The Fire Alarm

8:30 a.m. this morning--I am still sleeping soundly.  Then, the fire alarm goes off.  Each room has one in the middle of the ceiling.  It lets out a piercing beep that starts off soft then increases in volume and flashes a red light all around the room.  I nearly fell out of bed, it startled me so badly!  But it only was on for about a minute then stopped.  So I just stayed in bed, intent on going back to sleep.  But no no no.  5 minutes later, it sounds again.  I hear all the doors in my flat open and close so I grab my key card and head out as well.  After  talking with my flatmates, we decided that it wasn't worth going to our fire "meeting spot" three blocks away from our hall in our pajamas and stand in the rain.  So we all went back to sleep.  Turns out, we don't need to go to any meeting spot, which is good.  But, this fire alarm drill occurs EVERY THURSDAY at 8:30 a.m.  Really?  A little unnecessary in my opinion.  But, I guess for the next 9 months, all my Thursday will greet me with a marvelous fire alarm.  If there ever really is a fire on Thursday at 8:30 in the morning, no one will get up.  It's like the halls of residence that cried wolf.  But oh well.  Another lovely quirk for my flat.

Sidenote:  I haven't discovered how to post pictures on here yet, so in the meantime, I have put up pictures of my room on my facebook group page.

Now let's back up a bit.
I had my orientation on Monday.  It went rather smoothly, acquired all my necessary things for classes and whatnot.  I did not realize this, but there are approximately 500 international student from all over the world all in my same study abroad program.  That is quite a lot of people!  Especially since we were taking on a small tour of the main campus.  I felt like I was on my 8th grade trip to Washington D.C., trying to follow the tour guide with the bright yellow umbrella.  But aside from the fact that it was a really long meeting, I did enjoy meeting other study abroad students.   The following day I had registration for my classes.  I, unfortunately, got slight lost.  The street the office is located on isn't a full block long, so you have to cut across a few streets to get to it--it is kinda tucked in the middle of a block.  And my map wasn't detailed enough to show with streets cut across.  So after wandering around and asking two people, I eventually made my way to the office with only 5 mintues of my appointment time left.  But luckily, when I walked I was told that the study abroad advisors were running late themselves--I actually turned out to be 20 minutes early!  In those 20 minutes, I just waited in the waiting room and talked with everyone else who was waiting.  After my meeting, a few of us who had been waiting the longest decided to go out to breakfast.  Tea is served with everything it seems--but I don't mind.  I like it alot.  At home, I usually drink it black and really strong.  But here it's customary to add in about 1/4 of milk and sugar, so it 's actually really sweet.  I now like it both ways.  The rest of that day and yesterday I spent getting the necessities I couldn't bring with me, like dishes, hairdryer, alarm clock, etc.  It takes a while to do shopping like that since I walk to all the stores and carry everything back with me.  But I like walking, so I don't mind.

My evenings I have spent going to "Freshers Week" events, which have been pretty fun.  There is a student union bar located in a conjoined building to my flat where most of these events take place.

My classes are on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, which isn't a bad schedule at all.   And I like all my classes, which are below:

London Theatre in Performance--I get to watch, review, and study plays here in the West End. :)
Reading the American Dream--I want to see how the British interpret our literature.
Critical Perspectives for Literature, Criticism, and Culture--Basically critical theory.  It's a year-long course and I'm expecting it to be on the harder side.  But I'm still looking forward to it.
Modernism and the Early 20th Century: I haven't taken a class on modernism yet, so it sounds new and interesting.  This is also a year-long course.

Tonight I am going to the study abroad team's Boat Party on the Thames.  From what my ticket says, I'll be going on a boat cruise on the River Thames--it's the study abroad team's way of welcoming all the international students.  It should be a lot of fun, as long as the rain doesn't get too bad this evening.  London really truly is rainy...but it seems to suit the city well.  The rain clouds are really pretty from my flat window.