(Back-dating this a little, sorry!)
I saw a little of the school today. It was an administrative day, so not many people were around. I was told that they would walk me through my "timetable" on Thursday - that's my daily schedule. It seems that Geography is taught in a different building than Science, so I'm curious to see what my timetable entails. There wasn't much for me to do at the school, so I headed into town to get a bank account set up. Well,not quite as easy as I thought. The first bank that I went to was very pushy and they basically said that I couldn't open an account unless I had a bill addressed to me at my address in the UK. When I asked if a letter from my landlord would be sufficient, she hurriedly replied "NO" and ran to help the next customer. So I tried the next bank (there are about 4 or 5 in town), it's actually where my sister and brother-in-law have accounts in NYC. The guy couldn't open an account today, but all I have to do is get the school to write a letter for me, explaining that I am employed there and it needs to have my residence listed on it as well. I also found out that I can only open their most basic account - no checks, no check card, but I can schedule debits (like rent payments) and get cash from the ATM.

I stopped in the DSS office (Department of Social Security) to get an National Insurance number. They gave me a phone number to call to set up an appointment...

I checked on a mobile phone, but when I explained that I was looking for a phone to make primarily international calls, she smiled and said to invest in a phone card. She said they charge typically £1.5 per minute on international calls. That's almost 3 dollars a minute!!

I also did a little shopping today - the weather has been much cooler than I expected. So, I bought a pair of khakis, a jumper (a sweater) and another long sleeve top. The pants were a bit expensive, but the jumper, top, and a sweatshirt I found cost me a total of £13 (that's less than 26 dollars total)!! I'm very happy with my find!! I think these items will hold me over for a while. Once school starts up, too, I'll wear more of what I've brought. I walked the other way home and found an area of shops, etc. Its about 5 minutes from the house, in the opposite direction of the school.