Ack! So it's been more than a week since I last (first?) blogged, but I just finally got internet in my room late Wednesday night. I've been trying to get all matters settled and I finally think I'm almost ready for classes to start on Monday. I'll give a run down on my last week and a half, and then probably tomorrow I'll post about my flat, flat-mates, and course schedule.

Ok, where did I leave off?

Monday September 22nd

After I wrote the last blog I trekked back to my hotel and sat in the lobby for a while before realizing that they were checking people in early. So I went and grabbed my key and stuff and struggled up to my room where I promptly woke up my hotel roommate who was about to take a nap because my key didn't work. I got settled and chatted with roomie. Her name is Athena and she attends University of Sussex with me. We just chatted for a while, then we both took naps- her because of the trip, me because I was kept up late/woken up early by some last-minute packing :D. Then we headed down to one of the conference rooms where they gave us a welcome talk, warned us about being safe in London and scared us with some horror stories. Then they set us free. Athena and I met up with two of the guys from the program and we wandered the streets of London looking for a pub. Once we finally found one I tried to keep everyone awake, we listened to American 90's music, and drank delicious strawberry beer (must find more of this Fruli).

Tuesday September 23rd

This was our main day of orientation. We were introduced to all the staff, played some English trivia (to try and learn some of the differences between America and England), talked more about safety, There was other stuff, but it must have been boring because I don't remember. The cool part was that they brought in two Members of Parliament, one from the House of Commons, and one from the House of Lords to discuss a little bit about how the British government works, some of the current British issues, feelings about Sarah Palin and Gordon Brown (neither favorable), and answered any questions we had. Very interesting. They were both hilarious and both really got into what they were talking about. I need to watch more British Parliament news. Then we went with the people who were going to be joining us at University and went out for a night with our advisor. There are only 3 other girls at Sussex with me going through the Arcadia program, so for the most of the orientation we spent time with students from London School of Economics, Lancaster, Westminster and Essex. But this evening it was just Sussex students and our advisor James who we decided looks like a young Pierce Brosnan, no joke, I think we have a picture somewhere of me pretending to be amazed to find myself sitting next to Pierce Brosnan, with a face lift. We went to the Museum of London, a "traditional English Pub" (meaning full of men in business suits?), through Jack the Ripper territory, and had delicious curry on Brick Lane which is a street that is basically just Indian and Bangladeshian food. Delicious! Then James got us lost and we were walking in dark alleys, so we ended the night on a high note haha.

Wednesday September 24th

We finished our oreientation talking about academics and voting abroad. I also paid for a trip that I will be taking later to Canterbury and Leeds Castles, so that'll be fun. Then Jessica, Athena, and I (all Sussex folk) went to the British Museum, Harrods, and a noodle dinner before heading to the Victorian Theatre to see Billy Elliot. Even though I had already been to the British Museum, I was really glad I was able to go and see some more of the exhibits I had missed, especially the more modern ones. Harrods was amazing and a little frightening. We saw a shawl on sale for ₤1200 (ie $2400). Yikes. Our noodle dinner was delicious, cheap and close to the theatre. Billy Elliot was AMAZING! One of the best stage shows I've ever seen. When it comes to America I highly recommend that everyone go and see it. Jess,It'll be in New York sometime in October…

Thursday September 25th

We caught a coach at 10:00 to take up to Southport (northwest England) where we were doing a homestay. We made it to Southport around 3:30 where my hostmom and her nephew picked me up. I just relaxed all evening, it was a much needed break from all the stuff I'd been doing.

Friday September 26th

My hostmom Tracy dropped me off at the train station around 9:00 where I met up with the rest of the group and we caught a train into Liverpool. Once we got there we went to the Maritime museum and saw their exhibits on stuff they've seized through customs, the Titantic and other famous ships that sank (Liverpool is a huge port town), and the international slavery museum (Liverpool had a large part in slave trade). Then we got lunch and tried to figure out how we were going to incorporate the Beatles into our visit in Liverpool. We went to the visitor information and the lady there told us about a tour we could do by taxi where we could go and visit all kinds of famous Beatles locations. This was really cool, it took about two and a half hours and we went to all kinds of places. The church where Paul McCartney went, all the houses of the members, Penny Lane, the bus shelter in the middle of the roundabout, Strawberry Fields, and we ended at the pub they used to play at before they became famous. It was really cool. Then we took the train back to Southport where I attempted to take a bus home, almost had a panic attack, and got myself lost and found in the middle of rural England. From there I just hung out with my host mom, chatted, went and visited her mom and more relaxing.

