Preparations for Paris

Today was nice since I didn't have to think about school at all. I did however have to prepare for my trip to Paris, and doing so dominated most of my day. I did take some time to go out to lunch with Rachel at this cute Italian restuarant in Brighton and we did a little shopping for postcards and at the 99 pence store. Then I spent the rest of my afternoon reading a Paris guidebook, researching how to get around and packing. Now I'm all set to go! I leave tomorrow with another girl to go into London in the morning where I'll catch the Eurostar train around 6pm. I'll then be in Paris until Thursday morning when I'll come back to Sussex for a day before going to London for an orientation program sponsored by WashU. It's going to be a busy and fun week, and I planned it so I'll climb the Eiffel Tower on my birthday on Monday! Au revior for now!

Done with the September program

Yesterday I went to my last Children’s Literature class and then spent most of the day finishing up my paper. When I was done, I went out dancing with some friends which turned out to be a lot of fun. Today, I slept in, printed my paper and turned it in! I’m officially done with my first British course. Then I went into Brighton with a couple friends to do some shopping at Primark which is a big clothing store with a lot of cheap clothing. I don’t usually buy very much but as an early birthday present to myself, I bought a bunch of purple things. I got a cute shirt, a nice coat, flats, a scarf and two headbands, all for less than forty pounds. We then got some ice cream and took the bus back to campus where we went to the Leaving Reception for the Sussex in September program. Most of the group had plans to go out clubbing after the reception, but I had noticed a carnival had been set up in Brighton, so I convinced a couple of other girls to come with me. We had a blast!! Since it was Thursday, they had a special deal where all the rides were a pound, so we went on a bunch of rides and got candy floss (cotton candy). Our favorite ride was the tilt-a-whirl, which Rachel and I went on twice. The carnival workers actually ran around the ride spinning the cars extra fast, and it wasn’t scary like this one ride we went on that may make me lose my voice tomorrow I screamed so much! Then Rachel and I decided (being hyped up on sugar from the cotton candy) that we didn’t want to go back to school quite yet, so we walked down to the beach and hung out there for a while before coming back to school.

Buckingham Palace

Here I give a Royal wave in front of the carriage that has a history of attending Royal weddings. Foreshadowing my future?

Since Buckingham Palace is only open to the public through the end of September, I decided to use my day without class to go visit. Last week, I casually mentioned my desire to visit the palace to a friend, and we decided to go together. So Amy and I set off this morning to London. I began rereading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (the British version though!) for probably the twentieth time while on the train for class tomorrow and wished we were traveling into King’s Cross Station instead of Victoria Station so I could pretend I was going to Hogwarts with Harry. We arrived just in time to see the changing of the guards. I’m using the word “see” in the loosest terms here because there were literally hundreds and hundreds of people crowding around the gates and in the street, all trying to take pictures of the same thing. Still, it was one of those can’t-miss events, and I managed to get a few good pictures by standing on my tiptoes, holding the camera above my head, and randomly snapping shots. My favorite part was when the band starting playing the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song (after Dancing Queen and Mamma Mia) during the ceremony. The ceremony ended right in time for us to get to our 12:15 appointment at the Queen’s Gallery, which was a museum of many of the beautiful pieces of art collected by the royal monarchs over the years. Next came a tour of the State Rooms in the palace. They were absolutely gorgeous! We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but I had already taken so many pictures of men in red uniforms and giant hats that I was okay with putting my camera away for a while and just taking in the sites! After seeing the state rooms, the tour emptied into the Royal Gardens (which I was a little miffed to find did not consist of many flowers). By this time, I was beginning to wilt, so we stopped for some lunch at a little sandwich shop, where I ordered a delicious Belgium waffle. For the final part of our tour package, we headed over to the Royal Mews where they house the carriages and horses that transport the Queen, which were also lavishly decorated. I was quite exhausted by this point and was happy to take a nap on the train ride back to campus, where I found myself refreshed enough to start my paper. I'm attempting to attach a video of the changing of the guards- it will give a good feel for the crush of the crowd (and a really good view of that guy in the hat) while the band plays Pirates.

