Sum - up of my time here (up til classes starting)

OK, so I thought that a blog would be a better way to keep up with everyone back home and share my adventures here.  I'll try to start from the day I left, and give a taste of what my days here have been like :) 

Before I even left, I had to make a quick trip to NYC - with Kari - to get my UK visa.  That was a super quick 3 day trip.  I did get to see Cat! I flew home from NYC on Thursday afternoon, ran a few errands in Wilmington - and got home around 7pm, to start packing.  I only slept for an hour that night, and was lucky enough to have Mike and Shannon helping me pack.  I kept weighing my bags, and taking things out...lol 

The next morning Mom, Dad, me and Mike all left for ILM at around 4:30am.  I thought that I would be fine, saying goodbye to everyone -- but it was much harder than I thought. I flew first class from ILM to Charlotte (which was pretty cool) and had a delightful 10 hours layover.  Between attempting to sleep in the connected chairs, while still watching my carry on, texting, reading and talking to random people - it actually went by pretty quick.  Once it was finally time to board, I was pretty excited.  Walked onto the plane, and for once got to turn left - into business class! My seat was huge, and the flight attendant greeted me with champagne...lol A nice old guy wound up being my seat mate, which was cool - was talked a bit over the 8 hour flight.  Oh, and our amazing 3 course meal and unlimited alcohol - was pretty cool :) 

Arriving in the UK, it was about 7am.  Made it through customs just fine, and headed to the nearest Coach stand to buy my ticket to get down to Poole.  Did not expect the ticket to cost almost 40 pounds (don't have the British pound symbol..lol) With a huge duffel, one big suitcase, a rolly carry-on and a big purse - I made my way to the Coach. From the London airport to Poole, it was a long 4 hours bus ride - most of which I managed to sleep.  Once finally here, I had to walk with all my bags about 5-10 mins up the road to the nearest taxi stand.  He was super nice and got me here to my building, pretty cheap. That first day here, I got in around 2pm in the afternoon and the day from there was kind of a blur.  I felt bad, because my cell phone was not working and I was unable to let the family know that I arrived here okay.  But was able to contact them the next day.  That day and the next I slept alot and tried to unpack, since Monday was the first day of orientation classes. 

I met my flatmates over the weekend as well, and right from the start we all got along great :) I also met a really great girl from upstairs and a few other people in my building. That first week of 9-5 orientations was mind numbing, and hard trying to fight my jet lag.  But made it through, and we had Friday of that week off, as a free day! Over the course of the week I had been slowly trying to get to the store to get things I needed, like linens and some food. But that Friday me and my flatmates went and did some serious food shopping...lol That first Saturday here my friend Nwadi, my flatmate Tianyi and myself went to "freshers fair". Basically they have vendors and club that all come in and give away free stuff.  We cleaned up and all got alot of things, like pens, key chains, food, and even some jump drives. It was a fun day. After doing that all morning my two other flatmates met us on campus and we decided to go to Bournemouth downtown and do some shopping.  The shopping there is really good, and it was fun to walk around and pop into all the cute stores.  I got a few things, but still waiting on my loan money to come in - so had to hold back a little...lol We finally made it back to the flat sometime around 6pm and we were all a bit tired. We all cooked dinner together in our common kitchen and everyone went to bed early - because we had a trip the next morning. We had to meet the Coach at 715am, to go to London - a trip for international students.  It was about 2.5 hours to get into London, and then we had a driving tour with a guide for about another hour.  And after that we wondered all around London, enjoying the sites and went to Oxford Street to do a little shopping :) We walked over 7 miles around London (thank you pedometer..lol) and didn't arrive back in Poole till about 9:30pm. Class for me, luckily, was not until 1pm the next day.....