Family and London

This weekend was the Women's Retreat for the European conference...or something like that. A whole bunch of women, mostly from the UK, gathered for meetings where the main speaker was my very own mother. Consequently, my whole family has been here, in Bracknell, since Friday, and will be leaving tomorrow morning. This is awesome because they've helped bus me around and get me settled in during my first week and have been providing a super comfy bed, hot buffet breakfast, and a never-ending supply of tea and cookies here at a local hotel. It has definitely made my transition easier!

Friday afternoon was my first official outing to the city of Bracknell. 2 miles away, took us about 30-40 minutes to walk there. There were four of us that went: Tara (my super sweet roomie from VA), Rebecca (from CO), and Julia (from FL). We walked in to the Odeon theaters to see Dorian Gray, a movie that is apparently only out in the UK, or something like that, because none of us had heard about it back in the states. It was staring Ben Barnes ("Caspian" in Prince Caspian) and Collin Firth (from lots of stuff), and we all were familiar with Oscar Wilde's story of Dorian Gray and were curious about it. Unfortunately it was kind of a downer. I guess it was well done, and stayed true to the subject matter, it was just very very dark, as those of you who are familiar with the tale may know. Anyway, it was a good outing. We will definitely be frequenting the theater again, especially since I have a brand of phone that gets a free companion ticket every Wednesday, Tara's and my most free day!

Saturday was pretty uneventful. Walked to church from the hotel in heels, and got blisters. I realized 1 mile seems a lot farther when you're wearing heels. Heard my momma preach, and it was good (no biblical pun intended). Walked into town with Kristin (my sister's best friend from LSU originally from CO who's here at Newbold) and saw the local market that sells cheap candy and porn in a kid's book corner :/. Then we got Aero McFlurry's from McDonalds! So exciting. If you've never had an Aero bar, then you wouldn't understand. Aero bars are like, airy bubbly chocolate bars that you can almost feel crunch as you bite down through the layers of chocolate and air pockets. In a McFlurry, it was divine!

Sunday was full of adventure! Kristin, her boyfriend Chris (also from LSU and CO), my sister, and I decided to go in to London for the day. Going in as a group got us a cheap rate, but the hour-long trip in to London made us tired. Fortunately, there was an incredibly brisk (I'm trying to say this in the most positive way possible) wind that helpd wake us up when we got off the train. In fact, it was FREEZING for most of the day. Us girls ended up purchasing scarves to keep us warm.
In any matter, since we were trying to be frugal, we decided to hit the free spots (museums, since most are free) and walk everywhere. We walked from the Waterloo train station, by the London Eye, across the bridge in front of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben, all the way up the Thames until we got to Savoy Street. It was here that fate found us, and pointed our heads up the street to the top of the hill where a Starbucks was located, perfectly framed in the middle of the street. A warm cup of American coffee and a free bathroom; it was meant to be.
I have decided that all American drive throughs are better in Europe. McDonalds is super nice and a great dine-in experience. Pizza Hut is even a nice sit-down restaurant with better dishes. Starbucks, too, is for the person who wants to sit and enjoy good drink and food. From falafel sandwhiches, to croque monseur paninis and blueberry cheesecake, Starbucks is a completely different dining experience where your drink is actually more expensive if you want to get it "take-away" style in our common paper to-go cups. People just value dining more than Americans seem to.
In any event, we continued on through Covent Garden to see the street performers, including a "magician" who had chained himself up and was balancing on the top of a ladder. It was interesting, because instead of passing around a hat politely he actually told people to pay. 5 pounds, he said, should be good, it's worth that much if you've enjoyed yourself. I've just never been in a situation where the performers have really almost made you feel bad for not giving them money.
After Covent Garden, we waked up to the British Museum. This place is huge. It's interesting, because in Turkey, I was going crazy at the different museums, reading everything and trying to soak up as much information as possible, yet here there was no way to do that. You would literally have to come in every day for a week to look at and appreciate everything. There's just so much there. Everything is of some significance, everything has a story behind it, everything there is old and special and went through a lot to get a place in those cases. Being in Turkey taught me to appreciate these things, and I found it so hard to do here at the British Museum. We spent two hours there, and that was just walking through the different displays and rooms, rarely stopping for more than a minute or two to read the placards or take a closer look at an item. We saw the Rosetta Stone, and the Easter Island statue, as well as mummified Egyptian Corpses and an ancient clock collection. Honestly, I would have spent days there if I could have. Simply amazing.
By this time we were starving, so we walked back down to the Covent Garden area to a pub and we got our fish and chips with mushy peas (Alisa got a bean burger...yum..lol). Yummy, of course. Then we went to meet up with one of Kristin's friends who is going to school in London and to shop a bit. There's a really neat store over here called Octopus, it has a whole bunch of random accessories and household things made out of things you wouldn't expect (or just really cute unique designs). I bought a watch there that looks like a belt buckle, since I didn't have one yet, but its rubber/plastic, so it smells awful and I don't really want to wear it yet. Maybe once it looses the smell....
After this we went to Paul Bakery, my most absolute favorite food shoppe in the world. I love it. I'm addicted to it. Theres nothing better in the world than the fresh bread and scrumptious pastries served here daily! It completely made my day!!
We then headed back across the Thames towards Waterloo. There was the Thames Festival going on, so we decided to see what was up and what attractions there were. There were tons of little booths set up, ranging from vegetarian indian food, to fine ales, to 2nd hand leather items (some rather nice), to herb gardens, to fudge, to crafts, it was incredible. There were so many people there, it was very crowded. There were also a lot of street performers here, too, entertaining people in between booths. There was a main stage area set up on the huge lawn behind the London Eye where a pretty bad beat boxer was performing.
We stood there for a while, and all of a sudden a swarm of people to the right caught my eye. I looked, and amongst them was a verrry tall black guy wearing purple and gold walking towards a fence. I'm from the LA area so of course, the first thing I assume is it's a basketball player, a Laker, and I ran towards him to get a better look. By the time I got there he and the other people with him had snuck through the metal fence, leaving a screaming crowd of girls behind. I asked a girl who it was that we had just seen, and she replied "Diversity." I have never heard that name before so I shrugged it off, rather disappointed. Yet the longer we stayed, people all over were talking about it, how Diversity had so randomly popped up, and you could always hear some group of girls screaming somewhere. Come to find out, Diversity is a dance crew. The dance crew that beat Susan Boyle for the #1 act in Britain's Got Talent. The guy I had seen was one of the dancers, and purple is their main color. Go figure. There you have it, the first "famous" person I've seen while here in England.
We all slept on the train ride back to Bracknell. It was an exhausting and very chilly day.

