1st visit to London town

I'm just going to stay right now how difficult it is to type on this stupid keyboard...the buttons are off, especially the shift one so i'm probably going to give up on capitializing anything in this post. i'm currently at the library after my one class today...clinical psych. it was pretty interesting, the guest professor for this week (yes they change weekly apparently) lectured about different adult mental health services, i didn't know how many were involved with treatments! the actual lecture room had stationary desks, well more rows of wood and the seats folded out, so that's something i'll have to get used to. tomorrow i have 3 classes, sigh....tues are going to be my long days. since i have the rest of the day to do nothing, i plan on going to get my money exchanged at the town centre, grocery shopping and catching up on some reading.

i finally downloaded skype! unlimited calls for $12 a month, and i'm only here for 2 and half more months, so not bad! it works pretty well compared to the paying as i go plan on my cell i got yesterday. i brought my phone that my auntie gave me and just got a sim card and "topped it up" with 20 pounds, which is basically putting credit on my phone so i can use it. im so lucky the phone works here, the phone company the campus uses rips students off...most of my international student friends got the cheapest phone and they still have to pay as they go, around 5 pounds a minute to the u.s.! that's like $7 a min, that's insane...thank god i only have to pay 20 pence per minute...to any network. that's where skype comes in, i only plan on using the phone so people can get a hold of me here in the u.k.

so friday i ended up watching pineapple express with my room mate on my laptop and then falling asleep again until we went to a pub on campus that night. it was pretty fun and chill. i've discovered a new drink called cider black which is basically a weaker version of beer, yes i am now a fan! saturday was my day trip to london, pics are on facebook but i guess i'll post some on here eventually to accurately document my trip. it was absolutely amazing! my tour guide was halarious, she was so cute and random but i did learn a lot from her. some random facts:
- london was first discovered by the romans in 45 b.c. they thought the culture was too uncivilized and left, but then came back to settle by the thames river
- they called this city londonmetrium or something like that which means, city by the marsh and shortened it to london later
- the City of london, with a capital "C" refers to the original city and now that's where all the business occurs
- London is huge! but central london is where all the tourist spots are
- there is about 7 million people living in the city
- the great fire of london started in a baker's shop. there was a memorial put up in the city with a gold ball on top and stands exactly 252 feet high because when you lay the tower on its side, the ball is exactly where the baker's shop used to be

anyways, aside from all the educational facts i got see all the tourist spots-big ben, london eye, london bridge, westminster abbey, trafalgar square, buckingham palace, thames river and more....there was a group of us international students that just stuck together and walked around. we only had a couple hours on our own but we actually covered a lot...i plan on going back to actually go inside these places, because we only did an outside tour. we had lunch at this deli right when we got to town because everyone was starving! so that lasted the whole day including travel time, its about and hour away from where i live in brighton.

yesterday explored brighton on my own and took the bus the town centre. i think i got off way to early and ended up and some market. i was on a mission to find this phone company store called orange because it was reccomended to me, plus it has the best deals. i just kept asking everyone at the market where the orange store was, well after wandering aimlessly for 15-20 min i found the place...you can't miss it. the town centre is called churchhill square and its a couple blocks of shops and stores plus an indoor mall. after i got my sim card activated i went shopping at h&m because they had some good deals...i got 3 hoodies and a sweater for 12 pounds, that's like 16 dollars! after exploring the mall i found this 1 pound store (like a dollar store) and bought some decorations for my room. the fashion here is so cute...so european! i am absolutely in love! i hope i can bring this stuff back that i buy here, i might i have to ship some stuff over early in box...but yeah...european fashion :) i was supposed to go to dinner with some girls i met on the london tour but i couldn't get a hold of them so i stayed home and played with my phone instead. talked to justin the dinosaur on the phone and then video chatted with my family.

i couldn't really sleep last night, its been like this the past couple of nights actually. i'm so tired i crash around 12am and then i wake up every 2 hours and end up waking up at like 6am...its wierd, i think its just the time change. i talked to some people on skype this morning so that was good. oh and i met lawrence's (martin's son that lives with us) one year old daughter the other day...she's adorable, pink cheeks and big blue eyes! ok that's all for now, will update later...