspectives. It may not prove true for every class, but one difference I'm beginning to see between North American lecturers and British ones is that the former tend to lecture more 'off the cuff' or informally, while the latter prepare very dense notes and stick quite strongly to them. It'll be interesting to see if this trend continues, and how it results in a different method of taking notes.  (How's that for a nerd blog??)

This past Sunday I made an initial grocery run to a place called 'Tesco' which is just on the outskirts of campus; Tesco got it all.  It has a reputation on campus as being the cheap student grocery store and it didn't disappoint.  The scene was as close to madness as you can get.  Thousands of students had just been moved into residence by their parents who were stocking them up: "Honey, do you want some coffee?  Will you be able to make that in your room?" A shrug of indifference, "I dunno".  

I've had countless people tell me about the expensive living costs in Britain but I've actually been pleasantly surprised low less things are over here.  Now, yes, of course, if you consider the CAN - GBP exchange every item costs approximately double in our currency.  But I've done away with thinking in Canadian dollars for the time being - probably to keep sane.  Just about every product in the grocery store costs less in GBP than what we charge in Canadian.  Thus, I get a whole lot more for 30 pounds than I would for 30 Canadian dollars.  Also, with my Warwick student card, the movie theatre on campus is only 2.50 pounds.  I'm no economist, but maybe the average Canadian salary is higher than those in Britain and is then reflected in the cost of items.  I'm not complaining.

I'm sipping Earl Grey tea, eating crumpets, watching a football match, wearing a bowler cap, and pronouncing my 'th's as 'f's.  Oh, a bobby just drove by in a mini!  

Most of the stereotypes have proved elusive, but that's for another blog.  What has proven true were the warnings about the melancholic weather.  It's a typical British afternoon: overcast, chilly, brooding, and threatening rain. But it's great blog weather...if there can be such a thing.

Doc's Prescription for the Day: To go along with the weather I'm prescribing a dose of Kings of Leon.  They're a fantastic band who have just released a new album called Only by the Night. They were also on SNL two weeks ago. Tina Fey-lin wasn't the only draw. If you're looking for a few of their older hits I recommend Taper Jean Girl, California Waiting, and The Bucket.