16 January 2010

This morning I woke up at 0630 and realized that my Houghton friends would almost certainly be up, since it was a Friday night, and I could Skype them. However, I went back to sleep. J I slept until 0830, (thus getting 11 hours of sleep last night!) and am now sitting on my bed, with the sound of running water and wind in the trees in my ears and daylight streaming in our large window that doesn’t have a screen. Lovely! I skipped over breakfast in that, but it didn’t deserve it. There was real bacon, scrambled eggs and waffle potatoes on the hot plate, three kinds of cereal, plums, apples and oranges in a bowl, and rolls. There was apricot, strawberry and raspberry jam, orange marmalade, chocolate spread, peanut butter, and creamed honey to go on the rolls. There was also tea and coffee!

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Well, a lot has happened since I wrote! At 1000 we had a meeting with Sue, the manager of the HC, the assistant manager Deborah, and our three professors. The TA’s were there, too, but they sat with us. We learned the rules of the HC, suggestions for where to go to church, received our textbook Living Traditions and a map of the Highbury/Islington area, got information about safety and security, the walking course, and varied and sundry random things that we needed to know that we hadn’t heard before like that nightclubs are off limits. That let out right around noon, and we had half an hour to grab a bite to eat before we left for our walking tour of London at 1230. Well . . . all the wonderful food I bought yesterday was in the library, (where it was supposed to be, since that is where the Houghton refrigerators are,) and there was a meeting in there! So, I couldn’t get in and couldn’t make myself a sandwich. So, I ate some snack foods that I had here in my room and bought a French Butter Crescent roll near St. Paul’s Cathedral this afternoon for 99p. I certainly don’t have London figured out yet, but the walking tour helped a lot! We walked more than 5 miles, (this doesn’t count the bus and tube rides, so we traveled much further than that) and saw St. Paul’s, the British National Theatre, the London Eye, the Thames, the Palace, Westminster Abby, etc. I was taking a picture of some building by the Thames (I don’t know what it was, or if is significant) and looked to my right and saw Big Ben and the houses of Parliament. I gave a happy sigh. My life was complete. Well, maybe not. But I took a lot of pictures. In fact, I got teased about how many pictures I was taking. But it was fun. I suppose I’ll have plenty of chances, but I’d like to get the tourist look over with while I’m in a group of people, and when I’m in a smaller group or by myself look like I know what I’m doing. (Hopefully, I really will know what I’m doing!) Laura Jackson and I walked around the block when we got back to the HC and I saw again where the professors live. I really like this place! GStQ