Week 1: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
So here’s a little back-dating account of my adventures thus far, starting with Week 1 of my arrival:
So it’s almost been a week since I’ve moved into 153 Whiteknights. The house is nice; the bedroom is large, and with my bed pulled up against the bay window, I get sunlight streaming into my eyes each morning. That is, before the clouds move in. Surprisingly enough, the first week was rather warm and not all that rainy. There were times when it came down–but it resembled snow in the way that it fell. On a side note, I finally invested in an umbrella.
Monday morning I flew in to Heathrow. Caught a shuttle to Paddington station, then caught a train to Reading station, where I then got a taxi. Planes, trains, and automobiles–check. Tuesday we had class: War and Strategy in the Contemporary World. I was alive, after having gotten 4 hours or so of sleep on a 6 hour flight (which they had to delay otherwise we would have arrived too early–Heathrow has a curfew of no planes landing before 5 am).
Wednesday we got real fish and chips from a place just down the street–it was delicious. Thursday was fun-filled with exploring the bus system. I got a phone at The Oracle and had a generally nice day looking around and enjoying the sites down at the mall.
Friday we caught the train to London. Well, Anna and Alex and I went to London to see the Henry VIII exhibit. It was really good–lots of Latin, to my surprise and delight. We came out of the underground and nearly ran into Big Ben. I hadn’t realized it was so massive, or that we could get so close. Westminster Abbey was there too, and we observed Evensong at 5pm, which was really nice. Buckingham palace was really neat, and we got to see a few of the guards with the tall fuzzy hats and red uniforms. I spotted some mounted police too.
The London parks were really nice, filled with a few pelicans, geese and lots of pigeons. London was a blast, and the underground was pretty easy to use. I’m getting used to pounds, but I still keep thinking in terms of dollars. And the accents are nice. Unless they’re shouting or screaming or something. The BP down the street has a nice loud speaker system that invades the house every so often.
Classes don’t officially start until the end of September, beginning of October. Language classes, like Italian, don’t start until a few weeks after the regular classes start. I want to be fluent in Italian…but at this rate, I’m going to have to put in some overtime.
The only thing I’m missing (asides from my camera charger) is someone with a sense of humor. Come ON people, would it kill you to crack a smile at one of my lame puns??? So I’m going through humor withdrawals and trying to catch up to the people who beat me here by two days.
