O Week

So Orientation Week had come to a close. It was bloody eventful, I tell thee, they don't do things by half at Reed. I will describe some highlights of O-week, in list format because I am lazy:

Giant bonfire with marshmallows and free revolting beer, drunken freshers and people with super-soakers full of tequila squirting shots into people's mouths (I got tequila up my nose, eww).

My favourite could be the half-naked sexy hipster fire dancers. They did amazing things with flaming torches, firey whips and infernal hulo-hoops. Seriously, I will try to find some photos online. They were really good...

The Big Art Room, which had art materials with which to make posters for your room. I made some amazing creation with a blue Sharpie and silver glitter. It is on my wall right now, looking very smart.

Some more touchy-feely talks and discussions. I am all for talking about issues and things, but there was about four hours worth. Talks on drugs and alcohol, sexual assault and consent, diversity at Reed, and the Honor Principle (a thing they have at Reed where they don't really have any rules but they expect everyone to be nice to each other anyway). There was also meeting of the Queer Alliance where we introduced ourselves with our prefered gender pronouns and discussed issues we'd like to see addressed on campus. Oh, and we sat in a circle. There is a lot of sitting in circles.

We skipped the talk on the Honor Principle (so it might be more complicated than just generally doing as you would be done by) to go to downtown Portland. I haven't seen much of it so far so I can't really elaborate, but the parts I did wander through I just loved. We went to the Saturday Market (Camden-esque) and for a quick visit to Powell's, the hugest most wonderful bookshop on the continent. It might be my new spiritual home. The sidewalks are all pleasantly wide and about every block there is a sculpture or a fountain or a mural. Here is a mural near the Saturday Market; there are many many more.

The Noise Parade. Oh my god, that was what really convinced me that Reedies are all nutters. This involved the entire school wandering through campus dressed in crazy costumes, banging on pans, yelling and playing instruments. Basically making an infernal commotion til we reached the quad, whereupon there was some kind of pagan ritual where half-naked men and women painted red chanted and threw beer on a gigantic pyre. Beer and coffee actually, these being the twin demons of student life.

There was a zine workshop, which I really enjoyed. Some people from the IPRC came to visit, that being The Independant Publishing Resource Center, a zine centre downtown. We looked at examples from the IPRC's extensive library and put together a zine which they later gave out at Orientation Wrap-up. The workshop got me all inspired, but when am I going to have time to put out a zine?

Oh and here is my room at Reed. You will notice the Cat Power poster in prominent place. It is my new favourite possession. Randomly noticed that the wonderful Chan Marshalls was doing a solo gig at the Aladdin Theatre, a local venue, so we went down on Saturday night to see her. (The bus didn't turn up so we got a sketchy lift from some non-sketchy people.) She was really great, did new and interesting versions of all her best songs and some covers, and only flaked out when she stopped for a couple of cigarette breaks- making up for it by telling some rambling but entertaining stories.

What else did I do? Well, a whole bunch of stuff, and I talked to a lot of pissed Freshers. Can't quite remember any more highlights though. As an added bonus here is a picture of me standing in front of Old Dorm Block looking quizzical.

Skippable unit list

So I signed up for all my units today, if anyone is remotely interested. This represents a really huge workload, they don't do things by half at Reed College. And every time I mention I'm doing the Linguistics class people go "Oooh, that's supposed to be so tough/that's such a tricky unit/ the professors are going to eat you for brunch". Oh well, I am hardcore, I can take it. So here's what I will be using my brain on for the next year:

FALL SEMESTER:
Free Verse
General Linguistics
Fiction: Empire & The Novel
Contemporary Art Photography I

SPRING SEMESTER:
Intermed. Paint, Draw, Printmaking II
Revolutionary America
20thC African-American Lit: Black Radical

Notes on food: Part 1

I find that one of the most pressing areas of cultural difference for people living in a foreign country is food. The international students talk about it all the time: how much they miss food from home, how they do a particular type of candy from the homeland but it's called something different, how Americans don't know how to make proper tea.

First of all, this being America, we found lots of fattening food in huge portions. Here is my new friend Charlotte holding a bucket of luridly coloured sherbet ice cream. We thought it was particularly gross, and there was a whole isle of the stuff. Supermarkets in the States have so much more choice and variety and generally go up to bigger size packaging.

