Second day. Slept for 10 hours last night. Still a little tired though. Just returned from a bus tour taking us (25 people in the program) by all of the major points of interest in the city - touristy stuff and great places to grab some lunch or just shop. We had an orientation session this morning for a couple of hours. I'll be working at the Palestine Exploration Fund. It's a group started in the 1860's by a bunch of British Victorians that were interested in Biblical archaeology and traveled to the Middle East to conduct excavations and research. They have loads of antiques and diaries dating back to 1865 that I'll be working with - though I won't begin work until September 10th, leaving me 5 open days to either travel or explore the city! Cait also will be working at the PEF (for short) since they have so much work to do, apparently. Unfortunately, our director said that the bigger, better funded museums tend to take English students only, as the idea of an internship has recently been on the rise in England. In fact, many British University students are required for 1 year of their 4 in school to do only an internship in their desired field (which they get paid for as well). Regardless, this will still be a fantastic experience.
I'm taking two classes starting on Monday - East European Government and Politics and Politics of the Near & Middle East (this one might actually tie in to my internship!). They're only once a week for three hours, one on wednesday and another on tuesday, leaving me 3 days for my internship (which is only about a 15 minute walk from where I'm living). One thing my program director told me about the PEF is that they're very casual - meaning the jeans and short sleaved Polo I was wearing today would be just fine for work...but after all slacks and nice shirts I brought, I'll most likely dress up anyway.
This Saturday some of us are going on a student discounted trip to Stonehenge and Salisbury. Then the last of the orientation stuff is on Friday (book fair, student fair).
More on where I'm living - - I'm in the basement of a building that's about a hundred years old. I have a dining room, kithen, separated bathoom (toilet/sink in one, sink/bathtub in another), living room with a nice tele, and two bedrooms for three of us guys. We'll be rotating the single so we each have a go. But the flat is very nice and we have roof access as well. Regents park is no more than 5 minutes away where I plan on seeing a rugby scrimmage tomorrow morning between two English teams. I paid £4.90 for a pint of Belgian beer last night (that's almost $10) at a pub about 50 feet from our flat, but there's a much cheaper place we found today around the corner. There's also a liquor store and a Starbucks only 40 feet from our flat...everything we need. More developments to come.
Oh, and I got a prepaid cell phone...oddly enough the World Mobile plan I have is only 5p (10 cents) to call the US, but 12p (24 cents) to call people in England and Europe! It has no voicemail though, so beware. I'll send the number out in an email. If I miss you in the email and you want it, hit me up with an email or post on the blog or whatever.
