Your city will NOT burn down ...

Yesterday (Monday) I got woken up by a lovely 5 minute fire alarm testing. And by 5 minutes I mean 5 minutes of it being on, then 5 minutes of silence, the 20 MINUTES of it going off again! And I am seriously not exaggerating. I think I just spelled that wrong. I don't care. And then after that the halls were all dark and the fire doors in the halls were closed. They are so paranoid about fire here, I guess. If there were to be a fire, it definitely would not spread, that's for sure. Plus, anywhere there are stairs, it's marked as a fire exit ... which to us in America means 'do not use' but here they just like to point out they have a fire plan or something.

We went to Primark on Saturday, and I got some clothes, and had a really long conversation with the cashier; therefore holding up the really long line. He recognized my credit card was from the US. He didn't know where Wisconsin was, though. He told me he was going to go to Miami and then asked if I watched NBA. I told him I liked European football and he asked me which team I supported. I told him I lived near where Arsenal plays to which I got a response of "Yeah Arsenal!!!" And then I left because other people wanted to leave the store as well.

After that we went to the British Museum for an hour and a half, saw the Rosetta Stone and all that jazz. After that we went to this little restaurant near Nido called Eddie's. Later that night we went to Guanabara (http://www.guanabara.co.uk/), a Brazilian club. A big carnival is going on in Brazil right now, so they have all sorts of parties. It was cool to go to the club with actual Brazilians. They taught us how to samba. There was a DJ half time and a live band the other half. It was really expensive to get in, but really worth it. We also had to wait at least an hour in the cold to get in (luckily we had cut in line - the Brazilians had some friends that were already there). I would highly recommend looking at the website, they have pictures posted from last year's carnival, so you can kind of get an idea. I think we're going back there this Sunday, because it will be free.

On Sunday, I basically slept alllll day, but later we went to Tesco and picked up a few things. Later at about 10, we left to go to the International Student's House (ISH) for a superbowl party. The Superbowl was on here at 11:30 pm, so it was kind of late and we left at halftime. I met Erin there, the girl that worked with Dad. We just recognized each other from pictures, even though we had never met before. She will probably come to Guanabara with us on Sunday.

On Monday Louise (our 'main' brazilian - lol), Zoe (Jamaican), and I went to the city campus to find our class buildings. We met up with Daniel (Louise's boyfriend) and ate at McDonald's, then we went shopping on Oxford Street. Then we met up with some of his friends at the Austrailian pub, Walkabout, except it was a different one, and a lot cooler. It had a big open room with a dome ceiling and two levels. It also had a giantic screen and tons of plasmas, that played music videos to the songs they were playing. Zoe and I left because we really wanted food, and they had cleared away all the tables to make a dance floor, so we figured food there would just take too long. So we met up with Brit (my roomie, from La Crosse) and Tianda (from Tennessee) and ate at a Burger King. (This is the same day as the fire alarms, I jumped around a bit, sorry, just follow along the best you can. :)

Today was my first day of class. I will tell about all my classes tomorrow, because right now I really need to go to bed, but I will finish telling about everything else that happened besides classes today. Basically we walked down to Angel looking for a place to eat, and we found this Mexican place called 'Tortilla' (http://www.tortilla.co.uk/), and I was so excited to have Mexican food!! It was good, too. Similar to what Qdoba/Chipotle would be. On our way back to Nido we stopped in a little convenience store and I bought tons of Hobnobs (yummy cookies) because they are delicious. Then we stopped in Louise's room and chatted with her and Daniel. And then I came and wrote this blog.
And Brit and I spent a really long time trying to figure everything out (when we did what) so you BETTER enjoy it, or I will pillage your hometown.


Also, I almost got ran over by a bicyclist today and it was totally my fault.