Settling In

Hello,

It has been a busy first week, but every part, both good and bad, has been an excellent learning experience. Last night I met up with Chris Brigham...He graduated from West the same year as Beans, and we have known each other through baseball and umpiring for a long time. He currently works in London at Merrill Lynch at an equity trading desk, working mostly with global stocks. I met up with him in The City, in Paternoster Square...Right next to St. Paul's Cathedral. We ended up going to dinner at a Thai restaurant near by... absolutely delicious, and very reasonably priced (dinner was like 10 pounds for each of us, and I had enough leftovers for lunch and dinner today as well). I got back from dinner around 9 and met some of the kids from my flat and there friends...they are very nice and welcoming. We went out to a place that is filled with foosball tables (here it's referred to as table football), and played a couple of games of that before returning home. The kids were all British, except from one girl who is from Japan. The diversity here is amazing. Just within my halls, I have met students from all over the US, UK, Australia, Spain, France, Latvia...and that's just naming a few. I can't wait to see what class is like on Monday.

As for today, I slept in (which was amazing) and then went exploring. My friend Amanda and I ventured down Old St. away from the Tube (So dad can google earth it), and eventually ventured into The City. We walked all around Liverpool Station...a huge train station that takes people all over the UK. Very cool. We eventually got ourselves pretty lost, but found a Tube and figured our way out. We made our way over to St. Paul's, and walked around, in awe the entire time. The place is amazing. Its a building that is almost 1500 years old, yet sits among modern architecture of the financial district. the contrast in styles is phenomenal...it was quite cloudy and a little drizzly so I didn't take many photos. We were able to walk into the front entrance without paying the 15 pound fee to view the rest of the church...a bunch of us are going to go to service at both St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey (site of the royal wedding) so we don't have to pay. Unfortunately pictures are not allowed inside these wonderful buildings.

As we exited St. Paul's, a flash hail storm occurred producing about pea sized hail...kind of cool and very creepy. We then took the tube home, and I have been relaxing the rest of the afternoon. Tomorrow I plan on getting things for class (notebooks, paper, ect) as it begins Monday night.

Hope all is well in the States

Cheers!!