Brunch with Harry Potter

I should first post about the rest of my classes. Thursdays are crazy for me. I have Art and Society from 9-12 with like 6 or 7 other people on in the IFSA-Butler program. Last Thursday we got right into it and went to the Banqueting house. It had a painted ceiling that was very interesting to hear the story about each painting. Most of the class was spent sitting on the floor listening to our teacher...and older man who knows everything there is to know about England history. We are learning mostly about the 17th and 18th century which I like a lot because it's the time of Henry the 8th. I've always enjoyed studying that time period...I just haven't had a history class since high school.

After that class I have a 2 hour break, so Ann and I went to Pizza Hut. I know..I know...I'm in London...I should be going to non-American franchises, but we both craved pizza and "American Breadsticks!" Then we have London Theatre in Performance together. I was expecting to go to the theatre each class, much like Art and Society going to a museum. However, the setup is much different. They give us the schedule and we have to see the play before the following week. It is kind of expensive but I think in the long run it will be worth it. Last night we went and saw Complicit with Richard Dreyfuss! Anyway, both of these classes are just offered to abroad students so everyone in this class is American except for one girl from Denmark.

Friday I have Principles of Marketing. My tutor for this class is really nice and she is young. I think the class is going to be interesting. So then I had seminar and we had go around the room and introduce ourselves since theres only about 20 students in the class. Of course, I'm the only person from the US. We are supposed to form groups of 3-5 to do a paper and presentation at the end of the semester and this girl after class from Estonia comes up to me and asks if I want to be in a group with her. I said sure, but why? She responds and says that I seem hard working!!! Just because I'm American...and they worned us about this...that people in Europe usually think Americans are hard working...but I didn't think it would actually be true. So, I'm thinking to myself...geez what else do they think I am? I don't know...I just took it as a complement...she seemed nice enough.

Saturday I went to Blenheim Palace and Oxford. Both were enjoyable since we had a very attractive and knowledgeable tour guide. We were immediately in love with him and truely hope he will come on the rest of our trips with us. I signed up to do the Social Programm...that includes something every few weeks...so this was the first thing. We walked around the palace where parts of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was taped. The grounds were nice but it was quite cold out...well not as cold as Iowa and Illinois are right now, but stil in the upper 30s i think. In Oxford then we walked around the colleges there and saw were the Great Hall from Harry Potter is taped. It was nice, but a huge tourist trap. We made it back home by dinner time, so it was a nice day trip.

Phil and Varn come tomorrow and I am very excited about this...just to be able to see people that know me longer than 3 weeks will be nice. Everyone here is nice, but I miss having people around that know me. This will get better I am aware as time goes on. Another thing...I finish Maybe the Moon....and it was really good. I bought Twilight and read it in 3 days. That's all I've been doing in my free time and I think I should wait awhile until I start the second book mainly since I haven't been doing any school work. I loved it and became obsessed with reading it. This weekend also is the family stay so I will have that to talk about in my next post.