A Rough Week

The past week was orientation and enrollment week, and for me it had two phases.  The first half was filled with confusion as we were given almost no information, and the second half was full of an overwhelming amount of too much information.  Once I get things figured out though, my program should be good.  There are 14 of us in the Master's program, 7 of which are not from England (we have 5 Canadians, some one from Ireland, and me).  We have all of our lecture classes with the Bachelor's physiotherapy students (except our research class which prepares us to write our dissertation), and all of our lab classes is just with our Master's group.  We're basically in class all day everyday, so there is no rest for the weary.  Or extra travel around Europe time :(  We do get a few little breaks here and there for Christmas and Easter and a tiny bit of summer, so I'll still manage to see a few things here or there.

The worst part of the week came when I was shopping.  Normally, one thinks of shopping in Europe as a fun and delightful pastime, but I think that only applies when you have loads of extra time, are not looking for anything in particular, and have no monetary limitations.  None of these conditions, however, applied to my current situation.  I was mainly trying to find navy blue workout pants.  We have to wear them in all of our lab classes.  Nice looking women's workout gear is nonexistent in England (and I do not by any means have high standards on this.  This stuff is BAD).  After a few stores I just gave up and bought horrendous looking sweat pants because I couldn't handle another store.  It was only on the bus ride home I had the brilliant idea of looking in the men's section instead.  Unfortunately I couldn't find the receipt to return the horrendous pants (sorry, trousers), so I'm stuck with them for the year.  Also annoying about shopping in Europe is there are a million little stores.  Again, if you have no time constraints and are just shopping for funsies, not a problem.  But so hard to navigate when you need something very specific and you have no idea what any of the stores are just by there names.

On the plus side, while getting lost trying to shop downtown, I did pass Christ Church College, which is probably Oxford University's most famous college.  It's pretty!

Here is also me eating a very typical British meal:  Kidney Pie and Hash Browns, with some Tea!