Arrival

Well we finally made it!! We touched down in London at Heathrow airport at about 6:30am london time so about 12:30am at home. We had to wait for the airport for several hours for the rest of the abroad students to arrive so that we could all get on the bus to Leicester. Although the wait was boring we got to meet a lot of cool people who were also studying at the University. Once we boarded the bus and got to Oadby student village where our Accomadation was located we dropped off our bags and took our first trip to ASDA..known in the US as Walmart. Got some supplies to get us started, it was confusing at first learning how to us pounds, after five minutes i quit converting everything in my head otherwise i would have had a cow at how much stuff cost! By the time we had finished shopping at ASDA had dinner and went to a meeting we had all been up for about 30+ hours and were pretty much delusional we finally got some sleep. We signed up for classes on thursday which was interesting, instead of registering online we had to walk to each different department and as the head of the department to accept us into their class. I only got signed up for two classes but am hoping to get into a third this week. Which will give me 15 credits that directly transfer back to ISU, wahhooo!!

The food so far has been...interesting..better than i expected but we only get two meals a day, breakfast and dinner. So we've all been trying to nap through lunch the last couple days to avoid starvation and extreme tempers, haha. It's also hard to get used to because at our dorms we are used to a buffet line all you can eat..Here you get one plate..one small plate..thats all no seconds. So that's been an adjustedment..we're hungry all the time, but it's slowing getting easier and my jeans are slowing getting looser, haha.

When i saw "WE" i'm referring to the girls that i live with. There are four girls from ISU, Christine, Anna, Abby, and Kaitley. Then there is Cate from Alabama State and KatyAnn from Colorado State. So basically when we go out we confuse the hell out of the Brits with Katie, Cate, KatyAnn and Kaitley..it makes things quite entertaining.


Most of us girls live in a large house called Highgrove. It was built in the 1930's and is absolutely beautiful. The orginal owner was a silver smith so all of our door knobs are the orignal silver that he made, pretty cool. Me and Anna live in the Men's drawing room. It has a very masculine feel and is huge compared to what we are used to at home. There is also a conservatory which Kaitley and Cate live in, which used to be like a sun room, it has large windows and a doors that exits to the back yard. Christine lives in the massive ballroom with a Sue who is from Korea. Next to them two girls live in what was the womens drawing room, it is gorgeous the ceiling is very detailed with ribbons and butterflys and just like all the other rooms, it has a large fireplace..too bad they are all borded up!

All of the houses in the student village are similar to ours most are a hundred years old. The university purchased the houses after the war and turned them into dormitories or accomadations as they call them. The street over from us is referred to as the million dollar estates and is rumored to be one of the richest neighborhoods in europe.I would compare our neighborhood to something like Moss Avenue in Peoria. Everything is so GREEN, although most of the plants and flowers are dead at the moment, it's still beautiful.
The town of Leicester has got to be one of the UK's greatest secrets, there are practically no tourists so we americans tend to stick out like a sore thumb. This would explain my intense desire to go shopping lately so that we can blend in little better. But of course as soon as we start to speak people are so amazed "You're AMERICAN?".."i love your accent!!" and then they try to mimic our accents, it's quite funny. Although trying to understand them sometimes is difficult, we've all been trying to learn the slang and their meaning..which has been fun.

The night life is much different than at home, they don't usually go out on weekends but rather most week nights. And they are just as you can imagine the brits would be, they start drinking and they start singing and chanting at the top of their lungs..it's hilarious! :)

We start school tomorrow, so i'll keep everyone updated! Sending my love to the states and all of my family and friends, i miss you:)