Arriving in town

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Woke up, got out of bed, stole two pillows from the hotel. Ok, borrowed two pillows until next week when Ill be back and return them. Drove up to Nottingham along the same path that I took on Thursday via the M1 motorway. Much better and faster with company along.

Arrived in Nottingham and again, sans map, got completely lost within minutes. Took an additional 25 minutes to navigate the roundabouts and back streets looking for someone, anyone who could tell us where the Nottingham Trent University was located. Excuse me, do you know where Nottingham Trent University is located? Nah.

Well. Ok, then. Er, thanks? Excuse me, We are a bit lost, can you tell us how to find Nottingham Trent University? Ok, you see that sign down there where it says “Rib Tips?”…

Finally found a policeman who gave us decent directions and found the campus. Large group of folks playing Cricket on a huge pitch greeted our arrival. Im going to have to hang out one day and meet some cricket batsmen so I can find out exactly what the hell that game is all about. The dorm rooms are small, but functional. There is a large group of Italian high school students here. Since I don’t speak Italian and they all had English phrase books, I haven’t had enough beer in me to approach them and begin the international incident that is definitely brewing if they keep up the loud banter outside my window as I try to sleep off the jetlag.

Lunch was good. I love that restaurants here include vegetarian portions of the menu and also a good selection of Indian cuisine in addition to the English fare and typical items found on American menus. There is always something different to choose. My beef curry lunch was very good.

We will be meeting in an hour for dinner and drinks before starting the next 8 days of meetings and introspection and more drinking and networking and relationship building. Probably the most interesting aspect of this week ahead is meeting and forming new friendships with folks from all over the globe. South Africans, English, Welsh, Americans, Japanese, Belgians, Israelis, who knows? Sharing cultural differences is quite enjoyable. It also gives one a natural point to start conversation.

As soon as the sleep kicks in and the jet lag fog clears, I will be ready. Perhaps some Guinness will help.