The pictures below are mainly of the city center of Birmingham, which is quite lovely; I don't know what everyone was talking about who said it was ugly and industrial.... though I've heard it's changed a lot in the last 10 years or so.

So, I've been here nearly a week, and I still really like it! I'll be happy when I know something about my classes.... but the International Student Welcome Week was really fun! I met students from so many different countries: France, Germany, Canada, Austria, Finland, Kenya, Nigeria, Maritius (a small island near Madagascar), Singapore, Japan, China, Australia, Iran, and several that I'm forgetting or didn't remeber where they're from. :) We've been having great discussions; no one seems to be offended by people asking questions, so we've been learning a lot about each others' cultures. Unfortunately, I haven't really met anyone from Britain yet... but the home students arrive on Monday, so that'll be cool.

I've also made two good friends already: Alicia and Stephanie. Alicia's from Canada (although her parents are from southern India) and she's doing an MA in Egyptology, and she's going to be in my flat all year! Three more flatmates will be moving in soon... we're excited/slightly nervous to meet them. Stephanie's from Germany, although she was born in London and grew up speaking English as well as German because her mom's from Hong Kong. She's doing JYA (although it's the third year of a five year program with a name that sounds a bit like "master's" but she's a year younger than me almost exactly--it's been interesting to compare all these different educational systems) in Poli Sci--or "Politics" as they call it here. So, the three of us have been going around together a lot, which is cool.