Rain, rain go away and quit flooding my college

Day four England; day two runny nose and bad weather. Well actually the weather isn't too bad, we just have these burst of thunderstorms every now and then. Today the big storm came during class, so it actually cut our Shakespeare lecture short because not even Professor Wood can talk over crackling lightning. Dr. Moore, and many other people, told us that Oxford (and England in general) really isn't at all prepared for lots of water so fast because the sewer systems are so old, which led to tons of cases of flooding in the dorms and around town. A few professors’ flats, several dorms, along with our makeshift computer lab got hit so a few big strong boys helped move the computers out to another room so the Intro to CS students could do their Matlab homework uninterrupted. I think at any other school the professors would have pushed the homework deadline back, but this is still Tech even if it is a few thousand miles away. My room is nice and dry. HA!

So whoever said English food was bad obviously has never eaten at Worcester. Today we had pecan/chocolate chip crusted cheesecake with strawberry sauce, never mind the steak and seasoned potato combo before it. But as someone at dinner noted today this could become pretty boring after a few weeks, and I think fairly soon people are going to start venturing out for food. I refuse to because food here is crazy expensive. This one place called "Old Orleans" which is a very humorous attempt at southern food, has 8 pound entrees, which is roughly $15. A $15 entree isn't bad at a nice sit-down place, but this is their cheapest one and it's this open air "best hangout in town" kind of restaurant. In my mind that doesn’t merit such expensiveness for a few pieces of fried chicken. We did find a KFC in town, but none of us have actually eaten there yet. I wonder if it'll taste the same...



That's my room! Or at least the half that has a bed on it. I posted the other end as well as one of my en suite WC in my Worcester album. I took these yesterday before bedtime, but before my scout had a chance to straighten it up. Now when I say scout I don't mean like little girl in uniform selling cookies, scouts here are professional cleaning staff that have been working at Worcester for years (and some even decades). They apparently love students and love their work and will try to make our stay as nice as possible. They're the first people to go to when you need another pillow or a real door stop (which I MacGyver’d out of a hanger). My scout is this nice Asian lady whose name I forgot to ask. She comes in every day between 11am and 11:30, so I try to be awake by then. Today she vacuumed my room, made my bed (oh yeah!), washed my sink and gave me fresh towels. Apparently on Friday I get fresh bed linens. I could totally get used to this.

For now I head to bed in hopes that my runny nose will be cured tomorrow.