A little info about British money. The conversion rate (currently) of pounds to dollars is approximately 1 pound to 1.6 US dollars. Pounds can come in either "notes" which are similar to our bills in the US or they can come in coins. There are also pence coins. 100 pence is equal to one pound (easy to remember for us Americans).
At first, it was a little confusing to figure out paying with money we weren't familiar with. Once I ran out of the notes I already had (thanks to my sweet grandparents who gave me a little stipend before I left the country) I was left with only coins to pay for small, inexpensive things like coffee. Paying would normally have taken me two seconds if I had still had a note... but I ended up standing at the counter looking at each coin until I figured out how to come up with £2.50. Luckily the woman at the register was very patient and kind and helped me out. But after we got our drinks we sat down and tried to familiarize ourselves.
Little things like this have been happening daily for us confused international students.
On Wednesday night the girls and I decided to visit a bar on campus (conveniently located inside the student union building). We drank our first English beer and chatted with our new friends for a few hours. It was fun, relaxing, and a great way to unwind from all of the stress we have been dealing with over the course of the past few days.
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| ...and obviously I am in the middle of this one instead of the other Katelyn |
Yesterday we surprisingly didn't have any information sessions that we needed to attend. So after breakfast we decided to take a trip into the city of Nottingham to explore. (We also needed to get local cell phones so we could keep up with our new friends without depending on seeing them at meals.) Taking care of the important things first (yes, the phones) we headed into a place called Vodaphone and proceeded to buy £25 cell phones. Then we found a nice place to have lunch. We were slightly overwhelmed with being in a new place and having so many options so we popped into restaurant by day, club by night, Revolution. It wasn't the "pub" I had envisioned for my first real British meal... but it was still delicious. The £5.95 wrap and glass of wine lunch special was particularly delicious too. Then we did a little more shopping and exploring and decided we'd had enough for the day.
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| Please don't ask why I was inclined to take a picture of McDonalds... |
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| The Dragon, public house |
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| All I have to say about this picture is that the birds in England are HUGE! |
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| Char and me in front of the city center. |
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| Saint Peter's Church |
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| A pretty little flower stand on the street. |
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| American Dollar store, meet Poundland! |
After an HOUR long bus ride back to campus (long story short, we don't know how to use public transportation) we had dinner, took short naps, and rallied to go out for the NUSEX (Nottingham University Student Exchange) Welcome Party. It was at a club called Coco Tang and the only thing more impressive than the club itself was the extensive menu of specialty drinks. The fairytale-esque menu, with drinks like the "Dirty Cinderella" and the "Toadstool Tonic" also had a sweetness rating from one to five, one being the least sweet and five being the sweetest, for each drink. The night was full of dancing, socializing, and meeting more new people and by the end of it I could not have been more exhausted.
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| Me, Caroline and Charlotte on the dance floor! |
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| All of the girls, plus some anonymous photo bombers. |
Tomorrow is official move-in day for both international students and "freshers" so we have to get up bright and early to move our stuff into our permanent halls. Fingers crossed for cool hall-mates and a stress-free move!
**Hint! If the pictures are too small for you to see them, you can just click on them to make them larger.**
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