The next morning we were up at 8 for breakfast and then we were off on a day full of lectures and learning about our new home, the libraries, the computers, etc. We also got our student IDs and our class schedules. Unfortunately, they do classes different here so there is a problem with mine.
They didn't explain this to us until we had already got here but in the UK students only go to college for 3 years and they immediately declare their majors and only take classes in that department. Basically they don't take any basic courses or electives and only take classes that pertain to their major. Because of this, the departments don't really work together when creating their class timetables. However, the school didn't tell us this before we got here so I was taking classes in 3 departments (management, computer science, and psychology). Therefore, as you can assume two of my classes overlapped in times so I have to drop the psychology and pick up another class.
Unfortunately, it's also not as easy as it was at Bentley. There's really no add/drop period or a "syllabus week" where you do nothing in class and classes start tomorrow. So I need to get into a new class ASAP so that I don't miss anything. Also, they don't do it online so I have to go to the physical department and try to get them to help me drop and add the new classes. I'll definitely never complain about picking classes at Bentley again!
Anyways, other than that, everything is going smoothly. I'm starting to get to know my school and learn my way around. Here are some pictures I took of Founders, the biggest and most iconic building on campus. While I don't live here, a lot of students do and it also holds a library, a pub, a restaurant, the chapel, and tons of other stuff. Not to mention it is beautiful and looks like a castle!
Yesterday we went to see Windsor Castle, which is one of the royal castles and the queen actually stays there most weekends though we didn't see her unfortunately. We toured the outside, the state apartments and St. George's Chapel. We even got to see the changing of the guards which was very cool to see. It was all beautiful but I could only take pictures of the outside so here are some (for more pictures check out my Facebook).
After seeing the castle we went to lunch at a local pub where I had my first official English meal, Fish and Chips which were quite good though I wasn't a huge fan of the mashed peas!
I've also met some of my flat mates and their friends who are extremely nice and made me feel really welcome. I'm the baby of the group though as they're all third years and they're all 22 or older. But they were extremely friendly!
Last night I was finally able to sleep through the whole night without waking up randomly (yay!) so hopefully I'm getting over my jet lag. Today was my first free day so I took a trip into Egham (the town we're in) and went to the local grocery store. The only thing I didn't count on was that it is a good 20 minute walk and the bus wasn't running so on the way back I had to lug all my grocery bags with me. However, I'm happy that I finally have some food so I can stop eating out so much. Things can get pretty unhealthy when they feed you french fries with every meal.
Now I'm just getting ready for my first day of classes tomorrow. I have computer science structured as a lecture class so we'll see how that goes. As always, if you have any questions feel free to email me or leave a comment below. Also, if you want to follow this blog there should be a link on the left (hey, a little shameless promoting never did anyone harm). Enjoy!
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