Greetings!

So I'm here in England: safe, relatively healthy, and currently suffering from jetlag. It's the second day, though, so hopefully it will wear off by tomorrow morning.

Anyway, let's start from the beginning:

The perpetrator.

1. Flight. There was quite a bit of concern/freak-outage about Virgin Atlantic. They had recently integrated a new luggage policy, thus limiting passengers to a mere 50 pounds of check-in luggage and one carry-on. This presented a problem, of course, because I needed to bring my viola, as per my scholarship requirements. Everything turned out to be fine, however, when we (my parents and I) discovered that I was allowed to bring my instrument on board. Indeed, I nearly had a heart attack upon learning that my viola would be put under the plane. (I did need a WHOLE instrument to play, after all.) After that was settled, I went through the security checkpoint with surprising ease, and entered my gate, which was a few feet away.

Once on board, I was offered the window seat by my flight buddy, a South African woman who was returning to her home in England. We had a pleasant chat once we had crossed the Atlantic; I suppose we were both extremely tired. She even gave me her copy of a Margaret Atwood book! (The perks of being an English major...)

No complaints, really. Food was good. Service was fine. We got to Heathrow at 8:00 a.m. (six hours ahead of Chicago time), jumped on a shuttle, and slept another three hours on our way to Nottingham.

2. The flat. There are thirteen students here, including myself. Our director, her son and her assistant all live in a small house down the road. But here, there are a few things to get used to:

• Two showers.
• Two roommates.
• Different electrical outlets. (Fortunately, my bunk-mate, Aaron, thought to bring a power-converter and strip for such circumstances.)
• Chores. (We have yet to assign the cooking and cleaning duties, which I am fully prepared for, but I'm still a little nervous nonetheless.)
• Colder weather. It's pretty schizophrenic, too. Sun, no sun, sun, no sun. GAH.
• Alcohol. I may have tried an English brew or three already. (Don't look at me like that, it goes well with fish and chips!)
• Smoking. People can smoke just about anywhere here. Being allergic doesn't help.
• The roads. Look right, then left, then right when crossing. Otherwise, the results may be disastrous.
• Lack of internet. (We're actually working on this one. Our router is in the basement, resulting in a very weak internet signal. Someone tried to skype home, but the call dropped after just ten seconds. So we need to buy a signal amplifier, courtesies of Luther College, in order to increase the internet range. In the meantime, web activity is relatively slow.)
• Walking. (Woot!)
• Public transportation. (The University is a little far away, so we all need to find alternate routes.)
• A new home.

3. Today. Several things happened today. We went to visit downtown Nottingham, which is actually a huge place, but very compact. Our British tour guide informed us that the main shopping square is 4 blocks by 4 blocks in "American measurements." We briefly examined Nottingham castle, and saw some striking Robin Hood statues. We did some shopping (just the necessities: toiletries and pillows.) We bought bus passes. We went on a scavenger hunt. Basically, we made ourselves familiar with the area, visited some shops, and learned some of the history behind Nottingham. (Did you know that the city was built on an intricate, prehistoric cave system!?) Oh! We ate at a pub, too. I got some chili. Mmm. And now we're watching the UK series, The Office. With Ricky Gervais.

Yeah, Ricky Gervais!

That's about it for now. I promise posts won't always be this massive. Also, I'll try and get some pictures of the flat up, but honestly right now everything is so slow!

Oh, and here's me!

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Until next time, yo.

Yours,