Update: London's Pride is a 'Tourist Drink', Dr. Jeckyl is Pronounced Jeekyl, and Why Walk ON Water When You Can Walk UNDER IT

Yesterday was orientation, and so for the first time everyone got to meet each other. There's a total of 29 of us, only three of which are male. Majority of the students involved are English majors, the rest of us vary between theater, art, and other miscellaneous areas. We met the AHA staff and got tours of the building where classes are held (the building, by the way, was built in the 1720s, and the "new" part of the building is from the Victorian era).

We went on a brief walking tour of the surrounding area near the AHA building, and then split up. My group chose to go get cell phones from Orange, one of two official iPhone providers in the UK. I'm frustrated that I payed for unlimited internet, and it is not working yet. Looks like I need to contact Orange.

After a long day of walking around and sitting and listening to people talk and all that jazz, a handful of us went out to a pub in Harrow called The Castle to help Cody (one of our three boys) celebrate his 21st birthday. While there, we made friends with a local named Marcus who informed our group that nobody drinks the London's Pride beer, as half the group was drinking it (I, however, don't like ambers at all, so I chose to drink the HSB, which was much better than the London's Pride). Marcus also introduced us to Chris, who was much closer to our age and happened to be an employee of the pub. Chris chatted up Cody quite a bit and made fun of our American accents. Coincidentally, Cody is not in fact American, but is the one and only Canadian in the group (he's in the program because he goes to school at UPS in Tacoma).

We didn't stay at the pub too terribly late, which I was relieved for, as I was half asleep. Luckily, Amber and I had gotten a ride to the pub from Leslie, and she also picked us up. I didn't have to walk and bother with the tube while in my sleepy and slightly-intoxicated stupor (trust me, the lack of sleep was doing me much more harm than my one beer was).

Once I got home, I was in bed and asleep in no time, and luckily I slept soundly all night long until my alarm went off at 6:50 AM this morning, preparing me for day two of AHA orientation.

Today, Amber and I (along with half of the other students) arrived late to school. We have all had our first official encounter with the Dreaded London Tube Problems. There were signal problems which were causing delays and cancellations on several lines left and right. The train Amber and I were going to catch got canceled, so we had to wait for the second train. By the time we reached our second transfer, three other girls (Annie, Ruby, and Kate) had met up with us. So all five of us arrived 15 minutes late this morning; we were not the last group of students to arrive due to the Tube mess. Unfortunately, many of us take the Metropolitan Line in to Central London, and we don't have any other tube option. So if the tube is down, we have to either learn the buses (which Martin, the AHA coordinator prefers in the first place) or we have to call a cab.

The morning started off with presentations from the teachers regarding their classes. Most teachers were trying to encourage students to take their class...except the woman who teaches Shakespeare the Dramatist...she evidently felt like there were too many students interested in her class and she was clearly trying to dissuade a few people. We have to make our final class decisions and register by Monday. Side note: the woman who teaches 18th and 19th British Novel informed us today that Dr. Jeckyl is pronounced Jeeckyl. It sounded downright wrong, actually.

After the teacher presentations, we had lunch (pizza from Dominoes...and apprently Dominoes here in London does not have the "new recipe" yet), and then we went out for a trip to Greenwich.

We rode a double-decker bus and were instructed by Martin to sit on the top level (which everyone probably wanted to do anyway). Then we walked a ways to the Thames, where we got on a clipper which took us to Greenwich. At Greenwich, Martin explained the architecture a bit, as well as what we were looking at. Then we marched up a very steep hill in order to see the Meridian line. Everyone took pictures standing in two different hemispheres.

Once we were done, we popped in to a little dome-type building, walked down a billion and one steps, and then proceeded to walk along a foot-tunnel under the River Thames. By the time we eventually arrived on the opposite end (reaching the top via elevator, as opposed to stairs THANK GOD), it had gone from being a nice, sunny day to hailing. Yuck. But we weren't there for long, as we continued on our merry way to the train, where we headed back towards our various destinations.

I tagged along with a few other girls, Hannah (we have three Hannah's in the group, this is the one and only non-PLU Hannah), Liz (not to be confused with Lizzie in the group), Annie (non-PLU Annie), and two other girls who's names I have yet to learn. We decided to head over to Harrow so that some of the girls could look for school supplies. Then we each went our separate ways, three different directions on the Metropolitan Line (it's a very confusing line, as it doesn't only travel north and south, but it splits and forks. You have to make sure you're on the correct train for the correct direction or who knows where you will wind up).

Now it's 8:30 PM and I'm having a quiet night by myself, attempting to sort out my cell phone and keeping myself awake until 10:00, when I plan to go to bed. Tomorrow, I meet with the internship people.