FIRST WEEK (and first post!)

Hello everyone,

Here it is - I'm actually going to try and keep this up to date with the happenings of my four-month stay in Europe. No promises, though, because I tend to suck at the internets.

SO, where to begin? The beginning I guess. After an extended goodbye from my family (and Denise!), we flew from Cleveland to Heathrow with a layover in Newark. The flights were not so fun. We did get two meals on our overseas flight and I got to watch some Arrested Development, but I also only got a half hour of sleep. And it was airplane sleep, so it basically doesn't count. Regardless, the planes did run mostly on time and with little turbulence, so I can't really complain.

Arrival time in Heathrow (local): 7 AM. Immediately found three more people going to Leicester from Long Beach State and LSU, and along with the other seven attendees from Kent, we formed a rampaging herd of luggage and loud accents and made our way to Terminal 3, where we met a few other people in the program and our wonderful tour guide.

10 AM. Off into the city of London for our first view of the UK in daylight. We navigated the Tube to the Westminster stop and were greeted by Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament upon surfacing. Awesome.

Unfortunately, I can't remember most of this day due to the jet lag, lack of sleep, and the fact that my back hurt like a mother all freaking day.

I did get to sail down the River Thames, and see the Tower of London, and the Crown Jewels therein (which were absolutely magnificent, but there are no photos allowed). So here's a photo of the White Tower in the Tower of London instead:


Had my first pint of Guinness this night in a pub called the Prince of Teck, and I must say, I wholeheartedly approve. A good night of sleep at our hotel in West Brompton, however, was quite needed, as 30 hours of flying and touring had left me only with that half hour of sleep on the plane and the 15 minutes of unintentional crash time I caught on the Tube.


The rest of the tour was lots of fun and very educational. It's interesting to learn how much more history European landmarks have than American ones. It's quite amazing, actually. London has such an eclectic and exciting mix of architectural styles from the past millennium. It's common to see a 16th century church, some 19th century housing, and a 21st century business building on the same street corner. Highlights of the tour include Buckingham Palace...


...Westminster Abbey (which was absolutely amazing, even though I wasn't allowed to take pictures in most of it. I got to see the graves of Newton, Darwin, Benjamin Britten, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Handel, and William Walton, just to name a few :-D)...

...The British Museum (complete with Rosetta Stone)...

...THE WIBBLY WOBBLY BRIDGE...


...and the Globe Theater:

Also, THERE ARE SPACE INVADERS IN LONDON!

Lastly, I leave you with sightings of some of London's finer theatre productions, including Enron...The Musical!

and Aladdin...with Pamela Anderson!


We arrived at the University of Leicester at around 6:30 on Wednesday night, and things since then have been a blur. I have already met students from Canada, South Africa, Finland, France, Germany, South Korea, Italy, and of course Britain itself. I live in Digby Hall, which is touted by its own website to be "Probably one of the most attractive Halls of Residence in the country". I beg to differ, but still, it's not so bad. My blockmates are mostly British first years, but they are mostly tame, and fairly nerdy, which is absolutely perfect. With my blockmates I have already fired off air rockets, watched The Two Towers, been to a metal club called Mosh, and played some Modern Warfare 2 (poorly, of course). I've also met an inordinate amount of geologists.

In other news, I can't register for classes until Monday morning. My first class is also supposed to be Monday morning, but I can't get access to any textbooks, or the library, or anything that would require a student ID until I register. Luckily, all of my classes are in the same department, and that first class I have is with the professor I need to register with, so problems should be minimal and excusable. My potential schedule is a bit of a mixed bag. It looks as though I will have no Wednesday classes, but Friday is my earliest day of the week, and the prospect of long weekend travels are looking grim.

Ah well. If I ever get sad, all I have to do is look at this picture, and I immediately cheer up:


Miss you all!
Until next time,

Dave



P.S. I almost forgot contact information! Here's how you can get in touch with me:

Skype: TheSirGalahad
AIM: IntegrationMan78
E-mail: dzach@kent.edu or dkz1@le.ac.uk (I'll be checking both)
Post:
David Zach
Digby Hall, Blue Block, Room 2
Stoughton Drive South
Oadby Student Village
Leicester, UK
LE2 2NB

And of course, there's always facebook.

Note that I probably don't have time to talk to everyone on Skype every week considering the time difference and the fact that things will be much busier when classes begin next week (and the fact that I shouldn't be spending all my days holed up in my room talking to people from home), but please keep in contact!