American in Manchester

Hello loves,

And so begins my first legit post on this blog... This is my second day in the city of Manchester. Where to begin.

I actually started typing this blog about 3-4 hours ago. A lot has happened, however, in that span of time and I feel the need to explain to you the drastic change that occurred. You see, 3-4 hours ago I was in my room holding my trembling hand frozen on my flat room door handle. 3-4 hours ago I was disappointed with my stay so far and unimpressed by what England had to offer. 3-4 hours ago I stopped this post after two sentences not because of how much I had to say but because of the disheartening feeling that I had too little...

So there I was, holding my door handle like a mannequin, frozen in apprehension and social anxiety. You see, in front of me, connected to that handle is the heavy steel door of my single dorm room. And beyond that door, three voices. The first I met yesterday morning. It belongs to a fellow who goes by the name Adam. A scrawny freshman from Wales who is obsessed with Heath Ledger's version of the Joker. He showed me pictures of a surprisingly convincing costume he did of the Joker for a Halloween party. Adam also makes great pasta.

The other two, however, remain faceless. And while it would seem normal to try and meet the other two (which I still very much plan on doing), I hope you guys can understand the justification for my anxiety in that they were actually talking about me on the other side of the door. And here's when I start overthinking things, because I began wondering what I needed to do to change their first impressions and also when to enter into the conversation. I know, it's really quite overdramatic.

Anyway, in the end, after 5 minutes of self-debating and mad prayer, I decided to trust God and open the door. The justification was that (1) I was overthinking things (2) one of my goals for studying abroad was to meet people, so I might as well start now and (3) I really didn't want to stay in my room all night. Fyi, by now the conversation had ended, and only Adam was there with his door open. After a quick convo, he invited me to a pub, and that's where my opinion of Manchester completely changed...

I have a feeling I'm going to love this place. The pub, to be honest, wasn't very exciting. I think we went too early, so there were just a few students working on their laptops and a few groups of older customers chatting away. It's there that I tried my first Lager. It was a Carling (their motto is "Britain's Number One Lager"). Surprisingly, it wasn't as strong as I thought it would be. The more I drank it, though, the more bitter it became. I think I drank about half of the pint before I couldn't go on. Hopefully I'll develop a taste for it throughout this semester. On the other hand, Adam told me about Strongbow Cider - essentially, an alcoholic beverage made from apples! i'm definitely trying it next time.

Anyway, the exciting part began when we left the pub in search of something more interesting. In the end we decided to take a bus down to the City Centre. We took a bus for about 15 minutes, got off, and walked around in a fantastically wonderful European city. Impressive modern architecture intermixed with beautiful architecture of old. Massive amounts of people wandering around its massive shopping center. We walked around for about 2 hours and touched on every niche of European life I thought existed. There were your local pubs where the locals stare you down if they don't like the look of you. Then there was Canal Street, where the C and S are cleverly crossed out if you're wondering what goes on there. I'll really have to take pictures next time I'm down there, because it came as an absolutely lovely (british lingo) surprise to me. While the university is a nice, quaint campus, the city centre is the European hub i was hoping for in the back of my mind. Manchester is the perfect balance, and I'm completely thankful to God that he's helping me adapt here.