Food and Paper

I went to class this morning and then came back to my dorm to start outlining my paper. I didn't get too far since I spent a lot of time unpacking from my trip and putting up pictures! Then I went out to lunch in Brighton with a couple friends. When I got back, I started my paper outline but then it was time to go out to dinner with another group of friends since it was the birthday of the first girl I met in the Sussex program (at the airport my first morning in England). We went to a nice Chinese restaurant in the Brighton Marina. It was yummy but they only gave us half a class of water and we had to pay for it!! So after Chinese, we stopped at McDonalds for water and ice cream. When I got back to my dorm, I finally finished that pesky paper outline and now it's off to bed so I'm rested for my trip to tour Buckingham Palace tomorrow.

Weekend in Cardiff, Wales

Thursday:
I went to class in the morning and then packed for the trip. I only took a backpack and a purse so I had to pack light! Jena, my traveling buddy for the weekend, and I met up with some other people heading into London for the train ride. We had a little trouble getting train tickets and probably paid too much, but we really didn’t have a choice since we needed to get to London on time to catch the MegaBus to Cardiff. It was close, but we made it on the trains and then on the bus and we were off the Wales! We made it to Cardiff without a problem but we got dropped off in the middle of the city and had to figure out how to get to our hostel. We ended up taking a cab, checked into the hostel and stayed in for the night. The hostel was nice and they provided sheets and I rented a towel for 50p. We stayed in a room with three girls from Germany who were nice but were not very considerate. They definitely had the rule of the room and we tried to stay out of the way.

Friday:
We got up Friday morning and had the delicious free breakfast provided by the hostel with bacon, eggs, hash browns, croissants, etc. We decided not to spend money on taking a bus so we walked about thirty minutes to the city centre. We visited Cardiff Castle first and spend the morning exploring and taking pictures. We went to Subway for lunch to save money but took it across the street to a really pretty garden and had a picnic in the flowers. We explored another garden after lunch and then went to the National Museum. After the museum we explored some of the little shops in Cardiff, and then came the long hike back to the hostel. We stopped at a grocery store on the way and got this great meal deal for 5 pounds which we cooked up in the hostel kitchen. After dinner we ran into some other girls from Sussex who were staying at the same hostel and went out to dinner with them (minus the food of course since our meal was so cheap and delicious already). We took the notoriously late buses to the City Centre this time though so we wouldn’t be walking in the dark. Then we went to an Irish pub and an 80s dance club before heading back to the hostel for the night.
Saturday:
We decided to spend the day with the other group of seven girls, so after another nice breakfast, we walked across the street from the hostel to Roath Park which had gorgeous gardens, a playground and a lake! We spent the rest of the morning there, taking pictures of the flowers and playing on the playground. We then took a bus to the City Centre where we caught a bus to St. Fagan’s, a historical village a little bit like Williamsburg. We ate Nutella sandwiches made at breakfast for lunch and explored the village. We also found another castle on the grounds which had more gorgeous gardens. We were all pretty tired by this time so we headed back into town and Jena and I separated from the bigger group to get the same meal deal at the grocery, cooked it up, and then went to bed early. Saturday was the only day we didn’t carry all of our stuff around with us because we locked it up with the other girls’ stuff. The other days we had to tote around all that we brought!

Sunday:
We had the free breakfast for the last time and walked into the City Centre. The other group of Sussex girls had left the night before so Jena and I were on our own again. We found that it’s a lot easier to travel with fewer people though, so it was nice that it was just the two of us. Our German roommates had given us some sightseeing bus passes the evening before. They were good for 24 hours so we were able to use them that morning to get from the City Centre to Cardiff Bay. We walked around the bay and got some lunch at a different grocery store. Then we sat on the wharf for a while before deciding to splurge and take a four pound boat trip around the bay. It was really nice and then we got ice cream as a treat for eating so cheaply all weekend. Our bus tickets had expired by this point so we walked from the Bay into the City Centre where we were able to catch the MegaBus into London and then a train and a bus back to campus. There was plenty of walking all weekend, and we traveled pretty cheaply- I think I spend less than 150 pounds for the entire trip. It was also a good practice trip for future trips!

