FiRsT DaY oF "ScHoOL"

Monday, September 22nd

First day of classes. Even after going to class, it still doesn’t really seem like we are in school over here. I think it is a combination of just getting off of a three week European vacation (which is technically a class…), the new environment of a city much larger than even living by Chicago, and the excitement of what is to come over the next few months.

The first class was theatre- which I am actually auditing so that I can experience the magnificent theatre venue London has to offer, but not be overwhelmed with massive amounts of homework obligations by taking so many credits... The professor seemed really nice, however the combination of his accent, somewhat soft, monotone voice, and the fact that he is rather elderly may make it rather hard to concentrate during a 3 hour long class. On the contrary, he seems very passionate about the subject, and has gone out of the way to get us as many tickets as possible with the available funds, so overall I think it is going to be great. You can really tell that this is what he lives for, which is more important than anything else. We are going to the Globe Theatre on Wednesday nite to watch Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” What a way to start out the semester!

I had a bit of a break in between classes, so we went downstairs to get some lunch, and then went back to do a little bit of journaling before heading out to International Studies 381- basically teaches you about London and British society in general. We learned about the necessities during the first class, such as the telephone system and basics on how to use the tube- other things like that.

It’s been great having used the tube, and other forms of transportation in the other countries so far, because it has made it so much easier here. It is hard to believe that I went from this winter, never having ridden any form of public transportation, not even a public bus before (my first experience thanks to M-tran in Madison), and now I can navigate myself almost anywhere I need to go, no problem. Thank you continental tour for throwing me into all of this stuff, including the challenge of foreign languages, and having to actually use that thing called problem solving.

I also laughed a bit at Cody, she kept nodding off and I’m pretty sure she actually did fall asleep a few times… yes, we were sitting in the front row… directly in front of the old professor dude. I debated whether or not to give her a nudge, and then realized the personal entertainment of seeing her head jolt every 30 seconds was more satisfying. You're welcome Cody.

Spent the remainder of the afternoon getting some of the necessary information gathering in place at the university, stopped to eat dinner, and then went and journaled for the majority of the evening.

Later that night, there was a jazz combo playing at the International Students House (ISH) bar, so I went over there with some people for a while. It was a pretty good ensemble- the bass player was pretty impressive and made awesome facial expressions. The trumpet player had good sound, and was pretty good at improvising. I liked his style, and a few of the ideas he had reminded me a lot of Job’s approaches. I don’t know enough about percussion to comment on that guy, but I’m sure he was alright. Oh music, how I miss playing…. But thankfully, there are so many music venues here, and street musicians everywhere… I love street musicians.

When the band was done playing we stuck around in the bar for a bit. I also got to meet Cody’s roommate, Justine. What a nice girl. She is studying international business I believe, and is from North Carolina. I’m really looking forward to getting to know her over the semester.

I went back to my room and actually just went online for about an hour or so, a nice convenience since I haven’t been online since Italy, and attempted to catch up with my e-mails and other messages.