The day started off well, ended well, the middle was kind of not so great.

So today was my first day of classes! FINALLY. I barely slept last night. I went to bed late and I was talking to people from home so that made it harder and then I had class on my mind so I didn't get to sleep until after midnight and woke up before my alarm went off at 8:20 this morning. Then I had an adware cookie making checking the weather difficult. I headed out at 9AM, and Arif was already at the stop. We chatted and then the bus came and after we sat down Michelle came along and then Flynn came on it! It was like the party bus--a super great way to start the day. I was pumped walking across Waterloo Bridge.
Now for all those who attend Michigan, you are familiar with Angel/Mason/whatever other buildings are there. Strand Campus is like that, only worse. The Strand Building is the front building through which you enter from the Strand. It has 8 upper floors (the floor you enter at is 0) and three basement floors. The elevator only goes to the 7th floor. There is only access to the King's Building (the building behind and connected to the Strand B) on certain levels (I think). Kind of like how Angel and Mason are slightly different heights, King's and Strand and Macadam Buildings require you to zigzag through many corridors, up and down stairs in order to arrive in the correct building. It sounds simple--one building connects directly to the other. But no. Certain groups of rooms are in parts of the hallway that have their own door sectioning them off from the main hallway. So I got lost in the basement of the Strand Building trying to find my first class. But I was not alone. Three other people approached a janitor to ask for directions (and this was after I asked a facilities office guy). Finally we found the room. The girl I was with sat next to me and we chatted a bit before class started. Our teacher was really nice and talked us through the syllabus, which is different from those in America. Ish. Lectures only meet once a week and seminars (discussion) once as well. And that's it. So basically for that class, on Jacobean theatre, I will be reading a play a week probably in addition to supplementary stuff. And the syllabus contains the list of what we have to read each week for class and then like three other lists of extra reading for context, etc. Probably over 30 books.
Well, anyway, that class went smoothly and then I went off to run my errands. I went to NatWest, where I now have a UK bank account, in order to transfer funds to it. Nope. No checks, just have to wire the money. Ok, not getting too upset, I went to O2, a cell phone provider, to find out they've run out of their ten pound phones but they have a 15 pound one, oh but wait, you have no money in your UK bank account, you can't buy a phone cus you'd need to set up direct debit for your phone plan and they need to check that you actually have money before they can do it. Ok. No phone until money. (I have no idea how to wire money from my TCF account because apparently they only wire to other "qualifying" TCF accounts. We'll sort this out later.)
So I'm walking back from the phone store and I double back to a fruit smoothie sign in the window of a tiny restaurant because I'm already hungry and a fruit smoothie (no powders, no syrup) sounds healthy and somewhat filling. So I sat in this Japanese-ish restaurant staring at my planner, making notes of things that need to be done this week and sipping my Tropical Storm. By the end of sitting there, I was getting panicky. As I've gotten older, panic has come to me more easily, especially when I'm waiting with nothing to do and have all the apprehension. I left the restaurant and went to the King's Shop to look at their portfolios for storing papers (I haven't found any folders here!). They were not something I would want to carry around and of course everything in that store was overpriced because it had the school logo on it. So I went back to campus and went up to find my next class, which didn't start for over an hour. I sat on a bench watching MTSS on my iPod as it was dying (and my only way to tell time) and not feeling well.
The class in the anatomy theatre got out so we shuffled in. I don't like this place. The writing surface is so far away from the seat I literally have to sit on the edge of it and it's still very uncomfortable. And that professor talks SO softly I could barely hear her. I don't know if I'm going to like that class but we'll see. I had another two hour break after that, and I found the cafeteria Michelle had told me about. Nothing looked especially appetizing but I bought some chili pasta for 2.70. It wasn't great. I wasn't in the mood for it. I was sitting there depressed again (and tired, etc.) so I ate as much as I could and just went to find my next class. It was in the same confusing hallway as my first one, but this time it was in the King's Building and I had to go through a door and through a dinky little hallway to get to it. But because I still had over an hour, I just in the main hallway (something no one here really does) and just wrote what I was feeling and then I daydreamed. Hardcore. Not nasty, but happy things that made me feel better. Finally, close to the start of class, I stopped in the bathroom and it was seriously one of the bathrooms out of my nightmares (you know the ones where there are literally 50 toilets and you dream that you have no privacy when you pee, yeah I dream that). The bathroom was HUGE. It had shower stalls and like a whole area in between the toilets and sinks where there was a big mirror and places to sit at it! Crazy.
After that I went to class: Irish Lit and Culture. Cozy little lecture space. That class looks to be ok. Pretty good. Ahhh, I have so much reading to do for next week. Oh! Another difference here is that they make coursepacks for you and just hand them out in class and then expect you to pay them. My Irish one was 4 pounds and Brit Lit and Film is 8. I went to seminar for Brit lit and film straight after that. Even in this enclosed space, tiny room, I could barely hear her! We went through the coursepack and then went around and said what nationality we considered ourselves and cinema related to that. I was really surprised at how diverse our group is! Oh, and apparently we don't have a weekly screening because she said we could just watch the movies ourselves so I get to go home at 6 on Tuesdays!
God my oyster card needs to come through! I got on the bus and thank god it was home time! I got off and starting walking down Borough High Street. Normally, I cut through Guy's campus, but that area can be kind of dead and I wanted to avoid cutting through the park cus it was dusk and people get mugged there at night). Plus I was alone. So I set off down the high street and then I see Joel at an ATM. Having not seen him since last week, I went over and said hi and he was heading in the direction of gdsa so we walked together. We just chatted about classes and then, after I explained that I was avoiding walking through the park alone, he walked me through it and then set off on his own errands.
I came home and made a grilled cheese and I've ordered most of my books off amazon. I have to go to Waterstone's tomorrow (they're the big booksellers here) to get the books I need read by next week. I also need to do some grocery shopping cus I've run out of meals except for cereal. Then there's a free Sexpression social at the Science Museum, so I'll go to that most likely. Now I plan on a cup of tea and some Peep Show (a comedy, not a porn!) before bed! Cheers!