100 Akre Wood

Above: on the Poohsticks Bridge. Below: in the sixty-something trees

I had class this morning then packed a lunch and headed out on a class field trip to Ashdown Forest, more commonly known as the Hundred Acre Wood because E.H. Shepard got his ideas for the illustrations for Winnie the Pooh there. If you compare my pictures with illustrations in the book, they are quite similar! We saw what people suppose to be the sixty-something trees in a circle, a Heffalump trap, Roo’s sandpit, and the enchanted place at the top of the Forest. Then we took a short drive and a longer walk to the Poohsticks Bridge where Christopher Robin really did play as a child. We of course had to play Poohsticks but my stick was a bit lagging and ended up somewhere around fifth place. I don’t think Pooh would have minded. We then drove into a nearby village where there was “Pooh Corner,” a shop filled with Winnie the Pooh merchandise! Finally, it was time to come back to campus and I had to do laundry for the first time here, and it was very expensive and confusing. Luckily, I went with Jena, so together we managed to sort it out, and now I have all clean clothes. Just in time too, as I am going to Wales from Thursday until Sunday, so I’ll have to blog extra on Sunday to make up for the missed days! Also, the reason this post is late coming up is because I went out dancing last night. The dancing part was okay, but the best part of the night was when a guy on the bus on the way home started singing classic Disney songs out loud and the entire top of the double decker bus joined in!

A low-key day

Today was a pretty low-key day; I woke up to a steady downpour that continued throughout the morning while I wrote my paper for Children’s Lit. Then I went into Brighton with some other girls and they went shopping and I sort of browsed around. I then returned early to watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire which was being shown for my class. Unfortunately, I was the only one who showed up to the viewing since people had already seen it or were too busy writing their papers to come. But I stayed and watched it anyway! Then I came back to my room for dinner and wanted to watch more Harry Potter, so I watched some of A Very Potter Musical on YouTube (which I would highly recommend if you’re a HP fan who also likes comedy). Nothing too exciting today, but every now and then you need one of those do very little days!

The Globe

sunset over the Thames:

I went to class this morning and then had time to make lunch and outline my paper before it was time to head to London for the evening. A few other girls and I had dinner right on the Thames River at a pizza place and then the whole group met up at the Globe Theatre for a production of As You Like It. I’m quite a fan of Shakespeare (especially after spending a whole year studying him freshman year in college) so I was really excited to see a play performed at the Globe, and it definitely lived up to its expectations. We had seats in the uppermost section looking down at the stage and I rented a cushion for the hard seat. The play was funny and well performed but long enough that I was glad not to be in the standing section. On the way back to campus, I managed to finish The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, so that I got a lot accomplished today while also having fun.in front of the Globe and in the Globe!

Sunday Stroll

I had a chance to sleep in today, and then joined one of our program leaders and a good number of students on a Sunday Stroll around campus. I was a little worried, thinking this might turn into a hike, but was informed we would end up getting food, or Sunday Roast as they call it, so I was a little more excited after that. We took a picturesque hike in the fields and woods around campus and explored the village of Falmer which is actually very small and quaint. We stopped at the pub there and we all got food. Most people got Sunday Roast, but I decided to get a jacket potato (baked potato) with cheese and bacon. It was delicious! We then walked back to our dorm through campus and Rachel and I decided to go grocery shopping. This was our second time shopping at Sainsbury (the supermarket) and we knew our way around a lot better. I ended up spending about the same amount of money as the first time I went shopping, so it seems I may need to go shopping about once a week to get fresh items. My favorite purchase was a High School Musical cake on sale for two pounds. Because I bought the cake, I informed some friends that I would be having a mini early birthday party that night. I had plans to get a lot done school-work wise that afternoon before the party, but ended up Skyping my family for over an hour because Marissa was home and I wanted to watch the Chiefs game with them. I did get a lot checked off of my to-do list though, and even had time to bake some cookies for the party. I invited about ten people and played music from High School Musical and the Jonas Brothers while we ate the delicious cake. Jena and I even performed the Hoedown Throwdown once! Overall, I would say that it was a very successful last minute early birthday party.

The picture above was taken on a hill above campus. It shows campus in the foreground with Brighton and the beach in the background. Below is my cake and cookies for the party.

