I'm Here!

I finally made it to Canterbury! Yay! However, due to messes with the internet and getting the slideshow up and running, I'm now posting this at 8 o'clock Canterbury time. Or 20:00 as they say here. Luckily, I brought a notebook that I've been writing in all day, to prepare for this, so I still have my initial impressions down. :)

By far the coolest thing about the plane ride was watching the sunrise from 37,000 feet. You can actually see the point on the horizon where the night is giving way to day. Due to being up at dawn, my internal clock has been reset, and despite getting at most an hour of sleep on the plane, I'm actually not quite ready to go to bed. However, knowing how that will catch up with me, I'm going to finish this, then take a shower and bed for me.

When we left the airport, it was raining, but by the time we got here, the sun was shining and while a bit chilly (somewhere in the mid-60's F, I think) it turned into a beautiful day. We had pizza for lunch while going over the basics and then we received the necessaries for our stay, like food money. We were given a break to settle in a little (though not to nap) and then we were off.

The group made two forays out into Canterbury today. We split into two groups, one to go with Dr. McGee (or McGee, or His Excellency) and one to go with Mrs. McGee (which she doesn't answer to, only Stacie). I went with McGee first and got a bit of a walkabout for Canterbury. He showed us where to get sim cards for our phone so we can get a local number as well as the best place to exchange money. We took a small detour to Canterbury Cathedral, but we'll get a full tour later. He took us in to meet the owner of the Jolly Sailor, a pub near our flats that has, I kid you not, hung a Texas flag to celebrate our arrival. We also got to see what seems to be the main tourist shopping district in Canterbury where even our relatively large group of 15 blended in with no problem. It has a Burger King, a McDonald's, and a Claire's. As well as a street that (minus the subway) could be a dead ringer for Diagon Alley.

The second foray was to the supermarket. Where I got batteries for my poor camera and muffins for breakfast tomorrow. I figure I can go back tomorrow for lunch or try to make it to the school cafeteria. I have discovered two things from this trip. The first is that people in Britain are not nearly as quick as Texans to try to get out of your way. They move fast and they expect that you'll get out of the way either by jumping forward or back. Or of course, like the natives, by never getting in the situation in the first place. The second thing I learned is the the front door to Lefranc House is hard to find. I walked past it three times before I figured out where it was and another two times before I figured out how to get in.

Of course after this, I rather desperately needed the internet, not only to post, but to let my mom know that I was alive. So I managed to get a cord by going to talk to the resident people, but then I had to go to the computer lab to sign in because the internet didn't feel like working. Which, in hindsight, was completely unnecessary because the problem was the internet not the sign in and I fixed the internet rather quickly when I got back. But that's life. And now, I'm going to unpack a little and go to bed.

P.S. If you click on the slideshow, you can go to my flickr account and see all of the pictures in a slightly bigger format as well as comment. I look forward to hearing from all of you. :)