days 1 and 2

My second day in London is coming to a close and there is so much on my mind. Anxiety-wise, last night was a little tough, but today has been a little better. Yesterday afternoon we had a neighborhood tour as an LIS class and a little dinner thing with the whole program afterwards. After that I went with some of the other LIS students to get cash out of the ATM and to the local supermarket. So far I haven't seen any grocery stores like we know them in the U.S. After that we just walked around for a while before making it back to the dorm. The others decided to go to a pub for drinks, but since that's not my thing... ;) I took a shower in the tiniest bathroom ever (but at least it's mine!) and tried to go to bed... took forever to fall asleep. 

Today... two mandatory meetings in the morning and then I went with one of the other LIS students to get an Oyster Card at Waterloo Station (the closest Tube to the dorm), a pharmacy in the station called "Boots," and across the Waterloo Bridge and down The Strand (the name of the road) to buy a cheap-o phone with a UK number. On the way there we got caught in the rain, which quickly turned into a downpour (for about 20 minutes) before the sun decided to come out again... they weren't kidding about the crazy weather! I came back to my room and dried out before deciding to go on a mini walk around the neighborhood in the drizzle. Then I sat in the courtyard for awhile and just downloaded some offline maps of England to help me get around London. The iPhone is pretty handy even in airplane mode with all the data and cellular turned off. ;)