A Week of Changes

Hello!

Well it certainly has been a week (and a few days) of changes in my life. Ever since my roommates and fellow CAPA students and I all landed in London, we took a leap of faith and latched on to one another while everything that we knew kind of slipped out from underneath us. Not only have my flat-mates and I all become quick friends, but we also befriended people in our building, in our classes and even through our internships.

This week I started classes on Tuesday and began my internship on Wednesday. I have three in-person classes. One is to make a portfolio from and about my internship, one is British Broadcasting and we get to tour the BBC (which I am REALLY excited for) and the other is Post-War UK Popular Culture, where we actually do the majority of our classes in different areas of London. They all have quite a bit of writing to them, but not many actual tests, which sounds great to me. I am also taking an online study abroad course from the U of M.

On top of that, I started my internship on Wednesday! If you have read the post previous to this one, you saw that on my first day I was actually assigned a story and it was put in the e-zine! I had my second day on Thursday and wrote another story which was published today (Friday.) The link to it is: http://www.itpro.co.uk/606090/parents-want-text-updates-on-students if you would like to check it out.

I wanted to compile a list of differences that I have noticed in my first week, but we have actually been going since 6am and it is almost 11pm now, so I am getting a bit tired. But here is a quick list of things that I have noticed CAPA/American students doing to adjust to their new British lives:

- We have learned to walk more on the left side of the pavement (standard British for sidewalk.)
- Before crossing the street, we have learned to look down, then follow whatever way the words on the street tell us to look before crossing. There are reminders saying "LOOK LEFT" or "LOOK RIGHT" on the road right next to the pavement which have come in very handy.
- We are all getting used to walking much more than we do in the states, and different shoe choices have definitely appeared because of it. Also, I have found the most amazing thing: blister plasters. They are saving my roommates and my feet. I actually have so many blisters on the back of one of my feet that it makes a smiley face.
- We keep the windows and doors open to the outdoors as much as possible, even though they don't have screens. There are so few bugs that I don't even know if we have had one in our apartment yet.
- We know that when we go onto the escalators, you stand on the right and walk on the left.



Here is the whole group of Flat 41 (+ 2)! The two guys are football players, one from London and one from Ireland. Then it is Amy, Andrea, Heather, me and Veronica!