Journal 3 Thursday: In the last few days we've done a bunch of different things. They had a party for all of us at a Pub to welcome us to Britain in a more “traditional” way. Let me tell you, it's weird sitting across from your teacher at a pub while they're drinking with the students, and knowing that the next day you're going to be in class with them. The party thing was cool though. But again, with everyone smoking I came home reeking of cigarettes. A bunch of the people here tried Absinth too. Toward the end of the night Ben came up to me and said “JOHN….I know you don't drink… but if you ever do, stick to laager. Only drink laager. I tried Absinth, and I'm seein shit man.” “Yeah bro, it has hallucinogens in it… that's why you're seeing things” “Well I know that NOW…” Anyway, it was good times had by all. Though it was a little weird that they let a bunch of people from the other current American programs come too. We were all under the impression that this was a Foothill/De Anza/Lake Tahoe thing. And then a bunch of people from Sacramento , San Diego , and some other schools came. They were your typical “college partiers” in the sense that they were there to just get wasted. It wouldn't have been a big deal if they weren't such assholes. The few that I dealt with had this air about them, as if they were better than me since they'd been here a few weeks longer. Justin, my roommate, fell asleep on the Tube home; he left after I did. It took him nine miles further than our stop. They kicked him off since it was past midnight and the trains stop running. He tried to catch a bus, two actually, neither one stopped for him though. “I ran after it yelling and waving and he still didn't stop”. He ended up having to take a cab home and got here about 2am . It cost him 15quid, which is about $30; that was on Tuesday night. Yesterday, Wednesday, was cool. I was at school only for a short while in the morning. It was first day that it rained since I've been here. I went shopping around with Shereen and Sophia for a bit. If the Pound was worth the same amount as the Dollar (and not twice) I would have probably bought one or two things. The clothing they have here is really nice. I mainly just wanted to buy another beanie, but I didn't feel like charging 1.99pounds on my credit card…it would have come out to just under $4, and I'm not sure if I get charged for the conversion. I also bought a pay-as-you-go phone with Orange . I had such buyer's remorse afterward though. It cost me 65pounds total, which comes out to about $120 (that includes $30 worth of minutes though. Though it will also work while I'm in Europe , which is good because I'll have it for emergencies. To call home on it I pay about 30cents a minute. So if I call you people it'll be reallllly short. I saw a play last night, it was the first of three required plays I'll be seeing. Twelfth Night is the last of Shakespeare's three great comedies. It was much better seeing it then it was reading it. Plus it was a Bollywood production which made it really entertaining. Though there were a couple parts where the audience laughed at stuff that wasn't funny; these are people who have obviously never read any Shakespeare. This guy named Jim, who's in our class, kept falling asleep during the first half. He kept doing the head bobbing thing and he dozed off. Afterward I came home, typed a few emails and crashed. Today I slept through my alarm. That's ok though since it was set MUCH earlier then I actually needed to be up. I woke up at 8am , took a shower and got dressed. I went down to breakfast, and I don't know if I already mentioned this… but crumpets, are damn good. Justin was saying he's gonna have to see if he find them when he's back home. They're like English muffins, but way better. I caught the Tubes to school and d/led my email this morning; fifty-six emails and all but three were junk mail. For photography today we had a field trip to a shopping area, the something-gardens; I don't remember the name. I realize my camera isn't going to work for this assignment since I can't set the aperture on it. Though when we get to focal length and messing with ISO/film setting, it can do that. I need one of those $1,000 digital SLR cameras that Kara has…anyone want to buy me one? Afterward we went to lunch at an Italian restaurant. I paid five pounds for a mozzarella and avocado sandwich. It ended up coming with a small side salad, so my $9 lunch was completely worth it, seeing as how it was also damn good. I've been trying to spend no more than three pounds per day on lunch, so this was a big expense for me, haha. We also had a walking tour of the British Museum today. I saw the Rosetta Stone, again, and also some of the Greek statues. After the tour Shereen and I went upstairs to see the mummies. They have Cleopatra here, I didn't know that. I got a chance to call home today after making sure my credit on my phone went through. It was nice being able to chat for a bit, and I think I'm going to start making random phone calls to different people back home. If anyone cares to call me (though it'll probably cost you a lot) here's what you do. Dial 011 for international call. Type 44 for the UK . Then 789 135 4240 for my cell phone here. So again, 011 44 789 135 4240. Incoming calls in the UK are free, so it's up to you if you want to spend the money. Well, tomorrow in Greenwich so I'm crashing since I have to get up early. |