Now my family is gone. They left this morning. Now it's just me left alone to cope with the spiders in our dorm room. It's alright, I think they've helped me get enough of a start that'll get me through these next 3 months. I really don't know what I'd do without them!

It's been rather nice here, besides the spiders (found one in the toilet today, crawling up the bowl, right as I was about to sit down...one of my biggest fears realized. awesome). Brisk, chilly wind, and beautiful billowing clouds. Hot tea and cookies, rosy cheeks and big smiles. There's just so much to learn and love from this place..I'm so excited!

At the end of the day though, I still love the city more. London is just sooo diverse and so pretty! There's a lot of history and art here, the city just has a refined sense of culture to it. Very classy. I've also come to the conclusion that you must be wealthy to live in London, as trendy clothing is all the more expensive when its cold. You need more layers, more jackets (and you can't just have one jacket or coat), more scarves, more warm accessories, more boots, more leather. You just need more clothes here. It's alright. It's worth it, I know. Walking back to the train station, we passed by the giant Price Waterhouse Coopers building with all the business people walking in and out. The women in their black heels and black skirts and pants with nice black peacoats and trenchcoats and scarves, prim and proper, walking with their briefcases and laptop bags in their arms with somewhere important to go. Even if it's just for a coffee meeting, it's cool because it's an accountant in London, wearing great clothes. That will be me. Sooner or later. This is the life for me, and that is where I will be working.

London, London, oh how I love thee!
It's official, I'm going to live in London (or just outside of it) one day.

Operation Newbold: Day 1

It's 11:36 pm. I'm jet lagged, even if by only two hours, yet I dread climbing up the ladder to my top bunk for fear of spiders (there's said to be brown recluse's around) and lack of desire to wake up covered in sweat, as the room has no AC.

So far, I like England. The weather's great, of course. Spots of sun peak through the cloudy sky, and chilly winds rustle up the leaves on the trees. The people here are amazingly friendly. Especially at Newbold College. I've made more friends here in one day than I've made in an entire quarter at La Sierra. For goodness sakes, I met a girl today who was super nice, and we got along talking, only to find out she was at La Sierra last year. Have I ever even seen her before? No, she was an art major, and business majors don't associate with non-business majors. Wow. I'll take the blame for not knowing people at La Sierra. I didn't try. Yet, I think a lot of it has to do with the environment. At La Sierra, it's almost understood that people keep to themselves. The friendly ones are new kids who don't "get it" yet. Here, there's no harm in going out of your way to talk to someone, because they will always recieve you with genuine eagerness. Trying to talk to someone new doesn't make you weird. It's just a small school, so you pretty much have to know and get along with everyone to survive. I like it. :)

As for the school administration...let's not press that button quite yet. I've spent the whole day trying to wrangle down someone to help get me registered and signed up for classes. Up until today, all I've known is that I am accepted, and that I have a dorm room. Any additional details or directions have been withheld. There's no handbook, no rules to turn to. No guidance. You think the communication between La Sierra's different departments is bad, try Newbold when you get a chance. No ones really sure if someone else is going to decide to come in to work today. The admissions director didn't know if teachers were in class or at home. Don't they have a class list? If this was La Sierra, I know Cheryl up in the Business Department would be all over that. "Here, honey, you need to go talk to so and so after he gets out of his 3:00 class, then from there you need to sign up for A, B, and C. You should take these classes, they will transfer best, and theres no conflict. And don't worry about that hold, I'll clear it up." Here, I'm supposed to meet with my "tutor" to set up classes. Unfortunately, he only work on Mondays and Tuesdays. I need to sign up for classes by Friday. Admissions thinks this may be a problem, but they can't help me sign up for classes. This frustrates me because I asked a month ago if I could get a class list and sign up, but I was told to wait until I arrived, even though I'd be a week late (nearly). I spent a couple hours waiting for Finance to clear me, even though I had already paid in full (as is required before the visa letter can be mailed). The guy looked at my paperwork and said..."Oh, yeah, you've paid already, you can just go now." At least I walked out of the offices with a class list so I could figure things out on my own. No one knows if I will be able to register tomorrow, but I'm going to "my classes" anyway.

The cafeteria sucks.

Dorms are small, but boys are allowed in between the hours of 2 and 10pm (inside the rooms, mind you). The Student Center is the middle of the boys dorm. There's no curfew. No dress code. No rules. No required worship. I could definitely get used to this.

We'll see how tomorrow goes. Wish me luck!