Yes I like stormy weather from my window

This week started off very well, I finally made it out to church! It was a small church (as they all are here) about 20 minutes down the road by bus. The people were great and the service was nice. I met some cool people who love American college football and get together to watch it just about every week because one the guys and his wife has ESPN America and are able to record the games and watch them the next day. I hope I get to join them one of these days!

The glorious weather of last week has disappeared and no one misses it more than me. I think the weather gods have been trying to ease me into it- it was partly cloudy on Monday and in the 60s, but everyday since then it has gotten a little bit colder and a little bit rainier culminating in the mess that was today. The temperature never got above 50 and it was rainy and stormy and windy with a side of hail.

Lectures have been good so far, aside from being totally unprepared for one of my seminars today. I could've sworn that my Econ of Sport prof said on Tuesday that we wouldn't have any readings for our first seminar, so I didn't even check. I showed up to the seminar this afternoon only to find out that not only was there a reading, but also an assignment. Good thing these British professors are big on giving "unassessed assignments" which means if you don't do them, nothing happens to you, except some moderate embarrassment... which believe me, is enough to make you do the assignment. He split us up into groups to talk about our answers amongst eachother, but I obviously couldn't contribute anything to the discussion. It was a shame too because it was an interesting topic. I have already gone back and done the reading and answered the questions for my own benefit. It has taken a lot of effort to get back into the swing of studying and reading and checking my courses websites for assignments, but now that I have all but one of my textbooks (it should be arriving tomorrow) I am finally remembering how to be a student again.

I will be going to Liverpool on Saturday with some of my housemates. It's only a 20 minute train ride away so we will definitely be able to do it in a day. Also in the works as far as traveling is Edinburgh in a couple weeks, Paris in November and maybe Germany or Italy or Prague in December with my dear friend Kristen who is now in Turkey! The last one depends on how cheap I can find flights though... My mom will be joining me for my week off in November and I can't wait to show her around England!!

Some other exciting news around here is the arrival of our long-awaited Hug Mugs! Those of us smart enough to live in halls with meal plans were promised these coveted mugs when we moved in, but were never given a date to expect their arrival. So tonight, after being beaten up by what could have been an awful day (not doing an assignment, class until 6pm, being late for dinner, getting pelted by hail, and over all being totally drenched) I stumbled into dinner to finally receive this glorious hunk of plastic! Really it's just a mug. I think we get like 10 pence or some other negligible amount off hot beverages on campus... but here it is!