Intro

So I believe that I left off after having arrived and attempted to go to bed. I did get back to sleep eventually, but first I watched an episode of Strictly Come Dancing, which is the original Dancing With the Stars. I didn't know any of the stars though, so that was a bit of a disappointment. I did know Bruno and Len though, so that was fun.

The next day I woke up and went on a walking tour of Poole. We went through the shopping mall and then down the shopping district road. It was cool because there were sections for each thing. Cell phones all in one area, banks in another, etc. Weird. Then we headed down to the quay (pronounced key). The Brits make fun when you say it wrong. There isn't really a beach down there, but there are a lot of big boats and a yacht building company. And apparently there is a great kite flying area down a bit further. After we got back I did a bit more unpacking and then went to get myself a cell phone. I ended up with a lovely purple slider. Its cheap to call the States on, but much more to call Britain, which is odd. I can change the plan later depending on how I am using it, but I still find it strange.

That night was the welcome reception and tea. Two of my flatmates are international students as well so we were going, but then we invited along our two British flatmates. They were a bit put out afterwards since they were the only Brits there, but it was kind of fun. Plus I finally found another girl on my program. She's from Norway. Then we all had to sit with people from our parts of the world to eat. Our table had North, South and Central America and the Caribbean and there were only 6 of us there. It was very sad. But I did meet a girl that lives down the hall on my same floor. She's from Canada and she's in the same school as me, but studying a different course. So after we all got back from the free food shindig we decided to go out and see what we could see in Poole. Turns out we could see very little. The whole town was dead. We ended up in a semi expensive pub where I had my first and probably last Pimm's. Its some sort of liquor, but I'm not sure what. Then its mixed with Coke in a glass with a lemon and a lime. It was pretty nothing. No distinctive flavor at all. So then we switched to a cider, which was a bit sweet.

We decided to try to find a cheaper place so we wandered back toward home. We got to the pub about 10:55 so the bartender wasn't too happy with us. We had to order and pay really quickly to get it in before 11, as that is the time that pubs close here. Crazy! Then they harassed us to finish quickly even though we were sitting outside. I think they were just a bit peeved that we showed up at the last second.

We headed home and ended up in the flat down the hall for quite awhile. All of the people that I was with are very nice and a few are on courses similar to mine, so that's nice. I was going to write more, but its pushing 2am so I think I'll go to bed. More tomorrow.