Friday 1/15 - Day 4

Still not used to the jet lag today, & both my roommate Karly & I were a little late getting out of the house and to school. Only time for a banana for breakfast on the way out. Whoops. We found our way a little more quickly & easily this time, & went back to the classroom that was starting to become very familiar to us at this point. We had more orientation with people talking to us about protocol and procedures, then lunch time again. I decided to go to IT to try and get my wireless figured out, and somehow, with a combination of the two of them and myself playing with it, it worked, so I was able to have functional wireless at school. Win. A history professor showed up right after lunch to basically answer any questions we had about the school or the classes. He was very personable, & basically told us that we're having the experience of a lifetime, & to take classes we enjoyed, & not sweat the small stuff. I think I like this attitude already. The rest of orientation was basically the homestay kids and the kids not from UW paying for their bills, so we sat around & waited for the tour lady to come back. She did, & we were able to pay for all of our trips. My travel schedule (so far) is as follows:

Sunday, January 24: Oxford

Wednesday, January 27: "Oliver" on Broadway

Saturday, January 30: Cambridge

Saturday-Sunday, January 13-14: Wales

Saturday, January 27: Stratford

Friday-Sunday, March 5-7: Paris

Saturday, March 13: Stonehenge

The four of us walked to the Strawberry Hill rail station to get our rail passes that allow us to travel cheaply. The ticket-taker was hysterical, & was joshing us the entire process. We walked into Twickenham from there to get the phones sorted out. I found a plan that allows me to call the US for 7p a minute, which isn't bad. Funnily enough, it's more expensive to call in the UK than it is to call internationally. We decided to walk to Teddington to find a pub to eat (and drink) at. It was quite a long walk, but we found one. We ordered two pizzas. One, called the "Sunshine," consisted of pineapple, tomato, chicken, garlic, oregano, & ...sweet corn. But it was delicious. We also tried out some English beer called "London Pride," but it was awful & I left half a glass on the table when we left.

We tried to find a cafe that was open on the walk back, but everything was closed. We went to the local Tesco, kind of like a Walmart, but this was on a smaller scale, more like a grocery store, and did a little bit of shopping. Kaitlin & I dropped Kim & Danielle off at their house, which is right off of the main drag in Teddington, & walked back to the streets we actually knew, passing a really awesome, old cemetery on the way.

When I got back to my house, I was able to video chat with some people, which is always nice. I organized my room, & tried to get caught up with travel plans from Richie, my friend that's been in France since September. I went to bed very excited and very optimistic about the rest of my time here.

And so ends Day 4.