Making New Friends

Well family and friends, good news.
I survived international orientation and even made a few friends! There was a welcome dinner, a Thames river cruise, and different sessions set up to help us with common questions that come up when moving abroad especially for such a long period of time. Of course I took a picture of how I dressed to impress....It was a sad but funny feeling being back at orientation, realizing that I was no longer a senior who had conquered LA (okay, I'm dramatic) but was basically a freshman again but this time, I am even less familiar with my wherabouts and King's definitely doesn't hold your hand through the welcome process like LMU did. But overall, the other students that I have met have been kind and we have stumbled through the past few days together. The orientation-like process with be complete on September 29 when we have induction. At that point I will finally be able to know my class schedule along with any holidays we get and what my workload will be like. My "I like to know everything in advance so I can make a plan" personality does not like waiting until 5 days before classes start to know what my classes will be like but....what can I do.

The Thames River cruise was really cool as well! here is a picture of us on the boat with history all around us: The boat was packed with international students snapping photos and wondering how on earth we were lucky enough to be spending a year of our lives in this beautiful city.







Like I've mentioned before, we have been very fortunate to experience lots of beautiful weather. Saturday evening, as the sun was setting behind my building I looked up and saw how clear the city looked. This picture does not even begin to describe how beautiful this scene was. I wish you all could have seen it with me. The rain has been around too, but it usually blows through within 15 minutes and then the sun shines on through! I am keeping pictures like this for the near future when (I have been told) the sun will not be around quite so much.



This church here is St Joseph Catholic Church. It is about 10 minutes by bus from our flat and about a 20ish minutes walk. I took the bus there this evening because their website it said there was a 5:30 mass which I wanted to go to because I missed the 10am mass. Unfortunately, when I got there at 5, there was a sign on the doors saying that the 5:30 mass was cancelled until further notice. I guess I will have to make sure I'm up in time for the morning mass from now on!
 It seems like a fairly large church from what I can tell and I am excited to go next week!


That's all I've got for this weekend!

Love from London,
Kristin