Unfortunately I haven't received the cord for my camera yet, so I have no pictures as of now. Hopefully I will get the cord soon and when I get it I will do some sort of photo dump with all the pictures I've been taking.
This week was my real first week at the University as I started all of my classes and my internship. My first impressions college in the UK is it will be much easier then what I'm used to back home. Just the general way the classes where laid out on the first day tells me that I won't be working as hard here, which is probably a good thing. I'm taking four classes this semester: Operations Management, Systems and Data, a Marketing class which I forget the name of, and a class to go along with my internship. Only two of the four classes are taught by UK teachers. I have a Brazilian teacher and an Australian teacher so I don't feel that out of place because, at least with the Brazilian teacher, no one can understand her.
Quick fist pump: I got all my books from the library!!!
I'm already late with publishing this post so I think I will wrap it up here. My phone cord just came so a photo dump will be soon to follow.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
My First Week
So let me start out by saying I am not much of a writer. I probably wouldn't be writing this blog if I didn't have to for DePaul. But hopefully it will at least help me write gooder in the future. It took me a week to write this first post so I will try to update the blog once a week but I make no promises. Perhaps I'll just throw in a lot of pictures to make it look longer. To start it off Ill run down some highlights from my past week.
Day One: Saturday January 16th
I haven't been on a plane for about 5 years, so I forgot how cramped it can be. But overall I thought the two flights were nice. The food was surprisingly good on the transatlantic voyages. Although I didn't know that when the air pressure changes, packets of dressing can explode all over the person next to you when you open them. Awkward.
The fact that I was in another country first hit me when I looked out the window right before we landed and saw the cars drive on the wrong side of the road. I'm still not use to everything being on the left but thankfully most crosswalks have which way to look painted on the base of the sidewalk.
Sunday January 17th
Even though I am in England, there is no way that I am missing the NFL playoffs. We found this International sports bar near Picadilly Circus that was showing the NFL games. The Hawks and Redwings game was on as well, which was a bonus. It was definitely a popular place for Americans as there where a bunch of purple Vikings jerseys scattered through out the bar.
Even though I haven't been to Time Square in New York, I would use it to describe Piccadilly Circus. There are massive illuminated billboards aligning pretty old looking buildings. It's like the old London meets the electronic age.
Tuesday, January 19th
I'm studying through a program called CEA for my stay over here. We have a UK leader, Gail, who will be taking us on a lot of trips around the UK over the semester. On Tuesday we went to see Phantom of the Opera (the original production). I'm not a big theater goer, so to say I was not very entertained would be putting it mildly. At least there was a snack bar to keep me entertained.
Friday, January 22nd
Though out the week I had a bunch of study abroad orientations through Westminster. At the end of the sessions, all 350 of the study abroad student were invited on a cruise down the River Thames. The boat was not as big as I had hoped so it was a tight fit, but overall the cruise was pretty cool. We went under the Tower Bridge (the one in Sherlock Holmes) and went by the huge O2 arena. The coolest part of the ride was when we passed the prime meridian and entered another hemisphere. There was a green laser to signal the line, and it looked like the laser would bend with the curve of the earth cause it you could see it in both directions.
Saturday, January 23rd
Our second trip through CEA was to Stone Hedge and Bath. I awed at the impressive feat of ancient people who built such an amazingly advanced structure with such primitive tools... for about 15 minutes at which point I just saw a bunch of rocks. I was disappointed that we could not go up and touch/climb/goof around on the rocks and had to say behind a small rope.
Bath was much more impressive. It got its name from Roman times as it is the only place in the UK were hot water comes out of the ground. The region is covered by Limestone hills which rain water seeps though. The water heats up to 120 degree Fahrenheit, underground and emerges at 3 different points around the city. The Romans built public baths at these points which are now semi underground. But there are modern bath houses around the city that use the spring water. Unfortunately we were not able to go to one of these houses, but I would like to come back sometime and take a dip. The water is suppose to be very good for you as it pick up many different minerals when it filters through the limestone.
