This is a joke right?

So I'm definitely having more fun than I should be considering I'm supposedly "in school". This has got to be a joke. Last week was our 2nd week of preterm, and so far I've had 1 day of actual courses. Full day of stat. Not really fun, but the prof is pretty cool and nobody was overtly obnoxious trying to prove how much they know. So that was good. Anyway, I should probably start with Monday, which was Stream C and D Away Day. It was a blast. My group C5 was paired with C6, and we had a great time. It was in Reading ("redding") which is south (i think) of London - 2 hours on a bus starting at 6:45 am! Not my favorite game. But they had breakfast for us so that was good! Anyway, we started out with some of the normal ropes course/team building ice breakers. Our guide tried to use some business analogies that he didn't really seem to fully understand himself..that was kinda funny. But then we got to go on to do some of the challenges and it was a really good time. The first one was that Al got blind folded, and we were given 2 ropes, 2 harnesses, a pulley thingy, and our general surroundings to use to figure out how to get him to the middle of a huge circle, where he had to retrieve a can off the ground, without touching the ground with any anything. We got it done fairly well, and I think it was a good start as far as getting us all communicating and working together. Then we went on to this ropes thing where we all started on 1 platform, and we split in half and had to go all the way around it and cross over each other. It was like a really long tight rope walk. I felt like I should be in Cirque. :) Good times. We did well there too. One funny part was when one of the ropes that help support you got dropped by someone, and so we had an odd numbers situation, and 2 of the boys had to cross the rope together. It was interesting to watch, but they eventually made it, so that was really cool! Afternoon was spent on the high elements, and the first one we did was on this giant pole in the air. You had to climb up, and 2 of you got up there, then you jumped for a trapeze and tried to grab it together. Berrin and I went 2nd. I actually climbed up first, which was kinda scary because the thing is REALLY wobbly, so you have to just hang out and wobble in the air while the other person climbs up. And then climbing up isn't exactly easy either, because there is already somebody in your way, so Berrin basically had to use me to help pull her up, and that's interesting when you're that high up in the air!! Anyway, we were 2nd to go, and I think we were only 1 of 2 teams that both managed to grab the bar from our group! That was pretty cool. But everyone else had different challenges, and it was fun to encourage people to keep going, and to see people that were adamantly not going to even make it to the top, end up jumping for the trapeze. Anyway, at the end, Will and I decided to be brave and go for a farther jump, where they moved the trapeze farther out. I went 2nd that time...definitely difficult to climb up when someone else is already there! Anyway, we got up pretty fast, and counted down and jumped...he made it...my right hand grabbed it but not tight enough to hang on, so I didn't make it. But oh well. That's what the belay (sp??) line is for! it was pretty fun. We did the climbing wall after that, and we all did really well and got through it pretty fast. So then we got to do this balance beam thing that zig zagged way up in the air. I love that stuff. I think Amy has some other cool pics, but she hasn't shared them yet, so they're not gonna be here for awhile at least. :)

So anywho, that was Monday. Tuesday was full of orientation stuff. We had a CV workshop which was pretty boring, but amazing to realize that people in other parts of the world just truly have no concept of a good CV. Very interesting. We also met with our Stream Manager and learned some more about the rules of the game. They have these positions you can apply for called Student Ambassadors, and it's basically their job to do recruiting stuff and they run the Admit weekend and all of that. Totally my sort of thing, but it's a HUGE committment, so I'm not sure if I'm going to apply. I want to be able to do it all, and I'm just trying to decide if this is part of my "all". I'm sure there's more to come on this.

So this brings us to Wednesday, which was my one and only day of actual class since arriving. Business Statistics. 3 hours in the morning. 3 in the afternoon. It wasn't actually as painful as it sounds, and it turns out that although I was miserable at Statistics for Engineers, I'm pretty dang good at the stat we're learning. Not to mention that we skip over the theory because "Excel is your friend". Love it! We also had the language presentation that day, and I think I may have a prayer of starting in Level 2, which means I won't have to be doing language in my first semester (which is supposedly going to be REALLY hard.) Anyway, we ended the day with a meeting of the Poker Club - it was supposed to be a beginners night, but I think i may have been one of few beginners to actually play. I did pretty well...played for over 4 hours and ended up $10 up! Go me! But then...I got home..and I didn't have my key. And my roomies both had their phones on silent and couldn't hear me knocking through their deep sleep. So I had to crash at a classmate's flat (fortunately, they actually have a 'guest room', so it wasn't so bad). But then I got up in the morning and raced home on the tube to catch my roomies before class, throw on a hat, and make it to an optional self assessment workshop, where we worked through identifying our driving values, which is like the first step in career coaching. It was not earth shattering, but it was good to see that my values on paper really do align with my confused life plans...so at least I really am confused and need some guidance, as opposed to just thinking I'm confused. Or something like that. Is it weird that this makes sense to me??! :) It was a good day! And the week ended with a Networking session Friday afternoon. (in case you picked up on it, yes, this schedule means that I had nothing from noon Thursday until 2pm Friday...I ran lots of errands and got my room about 90% to the decorated/tidy place I want it to be. And I opened a bank account. good stuff)

So that's my week 2 update! Tomorrow I have my 2nd class - Understanding General Management - all day again! Folowed by all day stats on Tuesday. So maybe this will start feeling real soon. I just can't get over how cool it is that I'm living in London and having a great time, and I'm supposedly in school right now! Very cool.

And a final note...to all of you that have written me personal emails, I promise I'll respond soon enough! It's just that I've got lots of housekeeping things whenever I am home (like setting up phone, internet, paying random taxes and filling out tons of forms, etc.) so I don't get as much time as I'd like for email. But I do love getting the updates from you and hearing how things are on your side of the world! So keep 'em coming!!

Love and hugs to all!!!