Rowing on the Thames!

Hi All,

So to pick up where I left off. . .

On Friday I went to Freshers Fayre and put my name on the list for the campus radio station, swimming, psych society, and the rowing club.

To join any of it, there is a fee. I decided to try things out before I committed my 10 pounds per, because lets face it, I'm not made of money.

So Saturday morning I got up, ate, and headed to the front of campus (aka the other side of the castle I live in). I met some of the other California girls there and off we went. The boat club took us out on the Thames in Staines. It was lots of fun. I was the first in my section of the boat so everyone had to be in pace with me which meant that the cox (probably spelled that wrong. . but I'm too lazy to think) kept telling me to stop and start. And the paddle kept turning in my hand, but overall pretty good morning. To join would have been 60 pounds and after several days of thinking about I decided not to since its Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings. I want to be able to travel on the weekends.

We then went shopping yet again in Staines where I finally got dishes and such. (exciting, I know!)

Saturday night we went to a club in Windsor to celebrate someone's b-day and I got to meet some of the people who the rest of the Californians have been hanging out with. It was a lot of fun just to dance and hang out. Since my friend Sarah and the rest of the Californians live about a mile and a half from campus, I just slept on her floor and headed back on Sunday morning.

That evening I went with Emily, from Australia, to swim, but we were confused as to where we were supposed to meet and ended up getting lost trying to find the sports centre. We eventually just headed back and watched a movie with the rest of our floor.

Monday was my first day of class. I wasnt on the list for either of them. And I must admit I was/still am slightly intimidated by the 20 page reading list for history. Although I dont have to read everything on the list, I had trouble getting the 2 required readings. Currently Ive completed 125/400 pages. . .eek! Media Arts was good except that I felt out of my element. I made a comment about the biased nature of news broadcasts and then remembered the Brits have the BBC. . .oh well. We then watched an unpleasant documentary about alcoholism . . . yea. . .that's gonna stop a lot of us from touching alcohol for quite some time. That night I did laundry with Emily. By the way, laundry is so expensive and the machines are tiny!! We stayed while our clothes were drying and did our respective puzzles (Sudoku for me). We decided that Monday nights should be laundry nights and we should bring a bottle of wine down next time. But then shortly after changed our minds, mostly because Em was acting like a crazy woman. . .spinning around with her laundry bag attached to her back in the lift.

Tuesday I didnt have class but I also didnt do any work. We had a fire drill at 7 a.m. which really angered me. Luckily I was able to get a little more sleep since I didnt have anay plans til 10. I went into Egham (the town) to get some groceries and such with Emily. We just ran errands and such. We then finally went swimming. I paid the 10 pound membership fee. The workout wasnt hard but Emily and I are so out of shape that is was painful. The president of the club asked us why we werent in the fast lane with the boys and Emily casually stated that we didnt want to bruise their egos. I met another American but Im pretty sure he thought Em and I were crazy because we were cracking jokes and being chatterboxes the whole time. I made Emily take the stairs up and she collapsed when we finally got up to our floor. The stairs are quite a workout here. We then went to the volleyball social at one of the bars on campus but it was pretty much over by the time we got there. Oh yea and we had another fire alarm go off right as we were changing into acceptable clothes (aka not our sweatpants).

Wednesday morning I was falling asleep in my lecture and halfway through had to go talk to the Professor about being an exchange student. I then went back to my seat and started to fall asleep again. Great. . .now he knows who I am and the fact that I cant keep my eyes open. I was trying to, but I started seeing double. I mean its the 4th time I had been over this topic. After lunch, I hit the library and actually did some reading. Pretty much all I did the rest of the night (or tried to at least).

Today I tried to read but my articles were online and my computer was not cooperating. I read a little and then went to book a tour of Stonehenge, Glastonbury and Bath with Sarah. We then hung out for a bit before I went to class again. I asked her to quickly check the mail with me and i had a slip with my name on it. I got excited b/c I ordered computer parts and was getting tired of a laptop that wasnt mobile and kept crashing. As I was standing there the lady pulled out 3 boxes. I was shocked. I got my comp stuff, a package from home, and my books that I ordered. It was nice to get a package because the rest of the girls on my floor had been getting them and I must admit I was getting a tad jealous. The girls tried my candy corn. A few liked it but Millie thought it was disgusting. . .oh well. . . more for me! Lecture was pretty good. I didnt fall asleep this time!

Saturday I am going to London with Sarah and Jennifer. We are going to try to see the Merchant of Venice at the Globe. We also plan on doing other touristy things plus some shopping (I still need galoshes!).

Sarah and I have made our list of the places we would like to go and will begin working on it ASAP.

I'll try to keep you all updated.

As requested, my address is:

E413 Founders Hall
Royal Holloway, University of London
Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX
United Kingdom













Just so you can see that my room is much better now. . .