I've met PEOPLE

So the first day I got here, I was tearing my hair out-- I didn't know anybody, I was in a strange city, they speak a strange language (yeah, its English, but its strange). Basically I wanted to go home. Thank goodness I actually didn't because the UCLan people are very nice and we had a social event last night where I got to meet all of the other international students, mostly Americans but still. And Jori (one of the other girls from UK -we have to clarify that it's University of Kentucky over here) had a horrendous time getting here-- her flight was from Cincinnati to Paris (France, not Kentucky, people!) and then on to Manchester. She didn't understand why that was, but it was cheaper. Anyway, she got to Paris and then couldn't find her connecting flight on the monitors (bad sign). She went to a ticket lady and asked where she could catch her connecting flight to Manchester. It had been CANCELLED. So she got another flight much later in the day and hung out in the Paris airport for 8 hours. She finally got to Preston (it was late, so no UCLan people were there to pick her up, but they told her her key would be at the security desk) and no one was at the security desk! She said she sat down and cried (I would have done that a long time ago). Finally a security person found her and took her to her room. She didn't bring any sheets or anything (neither did I, I bought them over here) so the security guy took pity on her and somehow got her some. To make a long story short, she got here in one piece but just barely. I am very thankful my trip went as smoothly as possible.

Here are some pictures of the journey over and my room aka prison cell (its sparsely furnished at best).

Woo-hoo! My first British train ride!

My bed and desk...I have a lovely view of....a car park (parking lot, lol).