Classes!

So far I am in week 3 of classes here at Westminster, things have been going well, but it is very different from class at Stonehill! I'm taking four classes here that transfer back as five Stonehill classes. Each class here is split into a seminar and a lecture each that are an hour and a half long. Some of my classes have the seminar and lecture right in a row, whereas others are split up. The lecture is all the seminar sections combined with one teacher, even though we all have separate teachers for the seminars, depending on how many there are. Its weird having the same structure for each one of my classes here. Long powerpoint presentaions for the lecture and discussion questions in the seminars. Its not bad when its split up, but it gets a bit boring having the same structure for each class. All my classes only have two parts to our grade. "Coursework" which is one essay equal to 30% and a final which is either an essay test worth 70%. Very different from what I'm used to where you also have small assignments, participation as well as other grades.

The classes that I'm taking are The Economics of Financial Markets and Financial Reporting and Analysis, both which count for my major back at Stonehill, and then The London Economy and Work Psychology, both which count as electives. All of my classes here have lots of international students in them, which makes it interesting to meet a lot of new people from all around the world. My group for a project in The London Economy is myself, a girl from Japan, a girl from Atlanta, a girl from Germany, a boy from Spain and a boy from London so I'm getting to learn a lot about other places! Its hard to work in a group where there are many language barriers, but for the most part everyone here is very good at English.

Because Westminster is such a large University, the Professors are a lot different from Stonehill's. Though my London Economy Professor is very friendly and trying to get to know all of us, most of them aren't like that. A lot of work in the class is done independently so most of the Professors show up for the lectures and don't really stick around to be friendly or outgoing. Its a bit of getting used to from the small atmosphere of Stonehill, but hopefully it will help me to be more independent in my school work and be able to better research on my own.

I miss everyone so much but have been staying busy. Last Thursday, Nigel Barker from America's Next Top Model was at Selfridges, a large department store on Oxford Street. He was signing his new book called "The Beauty Equation." My girlfriends and I went to go meet him and ended up buying the book to get it signed. He was so sweet and took pictures and chatted with everyone that came to meet him. This weekend was our friend Larry's 21st birthday so we went out to see him at the Harrow campus (just outside of London) one night and he came into London the next night and we celebrated at a pub. This week is super busy as I'm trying to stay on top of all my reading (which is difficult when there is no work assigned) and Father Cregan is stopping in London on his way to Italy on Thursday and taking all of the London study abroad students to dinner. Friday morning at around 3 am Bobby and I are boarding a bus to Stansted airport and heading to Munich for the weekend! It's my first trip outside the UK so I can't wait. I will let you all know how it goes! 
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Here is a picture of my friend Ali and I with Nigel Last week...

Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath!

On Saturday, Bobby and I took a day trip to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. We went through a tour company called Evan Evans that does trips all over the UK. The day started off pretty early, as we had to wake up at 6:30 to get to our 8 am bus. As you all know I'm not much of an early morning girl but it was great to see the sunrise over London from my 7th floor window! I probably won't be seeing it too often but it was beautiful! We got on a bus that took us to Victoria coach station where we got on with our tour group for the day. Our tour guide Sheila, was very interesting and entertaining to listen to, she gave us information on the areas we drove through as well as the sights we would be seeing before we got there.

Windsor Castle was our first stop, It is where the Queen resides on weekends and is her favorite residence. It took us about 40 minutes to get there from London. The castle is located in a beautiful little part of the town with lots of shops and restaurants. The security to get in was extremely high, much like going through an airport, but because we were with a group we were able to get in a bit faster. We had just over an hour to walk around the castle which was perfect for Bobby and I, who aren't really into listening to the full fledged audio tours. Because the Queen is still in Scotland, the State Apartments were open for touring. The architechture is absolutly beautiful and there is so much incredible artwork and murrels. We also walked through the display of Queen Mary's Doll House, a doll house about the size of my entire room. As a girl who loved dollhouses it was cool to see the extremely elaborate house that once belonged to Queen Mary. We then had time to walk around outside the castle where there are many towers as well as St. Georges Chapel. Here are a few pictures of the outside of the castle and the chapel...

Next the bus took us to Stonehenge which was about an hour and a half from the castle. Stonehenge is essentially in the middle of no where, but I enjoyed driving through the country to see all the scenery. After being in the city for the past three weeks, it was nice to see some green and open land! Around Stonehenge threre were sheep, cows, and open fields everywhere you looked. Stonehenge was really interesting to see and learn about. But really, its exactly what you would picture it to be! We were there for about 40 minutes which is plenty of time. It was really cool, but once you walk around it theres not too much else to see.

 The day ended in Bath, a city about an hour and a half from Stonehenge. Bath is the only place in the UK to have a natural hot water spring, so the Romans built Baths there thinking the hot water had healing powers and it became a place for the wealthy to be seen. Jane Austen lived in Bath and a few of her novels were set there. Bobby and I toured the ancient bath and stuck our hands in the healing water. At the end of the tour you can buy a glass of the hot spring water which is supposed to heal you. It tasted awful but I drank my whole glass so hopefully itll be worth it! After that we had some time to walk around the city. Bath is absolutly gorgeous. It is a beautiful little city but surrounded by country, which makes the scenery really wonderful. It is only about 30 miles from Wales so as we were driving out of the city we were able to see over to Wales. Here are some photos of beautiful Bath!

This is my second week of classes, already the reading is piling up! They expect you to do a lot more on your own here so each Professor gives a reading list of about 10 "suggested books" and a core text...lots and lots of reading! I will try to post again soon :)

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