The longest post known to man…
So I’m sitting here, at my desk and I have accomplished something amazing… I made it through all of the trip pictures that each of us took. Here are some stats, 3,052 photos total (1,781 of which are mine); 14 video clips (9 are mine); and after much debate I have lowered the number of pictures that I want to share with you all down to 531. Considering the starting number that’s not too bad, however, reality says that I cannot post all those pictures onto my blog. So here’s the deal. I will be giving a brief summary of each day and including a moderate about of pictures to go along with the summaries. I don’t know precisely when I can get my computer hooked up with the internet so for the time being I will update you on my current life.
I have made it through “Fresher” week alive and it not too bad of shape. Basically it was a week of activities to keep the freshmen occupied so that they don’t think about home and loved ones. For all the Biola kids it’s similar to SOS but way lamer (is that a word?) They have nighttime activities and basically all of them involve getting drunk or drinking (what a different atmosphere than Biola).
Monday included a short orientation meeting that I didn’t really get anything out of, but I did meet some friends. I met Brian (from Boston), Ingred (from the Netherlands) and Matt (also from Boston but he didn’t know Brian). We all decided to go do some shopping ended up meeting someone that was actually British, his name’s Rich. We all got on the bus and got lost several times but had a good time seeing things that were around. We went to ASDA which is basically a SuperWalmart (owned by the same company). Did my first grocery shopping, I never realized how brand dependent I was until I realized that they did not have any of the names that I am used to. During that trip we found out that it was Rich’s B-day so we decided to throw him a little party when we got back. His parents had given him a Darth Vader cake before they left and we stuck a stick of incense in it as a candle… that was an adventure. For being the first full day there I felt pretty good about it, the people were all relatively nice, I wish I would have met more British people though.
Tuesday involved another orientation meeting this time for the international students. It was boring but we got free lunch which was exciting. The gang (Annie, Sierra, Jamye, Rich and Matt… from now on just “the gang”) went to ASDA again, they were out of a lot of things that I needed still since everyone else needed the same thing (like hangers). We got back to campus and decided to go to the Fresher event that night which was the Greyhound races in Wimbledon. (*Disclaimer* If stories involving blood make you squimish you may want to skip downa few lines.) I cooked my dinner real fast and was trying to cut open a bag of bread with my table knife (couldn’t find my scissors) in the process my hand slipped and I cut about ¼ inch diagonally into my left middle finger. There was blood everywhere, you would have thought that I had cut my finger completely off or something. I got help from a couple of the girls on my floor and got really faint for a little bit. After about a ½ hour my finger finally decided to stop bleeding so I was able to go to the dog races a little bit late. The dog races were really fun, we watched about 8 races and had a good time guessing who we thought would win. I am very glad that I did not bet because my dog never won.
I don’t really remember what happened on Wednesday but on Thursday we went on a coach (bus) tour of London. It was really cool to see all of the really big sights and get a little bit of the history of London. I realized that there is a ton of exploring that I need to do while I am here. London has to be one of the biggest cities ever, it’s crazy.
Friday we had a club fair and I signed up for a couple clubs including kickboxing and rowing. The girls (my traveling buddies) all decided to see what the bar on campus was like, we walked in and were overcome by the horrible stench of cigarettes and beer. We found a table off in the corner and started to play Rummy with 2 other Brits and another Biola student. It was a good evening but I think that is going to be hard going to that bar very often because I feel like I can’t breathe when I walk in.
Saturday involved going on a Photo Frenzy with the international students where we were given a list of place that we had to take a picture in front of. It was the gang once again minus Annie and Rich. We left at 11 and got back at 16, it was such a long journey but it was very rewarding and were able to get a little bit more hands on feel of London that we didn’t quite get from the coach tour. During our searching we ran into a Breast Cancer Walk and the largest anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-Blair march that I have ever seen. We had stopped for lunch right by Trafalgar’s square and we were there for ½ hour and the whole time there was a long wide group of people marching along the road. It was the first time that I have ever been that close to a protest it was very unnerving. After the frenzy we had dinner and the girls decided it was time for a girls night so we went to Sierra’s room and started our Spades (card game) extravaganza. We have life long partners, Annie and I, and Sierra and Jamye basically Annie and I kick butt and it’s amazing. We are going to continue keeping score throughout the semester and see who wins at the end.
