I am a genius! Well actually this was my Mom’s idea but I’m the one who carried it out…the problem was that the adapter that I had bought for my laptop (because they have different plug holes here) doesn’t work, so I needed to use one of my other adapters, except they only take the 2 pronged plugs and not the 3 pronged…so then I had to use an extension cord in between but that also only took the 3 pronged plug. So I gouged out a hole for my third prong….which now that I think of it probably isn’t totally safe, which is why I’m just not gonna touch that end…but ANYWAY…that means that I can finally use my computer. Unfortunately there is no internet in my temporary residence (Charles Morris Hall), so I won’t be able to post this til Saturday at the earliest (which is when I move into my actual residence, Lupton).

So, I finally arrived here at Leeds um…early afternoon yesterday, which was the 14th. Our plane left Toronto at 10:15 pm on Tuesday the 13th and our flight was pretty fast…only just over 6.5 hours. The only problem was that during the flight, our time had sped ahead by 5 hours so when we landed it was about 9:30 am England time on the 14th, which meant that we’d lost a whole night of sleep. Of course, I could’ve slept on the plane…and I did a little…only about 2 hours max though. I don’t know…I went to sleep during Monster-In-Law and woke up during Moulin Rouge. It was a very uncomfortable flight though. Not a lot of leg space.

When we got to the Manchester Airport we discovered that Air Canada totally forgot to load one of my bags…which happened to be the one with all the underwear in it!! So hopefully they deliver it sometime today since the next flight from Toronto came in this morning. Oh, for those of you who don’t know why I keep saying “we” did this, “We” did that, it’s because my parents came over with me. It’s their anniversary this weekend so they actually just dropped me off today and they’ve gone first to York, and then they’re touring around Scotland. Then they’re coming back next Saturday to pick me up and we’re going to visit some family for the weekend before I start school (yes, I don’t start until the 26th – haha suckers!!) and they fly back to Canada. It’s a good thing they came too cuz I have so much luggage….one huge suitcase, another fairly large suitcase, 2 carry-on sized suitcases, a big gym-bag type thing, and my laptop case. We saw a few girls from Mac at the airport and one of them only had one big suitcase and a carry-on so Dad was getting on my case cuz I had so much more luggage than her…but it turned out that she had vacuum-sealed her clothes, which cut her space in half basically…so it was a really awesome idea on her part…Wish I had done that.

The next challenge was driving to Leeds from Manchester. No, we did not take a train or bus or even get a taxi to pick us up….Dad decided that this would be the day he learned to drive on the left hand side of the road! So although I slept most of the way, I’m sure it was quite an experience for my parents. I can’t get over the tiny spaces they expect you to drive through over here. I mean, the streets are pretty narrow to begin with…and then you have people parking all down one side and traffic still goes both ways beside it! If it was me, I would wait for the traffic to go through before I tried squishing in between!...but that is why I DO NOT plan on driving over here! All my friends at school know how much I hate driving in heavy traffic….now it’s traffic and tiny spaces!!

So we got to my temporary residence finally, after much searching and going around one way streets and such…first problem was that I’m supposed to move out my temporary residence on Friday but I can’t move into Lupton til Saturday. So I need to go back to the accommodation office tomorrow and either they’ll let me stay here another day or move me into Lupton early. But my room here (pics here and here)is just normal single room size…same as Mac…but I share a bathroom with the person beside me…although I’m not quite sure if there is anyone beside me because I haven’t heard them yet. The thing about this bathroom though, is that it is, in all honestly, a shower stall with a toilet in it!! No joke! You could have a shower while taking a crap if you wanted to! (See pics of my view of the toilet from the shower and the view of the shower from the toilet). It’s really…sketchy…ya I think sketchy is the best word to describe it. I could say it’s neat except that I’m not really impressed by the idea, so saying it’s neat seems like I’d be giving it some sort of credit and I’m not about to do that. And since there’s no separate entry area, my next door neighbour could just walk in on my at any minute. So when I got here, I wasn’t going to have a shower but last night rolled around and I just really needed one…so I hopped in and the whole time I had my toes crossed that no one would come in. I was actually saying to myself “Please don’t come in, please don’t come in…” Fortunately, no one did. When I finished my shower I had to rip off the soggy toilet paper and wipe off the toilet seat. Oh yeah, and speaking of toilets. They flush kind of weird here. Like at home they flush one way and in Australia they flush another way, but here, the water pours in from at least 2 holes at the same time that the stuff’s being sucked out. Like, at home it sucks the stuff out first and then replaces the water…and the water doesn’t come gushing in, it’s more of trickle. Here, it’s like (okay, I was just making a gushing noise but then realized that I don’t know how to spell that…so please make your own gushing noise.) Anyway, that’s what it’s like.

So what else did I do today? Um…I woke up, had breakfast (which, along with dinner, is provided with my temp. accommodation). I had to meet Mom and Dad at 10 so we could buy me a cell phone and set up a bank account.

I’ve met a couple people…there’s this girl from Norway, Hanne (pronounced like Hannah) who I’ve eaten with a couple of times…and this morning Dad started talking to her randomly while waiting for me, not knowing that I knew her…and he said “Yeah, I’m just waiting for my daughter” and she goes “Oh, you must be Kirsten’s Dad, you guys look the same”. I couldn’t believe it. She just totally picked him out like that. I go half way around the world and strangers still can tell we’re related. It’s crazy.

So, I got my first cell phone number ever today. It’s a Nokia. If you want my number email me or something and I’ll give it to ya…I just don’t want to put it on here in case some crazy comes across my site. And guess what? Apparently it doesn’t cost me any money to receive calls! I only pay when I make calls!

Weather report: just looked outside and it is now full-out pouring. I woke up this morning and it was raining and I thought…Of course…I’m in England now. So yeah, this whole rain thing is definitely true.

Ooh, when we were downtown getting a phone we walked through the “mall” which is kind of outdoor and indoor at the same time. Like, the entrance is right off the street and there are no doors into the mall, but there are coverings over the walkways so it’s not open-air. But the coverings were all glass and really fancy and stuff. I’ll take some pictures later on, but it’s really beautiful. I can’t imagine all the shopping some of you girls could do over here. Steph, I saw so many purse shops and I thought it was a good idea that you weren’t coming over here cuz you’d spend too much shopping!

For lunch we had fish and chips at a place called Brett’s, which is apparently famous with cricket players and fans. The man who owned the restaurant was very chatty and extremely nice…actually everyone seems really nice over here…and the fish was amazing!!

Anyway, I’m going to brave the rain and go to afternoon tea at the International student’s office!