Well, it has been a couple of days since I last post and I have experienced so much! I have now seen much downtown Wolverhampton and university as well as traveled to Stratford-upon-Avon. I will try to tell you as much about it all as I can remember, but the last couple of days have been very busy! Here we go...
Once I finally got over my jet lag, things began to really fly! I did not have much of a chance to meet many people on Tuesday, because of the traveling, but Wednesday was much better. We
had several meetings to attend and I was quickly overwhelmed with the amount of exchange students there were, at least 60. This made it also tough to meet people, but later that night we attended a traditional English tea party where we met a ton of students from all over the world! That night we went out with them and managed to even stay in touch with out mobiles (cell phones). I have spent most of my social time with these students and it has been very nice to have people to call to go do something with. On Thursday we explored much of Wolverhampton with our fellow exchange students and even got mobiles together!
Wolverhampton is a city maybe the size of downtown Hartford or Memphis. It is not really a suburb of Birmingham like I initially thought, because it is a large city on its own. It really has anything you would want to do or see, and has some great history! There is a main pedestrian street with all kinds of shops and vendors, even STARBUCKS!!! I must admit that a good cup of coffee was much needed! Overall, I think it will be a very fun city to live in and I still have a lot of exploring to do!
I also got my first taste of English soccer this morning! My dorm room is just down the street from the stadium, and this morning I got woke up to the fans chanting and singing in the stadium. It may have been the loudest sporting ever I have ever heard! It was loud because of cheering, rather it was 30,000 people singing and chanting! There were people everywhere too, it was quite shocking to wake up to. They have another home game next weekend which I think I may try to go to.
Yesterday, I took my first trip out of Wolverhampton to Stratford-upon-Avon...the birthplace of Shakespeare! Although I never really enjoyed Shakespeare, the town was beautiful and very nice place to visit. When we arrived, we got an hour long walking tour, which took us through the town past his birthplace, school, tomb and even his favorite pub! We did not go in any of these places, other that the church where he is buried, because you had to pay for each one. This tour also took us along the river and canals, which was my favorite part. The longboats and locks were very neat to see and the river was so beautiful. We also walked through a park where there were the most ducks and swans I have ever seen! There was one swan that was the size of a small child!
Well, that is about it for now. Classes start tomorrow, although my first class is not till Tuesday, but it will be nice to see the campus come alive and meet some of the British students. I have also finally unpacked my luggage, which I had been avoiding, but it is nice that it is done. I have also added some pictures from this first week into Photobucket (the link is on the right) so please check those as well.
Cheers,
Justin
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