London

So today I experienced my first time in London! I was completely exhausted so I probably could have gotten more out of it, but we plan on going back. Yesterday I tagged a bunch of friends who are studying in London now in a Facebook status telling them I did not have a phone and was leaving it up to fate whether or not I would see them there. As soon as I got to London and made it to the tube, I look over and see one of my really good friends from high school who I had wanted to see! (For those of you who may know him, Thomas Murray). It was insane that we just happened to be in the same place at the same time in such a huge city.

The main things we did during the day were go to see the Buckingham Palace, Abbey Road, Big Ben, and the London Eye. There were unfortunately no police men at the palace outside to harass. Abbey Road was amazing and blew my mind, and Big Ben was seriously the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Seeing it at night was that much better.

For lunch we went to a small English restaurant which was pricey, a hamburger was 9 pounds!! So I can "chips" aka french fries, and chicken wings (which were TINY! they don't do it like us Americans). Riding the tube around all day was harder work than I thought! If you don't know where you're going, you will get run over by someone walking by you. At the end of the day everyone was on top of each other face to face on the tube because it was so crowded. On the ride home I fell asleep every time we sat down after transferring trains or buses.

I really love being here, but I am already realizing how much I love home and Le Moyne. I wouldn't take a thing back about the experience thus far and I know it will be a great 5 months, but I realize I am such an American through and through. I like being loud, eating hamburgers, and wearing sweatpants to class.

I should probably start thinking about school work?

What a blur.

So, after much anticipation, I am FINALLY here in England! I have been insanely busy, I don't think I have ever had so much to do so quickly in the span of one week. I figured a blog would be the best way to communicate with everyone so that I don't have to retell stories over and over, and as I am horrible with email, I can update you in an easier way!

Where to begin? The traveling was probably the worst day of my entire life. First we got on a plane to Philly, and from there we flew into London Heathrow, with a delay in Amsterdam because of the "horrible weather." Yeah, try about two flurries in the sky that could only be seen with a large telescope. The weather here really isn't bad at all. A little chilly, but NOTHING like upstate New York! Once we got to Heathrow, we realized we had missed our bus and had to reschedule and wait an hour. Once we got on the bus, we then got dropped at Stansted airport where we had to wait yet another hour. To give you an idea of how long we traveled, I left my house at 1 pm on Tuesday and did not step foot on Essex campus until 8 pm on Wednesday. I was completely exhausted. When we got to campus, we had absolutely no idea where we were going. (And by we, I mean Jelyse and I). Luckily we ran into two nice girls who were also students there that helped us with all of our luggage that we had to drag uphill about two miles. I have never sweat so much or been so sore. We wanted to give up and die. We finally got our room keys and went to drop our things off, then had to go pick up our packages with all of our bedding etc. Which involved more backbreaking carrying across campus. I soon discovered I did not receive any pots or pans, which was what led me to cry for the first time. I had never been so stressed in my life. No internet, no phone, no way to contact my parents. So security knocked on my door at 12 am to tell me my dad had called to see if I was safe. I frantically tried to get my email to work, which somehow miraculously did while nothing else did. I did not sleep at all that night and I wanted to take the next plane home.

The next day we had to go to orientation, which involved pretty boring routine stuff. We ended up meeting a lot of really cool people from all over the place! We all hung out later that night in one of the new people's flats and had a party of sorts. We met several other Americans, Canadians, a lot of people from France, a few girls from Australia, one from New Zealand, and a bunch of other places. The next day we went into Cambridge and walked around, went to the public market, went to lunch at the best Indian restaurant I have ever had, and saw the sites. It was a tiring day because we were all still extremely jet lagged.

As the title indicates, everything after that was really a blur and I usually do not know what day or time it is. But I highly doubt that surprises anyone. We all hung out the next couple of nights, went to different clubs, and went out to eat at different places. As of this point I have already spent about 600 American dollars...I'm clearly going to have to slow down. It is also really weird that I can buy alcohol here, although my hideous ID does get strange looks when I have to show it. OH. And I've already been stolen from. Our first night out in town (Colchester is about 10 minutes from the Uni) I had about 50 pounds stolen from me, and some of my flatmates have stolen some of my lunch meat and a pot....I have no idea who and why. But it led to a minor breakdown on skype with my parents this morning.

My flat isn't amazing like I hoped...almost everyone here is from Pakistan and no one is very interested in having a new American friend. I mainly just stay in my room when I'm here and Facebook and Skype everyone (that is when I'm not out having fun). My flat has 11 people in it, and the two people at my end of the hall are boyfriend and girlfriend, and us three share a bathroom. It's awkward. I learned that I HATE cooking. I burn almost everything I make and I've eaten almost an entire jar of peanut butter in one week. I cannot wait to have a homecooked meal again. I have been pretty much living in either Jelyse's flat or my new Aussie friend Joanna. Her flat is so much fun and there is always something going on there. I love the Brits, they are all awesome. Everyone here tells me my accent is impossible to understand and I have already gotten many comments about how loud I "apparently" am. I also got to speak in French for a while with the Frenchies, which was so much fun. I love that Essex is so international, because I have literally met people from all over the world.

I feel like I have had to grow up so much in the span of less than two weeks. Everyone here is so adult and put together. Finding classes and registering was a nightmare, and although people are friendly when you ask for help, you really have to take everything into your own hands. My professors don't even had out the syllabuses, we have to get them ourselves from the department of the class we are in. I am taking a sociology class on the media, the psychology of depression (and listening to my teacher talk makes me depressed...he is the most unpersonable person I have met here so far), the history of psychology, and death, God, and the meaning of life, which is the best class ever. Classes here are very hard, and I learned that Essex is one of the best schools in England. Our only grade is one final exam at the end, and instead of being given a textbook to buy, we are giving pages of "recommended readings" from which you do your own work and pretty much form your own thoughts. It is going to be really hard. I have yet to open (or for that matter, buy) a book yet; my biggest struggle was getting out of bed to go to class every day knowing I was going to get lost and probably fall asleep because of the never ending jetlag I experienced. I'm going to try to do all of this next week and be a legit student.

I'm really excited for this weekend. Tomorrow is a cowboys and Indians themed night and Saturday we are going to London!! And tomorrow I am finally going to get a cell phone. It is so weird because at home I am glued to my phone, and now I don't miss it AT ALL. It's nice walking around without checking my phone constantly.

That's all for now, more to come soon! xxx (this is the way that everyone in England ends a letter or message, pretty much the same as xoxo)