Beginning of week 3

I have been avoiding posting because I just don't know what to write. Every day has been a new adventure or obstacle or discovery. How do you sum all that up in a 300 word post? It's not easy. I went to London last weekend for Fulbright orientation and met all the other Fulbright scholars in the UK this year. There are 18 of us, and they told us there were over 700 applications. Holy cow. Why am I here? I expected all the other scholars to be really intellectual and make me feel out of my league, but I was wrong. Everyone was really nice and well-rounded, interesting and fun. So I had a good time, though we were so busy I didn't get to do a whole lot of sight-seeing in London.

Of course, none of my solo travel expeditions would be complete without some kind of mishap. This time, I bought my train tickets online ahead of time and then tried to find my train at the station, only to be very confused because it didn't seem to exist. Turns out I bought my ticket from Leeds to London for the day I was supposed to return. I apparently had the wrong dates in my when I buying the tickets. That mistake only cost me 22 extra pounds - much better than my $200 pound luggage fiasco on my flight over here. I'm still upset about that one.

I took a day trip to the old Roman city of York on Saturday with my Norwegian friend, Kirsti, and her British flatmate, Vicki. It was so fun! I seem to have a knack for visiting places on the days of special events. This time, there was a big parade going throughout the city for the Yorkshire troops returning home from Iraq. It was a neat experience to see the patriotism and support of the troops in another country. Also, the Duke of York was there. I have no idea who he is, but everyone was excited about it.

I guess the last pieces of exciting news are that I'm moving to a new flat today, and that classes finally start this week. My old flat was just in a bad location and I didn't feel safe there. It actually worked out for me to move to a flat closer to campus and the other friends I've made her so far. The only downside is that I will now be sharing a bathroom with four other people - a British girl, a Chinese girl and two guys from Thailand - instead of having one all to myself. I think the trade-off will be worth it though. I'll send y'all my new address soon. Cheers!

Fun British words of the day: "jumper"= sweater and "pants"= underpants ... oops!

York=Quaint

Some things are universal

Last night I was playing pictionary with students from Nigeria, Thailand, Canada, Vietnam, Norway, Finland and Britain, and I just kept thinking, "Is this really my life?" It was surreal. Also universal: girls having crushes on Prince William. Leeds is in a tizzy because Prince Harry's girlfriend is starting uni here next week. My odds of having a siting actually seem to be going up.

I'm finally in Leeds. I'll write a true post later.

Fun British phrase of the day:
Going "to spend a penny" means to go to the toilet.

This time next week,

I will be here:



Right now I'm staring at my two suitcases on the floor. There are so many pieces of clothing on the floor, I don't even know where to begin. How do you pack for a year? Especially when I'm limited to 20 kg per suitcase. Damn the British for giving us the standard system and then switching to metrics. It's made me completely useless for figuring out weights, measurements and temperatures outside of the U.S. All the weather Web sites I've been looking at for England only give the temperature in Celsius. I had to go look up the Farenheit to Celsius conversion formula and figure out the temperature myself. I hadn't done that 9th grade algebra homework. I think I'm going to have to find a big metric conversion chart and tape it up on the wall in my room in Leeds.