Days 3 & 4

Main Quad
Originally uploaded by murgandy

Well, Lisa's already busted me for being a slacker, guess I better update. Love ya Leese!

Yesterday was the first day of orientation, and I woke up an hour late. I had had another awful, sleepless night and waking up was not fun times. Arrivals for orientation began at 9:00 AM and I didn't even leave my hall until quarter till. I decided to walk there so I could sort out my surroundings and see what was on the way. The trek ended up being two plus miles and took me about 45 minutes. Seriously, if I can't lose weight by doing that walk every day, nothing is going to work for me.

The walk is scary too. I thought I would be totally fine if I wasn't driving here, but it's just as scary as a pedestrian, if not more so. Since the cars all drive on the wrong side of the road you naturally look the wrong way for traffic, so, as a deterrent, there are huge labels painted on the street which tell you which way to look. I'd probably be road kill by now if it weren't for them. And also, in the US we walk on the same side of the sidewalk as we drive on the road. Well here it's really every man for himself since only half the pedestrians are British and the rest of us internationals are used to driving/ walking on the right side of the road. It's chaos.

Wow, I just got off topic like whoa. Anyways, I got to the main building fifteen minutes before orientation started. Good thing I got started late or else I would have just been sitting around in the cold for an hour. So just insert any introduction orientation to college you've attended here and you'd basically have what yesterday was all about. We got tons of paperwork, were told about our resources (computer labs, health care, banking, etc.), and after an hour we were sent on our way.

I was going to hang around and take a campus tour, but it was chilly and drizzling, and I wasn't feeling well so I walked back and spent the rest of the day recuperating. I even skipped the international student reception that night, and since you know how much of a not-scared-of-new-situations, social fiend that I am (LOL) that's kind of a big deal. I'm kind of worried that I'm starting to get a cold or something, but I'm pretty sure it's just jet lag taking it's toll and in a few days I'll feel fine.

Today was enrollment and I actually got down there on time. Even then the line to enroll was insanely long. But I ended up chatting with a few guys the whole time (one from Egypt, one from Nigeria, and one from France, kinda cool), so the wait wasn't too bad. Now I'm all enrolled, have my student ID, set up banking and health care and I'm good to go. I also exchanged info and ended up hanging out with one of the guys for a good portion of the day, so I may have made my first friend. And by saying that I feel like I'm back in kindergarten, goodness.

I have totally got to find some people to hang out with soon though because there is so much cool stuff coming up at school that I really want to do, like there is a chauffeured trip to IKEA (like I really need to be spending anymore money haha), and a Harry Potter tour that I want to go on SO bad. There are also trips all around Britain, and some to Amsterdam and France that are really cheap for students that I would love to look into.

Aaannnd I think I will stop rambling for now. Take care everyone!