slowly shifting from orientation to real abroad life.

Yesterday we had orientation again which was grueling. During the first presentation my friends, between Dolan passed out face first on the desk, Kevin sitting behind us shaking with laughter at him, and me and Sarah passing notes between each other about how the presenter was sounding more and more like a propagandist (obviously not being able to stop laughing about this...or his front cargo pockets), were apparently disruptive enough that for the second presentation the lady in charge came and sat down with us. Did I mention we were in the first row? Whoops.

The real highlight of the day came when we had a random two-hour break so Keetin, Sarah, and I decided to kill the time at the British Museum, right down the street. The museum was awesome, with so many cool things. I've seen my fair share of museums in my day but never have I actually felt like every single thing was completely fascinating. They had this whole exhibit on life and death around the world, where they had coffins from Ghana which are apparently made to represent what the deceased person did during their life (they had an eagle one and another shaped like a giant camera, plus pictures of more). They also had this giant tapestry that served as the centerpiece for the room, made by some artist using tons of different pills, i think in the hundred thousand range, that was supposed to represent the average amount taken by a Brit during their lifetime. It was really coool.

We didn't have enough time to cover the entire museum but we were able to check out some of the Egyptian stuff. I saw the little hippo figurine that I have two replicas of (both staplers) and reading about everything was so interesting. They had a body that's been dead for thousands of years but was preserved by the sand in Egypt. It still had hair on it, so nuts. We also saw the Rosetta Stone, one of my old-time favorites (hellooo sixth grade social studies project). Overall, I thought the museum was amazing and am so excited that it's less than a block from where I'll be taking classes, so I'll definitely be able to be there a lot in between things and get to really familiarize myself with it.

Last night we went out to a club in the city after pregaming here. Ross Festenstein and Jeff Zohn were in town so they came with. I had underestimated how nice it would be to see familiar faces from home while I was over here, but I was beyond thrilled to spend the evening with them. The club was fun once it got a little more crowded (we tried to get there early to avoid lines, etc.), the DJ was playing a lot of fun music and we were all dancing. I died laughing inside when they started playing Wonderwall by Oasis and everyone in the bar stopped what they were doing to put their arms around each other, sway and sing along (kidding you not). It's fun to go out like that because most of the time (every night but tonight) we just go hang out and have a few drinks at pubs around here, which also close early. Going out in a more Madisonesque setting is fun, plus I always like to change it up a little bit.

Today we went on a bus tour of London. The bus was an hour late because of traffic (pro: got to eat lunch, con: could've slept for another hour) so we couldn't really stop anywhere, but it was still awesome to see the sights. It reminded me how much I still have left to see in the city (I'm so excited!) We were supposed to get a short tour of the British Museum after the bus but I figured I would be there enough, plus it was insanely crowded and I couldn't even hear the tour guide so me and the Kevins went to grab some food and hang out in a nearby pub before hopping a tube home. Tonight I decided to give myself a break and stay in and watch a movie. I was hoping to go to bed early since we're getting up early to go to Windsor tomorrow, but naturally it's 2 a.m. and I'm blogging. Oops. Time to go to bed, since I'm getting up in about 7 hours :-\ goodnight!