Saturday September 27th

I slept in for the first time in a while. I took the bus into Southport and shopped a little before meeting up with some girls from the group where we went and had lunch at a little French café, walked down this huge pier and went to the beach. It was low tide and the water was so far out! We walked back into town, did a little more shopping, then I took the bus back to my house. Later that night I went back into town with Tracy, and her son where we hung out while he waited for his girlfriend to get off work and I waited for the people from my group to make it into town. Then we went out to a bar with almost the whole group of us. I caught a ride home my host brother. I really didn't bring appropriate wear for going out here, girls go all out! It was freezing cold and I saw more bare legs than I see during the summer in the PNW! There is also a pretty strict dress code, one of the guys almost didn't get let in because he was wearing sneakers. I think I'm going to need to purchase some heels while I'm here…

Sunday September 28th

Big travel day. We caught the coach back to London at 9:30, made it into London at 3:00-3:30 where our coach driver told us some story about not being able to get any closer to our train station and dropped me and the other Sussex girls on some random street corner, pointed us in a vague direction, and took off. We get to the station and it turns out to be the wrong one, so we have to take another train to get to a different station. Once there we had just missed the train, so we wait and from there we catch a train going toward Brighton. Since our University isn't in Brighton from there we have to catch a train to Falmer, which is the University's train station. Ok, so by this point it's like 7:00ish. We're exhausted from lugging our suitcases all over (especially because between the four of us we had 10 suitcases, not inclusing purses or backpacks). Then we learn that the mini-coach we expected to take us to our residences is no longer running and we have to walk all the way across campus to our dorms. Ugh. Luckily a couple different people help us and we make it to our dorms and check in before the Porter (the person who runs reception for our dorm) leaves. We get our keys and struggle into our rooms where I meet my flat-mates looking like I just got run over by the train I was riding in. I unpacked the best I could, met up with Jessica and Athena and tried to find something to eat for dinner, hung out, and fell into bed.

Monday September 29th

I finished unpacking, and attended a welcome talk for international students. A huge ratio of the students here are international students, it was interesting to learn that. Then Athena, Jessica, Jason (a guy who heard us talking, and asked if we were American- he's from Texas) went into Brighton to get some needed things. It was weird though because it was a major freshman year flashback, I was buying things like mugs and hangers. But Brighton is beautiful and the pier is really cool. We struggled back with all our purchases and then quickly got ready to go out and do this international students pub crawl where they took us around to some of the pubs in Brighton. This was really cool and I got to meet a lot of different people. One Icelandic girl I met is going to be in a class with me, so that'll be fun. Then I fell into bed exhausted.

Tuesday September 30th

The have a fair on campus called the Freebies fair where you basically just go and pick all kinds of free stuff. It was pretty lame, but I did get a lot of reusable canvas shopping bags. Then I had two academic talks. One for everyone and then one specific to the school of Humanities. Then I went and ran some errands around campus, like talking to IT services about my computer. I got back to my flat and my flat-mates were all sitting around, so I joined them and we all just chatted. We had a kitchen meeting with our RA a little after that, and then Athena, Jessica and I trekked into town on the bus and tried to find a grocery store since none of us had eaten properly since Sunday. I forgot how easy it is to get groceries when you have a car, and how difficult with the bus. Plus all the food here is made with less preservatives so it doesn't last long at all! Ugh! Haha, I want that high-fructose corn syrup back in my bread so it lasts longer than a week! Not really, but I'm going to be spending a lot of time at the grocery store I think since my milk expires in a week, as does my bread. I got back and my flat-mates were hanging out with our neighbors and playing poker so I just hung out with them.

Wednesday October 1st

I was having a hard time connecting my computer to the residence internet (just like when I moved into Western…) so I took my laptop over to IT services with my flatmate Sarah around 9:00 and we both got fixed up and registered. I ran a ton of errands and did boring things like laundry and buying school supplies all afternoon. I also went to a talk put on by the IT Services people and learned how to use technology at Sussex. Then Athena came over and we hung out with my flat-mates.

Thursday October 2nd

LAZY DAY! I accidentally missed my library tour (I thought it was later), so I took that as a sign that I should finish the last of my unpacking (after FINALLY getting hangers… it was like the search for the Holy Grail trying to find hangers in this city!) and catching up on some tv and reading and relaxing. More hanging out in the evening.

Today

Today has been another catch up day, emails and updating information, registering with the US Embassy. And I watched the Project Runways I've missed :D Tonight there is this HUGE festival they call Freshers Ball which is apparently the biggest one in the country, but it costs ₤25 so I've put off buying the tickets but all my flat-mates are going and want me to go so I think I probably will. I need to go buy tickets soon I think. Actually sitting down and writing this blog was a huge thing on my list. And seeing that it is as long as it is, my eyes and fingers hurt, I think it's time to sign off.

If you've made it this far, congrats! You must like me :) Hopefully from now on they will be much shorter and just details of my life at University in England.

'Til next time,

Mandie