Orientation Day 3, Metrocentre, Birthday — Wed 21 September

Today began with a frantic search to find my alarm, which was neither under my pillow nor coming from my computer. I eventually found it under my bed. Fortunately, the adrenaline was an effective way to wake up before the skype call planned with my family. I got to see yet another sunrise, much to my chagrin. Beautiful as they are, I hate sunrises.

The call went well, and it was nice to see everyone even if they did call ten minutes early. After the call, I went back to bed for half an hour.
Quick note: "module" means "class/course". This threw me off to no end before I figured it out.
Jessi, Josie, Flo, and I had the same advisor meeting at 9:30, and we were hoping to be out before the coach to the Metrocentre left at 12:30. Unfortunately, the advisor was half an hour late and talked for an hour about the online systems (that mostly don't work for study abroad, as it turned out). 12 o'clock came around without me seeing the advisor, and I managed to arrange for more of an independent online module-code-finding adventure before a physical meeting the next day. It wouldn't have been such an issue if the physical module lists had included biomedical/pharmaceutical sciences...

In any case, we all got to the coach (which is just a big bus, like LCS used for away games) on time. I was looking forward to more of england in the daylight, but I don't have any pictures from the way over because I was extremely carsick. I thought it was just me, but Jessi had the same problem. I resolved to remember my dramamine on the York trip friday.
After what felt like several hours but was in fact about half an hour, we arrived. My group included Jessi, Kari (Jessi's friend from Germany who's studying here, too), Josie, Conor, and, briefly, Scott from Colorado and a girl who might be from Whitworth, but I never caught her name. I don't actually know her, so...
We ate at Nando's, which is a mostly chicken restaurant. I got chips (fries in American) and ratatouille. It was okay, but a little heavy on the onions. After that, Scott and mystery girl split, and the rest of us went to Primark for cheap clothes. I wanted jeans, but there were none in my size. At all. In the end, I got a longsleeve t-shirt for a few pounds, a duvet cover and pillow case, and some hangers. Jessi, a goddess among women, held my place in the massively long queue so I could get the hangers.

No clashing!

By the time I got out of the store, everyone else was gone. I decided that I would go to one of the two Orange stores to see if I couldn't get my mobile up and running. I found it after about an hour of wandering, and finally got it registered. Unfortunately, I had forgotten my £10 voucher for the pay card, so I tried to top it up at a "cash point" (ATM). I need to look that up online, because I have no idea how it's suppose to work. I ended up going to the other Orange store to have them either explain it or top it up for me.
It worked out, and I wandered the mall in a good mood until I got to a stationary store and tried to buy a binder and some paper.
My wallet was not in my bag. It wasn't in my shopping bag. It wasn't in my jacket pocket. It still wasn't in any of my bags or pockets after three searches. The cashier was very sympathetic, and offered to hold my stuff until I came back with my wallet.
This was pretty devastating. While I only had £15 in cash, I had all my cards and pictures of friends in the wallet. I also didn't want to have to buy another wallet, cancel my debit card, and get a new drivers' license, Whitworth ID, debit card, and library card. I was also mad at myself for losing yet another wallet (lost my first one a few weeks into my freshman year at Whitworth), and so soon into the trip. I would have to rely on the goodwill of my friends for food and transportation until the debit card company sent me a new card.
In spite of my troubles, I held it together pretty well. I remembered exactly where I'd been, and suspected that I'd left the wallet right in the Orange store. Still, I walked back through all the stores, up and down stairs and escalators, until I returned to the Orange store. After what seemed like a very long wait in a very warm store, I was directed to the help desk just outside the store.
They had my wallet! I was walking on air. All my cards, all my cash, all my pictures, right there in my hands again when I  thought I'd never see them again.
I thanked God sincerely for the unexpected birthday gift.
I used my phone to call Jessi and find out where anybody else was, and found them successfully. We all kind of showed off our loot, then headed back to the meeting point at about 17:15 before waiting about an hour for the coach to show up. Josie had bought a huge cookie from a cookie store in the mall, and was asked repeatedly who it was for. Apparently, she was planning on eating cookie for about a month.
I sat much closer to the front, and it took at least fifteen minutes for the carsickness to kick in. I got some pictures during that time.

Spire! Steeple! Thing!

Countryside. About how I saw it by that time, actually... 

Practically home.

Jessi and I hypothesized that it's the road, not the driver or the bus. I think that bumps and any other types of sudden motion (like the terrible shifting in the first bus) jerk us around too much and shock our brains into thinking that we need to be nauseated.
When we got back to Clanny, it was decided that we should go to an Indian takeout place along Hylton Street (runs along one side of Clanny House). Once Flo finally finished doing his registration stuff on Conor's laptop, we collected Kari and set off. Adam and Michaela pled full stomachs and didn't come.
On the way, we met the Ginger Clanny House Cat, a huge long-haired orange tabby who has his own facebook page.
Once we reached Curry Express, we sat down in the hotel registration-like front room of the restaurant and read the menu. Flo read it out loud, and "Tikka Chicken Chom Chom" became an inside joke. Picture it said with a sleazy eyebrow wiggle... In any case, I got Vegetable Biryani and an order of garlic naan.
Remember the cookie that Josie bought? It was actually my "cake". It said "Happy Birthday, Raeann" (spelled correctly!) and had a card signed by everybody in the flat. Josie got some pictures of it, and I intend to get them onto the blog ASAP.
That night, there was a "nerd" themed party at a Uni bar, which was interpreted by most girls as "slutty school girl uniform". This meant that there were people in the kitchen in varying states of drunkenness, and I hung around for a while before deciding that beer smells really gross in a warm kitchen full of people drinking beer. I went upstairs, killed the spider above the bathroom door for Jessi, and updated the blog before I went to sleep.
It was a good birthday.