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Sunday (11th)
Not much to do today.

Monday (12th)
Today we had a big jolly "Get the international students together and tell them what to do" meeting. All of the regular students already know their class schedules, whereas we are just now receiving instructions on how to construct such a schedule. But the meeting wasn't too bad, and I now know which classes I wont be taking. All of the mathematics classes I wanted are unavailable, and the cybernetics (engineering) department declined to comment, so I must talk to them in person. The only class that I actually have a reserved place in is the Shakespeare class.
A student at UT registers for the first time. He/she gets online, reads about prerequisites and class content. Then he/she logs onto the registration system, enters the unique numbers of the desired classes. The computer checks to see if the student is allowed to take the class and if there is a scheduling conflict. A well-prepared student can register in under a minute.
A student at Reading registers for the first time. He/she gets online, reads class descriptions, and picks likely classes. Then the student struggles to find out if the classes are being offered this term. The classes are listed within each department, so there is no complete list of classes for the entire university. Only a few departments bother to publish their class-times online, so the student must journey to each department, find out if the class is being offered, find out if the time is a problem, find out if there are any more openings in the class, and then have the departmental secretary sign a form. Repeat this process for four classes in four different departments, and Johnson is annoyed.
After visiting the math department and at length establishing that there are no math classes available other than first year calculus, I went to cybernetics, where the adviser was happy to have me in all three of the classes in which I was interested. An hour later, however, I discovered that two of the classes in cybernetics were at the same time, and both were at the same time as the Shakespeare class I already had. All quite depressing, so I called it a day.
Though I have paid for dial-up internet access in my room, there is high-speed to be found in the library at the main campus. I shall be glad of both, so I needn't journey to the main campus to check my email, etc. Besides, it has been many years since I heard the glorious noise of a modem connecting.

Tuesday (13th)
Since the cybernetics fall-through, I thought I'd try my luck with english and philosophy. After all, plan II is an excuse to take any subject. The english secretary told me to come back on Wednesday. So on to philosophy. The philosophy secretary took my word for it that I had taken philosophy classes before, and basically offered to let me into any class. Well, I know that I'm not up to a full term on the ethics of Kant, so I opted for a first year class called Mind and World and a second year class called Theory of Knowledge. The secretary, however, told me to attend the first week of classes to see if I liked them before I committed to anything. So day two of scheduling: nothing accomplished.
The local chapter of the Keep International Students From Making Asses Of Themselves Society (KISFMAOTS) had a party so everyone could talk about American stuff and share stories about getting to Reading. It was entertaining, and I met some people who are as old as me, which is encouraging. A bit tipsy afterward, and the walk home was long and cold.

Wednesday (14th)
Camped out at the english department as soon as I got to campus. After some expert class juggling on the part of the secretary, I was placed in a class on 18th century poetry. This is not a subject that interests me. However, I have more confidence in my english abilities than in my philosophical abilities, so I'd rather take a random english class than a random philosophy class.
I ate lunch with one Ruben Avendano, a fellow UT type. I was able to eat at his meal hall because he had a meal card and had retained the temporary card for the first week. So for half an hour, I was Mr. Avendano, and ate fish and chips and avoided a dessert that consisted of gelatin, cake, pudding, whipped cream, and fruit cocktail all at once. Judging from the fodder I saw, I am happy to be in a self-catered hall. I may eat peanut butter and jelly for lunch, but it's better than cafeteria food.
Thinking of peanut butter and jelly, I have noticed that the British are at once both the masters of sandwichery and annoyingly bland in their sandwiches. For the first, there is more variety of sandwiches than I have ever seen. Chicken salad, roast chicken with salad, Italian chicken with salad, aged cheddar with tomato, ham and cheese with salad, ham and bacon and sausage (the whole hog), prawns with salad, BLT, MLT (mutton, lettuce, and tomato), tandoori chicken with lettuce; the list goes on and on, and every shop I've been to with the little vacuum sealed sandwiches has at least as many flavors as listed above. And yet, for all of this astounding variety, I have yet to find a sandwich without mayonnaise. Why do they think that any sandwich is improved by mayonnaise? Why have I never seen mustard? I don't understand.

Thursday (15th)
Well, England is still cold. I bought a bicycle yesterday. It was £70 (a second hander), and is guaranteed to be bought back for half price within a year. So essentially I am leasing a bike for six months for £35. I'm still not sure if that's a good deal, but it is nice to have the transportation when needed. I rode to school today, but, since it was warm, did not wear gloves. Then, this evening I was ready to go home, and it was raining and cold. So I opted to walk with umbrella rather than ride with freezing hands in the wet....
My schedule is finally finalized. I am taking a class called Mechatronics, that I believe is about robots and moving parts and stuff. Then I am taking a Shakespeare class; I haven't been yet, so I don't know anything about what we'll be reading except the author. I'm also taking a class titled Romantics to Decadents; it's all about 17th/18th century poetry. I'm the only male in the class, including the teacher, so I will no doubt be forced to comment upon the traditional, supposedly masculine view of the romantics. And finally I am in a freshman philosophy course. It is called Mind and World, and is all about dualism, starting with Descartes and continuing through many others. All of the readings are excerpts included in an anthology, which I am loth to purchase. I will see how well I can do with checking things out from the library. I have classes all day Monday, most of the day Thursday, and once on Friday. Double Weekend! Score! Also, in the Romantics class, there are only two lectures this term. All of the learning occurs in the seminar (read "discussion section") which meets once a week.
Today was my first lecture and my first seminar. Both were fun. The Romantics seminar was scheduled to be two hours, but lasted fifteen minutes. I have several poems to read by Monday, all from an anthology that costs £27. So I found all of the poems online. I just hope that the commentary in the anthology isn't too helpful. I also went to my philosophy lecture. It was standard fair, and if I can't get a good mark in a freshman philosophy class then I shouldn't have graduated in plan II.

Friday (16th)
Tired today. I went to my Shakespeare seminar. The seminars are held in the teacher's office, and there are about 15 students involved. The teacher (I don't know if he's a professor or not) for this seminar has an office about the size of my dorm room, and has two and a half walls covered from floor to ceiling with books. When they assign offices, they can't change their mind later, because it would take a week to move books to a different room, and another week to reorganize them. The guy knows his stuff.
Other than that, didn't do a thing.

Saturday (17th)
London today! Ruben (see above) and Christopher (a Norwegian student) and I bought a £14 train ticket that was good for trains, busses, and subways between Reading and London, and all over London. Fun stuff. The Underground is incredibly fun. I haven't been to New York, so I don't know if the subways there are great, but the Brits definitely have the trains under control, both above and below ground. We visited the cheesy London sites, like Big Ben, Tower Bridge, etc. There was a permanent looking protest about the war in front of the parliament building, and then several hundred old people marched by protesting council taxes, which have apparently risen 90% since 1997. The chief war protester, shouting on his megaphone about Iraq, quickly adjusted to the change of topics and led a chorus of "Axe the Tax for our pensioners!" and "Help our old folks; no more tax!" Then, when the pensioners were past, he returned to the missing weapons of mass destruction and such. A true and worthy protester, if I've ever seen one.
There was a match between Liverpool and the Spurs at Tottenham, but we underestimated the walk to the stadium from the tube, and were too late to get scalped tickets.
We also went to a showing of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the New London Theatre in the West End. It was good fun. Les Mis is in town though, so I will have to try to see that as well....

England Advice of the Week:
Look right, not left, when crossing the road.