The first few English days: An overview.

So, the massive beginning of the adventure post. So much has happened in the past few days that I don’t even know where to start! I guess the very beginning is appropriate?

Flying internationally by myself was strange. I get really chatty when I fly and I’m always sitting right next to my dad who never seems to mind me talking his ear off. I had my row to myself though so it was nice to be able to stretch out and at least attempt to nap. Turbulance doesn’t scare me like it used to but I can’t sleep through it so I woke up at least once an hour on the way from Chicago to Heathrow. Once we got in I was able to easily get through passport control and find my cab driver in the arrivals hall. Getting to Guildford was so quick! Getting my suitcases up 4 flights of stairs on the other hand was not. When I got everything settled in my room I took a walk around campus and I couldn’t get over just how gorgeous everything is! There are ponds and cute little paths to walk on and everything has a very English look about it. 

Orientation was bright and early on Friday and that’s where I met most of the girls that I’ve been going around with now. We listened to some presentations about the school and then had a tour. Of course after that and lunch we ended up at one of the bars that’s right on campus and I ordered my first legal drink! We adventured around campus some more after that and then made it an earlyish night as we made plans to go into London for Waitangi Day on Saturday. That was probably the craziest thing I’ve ever been a part of in my life! We ended up exploring so much of London and I can’t wait to go back sometime this week.

When we got back to Guildford Saturday night it was snowing! My friends that I was with had hardly ever seen snow so they were absolutely going crazy for it. Sunday morning we woke up to find out that London seems to shut down when it snows so we scrapped our plans to go back and do all the touristy things in favor of going into Guildford to eat and shop. We ended up at this tiny hole in the wall lounge down this alleyway that I’m surprised we even saw for lunch. I was feeling very English eating my sausage and mash :) We walked around the cobblestone(!!!!!!!) high street poking into some shops and then saw a sign for a tea place that we were all keen to try out. It was on the top floor of a department store and it had the coolest view of town! Obviously, the tea in England is 54638765934875843 times better than anything I’ve had recently in the States. 

Navigating the busses is still not the easiest thing and I’m sure that every driver we talk to is annoyed with the questions that we ask. We managed to get to Tesco to attmept to get groceries only to find out that the massive sign saying that it’s 24 hours doesn’t include Sundays when they’re only open 10-4. We were so sad! That’s one thing that’s really different from the States, most of the shops close freakishly early pretty much every day. We ended up getting some stuff at the shop on campus and all congregating at one persons dorm to eat and watch a movie.

We’re all at least kind of looking forward to starting classes tomorrow mostly so we can actually make friends with some English people! So far we’ve just listened in on people talking so that we can geek out over their accents together.

So, the best way to sum up the last few days? INSANE. So much has gone on. I can’t believe that it’s been less than a week!