Here is something we tried yesterday called Bubble Bubble Tea, which comes from Japan and seems to be catching on in Portland. See those little black spots at the bottom of the cup? Those are little balls of chewy tapioca. You suck up a mouthful of unusual tasting ice tea and then you chew up a bunch of squishy tapioca balls. Such a weird feeling.

Lastly I have discovered a new Reed subculture called the Scroungers. If you've just eaten in the cafeteria and have some leftovers, you put your tray on a particular shelf whereupon several people eat up yours and everyone else's spare food. They save a lot of money on board and it cuts down on waste food, but I'm not sure I could do it. I heard they only take one mouthful from each plate; that they have super immune systems from catching mild forms of everyone's colds; that last semester someone produced Scrounger trading cards with each Scrounger's strengths, weaknesses and favourite kinds of leftovers.

Self-identification

Touchy-feely America-style learning about our inner selves today! We had an all-day conference with the other international students and the peer mentors (a support network for students of colour and 1st generation college attendees). The conference involved various exercises designed to explore ideas of self-identification and, dude, it was weird. They shipped us all off campus to an entertainment complex and conference centre in a converted 50s middle school (class photos and murals on all the walls), and there were we spent our time in extensive rearranging of chairs into sociable group shapes, and talking to other students about how we felt about things.

The first exercise involved us ticking little boxes on a sheet about whether race, culture, age, gender etc. mattered most to us in our personal self-identification, and which we think would be most advantageous to us in society, most influential on our personal style- you get the idea. (Followed by talking about our answers in groups.) The afternoon's major exercise was called 'crossing the line', in which they read out a series of statements to the group, and if you identified with them, you stood over the other side of a line down the middle of the room, also noting who was standing next to you. There were questions on your music tastes, whether you were worried about Uni, whether you were a single parent family, whether you got on with your family, if your family owned more than one car, if you were religious, your sexual orientation...it went on for about 45 minutes. It was a bit weird having all these personal questions asked and everyone silently watching where you stood on them.

On the whole the day was quite boring and fundamentally not British. I would have skived if we were on campus. The thing is that there were really interesting people there, and I had conversations about things like racial divides in the States, the importance of the family in Zimbabwe, creole in Jamaica and all kinds of other fascinating things, but then we were interrupted to get back to our bloody checksheets. Hence the tedium of it, but it was also a bit more emotionally open than we're used to as English, I'd say.

P.S. They keep throwing free food buffets at us about every three hours. It's all Vegan to play it safe...

Aaand I'm in a New Country.

Aah, this is all still a bit overwhelming. I am alone in strange country, there are foreigners everywhere... No, I am doing fine, promise. I got in last night pretty late (10.30ish West Coast time, 5 in the morning bodyclock time), picked up from the airport by my host family. Settled into my room, which is one of the smaller ones of the building, but still gorgeous and cosy.

The international students, all 30-odd of us, arrive a good bit before the rest of the student body. We've got an exclusive 3 days of programmed orientation all to ourselves, another example of Reed thoughtfulness, and I've been hanging out with students from all sorts of interesting places around the globe. There are 5 English students including myself here- another from UEA, one from Sussex and 2 from Nottingham. In my dorm there's one English girl and a guy from Russia via Thailand (who seems a bit of an arse), everyone else will move in Wednesday. Today they drove us to Target (a Walmart-style department store) and I bought a thrilling desklamp, and they also gave us a lot of free food. There was a dinner this evening with our host families, a buffet out in the open in one of the open grassy areas surrounded by beautiful red-brick dorms that this place does so well. I love my host family, they seem so interesting and eager to help.

I have to get up early tomorrow, which is a pain with the jetlag and all. I haven't take any photos of Reed yet, but here is me looking enthusiastic at Manchester Airport, even though I am feeling grumpy because I haven't had any sleep or breakfast.

One Day To Go!

Well, here I go. I don't feel ready, or organised, or mentally prepared, but I expect it will all come together. How can I have known about this trip for two years and still not feel ready? Anyone who knows me well can answer that, it is simply the Way of Susie. So i am at least packed and sorted, and the airports are running ok (How bad is this weekend to fly? Not only is there the security alert, but there might be motherfucking snakes on that motherfucking plane!) My flight is at around half 11 tomorrow morning, airtime is 16 hours or so, and I arrive in Portland at 9pm...time travel!!