Stonehenge and Bath

I had to wake up at 6am today to be on the bus for our group trip to Stonehenge and Bath. I slept the two hour coach (aka bus) ride to Stonehenge, and then we explored the site for about an hour. The audio tour was quite fun and I took way too many pictures! But the tour takes you in a circle around the monument, and I wanted to get pictures from every angle! Then we got back on the coach and headed to Bath. It was only about an hour drive, and we watched Love Actually on the way, which is an even better movie when you’re in England and recognize some of the places they are in the movie as places you have visited! Bath was very beautiful; we roamed around on our own for a couple hours and got some lunch before heading to the Roman Baths for a tour. Rachel and I explored the city together and decided to become rugby fans since the city was awash in blue and black as the first Bath Rugby game of the season was starting while we were there. We haven’t decided which team will receive our undying allegiance yet, and we’re working on becoming football (aka soccer) fans as well. The tour of the Roman Baths was also very interesting, but I was tiring by this point, and once again, I took way too many pictures! We weren’t allowed to touch the water, so I’m not sure I was cured of anything. We got to listen to nifty audio tour guides (handheld sets worn about the neck) at both Stonehenge and the Roman Baths, but I’m not sure how much information I retained. Sometimes I was too distracted by the English accent and amazing sites to actually pay attention to the words! Around 4:30, we headed back toward Sussex, and I alternately slept and read The House at Pooh Corner for the journey which was made longer by a car accident that stopped all traffic. In the end, we made it back around 8pm, sore, tired and hungry. But it was definitely worth it to see two such great sites!

Spiders, cupcakes and ghosts

I think today’s blog posting will be best started off with a funny story. I woke up this morning, and found a big spider on my hand towel by the sink. I took a deep breath and decided the best thing to do would be to shake it out the window. So I grabbed the towel, crossed the room, opened the window and proceeded to shake the towel out the window. The spider did not like this and crawled on my hand. I freaked out and dropped the towel and the spider down three floors to a patch of grass. I had to go fetch the towel before I went to class, and now I’m without a hand towel until I do laundry (which will be a while since the washing machines cost 3 pounds and the dryer costs one pound!). Then I power-walked to class to make sure I got there in plenty of time to get settled for my presentation. Since it’s a reading-based class, my presentation was really just bringing up points I found interesting as well as discussion topics, but seeing as half the class was out at the pubs until the wee hours of the morning, my audience was not the most receptive. I combated this by waving my hands around a lot as I talked. Overall I think it was quite successful! I made myself lunch then a few other people and I went into Brighton for the afternoon. I made sure to stop in the Everything Is One Pound store and found some great deals! We then went for coffee, but I’m not a big fan of coffee, so instead I had the most delicious cupcake. It was peanut butter cake with chocolate icing and the girls I was with found it very amusing how excited I was about this cupcake. Then we headed back to the dorms, I took a nap, made dinner and then it was time to go back into Brighton for a ghost tour. Our tour guide was great, and it wasn’t scary it all, mostly just really funny! It also helped that our Activities Director from the University of Sussex, who is very amusing, kept randomly cackling in what was meant to be a creepy manner. After the tour, we stopped at a kebab place, but I had already eaten so a few other girls and I decided to come back another day to fully appreciate the kebabs. Now I’m off to bed so I can get up bright and early tomorrow morning to go to Stonehenge and Bath!

Leed's Castle

Another day off and another adventure! A girl in my class planned a trip to Leed’s Castle in Kent and invited the rest of us along, so five other girls (three from class and two others) and I set off for Kent this morning at nine. It was about a two hour train ride, but by the time we got there, the sky had cleared, the sun had come out and it was the perfect day for exploring a castle! Although the weather does change its mind quite rapidly here- there would be moments when I was freezing and moments when I was hot. On the grounds, there were gardens, duck ponds, peacocks, a moat, a maze, a dog collar museum, and of course the castle. We explored them all! In the gardens, I felt a bit like I was in the secret garden, but probably because I had read the book for class on the train there. The castle was very neat and I referenced Harry Potter too many times to count! We headed back in the late afternoon; I made myself dinner, and then went to work planning out my presentation for class tomorrow. After that, I hung out with some other friends and we talked about how sad it was that the Americans just don’t know what to do with their free time since we’re only taking one class right now and we’re not allowed to work a job. I’m not complaining though, I’m thoroughly enjoying this relaxing and fun part of my study abroad trip!