Sunday there was a group of 16 of us from Biola who went to church at Queen’s Road Church in Wimbledon. It was funny because Annie and I decided we were going to go to church and next thing we know there were 16 people going. The church was fairly small with about 200 people (I’m used to a 1500+ church). It was semi-charismatic with people from the congregation praying at certain time and the pastor asking if anyone thought that they had a word from God to share with the congregation. It was an interesting experience since I have never been to a charismatic church before, I could tell that my mind automatically became skeptical when it started and I really had to try to be open to the fact that God can and does still move in that way. After church the gang got together and we went to a little grassy knoll by a church and had a picnic. It was so relaxing and refreshing I didn’t ever want to leave. It was also quite funny because it was very bright and sunny and then next thing we know there was cloud cover all over and it rained for about 5 minutes and then it move on. Strange but fun none the less.
Classes started on Monday and it was actually quite unnerving to walk into my first class and try to talk to my tutor about me being an international student and how I will be leaving before the semester is over and him simply walking to go find some coffee and say, “oh, it’s a shame you had to travel all the way over here to find a decent education.” I think that Cognitive psych is going to be very interesting with him as my tutor… we’ll see what happens there. Luckily the other two classes that I have attended the profs were quite pleasant and flexible with what I needed to do. Here’s a basic outline of my class schedule…
Monday: Cognitive Psych (9.00-11.00); Models of Counselling [the British spelling of course] (11.00-13.00)
Tuesday: Autism (9.00-11.00)
Wednesday: Bible Integration class [Christianity and Culture] (18.00-20.00)
Thursday: Theoretical Approaches to Criminal Behaviour (11.00-13.00)
Since it is Wednesday I have yet to go to the Criminal Behavior class but I am looking forward to it most of all. I will let you know how it goes. Today I had the first rowing club meeting and it was absolutely amazing!! I think that I am going to love doing this. We were able to get in a stationary boat and learn how to paddle together and all the steps to row properly, then we went on the rowing machine to practice some more. I’m so excited about it, hopefully I will remain that excited. Well, this has been the longest post ever… sorry, sometimes I just get going on a tangent and then the next thing I know it’s been over an hour and a half and 2 pages single spaced in word. I hope that you are all doing well and hopefully you haven’t died from reading your computer screen for so long. Once again I will be posting about my travels through out the week and including pictures when I can. Cheers!

Oh Europe…
Well here’s the deal. After the last post I have made my way through 4 other countries (France, Switzerland, Austria and Italy) and have learned that the words “free” and “internet” cannot be found in any sentence anywhere! Other than that I have had the most amazing time of my life. I was sick (and still am a little bit) for about a week, but I pressed on and have found my voice again about 2 days ago. God was so gracious to me throughout that time because I know there was no way to carry on like I did without his strength.
Moving on, I have arrived safely to Roehampton University and I am in the process of moving in. My room is a good size and I love having my own shower and sink in my room. However there are several downfalls… internet and phones. I do not have access to the internet from my computer, only through the computers in the computer lab. I have two friends in one of the other dorms that have given me permission to use their connection occasionally. Translation: As it looks right now I will not be able to update as much as I would like to. The other issue, the phone, I have yet to find a pay phone on campus and the phones that are in the hall will not allow me to use a calling card (or if I can I don’t know how to yet, grrr).
Okay enough complaining, here’s what I will try and do. I will post brief summaries with pictures of each day of my trip when time and internet allow. I have no idea how long this will take but I’ll figure out something and will give you all brief updates about how I am doing in the present time. (Did that sentence just make sense? Eh, oh well)
Right now, I feel totally anti-social. I have been up for the past 36 hours, with about 2 hours of dozing somewhere in between. I would explain now but that would ruin the whole process of sharing my trip day by day with you. So keep checking in and you will find out why! So basically I am going to go back to my room and finish putting things away and then I am going to go to bed for a really long time (or maybe just until my 9:30 am meeting). I’ll keep you all updated when I can. Later!

Oh wait, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!! Okay, now goodbye!

