Everybody is arriving for school!

Well, on Saturday everybody from Notre Dame started arriving here at Connaught Hall.  I ran into some people in the morning and made plans to go out and watch the World Cup matches, then I went and bought my Oyster Card at the train station.  This will enable me to get around London on the Underground and the bus system without having to sell a vital organ each week to pay for the travel, so that’s a definite plus.  Next, I met up with Mo (the guy who works at the front desk in the hall) and we took a bus to the largely Arab section of town and ate at an Iranian restaurant.  It was really good, we had this special bread with hummus, lamb kebobs and rice.  All very flavorful, as opposed to the English food  which is distinctly lacking much flavor.

Afterwards, we walked back to Connaught.  By the way, Mom, it turns out that that night when it seemed like we walked forever and didn’t find Connaught Hall and took the bus to Kings Cross and then the Underground back to Russell Square, we were actually not that far from Connaught when we finally got the bus.  We could’ve walked maybe 4 more blocks and we would’ve been back to the hall.  Whoops!

At 5:00, I met up with Joe and Kyle.  They are ND law students, Joe is from Manitoba, Canada and Kyle is from California.  We went down to the London Pub and got food and drank beer and watched the soccer games.  It was pretty fun.  I had my first hamburger in the UK and yes, the beef tastes weird over here.  They just don’t know how to do beef outside the Midwest, do they?  

Today I am going to walk around for a bit, just get my bearings in the neighborhood.  It’s nice and cool outside today, so it’s a good day to walk around.  Then I imagine we’ll go somewhere for more World Cup because England plays Ecuador at 4:00 pm today, so that should be a good match to watch in a bar full of people, seeing as how we’re in England and all.  Tomorrow morning is orientation and then I believe classes start right after that (although I’m not sure, some people think we don’t start til Tuesday, which would be cool).