Beautiful Day at Essex

It's a surprisingly sunny day here in England and I just had to take advantage of it by wearing my big "tourist" sign and taking pictures of campus as requested by Laurie. I'm sorry these took so long, there just aren't that many pretty days here. I've also been a bit under the weather with the "Fresher's Flu" as they call it here....whatever it is, it's nasty and I will be glad to be rid of it in a few days. It hits freshmen and exchange students within the first week...and it really sucks. Please send Sudafed.

Today I also got my first mail since arriving at Essex! Thanks to reader J for a lovely card, it really made my day. I also finally got my curling iron in the mail (they call them curling tongs here, may have contributed to my not being able to find any in stores) and picked up the last book I'll need (for a few weeks at least) at the bookstore, making the first wave of books cost around 25 pounds. My most expensive ones were at the library thank goodness, and I'd rather run back and forth and renew them for a year than buy them and have to leave them here. Now I can settle in for a long, slow night of really old and really depressing poetry a la Wordsworth and Coleridge.