This last few weeks or so I've been seeing as much of Huddersfield and the people who live in it as I can. I keep attempting to get all misty-eyed over the fact that I won't see these fine places for more than a year- I guess you could call it pre-emptive nostalgia- but it isn't working. I suppose I can't get sentimental about a place I've been staring at for three months (not to mention 21 years). Good to see all my mates before I leave though. Lessee, on Sunday we went to a lock-in at Vox, where we tried everything on the cocktail menu and a hitherto unknown variation on the Jagerbomb called a 'Super Daddy' (so tasty. The recipe is available if you're interested). We had a long chat with the barman about his problem relationship; the bar as a whole decided he had commitment issues.

On Tuesday Nick and I went to see an M.Ward gig in Manchester. M.Ward is an indie singer-songwriter type, coincidentally from Portland. When he said "We come all the way from Portland, Oregon..." I went wooooyeah! which caused people to look at me weird but I felt better. It was a really great show, with a nice variation between quieter acoustic songs and more vigorous tunes with the whole band. The gig was at the Life Cafe- cosy venue but the beer was flat. Oh, and I found out he's called M.Ward because his first name's Matt, not because it was the wing of the mental institution he was incarcerated in or something- a little disappointing.

Also went to see my Dad's museum this week. It's this fascinating turn-of-the-century place that used to be the house of a rich collector chap. It has some modern exhibits and some of the original owner's collections, which seem to be mostly gross stuffed animals. Here is a revolting half-animal half-skeleton, and here is Lauren. (My Dad would kill me over the bad historical description of his museum. And Lauren is going to kill me over the photo.)

So yes, that is what I have been doing this week. Now onto new things!

One week to go!

Oh my god, I am flying to America in one week *breathes into paper bag* This would be nervewracking enough without the whole airport security thing, but that ain't helping. (Although self-centred and lacking in perspective as I am, I am mostly wondering whether I will be allowed to take a book on my 16-hour Continental flight. 16 hours is a long time without reading material, you know.)

Preparations continue apace. My Mum, as the only practical one in the family, sorts out insurance and bank accounts and various other things I can't understand, and I run errands and watch Season 5 of Angel. (Just saw the puppet episode! Woop!) I have also been trying to see all my friends in Huddersfield before I go. Yesterday we had a picnic in Greenhead park, everyone brought non-healthful food and drink for lunch, and also cider. (Drinking cider in the park: one of many honest local activities, upheld by generations, which I shall miss in the heathen colonies of America.) Cat also baked some cookies; seeing "Susie is ace" spelled out in cookie shapes boosted my self-worth about 15 points. Thanks everyone!

In other news, I got some info through speedy express mail about my accomodations at Reed College. I got a single room, which was weird, as I didn't request one and they only have a few. I did ask for a 21 year old American for a roommate (I want to learn about US culture, and also get drunk with it), so that must have been the tricky bit. My room looks like a palace compared to my last 2 years', and the dorm block looks charming too. All tucked away in the woods, like. Are you jealous of me? I think I might be a little jealous of me, and I don't even know how that would work!

Welcome to the blog!

Hello friends and peers! For those of you who I haven't yet gone on about it to, this is the blog I will be keeping while in Portland, Oregon on a university exchange year from UEA. I go August 18th, Reed College is the institution that has kindly agreed to take me on, I'll write down what I get up to here on the interweb for your interest. I will try and keep this here blog up to date while abroad, so I don't have to write you all postcards to give an interesting view of cross-atlantic cultural differences. Please feel free to comment: remember, my self-esteem is at risk!

This blog, by the way, went through an exhaustive (ish) creation process, including a very fraught name-choosing. Worthy options came in from all sides, including the following appellations:

Reed All About It
Look and Reed
A Clockwork Oregon
United States of Susie Rumsby: USSR
The Exploding Whale Diaries
Susiemon Conquers New Territory
Reed Feedback
The Oregon Trail
Susie Stars and Stripes

Most people went the Dad-pun route, and who doesn't love a Dad joke? (The exploding whale thing is a story for another time.) As you may have noticed, I went for: "U.S.Wahey! : Notes From a Small Susie in a Big Country", which gets in a pun, a Bill Bryson reference, and covers all the bases. Nick M wins a Twix.

Two Weeks To Go!

Two weeks to go!