I combined days three and four because day three was so stressful that I wanted to have something positive to talk about by the end of my entry..haha. The beginning of day three started off with multiple delays on the the Jubilee line (the line I take into central London). I left an hour and a half before my first meeting at 11:00am and I still was ten minutes late! The rule of thumb in London is to leave an hour before you have to be anywhere. I arrived at the BUNAC office thinking I would be late, but when I arrived, the desk attendant said that all orientation meetings were at 10:30am everyday (this was different than what I was told).
While I was upset that I would need to return to go to another meeting, I was happy that I had plenty of time to get to my next location in Bloomsbury Square. The partner organization of the group I received my internship placement from has an office there. I arrived early (so I thought) and spent some time walking around the square. I was surprised to see that Bloomsbury is only a few streets from Russel Square, the location of the British Museum. I went to my meeting and discovered that again, I had been given the wrong time. It turns out, I was forty-five minutes late to this one. However, I didn't feel so bad because two of the three other girls who were in the room had been given a different time as well.
This meeting introduced us to our overseas supervisors and provided us with information about London. The man in charge spent most of his time talking about all the preventative steps the country is taking to crack down on crime. I was happy to discover that after this meeting, we all were expected at the BUNAC office for a meeting created just for our program (so it turns out that I was able to go to an orientation meeting after all).
I felt good because I lead our group to the BUNAC office from Bloomsbury Square. The other girls had just arrived in London and did not know how to get around very well.
At the BUNAC orientation, we learned about sights, bank accounts, culture, and were required to get our blue cards stamped. This part of the day is when I almost had a breakdown. I was told by the BUNAC representative that I was given the wrong passport stamp and that I needed to exit the country and re-enter to receive the right stamp. Seven out of the twenty people in the orientation group had the same problem. It is crazy to me that someone could ask you all those questions at customs and give you a tourist stamp instead of a worker one. This stamp is important because, without it, I cannot get my blue card stamped by BUNAC (which allows me to leave the country if I want to). This whole problem will involve a bus trip to Dover and a ferry from Dover to France. My goal is to take care of things this Sunday, but I might have to wait until next weekend.
Sigh...now for the good parts of Day 4. I tried to take my mind off of things by helping Rob and Aleshia prepare for their party. Aleshia and Rob invited over thirty people to a dinner party at the flat to celebrate their recent move into the area. In the morning, I decided to make a trek to Brent Cross, a mall close to the area. I enjoyed taking the double decker bus. it was my first trip that involved going on the motor way. It is really funny to sit high above all the cars below and see masses of people driving on the left side of the rode. I kept thinking to myself how scared (and crazy) my dad and uncle must have been to drive in this country! I needed to get a new sweatshirt because it gets so cold here still at night. The mall was just like one at home, but had many English stores like Marc & Spencers. My favorites were Topshop, H&M, and River Landing.
I found what I was looking for and headed back to Willesden Green. On the way back to the flat, I ran into Rob and we walked back together. Rob is a really great guy. I haven't known him very long, but he is probably the coolest guy Aleshia has ever dated. The party was a great time! We served pizza, cake, stuffed potatoes, veggies, chips and salsa, and much more. People brought various types of wine, and we served Kool-aide and root beer (two items not sold in England). I was particularly excited to meet someone that I had invited, Paul Hutcheson. Paul and I have been talking back and forth for about two years now, but never officially met until the party. We all had so much fun! Many of Aleshia's friends are involved in the arts, which was a great conversation topic. One person, LeeAnn, is studying at the Royal Academy of Music. She is originally from the U.S and came here to study French horn. Two others are originally from Maine. In attendance were those already mentioned, plus a Romanian, a German, and several British students. It was quite a diverse group. We spent a lot of time watching "Euro-vision," an American Idol-style singing competition between countries across Europe. There are no judges, but the viewers call in and vote for the song they like the best just like Idol. The party was still going on when I went to sleep. I had a long Sunday ahead of me with my trip to France. More to come.
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