Intro dos

So on Monday I had to get up early to catch a bus to campus. We had an information meeting in the morning and then a campus tour. The campus is ridiculously small and yet I can't find anything. Seriously, there are about 8 or 10 buildings and the are probably about 5 or 6 floors each. So not overly impressive size-wise. Then there was an information fair to get info about bandks and biking and such. I got some stuff about a couple of banks so I need to read through it and choose one to use. Later we went and looked through the building that I will be studying in and looked into some of the labs. We couldn't actually go inside them, but we peered in through the windows. Then we had a free lunch. So far I think I've only had to pay for about 2 meals. So that's pretty cool. After lunch I had to go to a meeting about my loans. It wasn't super helpful, but I met the lady that's in charge of them so that's good. I also met another girl who's on my program and another forensic arch girl who lives on my floor.

After that I met up with some other girls from Corfe and we went back to get ready for the big International Welcome Reception that night. We were suppose to dress a bit nicer because there were going to be program administrators, course leaders and board members and such there. So I got to meet my course leader which was nice. Some of the others weren't there, but the osteoarch woman was. She seems very nice and gave us a bit more info about the start of the course. We enrol on Monday and then have some info sessions on Tuesday. Then either Wed or Thur we are going on a field trip to Stonehenge. Then on Friday we start classes with an all day Research Methods class. So that's a bit daunting. But we had a really nice dinner and I got to know a couple of the other American students on the arch courses. Overall it was a nice dinner and I was glad that I went.

Then we went back to our flat and spent a few hours chatting with our flatmates.

Today I had to go back to campus again to go to some meeting about working while here on a visa. It was actually pretty silly. I think it was more geared toward non english speakers, but whatever. After that I met 3 of my flatmates and we crashed the "buddy lunch" so that we could get free food. We were suppose to meet a friend there that was legit, but she wasn't there when we got there. So we all pretended that we had buddies and went in anyway. After we were all pretty much finished with lunch Danielle, the legit girl, and her flatmates showed up. Apparently they had missed the bus. On a side note, we had jacket potatoes. Which are baked potatoes scooped out and then filled with cheese and other stuff. It was pretty good. Then we headed out to Bournemouth Beach. We picked a terrible day for it because its pretty cold and windy today, so the beach was even more so. It was still cool to go though. One of the Canadians actually went swimming. It was really cold though. The rest of us just stood in the water up to about our ankles. We walked along the beach for awhile and then walked through the park that is near it. They have a giant hot air balloon called the Bournemouth Eye. We were going to go up in it, but it wasn't operating today. So we'll have to go back another time.

Walking around Bournemouth was amazing though. Its what I imagine England looking like. Narrow streets with really cool old buildings with fancy detailing. I didn't take pics of that today, but I'll definitely go back some time and do so. Probably when all of the busses are up and running. We only have limitted bus service at the moment so it took us about an hour and a half to get back to Corfe from Bournemouth. So now I'm back here and I'm not going anywhere else today. In fact I'm already in my pajamas and may go to bed soon. But until then I'm watching Strictly Come Dancing because I can't get Dancing with the Stars here :( Its a poor substitute since I don't know any of the stars, but what can you do?