hi all! ok here is a brief update on what i have been up to:

sunday:
i left portland for london in the morning and we arrived in new cross (in east london) around 3 to move into our dorms, or flats rather. heres a little funny story: when we arrived a student from goldsmiths got on our bus to explain things. he said to find a woman in an orange shirt who would give us our keys, then to find a person in a blue shirt to help us move, and finally to direct any questions we have to students in the black shirts. then from the back of the bus came, 'and if a person with a red shirt tags you, you lose the game and have to start over.' hehe my friend mikael is funny.

ok so i am on the 4th (so top) floor of the dorms here. i am living with 6 other people, 4 brits and one other american girl (jen) who is from boston and goes to northeastern. there are two boys (guy, who is goign to be my new george o'mally friend (note: watch greys anatomy hes the friendly roommate) and lucian who is cool as well) and two other girls (amy and claire). its weird because all of the british students are 18 and freshmen. so yah, theyre all going crazy - theyre cute and all but im kind of over it (as are the rest of the international students, but its cool). that night we went to the union (so the student union, not the awesome pizza place in occidental) where there was a big dance party, open bar (what?! at a school function?? neat! ill have a gin and tonic please), and lots of crazy freshmen.

i have to say its fun saying 'im from california' because everyone here gets wide-eyed and a little excited to hear that. i have had a few conversations about 'the oc' and if i go there or see the actors there ('you have family in the oc, woooow')

monday:
some of my american friends (mary and drew) and i met up for breakfast at my flat then we went grocery shopping, yay! we went to sainsburys which is a 3 minute walk away. its like safeway, so you can imagine my excitement. after that we took a double decker bus ride down to try to get to tk maxx (just like tJ maxx in the states) but we ended up at pound slasher. and wow it was cheap.

after that mary and i went into central london (oxford street) to meet up with my friend mike from camp. it was so great to see him! we had lunch, walked around, went to a pub - it was great. after mike left mary and i stayed in that general area and had dinner then caught the tube home. last night i finally had time to unpack all of my stuff and move in to my room. my room is small but thats fine - theres a bed, a good sized desk, small closet, adn a small bathroom complete with a shower (which is almost over the toilet, but whatever). after i moved in mary came over and we had some quality greys anatomy time (since we're both slightly obsessed)
today:
i woke up with a sore throat and a head cold, so im fairly drugged up on sudafed and tylenol cold right now. so that was kindof lame.

i went to my first meeting for classes. this was the politics department meeting where i found out where the good libraries are and when my european politics class is going to be (tuesday afternoon).

mary and i (and hopefully drew is goign to join us as well) are going to go into central london in about an hour and find a cheap box office so we can try and see a show in the west end tonight. we are also goign to take advantage of the free admission here for the museums (im not sure which one we'll go to yet, maybe the tate) anyways, im off to make some lunch with a side of day quil