Good Morning, London!

I just woke up at 10:15, and I am the only one awake in my house. Several people went to the club Tiger Tiger last night and came back between 2:30 and 3. They said it was really big and really packed. I didn't go because I was not in the mood to spend 10 pounds to get in as a cover charge and I didn't have enough energy to dance. Instead, I decided to stay in for my first night since I arrived in London. Because Christine was feeling sick, we both stayed in and watched Bridget Jones' Diary 2. It was cute, and Colin Firth was brilliant as always.

Right now I am sitting in my house's common room staring at two beautiful houses across the street. Each of the houses are gated off, which probably makes them even more expensive than our measly 3.5 million pound residence. This neighborhood is fantastic, and feels incredibly safe - espeically in comparison to Thorsby house, which is in the same neighborhood as City University.

As many of you know who are reading this blog entry, my skin is very pale. Over the past few weeks, I've noticed that I fit in well with most other Londoners, because the Brits are not as obsessed with tan skin as Americans. However, many other girls in my program have already been to a tanning salon here to maintain their tans. Therefore, when I'm out with them, I still feel slightly like a ghost. It's a very interesting thing that I now know there are certain cultural things from America that people do not want to adjust to when arriving in London.

Last night there were whispers from my friends Haley, Erin, and Christine that we would go to Tate Modern this morning around 11am. I have yet to confirm if we will, but I will definitely write about it if the outing happens.

I suppose I should write about what I've done the last two days to keep you, dear reader, up to date with my goings-on. On Thursday, the London Internship program was required to attend two lectures at City University - the first starting at 10am. Therefore, I woke up at 8am in order to get out of the door by 9. Getting to City University early in the morning is a struggle because of the commute - we get on at Queensway tube station, take it across town to Bank, switch lines to the Northern Line and take the Northern Line up to Angel in Islington, and walk seven to ten minutes to City University from Angel. Thus far, I have yet to do anything productive during the commute, including reading the free paper that is offered at the tube stations. (Speaking of the free paper, it's not like free papers are in America at all. The paper actually is regarded very highly for what it is worth, and the people that give it out to you are employed to do so in order to continue to promote the paper and distribute it widely.) However, I tend to just get lost in my thoughts while on the tube, as if I'm continuously spacing out. I believe a goal for my trip will be to figure out how to be productive.

The lectures I attended on Thursday would not have been so boring if they weren't so long, the rooms were not so hot, and I had gotten 8 hours of sleep. Since none of those are the case, sitting through two lectures that were both over two hours long and discussing the current structure of the UK and then the entire history of the European Union was probably the most difficult thing I have had to do since passing through customs. I'm excited to read over my notes for those lectures, since I feel it will take me five minutes to review the material that took over two hours.

Bare with me as I describe Thursday night. It was not good news. I went to McDonalds for dinner down the street with my friends/flatmates Bita, Audrey, and Kaitlin. We were all really craving it as well as wanting to see how it was different from the McDonalds in America. I found it so strange that a.) The menu was probably only 25% on the menu offered in the States and b.) I ordered my food and then they told me to find a seat and brought it to me when my food was ready. After McDonalds, Christine and I made our way down to Redcliffe Gardens, where we were going to meet our friends before going out to a pub. However, because the group of people were so big, there was a misunderstanding where half of the group took the tube to Picadilly and went to On Anon and the other half (my group) took the tube to High Street Kensington and went to a local pub called the Student Union. By went to a pub, I mean, we arrived at the Student Union after walking quite far in drizzle only to find that the pub closed at 11 and we arrived at 11:05. After that, I was split up even more from the group, and some of the people in that group decided to just go back to Redcliffe, where I then followed knowing that I at least would not be further lost if I went back to Redcliffe. I spent several hours there with my friend Sharday hanging out and watching American TV shows online.

At around 1:30 in the morning, before everyone else got back, I decided to check my email on my friend Evan's computer. Upon checking it, I found an email from Bank of America informing me that they had recognized potential fraudulent charges on my credit card. Sure enough, when I logged in, my credit card number had been stolen and was being used to order crappy stuff like Abercrombie online. So I was awake until 3:30 in the morning on the phone with Bank of America trying to cancel my credit card, adding my father to my account so he can fill out my forms when the arrive at our house, and figuring out how I can get a new credit card. Everything seems sorted out now. However, the thing to remember is that the reason why my credit card number was stolen is because, in England, retail stores print out the entire card number on receipts that you have to sign. This move enables employees of the stores to have access to your card number if they feel like being unethical.

Friday I did not have to be at City University until 2pm, which was nice that I could sleep in. However, I did not enjoy the process of registering for my classes in the slightest. They sent everyone into a big room to find the professors of the classes that we wanted to take and have them sign off that we could enter the classes. There was no guidance behind what I should take, and I felt the professors representing business classes did not know exactly what they were talking about. Plus, there were so many of us business students from IU trying to take an equivalent to Z302, they had no idea how to answer our questions. Even though I felt like I was being a jerk, I finally think I found the exact information I needed to be able to sign up for the classes that I must take. I will now have two classes on Wednesday and one Monday morning at 9am (ouch).

I think that pretty much covers my update. I tend to not be home long enough to do time-consuming things, such as grocery shop, laundry, and update my blog. However, I'm definitely working on creating more time for those this weekend, so wish me luck!