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.