29 September 2006 Thoughts

Today has been a fun day I must say. First off, I have a new power cord for my laptop that WILL NOT overheat! Secondly, I think I’m about to have an internet connection. Thirdly, it is NO longer raining! And lastly, I met some people in my program and actually know what the hell is going on! So, where to start?
I guess we’ll start with my program. So, as you recall, I am taking those “damn feminist classes” again. I met the professors – Caroline Franklin for the “Unsex’d Female” class and Helen Fulton for Professional Writing. Both professors seem very nice and I think we will get along just fine. Also, in my Unsex’d class, there are only TWO of us! That’s right! TWO STUDENTS! I’m going to love it! But that means I can’t miss class and I have to do the reading. But that’s okay still. I really think I am going to like that ratio. In the PW class, there are 6, I believe. Lucy, the student from Bath, is in there with me and we get along very well. Not sure how this class will run because right now we do not have a time or location to meet!

I met another postgrad student today named Connor. He is from Vancouver, Canada (over by Washington state). He is TALL – I insulted him by asking him if he was 6’0”. Yeah, well, he’s 6’8”! Dad, you are NOT 6’7” because this guy is way taller than you are! Anyway, as the two resident North Americans, we shared stories. He is learning to surf, so I told him that once he had mastered it, he should teach me. He says he’s not very good right now, but hey … that’s ok! We all know how TERRIBLE I was at water skiing in the beginning – right Sarah? How many years/summers did it take me to learn? Oh, and the absolute COOLEST thing about him, is that we SHARE the same BIRTHDAY! But I am a year older than he is. But how cool is that? And random! Some how we got to talking about ages – oh yes, about drinking and the under 21 American international student’s love of alcohol – and he asked me how old I was. Then he asked when my birthday was. When I said February, he was even more curious and had to ask the day. And sure enough, we were BOTH born on February 6 – me in 1984 and he in 1985. And we will have class together on our birthday, which falls on a Tuesday, so we will probably celebrate after class lets out at 4pm. Oh yes, we will. Craziness. It’s like fate or something …  But yes, so Connor is great. He lives in the Village, but on the other side. Claims he’ll stop by one day. We’ll see.

What else? What else? Oh, went to an International Student Induction/Orientation talk this am. I can do a host stay for a weekend, if I would like which seems like something I would be up for. You list a few weekends you are available and a host family will adopt you for the weekend and entertain you AND, the best part of all, feed you a HOME-COOKED British meal. So that might be a possibility.

When I went into the market today, I stopped by The Body Shop to browse – can’t really help it since I was a Bath & Body Works employee. Anyway, they are hiring! So I picked up an application – the only problem is that they want someone who can work 38 hours a week and my Visa only allows me to work 20. However, I do have sales experience in this line of work because of my stint as a BBW sales associate. The ladies I talked to there were very encouraging, so I think I will turn in the application and see what happens. They do insist that we work Christmas Eve, so if I am hired, we would have to see if there was anyway around that depending on what my own plans were for Christmas.

Nothing else spectacular has happened today. Still waiting for the internet to be officially up and working on my computer. That is a pain in the arse, as the British say. Connor and I were lamenting over this whole internet deal – it sucks! You have to be a registered student before you can access anything! He can’t even register because his university in Canada failed to send all the transcripts, so the uni won’t even recognize him as a postgraduate student! But I think he talked to Steve Vine, the coordinator of everything in the English department (but not department head), and they worked something out.

It is the start of the weekend and I have survived my first week away. I think I will sleep in tomorrow and go into town later that afternoon and pick up some things. I’m craving some vegetables – the pasta and the chicken/edam sandwiches aren’t cutting it anymore – and I need to buy some cleaning supplies. Might just do a lot of browsing tomorrow, see what’s going on, what’s on sale … you know me and shopping!