My induction day

Hi y'all!
Today was my induction at Bucks. ( They have different words for lots of things; it just means orientation.) I met the other Masters students, and spent a little time with the people in just my program, which seems to be about nine people, but only three full timers like me. I got my first look at the semester schedule and it looks heavy-duty: a week off at Easter, two weeks off in August, and that's it until mid December when I finish. So much for all that summer travel I was thinking about! Well, I'm here to learn and work.

The whole thing today was very good, just what I had expected; the students are diverse, from England, Ireland, Spain, Greece, Italy, South Africa, Korea, and two Americans. That makes me very happy! The University buildings are very proletariat, functional buildings with nothing to say from the outside but bursting with cool things on the inside. Two of my classrooms look a bit like a laboratory; one is an enormous wood-working shop with huge power equipment; one looks like a boardroom. And every Friday I'll be spending in the shop of a nearby conservation upholstery shop. No one else is doing this, and while it's really exciting that I get to do this, I'm a little alarmed that I won't be able to do my research on Fridays! Oh dear.

Tomorrow I have a sort of preliminary class with the course leader, Campbell, and I'll be bringing the weird tools that I've been able to find, including the handy dental tools that Kim gave me...

We looked at a flat this evening (evening sets in around 3:45). It's quite handy, a ten minute walk to my school, but it's hard to get used to the total blankness of most apartments. And, of course, none of my funny old stuff to put around. It looks as though we'll find something this week--not a cute little thing, but servicable. High Wycombe is a very nice small city, with a beautiful long park with lots of ducks and swans and curving walking paths through trees that are luminous green from lichens, I guess. The train station is a block away and there are six trains to London every hour. Or, you might prefer to take a bus, every hour at twenty past. There's a theater across the street with year-round offerings of opera, jazz, Broadway musicals, etc. etc. etc. I've found the Marks &Spencers and that looks like a very dangerous place to go grocery shopping. All in all, there seems be everything here that one could possibly need for all NORMAL purposes. Until next time, much love from Ellie