My housemate Veronica and I (right) pose by the Thames River.

The beginning of a new world

I have been here for about three weeks now and I can’t find where the time has gone. I started classes on the 25th and it was not a very good morning. I left the house early to make sure I would not be late and make a bad first impression. I arrived at my classroom quite early and found absolutely no one there. After waiting around for a few minutes I went to the help desk where the lady who was not helpful at all said, "Well just go back and wait till about quarter after. Maybe everyone is a bit late." With that said, I returned to the classroom to wait and still no one showed up. I went back to the help desk and was directed to see another lady. It took me forever to find her office, reminding myself that I am now a half hour late for my first class. When I found her she looked at my modules (classes) and they were all messed up. Come to find out I was scheduled for a class that is not even running this term and rooms had been changed without notice. I only have 12 credits now, and my schedule is pretty amazing because I only have class on Mondays and Thursdays. My classes are all very interesting; however, I'm taking a class that is a level or two ahead of me—so I'm a bit nervous about passing. 

The weather here has been a bit gloomier compared to the first week or two I was here. It is hard to predict what to wear in the morning because it will be pouring down rain one minute and then the next the sun is out shining brighter than ever. Sometimes, it varies constantly all day. The leaves are starting to change a bit here. I must say that I miss seeing the scenery in the fall at home, especially being from the U.P. I made my mom take pictures and send them to me of the view out of the kitchen window; because we live on a hill, we overlook a giant hardwood forest that is absolutely gorgeous in the fall.

Even though the river itself here is disgusting, the view of it is marvelous. We bring bread down with us and just sit on the brick wall and watch the beautiful white swans, geese, ducks, pigeons, and many other kinds of birds. We have learned not to sit on the steps that lead down into the water and throw bread because the geese will literally bite you if you don’t give them the food you have. One bit my housemate Veronica in the back; we were both quite shocked when it happened. 

This photo was taken in Brighton, with the ocean and pier behind me. Visiting this city was part of orientation for study abroad students. The beaches are covered with rocks and France is only 20 miles away.

I don’t know if I will ever get used to the fact that I am actually here. Whenever we see something new it will hit me, and I just think to myself, “Oh my gosh, I’m actually here.”  Veronica and I went to London this past weekend and, of course, we picked a bad day because it rained pretty much all day. But we still had fun. We saw part of the Tower of London, so that was pretty cool, and the crown jewels exhibit was grand. It started to rain pretty hard so we got out of there. It was just too crowded since everyone was rushing into the buildings to get out of the rain. I couldn’t really enjoy it with so many people. From the Tower we walked a little bit to get to Tower Bridge, which is remarkable. It was still pouring rain and we decided to just ditch the umbrella idea, because it wasn’t working too well anyway. We actually had fun walking all over London in the rain. We got a different perspective of things especially because there weren’t too many people on the streets. I felt like I was in Central Kingston at 6:00 at night when everything starts to close, because the streets were vacant. 

Just a little tip to anyone who visits England—when people say to wait and buy a hair dryer and your little appliances over here, listen to them. I am a very cheap person and didn’t want to take this advice, so I just bought a converter that works. However, it can’t be plugged into the type of power strip used in England. Anyway, Veronica tried to use my blow dryer the first day and it started smoking after about ten seconds. So, we had to buy a new one. My hair straightener works very well and with that in mind I thought, well, my curling iron should work fine too. Right?  Wrong!!!!  I wanted to curl my hair before we went out one night, so Veronica plugged it into the power strip with the converter (very bad idea). We waited a bit for it to warm up, like usual. When Veronica started to curl an underneath section of my hair, it pretty much started on fire. It was the worst smell ever; it made the whole floor stink. We laughed hysterically about it, and thanked the Lord that it was the underneath part of my hair, so you can’t even notice it. 

Until next week,