The second week consisted of more orientation, sightseeing and going out. As for sightseeing I checked out the National Portrait Gallery. It had an exhibit on PopArtArtists, but we were all too cheap to pay the extra fee, so we roamed around the rest of the museum all afternoon. Jill, Val and I had some afternoon tea in the basement café, so we were well rested to see one of my favourite parts of London: the shops! I know that's really lame, but there are so many new places for me to discover.

That night the guys in the flat next to us planned a little excursion out.We went to Absolut Ice Bar in Piccadilly Circus. It's a chain but I think there are only about 5-10 of them in the world. You have to make a reservation and they warn you in advance that you can only stay in there for about 45 minutes because of the cold. We got there are paid our entrance fee. With this we received: Thermal ponchos with fur lined hoods, ski gloves and one free drink. Then you walk into to this little bar where everything is ice (and I mean everything). It was everything from the bar itself, to the walls (which were also adorned with interesting sketches of John Travolta in full disco mode), to the benches (but they were lined with fur so it wasn't too cold), the glasses and so much more. When we got to the point where we felt like our noses were going to fall off we left and moved to Tiger Tiger (when referring to it you must say it with an Australian accent). We danced there some more before calling it a night.

Later in the week I was museum-ed out so I decided to change it up about and just roam around outside. Melissa, Val and I decided to go to Kensington Gardens. The weather was gloomy, but that's London for you. We cut across the park and just wandered looking at everything. I discovered that the Queen owns every swan in England. Also there was a crazy bird lady at a pond. It was very Mary Poppins-esque. She was literally walking into the water and had 50 birds flocking towards her and eating out of her hands. We walked by and took pics of Kensington Palace. We didn't stop in this time because we were tired, but I will be back.

I had my interview for my job during this week. I am working for The Scout Association. It is semi-similar to Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts in the US expect it is not separated; it's coeducational. And before you even ask: NO, I will not get unlimited cookies. I'm not sure if they even sell them. I know it is a shame. As for the actual interview it was quite a trip. Typically, anywhere you go in London on the tube will not take more than an hour. I, however, did not know the area I was going and did not want to be late so I gave myself two hours to get the interview. According to my 'directions' I had to take the tube across the city to an over-ground train. From there I would take the over-ground train to a town called Chingford where The Scout Association Shuttle would be waiting for me. I made it to Chingford and it was a lot longer than I expected. I got there around 1:40, twenty minutes before my interview began. It was here I found out that Chingford is not even in London. It is a small town outside the city, so naturally there was nothing around. After some wandering I asked one of the workers there if the knew of the Scout Shuttle, but they had no idea what I was talking about.The person I was supposed to contact (incase there was no shuttle) was not picking up. The lady at the station did know where The Scout Association was, so she gave me directions and told me it was about a 15 minute; I had 11 minutes to get there. I started to run.

Of course it was drizzling (as it always is) and I was in a suit and heavy coat. I'm running down the street and there are forest preserves on the side of me. I see a sign for cattle crossing as well. Then about two minutes later I've entered a small community and there are houses on both sides of me. I just keep thinking where the hell am I? I finally get ahold of the office and they say someone is on the way to pick me up. As I am about to hang out a car stops on the side of the road and says, "Are you Emily?" So naturally I say yes and hop in. Really safe I know. They drive me to the office (which is a lot farther than a ten minute walk) and I have my interview. It lasts a whole ten minutes and I go back on my hour and a half commute home.

Since I got to be all touristy during my first two weeks we decided to take a small overnight trip to Oxford before class and work started.Melissa, Val and I left Saturday morning. We got there and checked into our lovely little hostel. Little did we know we booked a non-exclusive room, and we were going to have 2 roomies that night. We dropped off our stuff and started wandering the city. Oxford is a really pretty school. It has 39 colleges and they are all independent from each other (which I did not know. I thought it was one really big school). We didn't have much of an itinerary so we wandered around a lot.

We started off wandering through the city. We made our way into this cute little covered market. It had a little bit of everything in there.We walked by a cake shop with big glass windows so we could watch what they were doing. The four of us probably stood there for about half 'n hour. The cakes were so intricate and fun. They had a 21st birthday cake topped with a pair of high heels, a civil union wedding cake, little mini cakes with Valentines on them, and all the decorations were made out of edible, sugary products. Then we went next door to dine on some delicious traditional English food, fish and chips. It was really good, but I think I had my fill for the next few months.

We left the town area and headed into the heart of campus. We walked by the Bodleian Library. It houses more books than any other place in the UK and nobody is allowed to check out a book. We also looked at All Souls, New College and so much more. The one place we actually toured was Christ Church. We walked through the dining hall and hallways were Harry Potter was filmed and saw the different parts of the church (like the Chapel) that were the inspirations for Alice in Wonderland.

We were exhausted after all the wandering so we went back to the hostel.I decided to go down and check out the TV room. There was a free couch in there and a movie was on so I lied down. I was soooo excited to have an actual couch to lay on (considering our flat refuses to get one) and I quickly passed out. I woke up and went back to the room and got ready for dinner.J

ill, Val and I went to grab dinner and let Melissa sleep.We went The Bear; it was the first pub in Oxford, established in 1242. It is a tiny two room bar adorned with thousands of tie clippings. The Bear had a deal where if they could have a clipping of your tie, you would get a free pint. Sadly, they do not offer this anymore. We sat down and had a pint and ordered dinner. Surprisingly, I had the best burger I have had in Europe there.

Another group from our program also went down to Oxford for the night so we planned to meet them at Turf's Tavern. To get to Turf's you turn down this small little alleyway and it opens up into a huge tavern.We found the other group (and Melissa) and grabbed a table in the beer garden outside (luckily it was really warm out). Turf's is also one of the oldest taverns in Oxford. It was Bill Clinton's favourite hang out when he was a student there. An old Prime Minister of Australia was also a big fan of the place and once drank a yard of beer from there in 11 seconds. That's two and a half pints!

Melissa informed us that our other roommates had arrived while she was getting ready to leave.They were, uhm, interesting characters. We left to go back, and by the time we got home our roommates were already asleep.They were gone by the time I woke up, so I never had the chance to meet them.We went to walk around Oxford some more before we left, but the weather was gloomy and wet, and nothing was open so we headed caught an early bus back to London.