Fauna Are Bigger in England

Yesterday I woke up at 6 in the morning and decided do my laundry (washers cost 2.20 GBP per load and dryers are one pound for 50 minutes) because clean clothes are important to have around, and I desperately needed some. On my way to the laundromat I came across a bunch of hares. They were so cute! I took a video of one, but the quality is quite poor because I only had my phone on me, and my mobile specializes in producing blurry images. There are lots of hares around campus all year long. They are often skittish and hop away from me at lightning speed, so I hardly ever get a good look at them, but the ones yesterday were much calmer.

Other than hares, the University of Warwick is home to several types of birds, like swans and geese, as well. There is a pool of still water (I think it is supposed to be a fountain or some other pleasant, decorative thing, but in reality it simply attracts mosquitos and other bugs that thrive in unmoving water) in front of my dorm where ducks like to swim. It is fun watching them play in the water and fluff up their feathers. The other day, I even saw a mother duck with her tiny duckings in tow!

Birds in this area are, as my boyfriend who is currently vacationing in Ireland put it, “really burly.” I still have not gotten used to how muscular they appear. Pigeons are sturdy-looking--a sentence I have never uttered before arriving in England. Other birds one would expect to be small and graceful are simply shockingly large.

I have also noticed some bugs are bigger in England than in the US. A few days ago, a bee buzzed into my room. Normally I am kind of okay with bees; they frighten me but I can somehow learn to coexist if absolutely necessary. However, this bee was enormous. It was the size of a wasp one might find in America. I screamed and ran out into the hallway where I set up camp until 4 in the morning when my (incredibly kind) Ukrainian neighbor returned to the dorm and agreed to catch the stinger. “You were so scared of a bee you left your room?” he inquired. “How cute.” I guess bees in Ukraine are also gigantic. What I do know for sure is that I am never opening my window ever again.

Long story short, whoever said everything is bigger in Texas was so wrong.

Peanut Butter, the Gourmet Food Market, & Finals Month

Good peanut butter is hard to come by in Coventry. First off, the selection of peanut butter at the stores is minuscule; you have your choice of crunchy peanut butter or extra crunchy peanut butter, and both are made by the same UK company. I am no peanut butter connoisseur, but the locally made stuff does not cut it for me. It tastes weird. Thank goodness for the International Foods aisle where two jars of Jif peanut butter were hidden behind a crushed container of Captain Crunch cereal, next to a box of Jello instant pudding and a few beef jerky packets. One jar of Jif cost around 8 USD, but I bought it anyway because, to me at least, peanut butter is worth any price.

While comfort food is good to have, it fun to try what the locals eat, too. Once a month, a Gourmet Food Market sets up shop by the Students’ Union, and I have bought some of the most interesting foods from the various stalls. My first purchase was a bacon burger--the least expensive item on the menu. It was amazing. The bacon was thick and well seasoned. I have also sampled delicious spicy tomato and caramelized onion chutney, treated myself to Irish coffee flavored fudge for my 21st birthday, and polished off a whole bag of savory samosas.

First Gourmet Food Market of the Spring term!

My bacon burger.

The nice men who made my burger.

Fudge! My favorite is the toffee fudge.

Unfortunately, as much as I want to continue writing about my love of food, I absolutely have to get back to studying. The University of Warwick (finally) announced the exam schedule for the summer term, and while mine are not for a few weeks, I have a lot of notes to read over. My first exam, which is May 20th, is for my International and European Employment Relations class and counts for 100% of my grade in that course, so I need to do really well on that. My International Marketing exam on the 21st is 50% of my grade, and my final exam on the 30th is for Managing HR and counts for 100%. I am a little nervous about my exams, but so long as I continue to work through all of my class notes, I think I should be okay! But just in case, please keep your fingers crossed for me.

And lastly, May the Fourth be with you!