Man, finally.

I've been having trouble logging onto Gmail and Blogspot, which is why I haven't updated. But I finally figured out how to login through iGoogle. Anyway, for now, since it's past midnight here and I have to wake up early, I'm going to post some emails I've sent to my parents (sorry if some of this stuff is old news). They asked me questions and I answered...

Mass was very interesting. Brompton Oratory is a big old beautiful cathedral! Look it up, it's pretty amazing. I felt weird being in a Catholic Church in Britain because there are Churches of England on every street. Brits aren't usually associated with Catholicism so it was hard for me to believe that the Cathedral is Catholic. Anyway, masses there are very formal: they still have some in Latin, though the one I attended was in English. It was very cold in the Cathedral since it's enormous. Mass was a little different: I guess English people don't hold hands or hold out their hands at all during the Our Father and there is no sign of peace at all (the priest just said "Peace be with you" and we responded "And also with you" and that was it). It kind of perpetuated the stereotype of cold English people for me. The mass was also old school: they rang the bells during consecration and during communion we got into line and then had to go up to the railing at the alter to receive the host. Most people received by mouth but I don't feel comfortable with that so I just held out my hands. I'm glad I attended that Mass and I want to go to another one in Latin, but I want to find another, friendlier feeling church. Maybe even another cathedral, as long as it doesn't feel as cold. I didn't know about the 3 personal intentions thing, though I did pray for intentions. Now that I know though, I will next time. One of the LMU guys has tickets to go to Rome during Easter and attend all the ceremonies, so I'm kind of jealous. Oh well.

My first day of school was really good. I had class at one so I got to sleep in. The building we have classes in is about a 10 minute walk away. My class was intro to creative writing with a Brit professor. There are 9 students in the class but I'm the only one from LMU. Only one from the West Coast actually. One student is from New Jersey, and the others 7 are from North Carolina. I like how the professor has set up the class so we'll see how it goes. It's a 3 hour class but we got a half hour break in the middle which was really helpful. A couple of us went to a coffee place nearby that the professor recommended.

FIE is hosting a free day trip to Bath and Stonehenge this Saturday so I signed up for that. I'm really excited to get out of London , especially on a free trip. I'm especially excited to see Bath because Jane Austen uses it a lot for her settings! FIE is also providing 30 pound tickets to see Cirque du Soleil's Quidam at the Royal Albert Hall so I'm pretty sure I'm going to see it. As you know, I've been wanting to see Cirque du Soleil and I can't think of a better venue to see it at : )

I went shopping at this supermarket called Sainsbury's. It's a 15 minute walk but it's pretty much like a Vons or Albertsons. I bought mostly Sainsbury's brand stuff which is pretty good and cheaper. I have to "cook" or go out if I want to eat. I'm going to be eating cereal and sandwiches for 4 months. Nutella and PB&J's have also become very popular in my flat, but I can't eat either of those of course. There is no cafeteria. There is another little chain grocery store called Tesco Express about 5 minutes away. It's a little bit more expensive but not much, so if I need something like water or milk I can go there.

I was kind of grumpy last night and this morning because I was tired and hungry but then we just got back from a bus tour of London. We saw a lot: Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, London Bridge, all the touristy stuff. But we didn't get out of the bus, except at Buckingham Palace. The tour guide just showed us where everything is and where to get off the tube so now we know and can go back on our own. And I realized that Harrod's is about 10 minutes away. Everything is so close. London is so much smaller than I thought. Well at least on a bus. So point is, I went on the tour and just ate lunch so I feel better.

I have met students from other schools. American University is in the flat across the hall downstairs and a couple of them came to hang out with us the other night. I haven't really met students from other countries. Though some of the LMU guys met these British guys and brought them back to our flats to hang out. One of them slept on our couch in the common room for one night because his (I'm assuming rich) parents locked him out of the house.

There are a lot of French people here though. There's a posh French high school just around the corner so there's this French quarter street where I had a really good chocolate croissant and mocha coffee. And actually there are just a lot of foreigners here in general. French (lots of black French people), Middle Easterners, Asians.

