Sunderland Shenanigans!

So just because I've only posted about weekend adventures in ANOTHER town doesn't mean that Sunderland is no longer exciting....au contraire! :) So here is a little update on my new-found hometown!

Okay, so one thing that you should know to start off with is that about 80% of the international students here are either German or American. Of course, this was inevitably going to lead to some friendly (and extremely competitive) competition at SOME POINT. We all knew it. :P So after a large amount of friendly heckling..The German vs USA Official Football Match!

Gettin serious. Germany to the left, USA to the right. We were a little uncertain about taking on Europeans in what is, let's face it, a seriously European sport.

We ended up tying the game (only suitable, I guess), but despite freezing temperatures a big crowd turned out to cheer on the teams! I don't know about everyone else, but I think I just cheered whenever any goals were made....

It was SO COLD...Solution?

HUG.

Gaby, Syedah, and I also made a trip to the Winter Gardens (one of the sites Sunderland is known for)...It was beautiful at sunset but also....very much locked. We found an opening and slipped in!

Really it just a little park of outdoor gardens to walk through and a pond. It also features a large walrus statue (no, I'm not sure why).

They have a war memorial here for the soldiers from Sunderland who gave their lives.

I have NO CLUE about this funky little landmark...but it was kinda cute :)

The most green you will ever seen in one spot in Sunderland! I had to take a picture!

One of Sunderland's beautiful moments :)

<3 Sunderland.

Alnwick Castle!

OH MY GOSH, IT'S HARRY POTTER!
I had the most exciting experience on Saturday....we went on a trip to Alnwick Castle, home of the Percy family and also the making of the Harry Potter films. It was really cool, partially because of Harry Potter, partially because I learned about Henry Percy last year from reading Shakespeare in Brit Lit last year, and partially because the Percy family still lives in a castle that is literally thousands of years old.
Hilarious part: seeing their liquor cabinet and foosball table among their antique collectable (and creepy) stuffed animals and ancient paintings. I cannot possibly imagine living in somewhere that incredibly (to use a British word) POSH. The whole place was huge and beautiful. Only disappointment: Hagrid's hut and the Forbidden Forest were smaller and less epic than expected (CGI imaging does a lot to make things about 50x their actual size).

This was on the way to the treehouse!

Fancy treehouse

The castle!

It was so picturesque

They had a lot of kids' games, also

It was so much fun....A definitely awesome first castle and great place to hit in the UK.

My First Week in the UK!

I'm here, I'm here, I'm here!!! I started my semester at the University of Sunderland in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, U.K.

Somehow, the trip ended up being way more simple than I thought it was going to be. A lot of people are intimidate by international travel, and 14 hours in the air is NO JOKE, but  people are very helpful and really are not as hard to understand as you might think.
The coolest part of travelling internationally, though, is DEFINITELY the people! Everywhere I went people from all over the world were super friendly and I was lucky enough to hear all their stories :)

Other than that, some funny and quirky things thus far about England: QUEUES ARE SO SERIOUS. In order to get in line, everyone stands exactly in line with a serious face. They are silent. You do not leave the queue and come back....people get really angry! Also, people are competitive and very thoughtful about WHICH queue they get into-they are debating the entire time about which line to stand in in order to get through quickly. Haha...I have never seen people so serious about something that I normally don't even think about.
 Also, everyone says cheers, and in a lot of stores you can pull your cute little plastic basket of stuff behind you on wheels! So handy dandy.

I have met so many amazing people in the past few days and I have loved every minute of it! Everyone has been so incredibly friendly and lovely :D All of us students are from all over the world, and we've all gone out together every night and had a great time. Sunderland has a great night scene, and it's ADORABLE during the day!! Very quaint :) The picture directly below is the Winter Gardens (free and pretty)

the beach is cold but absolutely beautiful and a lot of fun! So it's worth checking out. (see below).

ps- it rains and it's sunny at the same time. WHAT IS THIS? Bring an umbrella and sunglasses everywhere you go if you come here!