Nottingham

I arrived safely in Nottingham and was kindly greeted by Clifton's friend Jackie. She showed me a little around the town but I was a bit anxious to drop off my stuff and relax. We hopped on a bus for the 10 minute trip to the university where I was staying and guess what: I had my first ever double decker bus ride! It was quite fun! you could see so much up there! haha anyway. Then I took a nap in the afternoon, got up for dinner, watched movie with friends, read, and went to sleep. I suppose I was tired because I slept for a good 11 hours, which is a lot for me.

Friday was lazy and lovely, I slept in, got up and wandered around the campus, ate lunch with friends, wandered more, laid in the grass and read, wandered, and ate dinner with friends. Friday evening I went to Christian Union, which is the main Christian organization on campus. It was huge! There were probably about 200 people there, which supposedly is small because it's exam time. Afterward a few of us went to one of the campus bars.. that's right: a bar. on campus. with Christians. Haha. It wasn't a terribly loud, raucous bar with loud music like a normal one in that you would picture. Instead, it was just a great place to hang out with friends on a Friday night.

For today (Saturday) I had decided I was going to go into town to explore. So naturally when I woke up it was 49 degrees and raining.. England just as I always imagined it. After putzing around in Clifton's room for a long while, I finally decided to go into town anyway. It just so happened that when I got off the bus, it stopped raining! The town was quite delightful to walk around. There were lot's off people, little winding streets, shops, and interesting buildings. Many of the streets are blocked off to cars so it's very easy to walk around. I found a cool bookshop at the top of a hill and sat and had some coffee and read in one of the upper floors at a seat with a window viewing down a brick-paved lane. It was a great way to spend my afternoon.

Things I still have to get used to in England:

1. cars driving on the wrong side of the road

2. people greeting you with "alright then?" I'm not quite sure what a common response is.

really that's about it. Other than that, I'm leaving monday for London and then on to Amsterdam.

Cheers,

Ryan