Em Lu Travels The EU: Lots to catch up on

So, as I've mentioned to many of you, I didn't have internet in my room until about 2 hours ago. For someone who lives their life very comfortably connected the outside world at all times, this was quite traumatic. (I'm not exaggerating.) These last few days have been difficult. But, it's getting better every day and having a phone with unlimited internet and Skype (it rocks!) and having the internet in my room is certainly helping things along. Over the past few days, I've done some pretty cool things and met some pretty great people. The regular Lancaster students should start arriving this weekend, and I can't wait to meet my flat mates and the rest of the students.

We took a tour of Lancaster yesterday, and despite the "slippy" sidewalks (that's what they say instead of slippery, isn't that cute?) I had a great time. For you history buffs out there, here's some background about Lancaster: It's been an important English city for about 700 years. It's past is quite interesting. It was a center of the African slave trade (sad) but was also quite possibly where the sails for the first boats of the US Navy were purchased. (In Benjamin Franklin's diary, he specifically mentions talking to a sail cloth salesperson here.) Lancaster was also the linoleum capital of the world from the end of the 1800s until linoleum went out of style. Because of this, there was a huge Irish immigration and Lancaster is actually home to a Catholic Cathedral (quite a rarity here) in addition to its many very old Anglican churches. The head of the linoleum company here was made Lord Ashton by the Queen and used his money to build beautiful buildings throughout Lancaster. When the linoleum business went bust in the 1960s, the town suffered. The British government was looking for somewhere to set up a new University, however, and the sites of the old linoleum factories are actually now home to Lancaster University. Lancaster also has its own castle, though it now serves as one of England's national prisons. Interestingly, the Duke of Lancaster married in/made a deal with the royal family, so the head monarch of England is also actually the Duke of Lancaster. That's right...Queen Elizabeth is the Duke of where I live. (For some reason it does not change to Duchess. I find this whole thing confusing)

I also have some beautiful pictures from what you can see on campus and some pictures from my first night out. Hope you enjoy!

So this actually used to be a church, but when the congregation split up, it was sold and turned into a night club called "The Friary." I feel like this perfectly encapsulates my impression of the UK thus far.

Off in the distance is the castle. Or the prison. Same thing.

This is Lancaster's statue of Queen Victoria. After her death, nearly every town built a statue of her, but this is thought to be one of the best in the whole country. Also, the engravings beneath her contain the faces of 50 famous Victorians. Sadly, only two are women.