Sunday, Day 2

Transit this morning was a breeze. Between my roomie and me, we had it pretty much down. Orientation meeting was this morning at the University of London. Had a safety talk by a Sargent in local police. He was quite entertaining and made fun of us at the same time. He was hilarious. He warned us about the fake taxi cabs that they are having a problem with these days so I was glad of that. Especially if I am going to go to theatre and get tired and want to take a taxi home instead of the bus.

Next, we had a talk about transit from Sara from AIFS and a talk about our home-stay families and guidelines from Penny. She is a sweetie from what I can tell.
Lunch next. Ate in a cool and really yummy place called Pret A Manger which seems to be a chain of little soup and sandwich places. I don't know how widespread they are but they had natural sodas that were awesome so I hope they have them all over! I had the ginger beer. So yummy!!!

After Lunch, we met up for a bus tour of London which was a bit of a repeat for me of my last trip to London. The cool thing is, this time I get to stay and enjoy it and explore it longer! I took lots of video today which I will post on my youtube (Lissagirl99) hopefully tonight. So go check that out. I don't promise that it was any good and there are a lot of little videos. I am not an experienced editor yet so they may be just awful but hopefully it will help you to see a little bit of what I saw today. Sean was our tour guide and he was very helpful and was mindful of what we as students would be interested in knowing so I liked him.

After the tour, we stopped at Tesco for a few groceries and I hoped to get a hairdryer and some allergy meds but all the shops closed by six so we just came on home.

Ursula is my roomie and she is great so far. We really seem to be getting along and I hope it stays that way. We are both having a great time and I am not feeling homesick yet. I don't know that I really will unless something bad happens and I don't think it will. Love to you all and take care!

Pre-trip update!!!

Had London Study Abroad Orientation yesterday down at Edmonds Community College. Stayed up too late the night before and was tired. They had coffee (which I don't drink) and proper English tea (apparently brought over from London, which I tried. I guess I have never had that kind and could only manage to take one sip because it was one of the most bitter things I have ever tasted. Guess I should have realized that it isn't herbal (which I love, peppermint is my favorite and chamomile is a close second.)

A lovely lady from the AIFS office in London flew over just for our orientation so that was nice. She was a frank, entertaining, and tell-it-like-it-is person.(and had awesome taste in shoes!) I hope all of the others are similar and we will get along just fine.

I felt like quite a nerd yesterday once I realized that I already knew most of what they were telling us in the orientation and found I had done way more research than anyone else there. I'm the nerd that read all of the material before hand (including the student manual). ugg! Oh, well. I really can't blame myself. I have been really excited and to pacify myself until September 24th (the day I fly out!!!), I have been reading, watching, and listening to anything that might possibly be related to my trip. I know what sights are open and when, the basic makeup of the government, and even have planned to meet some people from the travbuddy website. But the point is, I felt way over-prepared once I got there but will probably still keep up the research. I like knowing what I am to see and most importantly, how to save the most money. (I am going to have a lot less money than I was planning on while there and my budget is almost unbearably tight!!! I am really worrying about it. But I am sure it will all work out if I plan well.)

Up next...the joys of packing for 3 months and fitting it into a little suitcase!