I am busy, busy

Hi everyone. So I have not written in the past couple of days, so here is the latest update.

After finding the motel on Thursday a bunch of other people started showing up. I introduced myself and we all started to get to know one another. When we got there our rooms were not ready so we went for a walk in Hyde Park. It was a really nice day. There were a lot of people out enjoying the sun. There were lots of elementary aged kids out with there classes playing games. They all wear uniforms here, and some of them look a little silly. (like uniforms from the movie "Madeline")

There are 18 people in my program, from all over the US. We all went to dinner that night at an Asian noodle place. It was pretty average food, nothing to special.

The next morning we went to a 3 hour orientation lecture. They went over how college is different here, etc.

We then went on the "Big Bus Tour". It basically is a double deck bus that drives you around the city to see the big sites. It is a "jump-on jump-off" tour. You get on and off the bus as you like. We did not take advantage of this the way I would if I were alone, so I was a bit disappointed. It did include a boat trip up the river. It was a point of view on the city that I will probably not see again. There are pictures on Picasa.

We then went to dinner at a nice sit down, full service pizza restaurant. I had a pizza that had anchovies on it. I was being adventurous. There were 4 on my pizza that were about 4 inches long each. the first 3 I ate were not bad at all, but the last one was terrible.

To finish the day we went to the theater. We watched 'Spamalot', which is a comedy based on the stories of King Arthur. It was really funny.

SATURDAY

Saturday morning a coach (aka bus) picked us up from the motel at 11 am. They drove us across town to our housing. We checked in and then ditched our luggage in our rooms, so we could go shopping for linens. We went to a department store and got sheets and towels. I thought the duvets and duvet covers there were far to expensive. We went back to the dorms and I looked up duvets and covers from a place called Argos. Argos is an online budget department store. Once you make an order they give you an order number. You then go to the location and give your number, pay and the order is brought to the front for you to pickup. Everyone that bought their stuff at the other department store was upset when the asked how much my duvet and cover was (since it was 1/4 the price of theirs). That night Erin and I went to the pub across the street from where I now live. Erin is from Spokane and goes to PSU, we have been doing a lot of stuff together. At the pub I had mussels. They came in a HUGE pot. There were so many. I ate until I had no room in my stomach and still only got about half way. They were really good.

SUNDAY

On Sunday we went to Buckingham Palace. The queens estate rooms are only open for about 5 weeks in the summer when the queen is not home. It was a walking audio tour. Everything was absolutly over the top (I guess what you would expect in a palace). But it was still jaw dropping.

Later that night the group went out again. This time to Italian. Wow, it was amazing. For starters we had great bread and an antipasti plate. The plate had amazing meats, very mild anchovies, a special type of bluecheese, a goat cheese and a paper thin cracker. It was so, so good. I will post pictures of my meal in the next day or two. I had a seafood dish made of fried squid, prauns, and a king shrimp. All were fried. It came with some sauces that were amazing.

We then went to a comedy club. It was called "The Comedy Store." It is the founder of the show "Whos line is it anyways." The show was completely improv and audience inspired. We laughed so hard. It is even funnier when it is live.

MONDAY

Today we had international student orientation. It was like freshman orientation, no big deal. It was over at 1:00pm. I just came home and relaxed. It is now 10:18 pm and I am heading toward bed. Tomorrow I have an appointment to get classes set up with my advisor.

Good night