The city itself was also impressive. All of the building where built using the same limestone from the surrounding hills. The stone is this creamy yellow color and is really easy to look at. The city is also very hilly and reminded me of when I went to visit my Grandpa in Pittsburgh. There are some beautiful views from the top (or bottom) of the hills.
Well that is all I can think of writing for now. I just had my first class today, which was an interesting experience, and will hopefully blog about it soon. I just bought a cord for my phone to transfer pictures to my computer. So hopefully this will be the longest blog I write.
Well until next time, Cheerio
Day One: Saturday January 16th
I haven't been on a plane for about 5 years, so I forgot how cramped it can be. But overall I thought the two flights were nice. The food was surprisingly good on the transatlantic voyages. Although I didn't know that when the air pressure changes, packets of dressing can explode all over the person next to you when you open them. Awkward.
The fact that I was in another country first hit me when I looked out the window right before we landed and saw the cars drive on the wrong side of the road. I'm still not use to everything being on the left but thankfully most crosswalks have which way to look painted on the base of the sidewalk.
Sunday January 17th
Even though I am in England, there is no way that I am missing the NFL playoffs. We found this International sports bar near Picadilly Circus that was showing the NFL games. The Hawks and Redwings game was on as well, which was a bonus. It was definitely a popular place for Americans as there where a bunch of purple Vikings jerseys scattered through out the bar.
Even though I haven't been to Time Square in New York, I would use it to describe Piccadilly Circus. There are massive illuminated billboards aligning pretty old looking buildings. It's like the old London meets the electronic age.
Tuesday, January 19th
I'm studying through a program called CEA for my stay over here. We have a UK leader, Gail, who will be taking us on a lot of trips around the UK over the semester. On Tuesday we went to see Phantom of the Opera (the original production). I'm not a big theater goer, so to say I was not very entertained would be putting it mildly. At least there was a snack bar to keep me entertained.
Friday, January 22nd
Though out the week I had a bunch of study abroad orientations through Westminster. At the end of the sessions, all 350 of the study abroad student were invited on a cruise down the River Thames. The boat was not as big as I had hoped so it was a tight fit, but overall the cruise was pretty cool. We went under the Tower Bridge (the one in Sherlock Holmes) and went by the huge O2 arena. The coolest part of the ride was when we passed the prime meridian and entered another hemisphere. There was a green laser to signal the line, and it looked like the laser would bend with the curve of the earth cause it you could see it in both directions.
Saturday, January 23rd
Our second trip through CEA was to Stone Hedge and Bath. I awed at the impressive feat of ancient people who built such an amazingly advanced structure with such primitive tools... for about 15 minutes at which point I just saw a bunch of rocks. I was disappointed that we could not go up and touch/climb/goof around on the rocks and had to say behind a small rope.
Bath was much more impressive. It got its name from Roman times as it is the only place in the UK were hot water comes out of the ground. The region is covered by Limestone hills which rain water seeps though. The water heats up to 120 degree Fahrenheit, underground and emerges at 3 different points around the city. The Romans built public baths at these points which are now semi underground. But there are modern bath houses around the city that use the spring water. Unfortunately we were not able to go to one of these houses, but I would like to come back sometime and take a dip. The water is suppose to be very good for you as it pick up many different minerals when it filters through the limestone.
The city itself was also impressive. All of the building where built using the same limestone from the surrounding hills. The stone is this creamy yellow color and is really easy to look at. The city is also very hilly and reminded me of when I went to visit my Grandpa in Pittsburgh. There are some beautiful views from the top (or bottom) of the hills.
Well that is all I can think of writing for now. I just had my first class today, which was an interesting experience, and will hopefully blog about it soon. I just bought a cord for my phone to transfer pictures to my computer. So hopefully this will be the longest blog I write.
Well until next time, Cheerio
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