As of yesterday I have been here for a whole week and I thought it might be good to think about what I have learned thus far. I don't know about any of you, but the easiest way for me to do basically anything is through comparing and contrasting, like the adorable Gilmore Girls, I'm a big fan of pro/con lists. So after absolutely no consideration what so ever, here is a random list of pro's and con's between here and home.

Pro's

• The dorm rooms here have an actual maid service! No lie, they cleaned my room and made my bed (with fresh sheets) today.
• I'm of legal drinking age here (enough said)
• The people are extremely aware of what is going on in the U.S. right now (they know more about our politics than I do) and they love any opportunity to hear what I think about it.
• As an American I'm kind of exotic, and therefore instantly more interesting than I am at home.
• They recycle everything! The whole island is so eco-friendly.
• I am a 5 minute stroll from the ocean, which means....
• SUPER FRESH SEAFOOD!!!
• Also they have Indian restaurants everywhere and they pretty much rock.

Con's

• Breakfast...
• The eggs are poached
• They serve beans and tomatoes for who knows what reason
• They think a biscuit is a cookie and they don't have anything to replace it with
• Even though gravy makes it's way into all of the other meals (they even put it on top of fries, or "chips") it hasn't found it's way to the 1st one yet
• The hash browns are just indescribably worse
• Scones are obviously served with tea because without it you need someone to administer the Heimlich maneuver
•  Bacon (God's real gift to women) is really just thinly sliced, overcooked, chewy ham.
• The classroom structure is extremely rigid and sometimes I have to literally cover my mouth with my hand to keep myself from speaking.

And last, but never least,

• I miss my family.

And on a super irrelevant and slightly ridiculous note, they don't have any Taco Bell's here. I know that sounds silly, but it's so addictive and I'm having major withdraws! I would kill for a cheesy potato stuffed burrito right now. They don't really have much Mexican food here at all which is sad when you come from the happy land of over sized Tex Mex.

I arrived in London on the 5th so I have officially neglected my poor little blog for 3 whole days and I have so much stored up to report on! Here are the highlights:

• 8 hour plane rides suck, even people who have never flown probably know that.
• The weather has been perfect! Not a rain drop or a cloud in sight the whole time I have been here!
• London is a very awesome city with a horribly confusing mass transit system, I didn't get lost or anything, but I was afraid I might.
• Gower Peninsula is the most naturally beatiful place I have ever been to ( when I'm not exhausted from three straight crazy days of travel, I will post some pictures of it).
• People from Wisconsin really do have an amusing accent (one of the other students is from Green  Bay)
• Welsh people are extraordinarily friendly! They put everyone else to shame when it comes to just being amazingly helpful and cheerful about it.
• British food is just enough like American food that you think you are knowing what you are getting when you order it, but just different enough that in the back of your mind you wonder if you were given someone elses food.

So far I am having an amazing time, but it still feels like I'm on vacation at this point and I'm just not sure how well I'm going to handle it when I realize that I am not going to see my family (or my dog) until 102 days from today. I already miss them even though I am using skype and facebook to try and keep up with them as much as possible, at the end of the day I still feel like I didn't get to say all of the things that I wanted to say. Hopefully having this additional form of communication will help me deal with the comm overload.

26 days out and I just made hotel reservations! Woo hoo! I'm staying at Norfolk Towers which is just minutes from Paddington station so I'll be able to take the tube to all the great attractions and sight seeing, plus I just learned that the National Gallery is completely free! and they have an amazing collection including Botticelli and Carvaggio! I can't wait!

I have 44 more days until I leave for London and the Wales, which is very easy to keep up with thanks to my count down widget, and I'm convinced it isn't enough time!

 I still haven't figured out how I'm going to manage my money while I'm there (accessing cash and so forth) without being charged astronomical fees and exchange rates. I also will probably have to do some shopping... What do you wear when it rains all the time?!

The closer this trip gets the more stressed out I become, I really want to enjoy myself, but I just can't shake this pessimistic feeling that it is going to be extremely hard to adapt to some things. For example, while I don't have to learn a new langauge (Thank goodness!) the names for everything over there seem to be different! Atm's are called cash points, fries are chips, and if I start talking about my pants everyone is going to think I'm talking about my undies!

Not to mention that they spell things differently and since I'm going to be taking classes I'm actually really worried that I'm not only going to have points deducted, but that I am going to look like an idiot.

I'm sure there will be more purging before take off.