It has been such a few days! I'll start at the beginning...
- Saturday:
I headed down for my complimentary breakfast and had my first attempt at a traditional British breakfast. Now, let me tell you, I was not all that impressed. There was bacon, that is really ham, no peanut butter for my toast (just jam) or cream cheese for my bagle (just jam) and cold pancakes. Plus, absolutely everything is greasy as heck and who eats baked beans first thing in the morning? But I did my best, who knows perhaps I will learn to love all this stuff!
I then called myself my own cab, checked out and headed off for what is called
The Brigham Young University Centre!
My cab ride was a bit awkward. Prior to coming here we had gotten a lot of reading on the culture of Great Britain and one of the things I had remembered reading was not to discuss careers with people, it is offensive. I happen to love asking people how they chose their jobs and if they like it, so before I could come up with a safer subject - like let's say the weather (I'm a bit slow at times). I decided the lull had been so long, so we drove in silence. But it was lovely! Everything is brick and so old and guess what? I am staying in a rich part of town! It is nice, like breath-taking, I'm so incredibly over-whelmed, can't stop staring nice! Plus, my cab was so British! It looked British (shape-wise, you know?) and I got called Miss and he carried my bags! Although I can't help but wonder at which point does one become a Ms or Ma'am instead of a Miss? Just curious!
When I arrived at the centre I met my professors, they are lovely, just really nice! They even carried my huge suitcase up the million stairs for me! Then I got to explore!
I picked the closest room, no way I was walking up more stairs than I had to! I was only the third person there! The other two girls are super nice and crazy thing is one (Maddie) just graduated from high school! I don't think I would have been that brave! We, the three first, enjoyed a nice stroll through Kensington Gardens together, got our Oyster Cards, walked throught his awesome mall full of shops called Whitelys (the movie theatre is so expensive like 20 pounds a seat, but you can reserve your seat and they recline and it has a restaurant with waiters!) and tried Schwarma and Ka Bobs! I also told them a ridiculous amount about Canada. I don't think they realize it isn't all that differnt. I showed them loonies and toonies and answered some questions that I thought were rather dumb. Including what BC stands for. Oh, dear, Rick Mercer would love these two! haha
Slowly others trickled into the Centre and came up all the stairs to find rooms! There are 31 girls here and 8 guys. One girl is engaged, one guy is engaged, another is married and one has recieved his mission call. A few people did not arrive until Sunday morning because of problems at the JFK airport! I am just so grateful it wasn't me!
I went to bed fairly early again after a devotional on London. Apparently they are stuck up here! We also got our assignments for our wards that we will be attending church in while we're here! I just love this place already!
2. Sunday:
I had to get up relatively early for church, Ok, not really, iIt wasn't bad at all. I woke up at 8 for breakfast, then left at 9 to take the tube and then a train to our church. Me and six other people (Jordan, Chelsea, Matthew, Sarah, Sarah, and Shelby) are part of the Wadsworth Common Ward. It is certainly the most different ward I have ever been in! The race distribution is way differnt than the one back in Kamloops. It is like 90% black and there were probably at most only 25 people in sacrament meeting. It is also really interesting because nearly all of them are converts. They had no pianist or conductor so a few people in my group (Chelsea and Matthew) stepped in right away. They are much braver souls than I am that's for sure!
I think one of my favorite things was that church was that it isn't really all that different, it feels the same no matter what! That makes me happy!
We all got our callings! I get to teach Gospel Principles class with two others, Jordan and Shelby! It makes me nervous, but we'll see how it goes!
After I got home from church around 2, (takes about an hour to get home) I made myself a nutella sandwich (that seems to be the thing to eat with these British/Utah people) and did some journaling and then reading for class!
That evening after a dinner of pea soup (not sure that I'll do that again) we had a fireside by a UVU professor named Tim Slover. He is a remarkable lecturer and since he is a contemporary theatre professor he gave us some awesome tips on how to take advantage of the art and theatre scene here in London. He also just let us know how to be more open to art that maybe isn't "your style"! Now I can't wait to get out and see some fringe plays in theatres behind pubs and such!
We then studied like mad for the pretest in our classes on Monday! I don't think I've ever studied with such a big group, but it is nice to know that some people share the same concerns about the difficulty level and are just as ill-prepared as myself!
There are a few things I had learned by this point.
- there are way too many stairs in the centre! I'm on the third floor apparently, but I walk up like six flights of stairs
- it rains like all the time
- there is no such thing as heat
- everyone from Utah knows everyone else from Utah
- the dress code isn't as crazily enforced as I thought
- everyone is so friendly
- we can't eat in our rooms, it leaves us at risk for rats
- since I sleep on the bottom bunk, there is all sorts of advice written on my 'ceiling' -- especially about snogging strangers, apparently asking them first is a good idea, and you shouldn't do it in front of your prof (they don't like that).
Me
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