A not so brief review of our first couple weeks...

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September 14th

Joel and I left Buffalo Int'l Airport at 6pm EST to go to Philadelphia where we would pick up our international flight across the big blue pond to London Heathrow Airport which arrives a little before 11am GMT. Good news: ALL of our flights arrived and departed on schedule and no luggage was lost!!! that like...NEVER...happens! however, no so good news, it was of course a red-eye flight and we slept very uncomfortably if any sleep was to be had at all lol...that aside, not a bad trip at all...in fact we had a four hour layover in Philadelphia which allowed us to drink at the bar ( which was good because it not only settled our nerves for the long flight (fyi,this was Joel's first time flying ever) but also we got to watch the final tennis match of the US Open and the Bills game)

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September 15th - 19th

We arrived at London, and followed a very confusing maze of tunnels and corridors to customs, received the stamp on our visas and then went through more confusing labyrinth of tunnels and mazes to the coach that would take us to the University of Nottingham. very long and exhausting ride but beautiful countryside on the way, unfortunately the airport must be located at the edge of London because we didn't drive through any of the city at all.

On the bus, I started to become my chatty self and was probably bugging everyone who wanted to sleep within a two seat radius of me. We met some good friends whom we've been hanging out with regularly since we've got here. Felipe, Rodrigo, Angeles and Daniella are our good friends from Chile and Jesse is from NY as well near Albany. During International Student Orientation Week, we've meet people from almost everywhere. We've met and made friends with our neighbors to the north in Canada and they could tell right away we were from Buffalo from "our accent".

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The whole week was full of events/club nights out and waiting in lines (excuse me..."cues")to register for this and that. and getting settled and buying basic living essential since we obviously couldn't bring much on the plane with us. Within a week though Joel has mostly figured his way around campus and Nottingham city centre (I've always had a poor sense of direction though so it's taking me longer). We took the bus in and out so many times to go shopping for one thing or the other that it didn't take long for him to navigate.

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September 20 - 24 (today)

the first week we were living in temporary accommodations, so we were hesitant to fully unpack, so we were so happy to move into our permanent space in Broadgate Park, just outside the campus perimeter, because we could finally settle in. We bought used bicycles and get get around pretty well, however, boy oh boy we are not used to the hills in this country! Buffalo is flat as all and if ever there was an opposite to Buffalo...well...here it is! We try to use it as often as possible because taking the cabs and buses all the time was getting expensive.

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This is where i need to comment on the public transportation here:

What a Mecca for non-drivers!!!

holy cow! I've never seen so many buses (single and double-decker), trams and taxicabs in my life! I don't think they have a subway though...but honestly, they wouldn't need one. And I've been to some major cities in America (NYC, Philadelphia, Chicago, Las Vegas and Toronto)and nothing that I've seen can really compare at all...just imagine what London must be like or Paris or Berlin! Coming from a city where buses come to a bus stop every 20 minutes (idealistically) to 40 minutes (realistically) Joel and I were just about blown away. There's literally a bus that can take you where you need to go every 5-10 minutes, it's insanely efficient! Plus they have an LED screen at each bus stop which tells you the ETA of each bus scheduled to arrive at that stop within the next 15 minutes.

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However, it's not all a sunshine and roses....

Not only is the Public Transportation insane...I think they may have hired the insane to drive them. Super fast, Super gutsy... Look out pedestrians! Thats all I will say a bout that... :-/ :::gulp:::

September 25th - 27th

on Friday (25th) Joel and I road on the bike path to the City Centre and Stopped at the reputedly oldest Pub in the UK called <em>Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem </em> We popped in, had a drink (in the middle of the day mind you). It's actually built into the side of a cave/cavern in the rock wall which Nottingham Castle is built on top of. We road passed it but didn't get a chance to go inside unfortunately,hopefully soon though.

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FYI:

We have gone out several times to pubs/bars/nightclubs and we think we've successfully debunked the "warm beer" myth about England...according to Joel, not a warm beer to be found as of yet in Nottingham.

Saturday morning (26th) we went to Sherwood forest and saw the Major Oak (36 feet circumference) which supposedly was the meeting place for Robin Hood and his Merrie Men. Beautiful old growth forest a lot of gnarled and twisted oaks with ferns covering forest floor.

Today (Sunday the 27th) we went to a beginners session for the archery club on campus with Felipe, Rodrigo and Angeles (our Chilean friends mentioned before) and for one pound we were instructed correct form and aiming techniques by the more advanced members of the group, Joel and I hope to get quite good at the skill so we became members of the club today after the session was over (in the spirit of Robin Hood and all) ;-) They meet on Wednesday afternoons and Sunday mornings so it shouldn't interfere with our studies too much.

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Speaking of which....

For Fall term I have class from 4-6, Tuesday 2-5 and an occasional seminar every other Wednesday 4:30-6:30. Thursday and Friday are free, woo hoo!

So anytime before or after my classes feel free to call! 716-898-8184

*Just to remind everyone, we're using Vonage so it's a NY local number so no international fees apply and if you're calling from a 716 area code there's no need to dial 716 before our number...

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Well that concludes everything since the start of our trip up to tonight...if you read through this whole entry Joel and I commend you. I promise future entries wont be so lengthy (you can all thank my dad for my verbosity) but I had to bring everybody up to speed on two weeks of events :-) hopefully I'll be disciplined enough to make updates more frequently and thus not as long :-) okay I'm really done now.

Love and miss you all...I'll have better pictures soon I haven't really been taking my time to snap away... xoxo