Getting into the Swing of Things

I woke up early today (8:30!) to get to class at 9, but was happy that my class was over at 11 and I had the rest of the afternoon free. I made lunch (UK version of Ramen noodles, a turkey sandwich, and grapes- I am such a good cook!) then read The Secret Garden outside on the lawn for a while. It was a bit chillier today though so I didn’t last too long. Then it was nap time, which is infinitely more enjoyable now that I’ve stuck a folded up duvet cover under my mattress cover so I’m no longer sleeping on what feels like concrete! I had a chance to talk to my Great Aunt who lives up in Manchester, and she told me some of the best places to visit. Then it was movie night for my class. I suggested that we order pizza, and although it wasn’t as good as American pizza, it tasted pretty good (and came with “potato wedges!”). For some reason, I'm hungry all the time here! We watched The Railway Children which we’ll read later in class. Then we were supposed to watch The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe but we had all already seen it (me more than everyone else I think!) so we headed out. I ran into some friends in the dorm and we hung out and colored with watercolor pencils, which was really fun. I also looked up my schedule for the rest of the term and it looks like I might just have two 2 hour classes on Monday and one 2 hour class on Wednesday, which would be really nice for traveling. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of reading for those classes though too!

A Bright Day in Brighton

Sorry this post was a bit delayed- the internet is very slow and unreliable! I didn’t have class today (Tuesday), but I did have some reading to do, so I decided the best place to do my reading was at the beach. It was another gorgeous day outside, so I hopped on the bus and took it down to the Brighton Pier. I read for a while on the pebble beach and watched all the other people swimming and lounging about. I heard one guy say “back to the ol’ grindstone” as he left which was quite amusing. Of course, I had to dip my feet in the ocean, even though the water was really cold! I finished reading Alice in Wonderland and decided to get a snack- so I got chips and ice cream right on the beach. Then I decided to explore the Pier itself, and found it full of food stands, arcade games and carnival rides! I unsuccessfully tried my hand at a game or two and would like to go back sometime to ride some of the rides. Next, I wandered over to the Royal Pavilion, one of the major landmarks of Brighton, and took a couple pictures (certain people might want to note the flowers). My next stop was Churchill Square, which is a big shopping center. Unfortunately, I didn’t remember how to get there, so I wandered around for a good thirty minutes or more until I came upon it. I noted later as I rode the bus home that if I had turned right instead of left at one intersection I could have cut my journey by about thirty minutes or more. Oh well, I worked off those chips alright! Some of you may know that I am not a big shopper and be questioning my desire to find a shopping center. Well, don’t worry, the real reason I wanted to go to Churchill Square was that I found out about the Build-A-Bear Workshop there! It was my one stop in the mall, but sadly I did not find a good English shirt for a certain special bear. I was getting pretty tired by this point, so I hopped on the bus and headed back to campus. A couple of hours later, I joined the rest of my program as we headed back into Brighton for Karaoke night at a pub there. It was fun, but there was no singing done on my part! Tomorrow I have class at 9am, so it’s back to the ol’ grindstone for me…until Thursday when I have another free day!

Labour on Labor Day

Today was the first day of my British Children's Lit class. It was two hours long (which was a bit rough for getting into classroom mode) but I'm loving the topic! There are only eight people in my class and only two of us are English majors. We only meet a total of eight times before the end of the class, so just this week I have to read three whole books (Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and The Secret Garden, oh and 5 chapters of David Copperfield), do a presentation in class on Friday, and we're having a viewing party of The Railway Children and The Chronicles of Narnia on Wednesday night! BUT I have all of Tuesday and Thursday off! I think it will be a good month to go exploring! It still doesn't feel like I'm at school. After class today, I went to ASDA, which is owned by Walmart for some supplies. I got most of what I needed and some more food- this whole cooking for myself thing is an adventure! After my trip to ASDA (which is near the Marnina, so I got to see the sea!) I came back to the University just in time to join in on a tour of Brighton, which is a good sized city just a couple miles outside of the University, and on the coast! The tour was a bit long and I don't think I'll remember half the places they pointed out, but then I got Chinese food for dinner! I miss Crabrangoons (and doughnuts from our buffet place at home) but I'm glad there is at least Chinese food to be found! I promise I'll eat English food eventually though! I definitely want to visit Brighton more extensively in the future espcially to take pictures of some gardens we passed through at the Royal Pavillion. The weather was really nice today- in the 60s! I hope this continues tomorrow so I can do some of my reading outside, but I'll take an umbrella just in case!

