Talking About Hitting the Ground Running...

Jan. 5
Well, I am here. And my internet is working, which is a plus.

Let's back it up to the traveling thing. First off, by the time I got to Heathrow, I was starving. Most of the food places in Logan were closed, nothing was open in Rejyavik, and they didn't feed me on the airplanes. Plus I felt gross, due to the hours of voyaging and napping uncomfortably. Why uncomfortably? Because of the foot space Nazis that were seated next to me for both my flights. Just because my legs are shorter than yours does not mean that you can help yourself to my personal space, okay? We all paid the same amount. Pay extra and get bigger seating if you want.

Anyways, check in was quick and the study abroad advisor here helped me carry my bags up to my room, where I started to unpack, changed my mind, started to eat, changed my mind, started to make my bed, changed my mind, and finally decided on showering first. That was an adventure in cramped spaces, let me tell you! But I felt a lot better, and was able to unpack most of my stuff before dinner, then came back and finished organizing everything and hung up some pictures and made my bed before I completely crashed. The bedding we bought is sterile, hospital white, so I'm going to go pick up something a bit more colorful- and a less flat pillow- at Argos tonight.
Sunday was pretty decent, we had a free breakfast, then a couple hour orientation that wasn't too painful and told us how to do a lot of stuff, then a free lunch. I went on the bus tour they offered, and the four people I've been hanging out with went too, which was cool, so we all decided to get dinner and try to go grocery shopping or something after. We ended up eating at this pretty nice Chinese restaurant, and our dining was accompanied by Chinese pop music and a Chinese version of Silent Night, I think. I was kinda tired so I don't fully remember. After eating, Sainsburys, a big grocery store, was closed, and we just missed Argos by about twenty minutes (they sell sheets and couches and electronics and kitchen stuff and pretty much everything, only it's all in catalogues and they have some stuff in stock, which is cool) so we ended up at Tesco Express where I bought some food to get me through today and a little beyond. When we got back, Hilary and Kevin went off to do their own thing, but I talked to Mom a bit on the phone and then went over to Caitlin's room to use her internet, since mine was not working. I brought my laptop and Vanessa came over as well, so we watched Mamma Mia while I did a little bit of stuff online.
I think I've already adjusted to the time difference, since I was not happy with life when my alarm went off at eight. Today was ridiculous.
I had to go to the history department at nine to sign up for Architecture in London. The security guard in the building was angry with me since I didn't have an ID card yet, so when I went to the Language, Linguistics and Film department to try to get into a class and they were closed for another half hour, I had to just awkwardly sit in the hallway and read so I didn't leave and come back to get yelled at again. When they finally opened the office, the Fairy Tales course was closed, so I ended up signing up for one about nineteenth-century adventure stories and their more modern film versions, so that should be pretty interesting.
After that I booked it all the way across campus to the Maths building (I'll link you all up to a map later) to find out where my Differential Equations and Actuarial Mathematics courses would be held. What is it with college campuses and having sketchy, decrepit buildings for their math department?? This one had the weirdest layout of any building I've been in, felt a bit like a dungeon, and I had to wander around for fifteen minutes before I finally found an office with a professor in it. I decided to just ask him how I could find out where my courses would be, and he brought me to some other professor who tried to tell me to come back at three when it was her office hours, but I had to explain how I was supposed to have a class at 11. She ended up looking it up online for me (something I couldn't do since my internet isn't working), and I had the joyous surprise of finding out that Diff Eq had a time change, so I'd missed the nine am meeting this morning. Whatever.
After all that I decided to go nap during what would've been my Diff Eq time, and then I had to go enroll in the college (I forgot they were taking pictures for our ID cards, so mine's not the greatest. Again, whatever) and get my username and stuff from computing services. I asked about the internet thing, and she told me to bring my laptop back, so I did, and someone played with the settings and told me if that didn't work, it was the ethernet cord they gave me. Of course, it didn't work, so I had to go out again and trade my ethernet cord, and finally my internet works!! Though I'm sort've frustrated that that was all I needed to do, if the people in reception had been more helpful they could've told me they HAD extra ethernet cords on Saturday when I first told them about my problem. Oh well, it's fixed now! PS, all of that took place during my Architecture in London course, so I have to go to the other section on Wednesday to make up for it.

So I have three flatmates. There's one that I haven't met, but the other two seem very nice- Tian and SiSi (I'm not sure how she spells her name, to be honest). They're both fulltime students here, but from China. Sisi has already told me I talk way too fast for her. Whoops.

I'd say that I should probably go get ready for Actuarial Mathematics. I've already missed two classes today, no need to make it three!