Sunday, June 5, 2011

Lesson's learned...

First thing's first...

Rule #1: ALWAYS CARRY A MAP WITH YOU, YOU WILL GET LOST!

Us, Lost.
When we were on our way to orientation, Thursday I believe my friend Amy and I managed to get lost from our flat to campus, which is less than a mile away. We must have made a wrong turn and ended up doing a very large unnecessary circle. We managed to get there, a little late and sweaty but all in all we made it. We have determined that you ALWAYS need to have a handy dandy map in your bag because you will get lost, and it's not that hard to get lost. If you think you know where you're going and going by memory how to get somewhere, you are probably wrong.

Rule #2: DON'T LISTEN TO THE BOUNCER AT THE DOOR...

It was Friday night, there was a bunch of us who decided to go out, and yes we had fun and danced like crazy American's but Amy and I were very tired from a long day and wanted to head home and go to sleep. We had asked one of the kids who has been here for 8 months how to get home and because the music was so loud we weren't sure what he had said so we decided to ask the bouncer which way to go to get to the bus stop we needed to be at. He was obviously clueless because he told us to go in the complete opposite direction from where we needed to go. After walking for quite awhile we FINALLY came to a bus stop, and attempted to read the bus map but the light in the stop was out. Fail. We continued walking, which wasn't really a walk it was more of a power walk. We finally decided we were completely lost, but in a very pretty area. Evidently we were right around the corner from Buckingham Palace and we didn't even know it! (we should have taken a detour and had a slumber party with the queen). We got directions from a lovely chap, who obviously could tell we were dumb American's completely incapable of reading a map correctly. He pointed us in the right direction, and we ended up taking a wrong turn again...which ended up biting us in the butt because well...we missed the bus we needed to get on. We finally got to the correct bus stop, but had to wait 26 minutes in the cold at about 2am to get on the bus (longest 26 minutes in the world). All you could do though was just laugh. We finally made it home at about 3am, of which everyone we were with and we left early was already home and changed. I mean we finally got home, and had an adventure that I'm sure no one else can say they had!

Rule #3: NEVER BELIEVE THE FORECAST, AND HAVE AN UMBRELLA.

Sweet Pancake!
Savory Pancake!
Fish and Chips!
Today, Sunday, a few of us met up for some pancakes. Not your normal fluffy pancakes, they were Swedish pancakes that were either savory or sweet. Let me just tell you they were HUGE! We ordered one sweet (fresh fruit salad), and one savory (lamb stew) and split between 3 of us. Plenty. After that we had decided to go to the Dickens house and museum. Got lost and ended up at St. Pauls Cathedral. Let me just tell you how breath-taking the inside is. Yes, the outside is wonderful and very eye catching, but the inside was amazing. I will definitely be going back to do a tour when it isn't a Sunday. It felt as though something overpowered me in there and I was speechless. We then decided to go to a local coffee shop and we sat there talking for about 2 hours like old friends catching up. It was quite lovely. As we were sitting in there it had started to rain, pretty hard (The weather called for 70 and sunny, it was about 65 and rainy). We then were going to a pub just to sit down and hang out again, you would too if you had been walking as much as we have the last 4 days! After walking FOREVER in the rain we finally came to a pub, closed. Walked a little more, the pub served thai food, walked more and finally came to The Eagle and finally had fish and chips! We were dripping wet, and cold but hey it was worth it and we had another adventure! And let me just say how horrible of a choice they made in choosing their sidewalks. They get very slippery in the rain, I almost went down about 10 times.
Inside St. Pauls Cathedral. 


Outside St. Pauls Cathedral.
Tomorrow is my first day on the job (listen to me, its like i'm living here or something). It will be weird not being the "tourist" I will actually be living and working here. Weird. But something I am sure you're all wondering is what does it look like where I live...well here are pictures.
Thoresby House (where I live)

My Desk.


Little baby sink.

Bed.
Closet.

 Nothing great but I guess it does the job!

I have to be to work at 8:30am, hope it goes well

xoxo

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