The fun has only just begun
Wow, what a day! If I could have a pound for everytime that the four of us got looked at strangely I would be an extremely rich woman. It all started with trying to move our luggage to Roehampton, haha what a joke. So here's the sceen, 4 girls, 2 huge suitcases each walking down a crowded street to the tube station. Somebody stopped us just outside the station and recomended that we take a taxi, so we did and boy are we glad that we did! It was once again an adventure to try and get our luggage into the taxi but we managed to survive. Once at Roehamton we had to carry our luggage up a flight and a half of stairs (one word... elevator) and put in a room with a bunch of other luggage from other Biola students.
Then we decided to walk to find the closest tube station, we made the mistake of asking for directions fro someone who ended up giving us the directions to the above ground rail station. Not only was it the wrong place but we couldn't even find that. So, basically we were really lost for a really long time. We were very hungry so we stopped at a coffee chain that had sandwiches which was wonderful! Then we made our way to somewhere and found out that we could buy a bus pass for 1 day for 3GBP so we did that and got on the train that we hoped would take us back to our hostel. Well that sort of worked, we are staying by Kensington Gardens Park and we ended up in the north end instead of the south end so we decided to walk through the park. This I think was my favorite part of the day, everything was so green and the road was really wide and we found out that Princess Diana's apt. (it was really a castle but whatever) was in the middle of the park it was so cool looking but it was also sad because there was stuff everywhere remebering her that people from all over brought and hung up.
After that we made our way back to the hostel, got some things figured out for our trip to France tomorrow and relaxed a little (it was around 6:30 at this point) We then went and ate at a pub down the street where I learned that bacon really means Canadian Bacon (sort of, but not really). But the sandwich that I ate was still good despite that.
We then decided to go to Buckingham palace and got on the bus the wrong direction (this was when I finally learned that the other girls' forte is not directions! but I love them anyways!). Finally we made it to the palace and though it was very dark there it was still very beautiful. We hung around there for a little bit and saw the London eye off in the distance. We were going to try and see Big Ben but we were worried that we would run out of time on our bus pass before we would be able to get back on. We headed back (going the right direction this time) and arrived home nice and safely. It was a good day, there were several times that I got frustrated because I love to know where I am going and most of the time I didn't. I think that the four of us are getting along well which is a huge plus. I leave for france tomorrow and I don't know when I will be able to write since our next place doesn't look like it has internet (we'll see!). So, hasta la bye bye! (sorry about no pics, the internet's being retarded...) Love you all.

2 Blondes, a brunette and a red head are in a hostel planning a European trip... it sounds like the beginning of a really bad joke, but that's what it will be for the next 2 weeks!
I have arrived, after a 4.5 hour plane ride to DC and then 8 hours to Heathrow.
The plane rides were not as enjoyable as they could have been. But my traveling mate was wonderful! While in DC we learned how much we valued Starbucks after walking a mile to get some in another terminal. Unfortunatly sleep came rarely on the plane, however for the first four hours of our London flight I vaguly remember the steward asking if I wanted eggs or pancakes, I said eggs. The next thing I knew I was basically covered in my eggs since I couldn't find my mouth, they tasted terrible! Then next thing I know there's a movie playing... those 4 hours were glorious! If there would have been an emergency I wouldn't have known what to do, i missed that part too.
We got to Heathrow around 9:30pm, got through customs without a problem, found or other companion Sierra in baggage claim and we packed our lives onto a little cart and headed for a taxi. Our taxi driver was amazing, he was joking around with us and was very happy about taking three "gorgeous girls" to their hostel. 55GBP later we arriven in front of our hostel after a half hour drive adn after talking to Jim's (our taxi driver) son on the cellular.
After some confusion we were able to get into our 4 bed private room where we met up with our other traveler. It was sooooo hot... oh my goodness, don't get me started. We carried our luggage up 5 flights of stairs and attepted to use the internet but it was down. Bummer. So off to bed we all went!
This morning we got up and had breakfast with warm milk in our cereal and toast and jam as well as tea. Ah foreign food, you would thing that something as simple as that meal would taste the same, it doesn't. We then repacked our bags and got our backpacks ready for the next few weeks. After a cold shower and lots of packing here I am in the lobby enjoying the free wireless internet.
We will be droping off our luggage today at Roehampton and then validate our Eurail passes, and possibly go see Notting Hill. I don't know when I will write again but everything is great here. Thank you to everyone who prayed for our safe arrival and for your support. Until next time!