Day trip to LONDON!

My first time visiting London was very successful! We left around 8:20 this morning and rode on a bus about two hours into the city. Our first stop was McDonalds for breakfast which all the Americans found quite amusing. Then we walked around the city for a couple hours (led by atwo of the guys leading our program) before stopping at Trafalgar Square for lunch. Jena and I decided not to be too adventurous in our eating so we got Subway for lunch and ate it on the steps of the square- a little cross culture! Then we walked around for another couple of hours before heading back down to the Thames for a river cruise. Our guide was funny with his English sense of humor and we covered any sites we didn't quite make on foot. There is just too much to cover in words, but we saw everything from the Millenium Bridge (featured in the sixth Harry Potter book- not everyone was as completely excited as I was) to St. Paul's Cathedral (beautiful on a Sunday morning) to Buckingham Palace! I wanted to take a picture of everything! Included are a few of my favorite pictures. See more at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2036129&id=1192650694&l=7b4f05d838

Some Basics

Nothing too exciting is happening today, so I thought I would give some basics about my program. The English fall term runs from October to December, and they aren't tested on their material until the next term ends in June. This doesn't exactly fit with the American semester system, so the University of Sussex created a Sussex in September program where International Students can take one course during the month of September and get acquainted with the school. So that's what I'm doing right now! The class I'm taking is called Children's Literature, and it's all about Children's Lit written in Britain (we read Peter Pan, Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh, and more!) Then from October through December, the rest of the students fill out the University and I'll be taking English classes with them. The majority of the other international students are from the US so while I am looking forward to my September class, I'm also looking forward to getting a better grasp of English culture when term starts.

Now for a little bit about how my dorm is set up: I live in a single on the top floor with twelve singles in my hallway. There is a kitchen at one end and a row of bathrooms at the other. Unfortunately, the bathrooms are not the best set-up- there are two toilet rooms, one shower room, and two bathtubs (that cannot be showers). So this means there is only one shower for all of us! Right now, all the international students are housed in my dorm, but it's not full, so I heard that British students will fill the rest out in October. I hope this is the case so I can meet some British students outside of my classes! I have to cook all my own meals, so that will be a challenge, but luckily the kitchen is close and I've already gone to the supermarket on the bus to get some food.

It's very strange being in an English speaking country, but knowing that every time you open your mouth it's a dead give-away that you're a foreigner. Some things that I would do in a flash at home, I'm hesitant to do here, just in case it's wrong! Hopefully I'll get used to this! We've been lucky because it's been mostly sunny the whole time we've been here, and all the English are excited for the nice weather. All the Americans think it's a bit chilly for September though! Tomorrow we're off for a day trip to London!

What time is it??

I made it! After lots of good luck traveling on two planes, two trains and a shuttle, I arrived at my dorm, York House, at the University of Sussex in Falmer. I also got to check off another state that I've been to after spending three hours in the Atlanta Airport (if you were wondering, my last American meal was at Arby's). Then came the super long flight but my seatmate was very friendly and talkative and recommended some places to visit. They showed 17 Again and Star Trek and I watched both. They also fed us like there was no tomorrow and I ended up getting a stomach ache near the end of the journey :(. But then I was in England- we arrived at dawn and it was absolutely gorgeous! Unlike the farms I'm used to seeing out plane windows, there were no straight lines, and you could see lights twinkling in the little country houses scattered about the countryside. Getting through customs was a lot easier than I expected and my baggage was practically waiting for me when I got to the "baggage reclaim." Carrying all my luggage turned out to be the hardest part of my journey- those bags are heavy (and I'm on the third floor of my dorm so it was a challenge!) I met a couple of other Americans in the airport and we all took the trains together to Falmer where we were picked up and taken in two minutes to the University! I'm glad I know a couple people but right now I don't know where they are and I'm hungry for lunch! Good thing I packed four granola bars! All day as I've been unpacking I've been VERY confused as to the time since none of my electronic devises had it right. I've got my computer set now, but my international mobile phone is way off so I'll have to try to fix that. Also, it took me about an hour to connect to the internet here- it was very frustrating, but I hopefully won't have to do that again, and now I can post updates for all of you!

Time to leave the States

I leave Thursday, September 3rd for England and will update when I'm settled in at the University!