Daily life in Leicester

Greetings, dear readers! It’s been a busy week here in Leicester, the rainy capital of England! (Not really, but it’s been raining and windy for the past two weeks.) Classes are in full swing, which means problem sets due every Monday and Friday, which isn’t the best, but it’s still less work than home! I’m definitely settling into a routine more, and taking advantage of all Leicester has to offer.

Going out is a HUGE thing here, way more so than Holy Cross. It’s Wednesday, which is a big night at LetsDisko, one of the club nights at the O2 Academy, and I’m writing this as one of my fellow American exchange students gets ready to go! They’re pretty fun, but if you have class early the next morning, not such a good idea. Luckily, I don’t have class until 12! The lower drinking age probably plays heavily into that, except it means that weekends get really, really expensive. Most clubs are £3-5 to get into, which translates into about twice that in US dollars! And then buying drinks while you’re out is expensive as well. It’s a good way to get to know the people you live with though, especially because I’m living in what’s basically freshman housing. The freshers are enjoying their newfound freedom by going out EVERY night… and I can always hear them coming back at 3:30am!

On a more academic note, I went to a really interesting talk by American astronaut Stan Love. He showed us a video compilation of parts of his trip to space, where he worked on the International Space Station- you can watch it here:

I also got to take a picture with him after!

The talk was very interesting because he talked about how he became an astronaut (majored in physics at Harvey Mudd and then worked as an engineer!) and the potential for life on Mars. His views on that were that it’s significantly easier to live in Antarctica- breathable air, habitable temperature, and no need to wear a 300-lb space suit, but people don’t move their families to Antarctica. Apparently your effective conscious time stepping out onto the surface of Mars is 3-5 seconds- you’d be unconscious before your foot hit the ground. I enjoyed getting to hear him speak, and it was really nice to hear a familiar accent!

Finally, I just booked my tickets home! I leave at 11:40am and land at 1:30pm- a 6-hour flight crammed into less than 3 hours thanks to the time difference. I’m starting to plan some weekend trips, and I’ll talk about those as soon as I finalize everything!

xx Michaela

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