Monday Highlights

A highlight of the day's adventures:

-Our first day of "class," which was really just FIE orientation, learning about the ins and outs and how to be safe in London, etc.

-My first British Starbucks experience. A regular coffee is a "filtered coffee" and you can either order it black or white, which is with milk. Also they sell packaged pancakes and marmalade. True story.

-A trip to the West End/Soho/Leicester Square (watch out, here comes the aforementioned occasional photo):

Total highlight. We went to the bookstore to pick up copies of All's Well That Ends Well which apparently they do not sell in the States because nobody could find it. Then a trip to the M&M store which was a massive four stories and featured such beauties as these:

The Bard himself, Billy Shakes.

I know, hot ride. (Apparently I've got a thing for the blue one.)

Also there was this amazing little pastry shop that made me sick with its sweetness (literally) as we ate sitting on a step on the sidewalk. We got some serious dirty/confused looks for that one; apparently it's not okay to sit on steps and eat pastry in London. Also in the West End, oh yeah, MUSICALS. A ton of them. That was definitely my favorite part of London we've visited so far (I know, I've been here SUCH a long time already), and I realllly want to go back. Also see a show.

More highlights:

-Reading/acting out All's Well with 4 other people--makes it far easier and more fun to understand. Also we have to read it by Wednesday.

-Returning to what we are now calling our "local" for Comedy Night and being treated to some good old British humor while we ate our chicken pie and mash.

-Discovering that the other students living in our building are from Ohio State.

...okay the highlight was the cute boys that are from there too.

Words I am now attempting to add into my vocabulary:

-Sorry. Instead of "excuse me." Like when you're in the tiny market with your quart of milk and you have to squeeze by the man in a suit, you do not say "excuse me," you say "sorry." You also say it in a British accent, because it is short enough that you can't really mess it up and people may actually believe you.

-Cheers. We're still trying to totally figure out the context of this one. I was pretty sure it was in lieu of "thank you." Like when you order your food at the pub and they hand you your change and you say "cheers" and then walk away. Then some of my friends thought it was as a goodbye, kind of like "ciao" or something. Which would also make sense in the context I just used. Clearly this necessitates further investigation; I'll let you know as the mystery unfolds.

-Brilliant. This one's my favorite. They use it for everything; even things that are really not very brilliant. "Here's your change." Brilliant. "There's the Tube." Brilliant. "Class starts at 9:30." Brilliant. It's great. Wait, it's brilliant. I need work.

Lovelovelove!

-Charlotte