Dear Shrubbery,

I've been here for 44 days now...and in 50 days, I'll be 
home.  Wow!  Time is flying.  It's kinda depressing now 
that we aren't in Daylight Savings Time anymore, though.  I 
walked out of my 18th Century Lit. class at 5pm today and 
it was dark already!  

Before I recap what I've been up to since my last letter, I 
feel like sharing a few more cultural observations:

1--English people have crap taste in music.  I wasn't a big 
fan of techno or dance music before I came here, but now I 
can't stand it.  Bollocks to Ibiza and all the horrible 
music it spawns!

2--British males between the ages of 13 and 19, for the 
most part, suck.  They are way too laddish (Adj.--Of or 
like the characteristics of a young man or lad, often loud, 
macho, arrogant and sexist.)  Ugh. 

3--American food is largely a mystery over here.  My 
British hallmates said that my peanut butter (Reduced Fat 
Jif) looked like baby poo, they couldn't quite figure out 
what to make of the candy corn my mom sent for Halloween, 
and are begging me to make them a Southern meal (even 
though I can't find half the stuff I need to make a proper 
one over here!). It's very amusing.

Places I've been since I last wrote:
Great Yarmouth
London
Liverpool
Manchester

Great Yarmouth is a seaside resort town.  Like most 
American beaches, it's extremely tacky.  We had fun, 
though!  Wasted money on arcade games, laughed at ourselves 
in the funhouse mirrors, and took Silvia for her first-ever 
carousel ride!  Yay!

London rocks my face like outer space.  There's so much to 
do!  Even though it's expensive, it's great fun.  We 
went on one of those big, cheesy double-decker bus tours 
and saw tons of sites--Tower of London, Buckingham 
Palace, Trafalgar Square, etc.  And I now know where Prince 
William lives.  Mrowr!  Watch out, Windsors!

Liverpool and Manchester are dirty, slightly depressing 
industrial towns.  Definitely not pretty, but they have 
lots of character.  I managed to see lots of cool stuff in 
Liverpool that had NOTHING to do with The Beatles, so I was 
proud of myself.  In Manchester, I found an awesome used cd 
shop called The Vinyl Exchange.  I got 4 cds for £19!!  
Woo!!

This Friday I leave for the biggest adventure of my stay 
here in England--I'm going to Paris, Bordeaux, Barcelona, 
Geneva, Lyon, then back to Paris.  Yikes!  I can't wait, 
though.  I even get to see Jude play twice in France!  I'm 
such a dork--I go all the way to England to see an American 
musician.  I have made up for it though, by going to see 
three British artists:  Super Furry Animals (who were 
AWESOME!!), Beth Orton, and Marine Research.  So, there.  
Yeah.  

I have 4 rolls of film sitting around waiting to be 
developed.  Hopefully, for my next letter, I can include 
pictures.  For now, though, I'm going to say buh-bye and go 
write my Philosophy and 18th Century Lit. papers.  Fun, 
fun, fun....blah!

Love,
Ginger

Editor's Note: If you have any questions about England or have something you'd like to ask Ginger to do for you while in England, email her at theshrub@theshrubbery.com. All requests will be considered.