I'm sitting in the Library

Hey ya'll.

I'm sitting here in the library (in case you hadn't guessed) and, rather than do some research, I thought I'd update you on my life... how exciting!! So, here we go...

Last week was workshop week. Basically, instead of classes, we attended--you guessed it--workshops! They covered topics such as Equality & Diversity, Modern Foreign Language, Grammar, and, finally, we had the Plan, Assess, Evaluate workshiop... that one was a hoot! (not.) Also last week, our advisors from America and Sweden visited us to see how we were getting on and help us do the final paperwork (which was actually online) for Sweden.

Keeping in the spirit of getting ready for my little skirmish to Sweden, on Friday I went to London with Erik (who's from Sweden) and Miles (who is from England... met at church). The main goal of the visit was to have my Swedish Residency Permit put in my passport book. To accomplish this, we had to visit the Swedish Embassy... talk about an exciting place!!! It's little. You take a number, wait to be called on, get called on, get taken care of, and leave... I'm sure there are some things out there that could be considered more exciting than the scenario I've just described, but, let's face it... that sounded like a lot of fun... right?

Once that was taken care of, we meandered down Oxford Street (somewhat comparable to NYC's 5th Avenue) and soon found ourselves nestled in a lovely little coffee shop. We decided to enjoy some java and a cake... this was all well and good. (Really, it was prepared well, and tasted good!) However, when we received the bill, we were blown away... it was definitely the most expensive coffe shop visit I've ever had or want to have. It cost £10.87 for a mocha and a piece of cake!!! (the prices weren't listed)

We continued our expedition through London by visiting the National Gallery. The last time we went to London, we went here too, but only for the bathrooms... this time, we used the toilets (they don't actually call them bathrooms/ restrooms here) but then also got in touch with our artistic side by spending, approx, 10 minutes looking at the hundreds of paintings in the gallery. To be honest, it would have probably been less than 10 minutes, but we saw a statue of a very realistic looking horse in the distance and decided to check it out... it turned out to be an incredible painting... so, we were impressed... which is impressive in itself when you consider the artistic maturity of three 20-something males. The fact that we could appreciate the simplicity of a horse in the midst of masterpieces astounds me to this day.

Our day ended with a stroll past the Prime Minister's crib (house), the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and the London Eye. We hopped aboard the underground to London's Victoria Station and boarded the train back to Bognor Regis. All in all, it was an exciting day.

Then, on Saturday, we traveled to Oxford. Yes, I went to Oxford. Feel free to tell people, "Dave Hummel went to Oxford." Anyway, it's pretty much exactly what you'd expect, so I'll spare you the details... and, yes, we saw the great hall from Harry Potter if that interests you... it didn't interest me. I did meet two groups of people from PA though... they commented on my PSU sweatshirt. Here's a little tidbit for ya'll... Christ Church in Oxford (a huge place... part of the university yet also a church) had photos of some of the people who studied there... among them, John Wesley (for you Methodists) and William Penn (for you Pennsylvanians)... (If you're a Methodist from Pennsylvania, Merry Christmas!)

Saturday night, I settled in to watch the PSU-OSU game via skype from America. Romeo, the dog, decided my bedroom looked like a nice place to deficate... so I had the honor of cleaning that up (my host family was away.) Sunday, I went to church... and did a lot of school work... today, I went to math class, had lunch, and came here... and that's all I can write... because the rest of my day has yet to happen... DH, out.