Happy Inauguration Day!

Happy Inauguration Day!!!

Thought I’d give you all a quick update on life in London before I’m off to class and then running to a television to try to catch Obama’s actual inauguration live (I’m hoping my professor will let us out 10 minutes early… not holding my breath though). BBC and London in general are quite excited about Obama – you can get into the Wax Museum for free to see the newly unveiled Obama figure if you bring your American passport.

My homestay last weekend was absolutely amazing! I didn’t want to leave at all. My host family was absolutely perfect. The mom, Kerry, was so funny – she and I had a good laugh about my “CDO” joke (I have CDO – it’s like OCD but letters are in alphabetical order like they should be). Dave, her husband, was the best tour-guide I could have asked for! He showed Jillian and I (who was also, coincidentally, in the same homestay as me, which was great since she and I get along really well) all over the island and Saturday morning he drew me a nice map so I could run around the island. It was only a 5 mile run, but I saw most of the island, which gives you an idea of how big it is. The cliffs are absolutely breathtaking and the ocean air and open fields were SO refreshing and desperately needed after two weeks of constant London. I hadn’t realized until now how overwhelming London has been for me – it’s always so busy, whereas Los Altos is pretty slow-paced and Hartford isn’t really a big enough city to have the same kind of hustle-and-bustle that London does. Anyways, I’ve gotten sidetracked – Portland, the island I was on, is in the south of London and is home to the new Sailing Center for the 2012 Olympics. We got there and Friday, spent time with our families, and then explored Weymouth, the bigger town nearby, on Saturday. We got to go to a cute little pub Saturday night and hear a local performer play guitar (he played a lot of American covers, which were pretty funny). Then Sunday morning we explored the island a little more, had lunch, and then got back on the bus to London.

My favorite part of the trip, without question, was talking to Kerry and Dave. We talked about everything, from politics to television to religion to football (American and “soccer”). Their kids, Callum (9 year-old boy) and Chloe (7 year-old girl), were hysterical too. Callum is quite the soccer player and is full of energy, and Chloe gave Jillian and I an extensive and very amusing tour of her toys (she loves Hannah Montana and Bratz). It was great to have some of Kerry’s delicious home-cooked meals and to have people looking out for me, happy to help and answer any question, from where to get a cheap football jersey to how to turn on the shower.

Other updates: it’s rather bitter-sweet to get the Fred meeting minutes – I’m so jealous that you guys are all back at Trinity now, though I’m excited to be in London. Your election-themed coffee house made me laugh out loud and I’m so mad that I’m missing Stephanie’s clothing swap (that is so smart!).

I’ve been working out more details of my impending travels, including hopefully having Claire come visit the weekend after next! That would be great fun. Kendra and I have been commiserating on Skype about how different the European style of school is, and we’ve planned visits as well, which will be great fun.

This morning we had a fire drill at 8 AM (my alarm clock had already gone off but it was still a very unpleasant shock). While we all stood, freezing to death outside, we got a nice speech about how international students are always the causes of fires because we don’t understand how electricity in England works and we don’t use our electric appliances properly. Considering that no one was awake, I don’t know how effective that speech was, but it’s led me to unplug everything when I leave my room from now on, just to be safe.

Ok, time for some Old English translation before I go to my Medieval Troy class. I hope you’re all well, happy, and having a wonderful week! I’m so proud to be an American on this historical day!!!