Orientation

We had orientation today. Finally! It went pretty well, I think. We're a pretty big group of 34 students. There weren't any problems today (everyone was really chatty) and I'm hoping that it will be a nice, friendly group throughout the entire program. We did a lot of talking about technicalities of the program, schedules & field trips, ways to stay safe, etc. It got a little boring, but I guess it's necessary. A lot of people were late because the Metropolitan line was not working properly. Ours was fine (so far we've taken the Northern line from Woodside Park and then transferred at Tottenham Court Road to the Central line, which we take to Holborn). Oh! And we got our Oyster cards! That means we don't have to pay for the tube tickets anymore--we just swipe these cards and we're in! YAY!

After talking for a while and handing out stuff (we got to hear from the theatre teacher--yay!), Martin gave us a tour of the streets surrounding our school. It was very helpful. I had no idea how many useful stores and cafes were nearby. But we did stand out like sore thumbs as a bunch of tourists (we were a big group of college-age studens clustering around one man who was pointing stuff out to us). :P

After we were done, a communication professor from PLU (Ed Inch), who has been in London and will be leaving soon, took us PLU students out to a pub. And it was there that I...got my first Fish & Chips!!! Woohoo! After that Anne, my friend Bethany, and Beth's roommate Aubrey did some shopping. I got a highlighter (I still need to get a notebook or something--I wish I had brought one from home! grr.) and we got some groceries to make lunches and some snacks. It was cool walking around Central London in the evening, just looking for shops or the station (although there was a bit more smoke than I would have liked).

That's basically all that happened today. It went by pretty fast. I'll be happy when our schedule's are more settled. I'm still deciding on whether I should take a fourth class or not...I keep thinking up pros and cons for each side...it's a dilemma... We have to decide by Monday evening, so I'll make up my mind by then!