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Published: October 15th 2007
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at a pub in london
we had to stand in an alley and my pint was £3.50. that's seven bucks. well, things have been busy, to say the least. Sorry if this entry ends up being kinda choppy--I feel like there are about a million things I should be doing right now. And I'm also in a computer lab with a million other people, which always makes me nervous.
Tuesday before last I got up at 5 in the morning to drive to Little Rock to fly from there, to Chicago, to Philadelphia. At Philadelphia I was picked up by Caitlin, another girl on my program, and her father, who then drove me to their home in Yardley, Pennsylvania. Yardley is a very nice town. Lots of fir trees and pretty houses. I had a quiet, restful night there, which was fortunate since I slept about two hours the night before, and then the enxt afternoon we drove to JFK airport in New York. This was my first ever glimpse of New York. I saw the Statue of Liberty from a distance and was not much impressed with Staton Island. Security was pretty easy to get through at JFK, which I was grateful for, and at about 9:00 on wednesday evening I flew out of the country.
I flew
changing of the guards
we randomly arrived at buckinham palace right in time for all this. AirIndia. I was expecting the food to be really awesome, but alas, it sucked hardcore. also, the movies were lame. BUT, i had an aisle seat and didn't have to climb over a million people to go to the bathroom. this was especially fortunate since I took a blue ambien (a very hardcore sleeping) and was acting rather strangely before i fell asleep.
From Thursday to Sunday I had orientation in London. We stayed in a pretty nice hotel in Soho right by the British Museum, and the IFSA-Butler offices were in a really posh area in Notting Hill. Seriously, the offices were right between the flats of Stella McCartney and Elton John, neither of whom did I see. Orienation consisted of listening to a lot of information we'd already been given and eating a lot of really good food. We went to a nice Mexican restaurant and had decently convincing burritos, a Japanese restaurant called wagamama's (it was only so-so in my opinion), and my favorite, a Lebanese restaurant called Tas where I had lamb. I know, I know, it sounds awful to eat lamb, but I don't care. I love lamb.
btw, coffee over here is
mucho disappointing. I bought this weird coffee-press thingy, but it has nothing on a real coffee machine from the states. gah. however, starbuck's coffee cost the same over here as it does back home. at the harps on garland it is usually about $7.50 or $8.00. here it is £3.50.
Anyway, we also went to a play in London called "All about my Mother." I liked it alot, though most of the other kids didn't (obviously, I have the most cultivated taste). If any of you are interested in it, don't watch it with your parents. Lots of foul language and innuendos.
We had a lot of free time in London, which I mostly spent by myself b/c I don't have much in common with the other Americans. basically, I'm trying to get in with the natives as best as I can. I've been thrown in with all the "freshers", though, which means that they're all 18 and straight from their homes. I, on the other hand, am 21 and started living in dorms when I was 16, so that puts a gap between me and them. Also, My wallet and my guts can't keep up with how
much these kids drink. They're absolutely bottomless.
My first night at York was absolutely horrible and I cried and cried and thought I would have to come home for good at Christmas, but things are much better now. the kids on my floor have been very nice to me, answering all my questions and asking me lots in return. They're all very curious about American politics, and I guess maybe its not impolite to discuss politics over here, b/c I'm always being asked how I feel about abortion, who I voted for, etc, etc. I'm getting kind of tired of it, honestly.
Classes still haven't started, but I had to spend all last week running around campus and town, trying to get my classes settled and buying necessary supplies. Also, freshers' week is essentially party week, so every night there was something going on. Every dorm has its own fully loaded bar, but one night we ventured into town on a pub crawl. I was dumb and wore heels and had to go home early b/c my feet were bleeding. One night was club/fancy dress in the theme of 999 (aka 911) in our dorm, so the other
girls on my floor and I dressed up as victims. We also had firefighters, 999 operators, ghostbusters, the fashion police, and Sting. I didn't understand why Ben dressed up as String, but tonight he explained that Sting was in The Police. How clever.
This weekend we had our family visit in Wakefield. The couple I stayed with, Eric and Linda, were very nice. On friday they took me to a jazz club and bought me a pint of guiness (v. nice) and I got to pet their dogs. You guys should know how much I love petting animals. On Saturday I went off with Julia and Caitlin's host family. The "dad" took us to a coal mining museum, which I was alright with, but Julia is clausterphobic. She tried to tell Graham that she didn't think she could handle the museum, but he didn't really listen and she ended up crying through the second half of the tour while the tour guide was going on and on about how many hundreds of people had died in the mine. then later, when we were having tea with Graham and his wife, he kept on mentioning the worst things he possibly
could about America, such as Guantanamo Bay (which he mentioned several times). I don't know about you guys, but if I were trying to welcome someone to my country, I probably wouldn't try to do so by pointing out everything bad about their culture. He also got onto Julia for saying that something "scared the crap" out of her. lame. BUT, they fed us a lot and carted us around and paid for the museum. I liked my family more, though.
What I learned about coal mines is that they are really dark and dangerous and that it really would have sucked to work in them at basically any point in history.
Today for lunch my family cooked roast beef with Yorkshire pudding. Yorkshire pudding is not like our pudding. its a type of bread stuff that they eat with meat and gravy. the inside of it is light and fluffy, kind of like the insides of homemade donuts, and the outside is crispy. it was delicious.
campus is really pretty. we have large pond (they call it a lake, but its a pond) running all through campus, and there's lots of trees and even more ducks,
geese, swans, and moor hens. you'll see all this in the pictures.
girls here are very skinny and very fashionable. they seem to have the skinniest legs in the whole world, and they have no qualms with showing them off in very short skirts. looks like i won't be getting asked out on any dates anytime soon.
I guess that's about all for now.
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kim
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OMGOSH YOU LEFT ALREADY!!!
I wasn't warned! I am in painful shock! Besides my grief, I am glad that it sounds like you are already having an eventful (if not always fun) trip. Don't sweat the dumb children and stuck up british. Just focus on the fact that you can at least relate to them as far as americans go plus you can be of service to them as far as a D.W. goes (designated walker) and that not all brits are like that. You gave the dogs some suga! Why am I not surprised! Be more careful with your feet...it's too early to get them into disrepair. I love your pictures as always. I think yours of the statue is better than mine, but I mean you are Sarah LaBauve after all. Last but not least - don't get too upset but since your already gone this means I can't give you your invitation to my lingerie shower that's on Friday night. Sad day!! My dirty panty party won't be the same without you. I love you much! Keep up the blogs; you know I'm reading!