class begins

After a month long winter break I finally began class today. Stef and I left for our 10 am at around 8:15 this morning to ensure we would get there on time. After waiting for the bus, train, and walking to get to the University we finally made it after an hour and in plenty of time. Once we arrived and had some breakfast at the school cafe we both realized neither of use had our schedules and we had no idea what our class was called or what room it was in. So we walked into the undergrad office told the office assistant that we were exchange students and had both forgotten our schedules. She kindly told us where our class was and that it was called Tourism Policy. What a great start to a first day!

Our class had about 20 students with three of them being Americans. The teacher was extremely nice and helpful and went out of her way to make sure we understood what was going to happen througout the semester. The class lasted three hours but we had a few "tea breaks" haha and the time seemed to fly by. Hopefully all of our classes will be as interesting as Tourism Policy and all of our teachers as kinda as Nancy.

This past weekend we had time to do more tourist things. We walked through the entire National Gallery and attended the Russian Winter Festival in Trafalgar Square. The festival was quite the site. The papers said there were nearly 70,000 people in the square. They were all singing Russian songs and waving Russian flags so we felt a little out of place. The festival also had Russian food tents and beer tents. We didn't stick around too long.

I feel like I'm adjusting more to life everyday but little things here and there are still very frustrating. Yesterday I went to refill a prescription. I had a letter written by an American doctor and followed all the directions my program had stated I needed to do in order to get the medication filled over here. When I got to the pharmacy the lady told me I must first register at the surgery (doctor) , get a checkup, and return to her with the prescription on British paper. So today I called the surgery and found out I must pay to register, get a check up, and pay 30 pounds ($60) for each prescription I need written on British paper each month. Grrrrrrrrr. I guess this is just something that you have to deal with while studying abroad!

I would upload more pictures but I only have a few from the Russian Festival and it takes a horribly long time to do it so I think I will wait till later...so check back!

Take Care Everyone!