...And I'm Here

OK, so instead of sending out emails, I'm going to post on this blog. This way, you can check it if/when you're interested and I can also post some pictures and stuff... and I'll have a written diary of my trip (or parts of it... this is a family blog). So, here we go (by the way, most of my posts will NOT be this long):

Sunday, the first day, sucked because I only managed to get maybe two hours of sleep on the plane and they wouldn’t give us time to nap/relax when we got there, so as the day wore on I became increasingly achy/exhausted/emotional, and then I was jet lagged through the night and into the next day, and I felt really sick and gross. Not a terrific transition, and they didn’t give us a chance to breathe (or go food shopping--makes sense, huh? Let’s survive on water!). The beginning of the program is really poorly organized (everyone’s annoyed with it), but now that we’ve been here a few days, at least the jet lag is over.

Monday we went on a Thames boat ride and got to see a lot of stuff from the water, like Big Ben (which is the name of the bell, incidentally, and not the actual clock tower) and the Tower of London. Not so great for the jet lag tummy, but kind of interesting. That night we had a big opening-night pub thing. Tuesday and Wednesday we had really boring academic lectures on Britain’s history, England’s government, blah blah blah. But Tuesday after the lectures I went with a group to Piccadilly Circus (I learned that Circus means Circle). It was dark so it was all lit up and very pretty. Got to go to Topshop, which is like a "discount" fashion store (Kate Moss has a line there). Very cool. Wednesday night we went to the Imperial College pub (it’s our neighbor school over here… I’ve been told it’s like the MIT of England, all maths and science, but there were plenty of cute guys at the pub and that hasn’t been my--or anyone else’s--experience from MIT parties… so yeah).

Today, Thursday, was my first class day. My Core class for journalism seems really awesome... it’s British Journalism, Culture, and Politics. Classes are 4 hours, 2 days/week, and I’m having a whole class on the Royal Family (it’s called "Charles, the Crown, and Camilla"... hahaha). There’s a lot of internet focus, and it seems really interesting. Every Wednesday at noon the House of Commons has this thing called PMQ (Prime Minister's Questions) and the two main parties sit on opposite sides and ask the PM questions and he HAS to answer, and he doesn’t get to pick who asks and he gets no preparation (well, he always has to be prepared). It’s awesome. And everyone cheers and boos and laughs and yells while people are talking. We should totally do it that way in America. It makes politics INTERESTING.

Other things I learned in my first few days:

1. Field Hockey is just called Hockey here. And it's a boys' sport.
2. It's not nice to call someone a bellhead. I won't define it, but go to urbandictionary if you're curious.
3. They don't seem to have EasyMac.

There's probably more to add to that list but I can't think. Oh, and I just booked a trip to Scotland for next weekend. Leaving right after my interview at FHM. Yay!


Cheerio, mates.