The weather is pretty crazy. It was beautiful and sunny (though still cold) on Friday. And then yesterday it was freezing. Literally. I went to Camden Market, this outdoor Venice Beach-like bazaar, and it snowed for about 2 minutes. Verrrrrrry cold. Just like flakes, but snow nonetheless. Then this morning is blue skies and sun again! The tour guide said to get used to these fluctuations in the weather. She said it's rare that the weather will be that cold though. She said it doesn't snow much. I like seeing the sun though.

I am having fun. Last night about 12 of us went to The Queen's Arms, a local pub. When we were leaving around 11 this older British man was outside and asked us for a light and one of the girls had one. He was verrrrry appreciative and said he would take us to a local club where we could get in for free. So we went, in our chunky sweaters and all, and I got to see my first English club. Not much different from the ones in LA except that the coatcheck is free, the temperature is a little warmer, and girls are more modest. Better dancers in LA though : ) But then when we came back I was exhausted so I went to sleep for about 7 hours and then had to wake up at 9 to get ready for the bus tour. So I'm still pretty tired.

We found the bank, it's on a road close by. I still have about 150 pounds in my room though. Once I get down to 50 I will withdraw more. I don't take it all out with me all the time though. I'm going to try to find a church with times that fit my schedule tomorrow. FIE has stuff scheduled. The coins are called pence - there are 5 pence, 10 pence, 20 pence, and 50 pence. Then there are 1 pound coins and 2 pound coins. There are no 1 pound notes. The notes start with 5 pounds. And restaurant service is a lot slower. You have to signal to the waiter/waitress somehow that you need something or you need the bill, not the check, the bill. And they don't notice if you need water or not, you need to ask.

good morning! i woke up around 10 am yesterday, so i slept for about 11 hours which felt really good. today was quite a different story. i'm really glad that i have a single room because i don't have to worry about my passport and money and stuff but i do have to worry about misplacing my keys! i couldn't find them last night so i slept on the couch in the common room/kitch (which was actually really comfortable, the cushions were a lot nicer than the pillow provided which are all super flat, and i mean like a quarter of a pillow at home). when brian woke up this morning though he found them sitting on his desk where i had unknowingly left them when i was talking to him and a couple other people. so luckily i got into my room this morning. i definitely learned my lesson and will be more careful about how i treat my keys. i kind of miss my one card! instead of 15 bucks to replace it, i would have had to pay 60 pounds.

i bought some food yesterday for at least 1.5 weeks for about 11 pounds so i was pretty happy. we went to one of the few supermarkets here, called sainsbury's. i got milk, cereal, grapes, oranges, bread, and pasta. i have to go back and get something to eat with my bread though. i didn't bring vitamin c pills but pharmacies (what we would call a drug store, like Rite Aid or CVS, are all over the place. so if i start to feel sick i will get something.

it is cold here! i always have to wear gloves and a scarf. though it was actually a really nice day yesterday, the sun was out! i couldn't get over the sun because everyone kept saying there would be no sun. we got lucky. but i still had to wear gloves because it was about 40 degrees F. when we were walking around after the sun went down it dipped to about 28 degrees F. but i like the weather so far.

i got my tube pass from FIE yesterday so a bunch of us are going to go to Camden Road and maybe Covent Garden to do a little sightseeing/possibly shopping today. we have all day off. then tomorrow FIE is taking us on a coach tour of all of London which should be informative.

Hullo hullo. I'm here in my flat in the common room/kitchen. The stairs are killerrrrr. We counted at least 100 steps. And they're narrow stairs so it's super tiring. Maybe I won't need to go to the gym. My flight was pretty good. It was weird because they offered red wine without even asking. I declined though. Yea so since I landed about 12 I wasn't able to make it to meet Brian. I just took a taxi, it cost me 60 pounds. The driver kept calling me "dawling." It was crazy to be driving on a European highway on the opposite side of the road. We had a short orientation meeting and a walking tour of the immediate neighborhood. It's a pretty nice place. The Natural History Museum and the Royal Albert Hall are just down the road. Went to dinner at this litte Italian place just down the road with about 7 other LMU students. It was ok. It's pretty cold but I was okay without gloves as long as I kept them in my pockets. I'm planning to go grocery shopping tomorrow morning/afternoon. I have another orientation meeting at 3. I'm going to go to bed now though because I'm so tired.