My arrival in England

Yay! My computer works again! I’m so happy!

I'm infinitely sorry that this post is so amazingly long, but I wanted to let you all know what's been going on, partly because I thought I was funny (especially in retrospect). I'm considering writing it up in more detail, but that might turn out to be the size of a small story, so if I actually do it, you may not want to read it anyway. :)

OK, the short version of the story is this:

Friday, I arrived at Gatwick, took the train to Lancaster, and then found a hotel. All the hotels in Lancaster were full up for the entire weekend, so I had to stay the night in Garstang, a little village not too far from Preston. That’s when I started having money troubles, but I won’t bother all of you with the details right now. Suffice it to say, that the money troubles were many and numerous. In the morning, things seemed to be looking up — I actually managed to pay for the hotel room! — so I ordered a taxi to take me to campus, thinking that we could stop along the way to get some cash from an ATM. However, my card didn’t work. Eventually, he had to let me out, at the Safeway supermarket in Garstang. I had only a few pence left, and after exhausting all the possibilities I could think of, I decided to go sit outside with my luggage and try to think of other options. There, I cried a little and prayed a lot, and finally two ladies came out of the market and asked me if I were all right. I tearfully explained what was going on, and then remembered that I still had some Euros left from my last trip to France. So I asked them where I could get those changed. One of them stayed with my luggage while the other walked into town with me, and I got the money changed. Then they told me where to get on the bus that would take me to the University, which I did. Luckily, there was a guy on the bus who works at the University, and he helped me take my luggage up to the Graduate College (my residence). So, then I was settled in and had a place to stay.

During the next few days, money troubles continued, but they were all right. When I got to campus on Saturday, I still had about 10 pounds with me. I bough some supper and then settled in to hope that things would get worked out by Monday.

Sunday I found the local ward of the Church and attended. I unfortunately didn’t arrive until just after the sacrament had been passed, so I didn’t get to take it. But the members of the ward were very friendly, and one family even invited me to have dinner with them.
Monday I collected my check from my private loan. However, I couldn’t cash it yet, because it would take about six weeks to get it turned over. So, I called Mom and Dad and asked them to put some more money in my account at home so that I could get it out of the ATM here.

Tuesday morning, I registered and then tried the ATM again — no luck! By this time, I had a little over 3 pounds left, and I was beginning to be worried that I might not be able to eat for three more weeks. But, after attending some of my orientation activities for the Linguistics Department, I tried the ATM once more, and it worked. Yay!! I celebrated by getting Indian food for supper, and then by buying a bedding pack — never in my life until last night did I fully comprehend the true joy and felicity of having a blanket and pillow. (To my delight, the bedding pack even came with a duvet cover, which the people at the Students’ Union didn’t think it would. And my pillow cases fit the pillow.)

**NB: some people have been asking, so I'll tell you here that I had been using some folded up shirts stuffed into a pillow case for my pillow, and my big, long winter coat for a blanket.**

Today I got my computer to work. That is, it has power. I still haven’t gotten the internet connected to it yet, but as soon as I do, I’ll be in touch more frequently, and I’ll be able to provide more detail to the story of my arrival if you wish.

All in all, things here are wonderful! I love the British people already, I find them very friendly and helpful. And of course, it’s fun listening to all the different accents. Today I called Dell Customer Support in the UK, and I got a little Irish girl. The other day at the bank, the finance officer told me to “pop your details on that form, hand it to your accommodation officer, and then pop it over to me.” And last night, the porter asked me to “sign there, love” when I got my bedding pack. It’s fun.

****

(Break of about ... well, a few hours.)

Today I ventured into the library. I had to go there yesterday to get my library/ID card and some stuff from ISS (Information Systems Services) and so on, but today I really went in. I got a book, even.

I’m really not sure what cataloging system they use, but it is certainly not the Dewey Decimal System (thank heavens!) or the Library of Congress system (for obvious reasons), although it is more similar to the latter. Naturally, Linguistics, English lit, and English are on the top floor. Is there some law of the universe that I am personally unaware of, demanding that the Linguistics section in every library on earth must be on the top floor?

Anyway, I found the book. I have already run almost completely dry of things to read while I’m here (at least until my package of books and DVDs arrives, which should be in another week or two), and the last book I read was A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, which I adored! So, I decided to see what else I could find by him. I ended up getting Sketches by Boz. I always enjoy having some good short stories around, and I also generally enjoy reading early work by my favorite authors, for comparison with their later works.

Once I had found the book (which wasn’t too difficult, thanks to my many years of experience at the BYU library), I then had to find the checkout desk. Not as easy as you might think. I first looked around on the ground floor for something labeled ‘Check-Out’, but to no avail. Apparently it’s not called that here in England. So, then I went in to the bathroom instead (nature was calling), and while I was there, pulled out my map of the library. I scrutinized everything on it, trying to find something that might substitute checkout. I finally found something called ‘Loan and Return.’ That sounded likely, so I went there. It was the right place.

Things are settling in quite well now. My next big tasks are to try to get my internet connected in my room, and to make sure I keep things going with my loan money so that I can continue to live and study. Right now I’m going to work on the internet problem. Later tonight (when the banks in America are open), I will be trying to call the bank again to make sure they can do a wire transfer of my loan money.

Well, then ... Cheers for now!