First few days

Thank you Greg for reminding me that I should make one of these!

The first few days here in London have been a whirlwind of activity. When I landed I was met at the airport by my study abroad program (Arcadia) and then taken back to the hotel we were to stay in that night. There were about 7 or 8 other Arcadia students on the bus with me, so when we got to the hotel and found out that we'd have to wait for our rooms for about another 2 hours, we all decided to go get some food. We had the most AMAZING Indian food for lunch (although our waiter was less than enthusiastic about a bunch of confused Americans trying to pay). Seriously though, I'm so excited for all of the good ethnic food here - where I live in London is particularly known for its multi-cultural atmosphere so there's supposed to be amazing food around, but we'll get to where I live later.

We had a brief orientation and then I fell straight asleep. Some of my fellow Americans went out to some local pubs (there are 22 of us on the program), but I was so tired that there was NO way I was going to be able to drag myself out of that bed once I laid down (I didn't sleep on the plane). Of course the next morning I woke up at about 3 am and couldn't go back to sleep (ohhh jetlag), but I did go for a nice run once it go a little lighter outside. My first full day in London I learned two very important things:
1. English people have no concept of heat. NONE. It's FREEZING in every building here and since we're in the middle of a particularly cold period right now, it's evidently worse than usual.
2. Daylight here is much more limited than in Connecticut or California, so going running at 7 am here is like going running at about 6 am at home.
However I had a beautiful run through Notting Hill (yes, the home of the Hugh Grant-Julia Roberts movie... absolutely adorable neighborhood). Then we had our Arcadia orientation and then it was off to Queen Mary.

By the time we got here it was getting pretty late, so after dragging my suitcases up to my room (thank goodness for the elevator!) we went down to the Irish Supper they had for us (for free - hooray!). It was an interesting stew-like concoction and I'll go ahead and say that dinning hall food in England is just like dinning hall food in America, haha. Then I went upstairs and unpacked.

I live in a flat with 9 singles and a common kitchen area. The kitchen is HUGE - stove, oven, microwave, big refrigerator, two sinks, a toaster, and an iron. Then each single has its own, mini bathroom. Everything in my single is compact but seems a lot bigger than I thought it would. All of the furniture is built in, so there was no musical chairs options with moving things around, but it's really quite a nice room. It is, of course, freezing cold all the time (I've tried to turn up the heat but to no avail). I got to talk to my parents on skype before I fell asleep which was very nice!

The next morning I woke up pretty early again (progress though - 5 am this time!) and finished unpacking/setting up my room and when down to our (once again free) breakfast. Then I took a stroll around campus - it's a pretty small campus, much more condensed than Trinity. The building where all of my classes will be is only about a 1-2 minute walk from my dorm, which is nice. Then I went to Queen Mary's orientation for study abroad students... I'm a little overwhelmed with information at this point, haha. Both orientations were more condensed than usual because classes start Monday (eek, today!), which only gave us a weekend - usually we have a week, which would have been nice. They also filled us in about the gym here (which you have to pay to belong to, which I think is rather silly, but oh well - at least it's a REALLY nice gym and is only about 3-5 minutes from my dorm). The orientation was very informative overall and they gave us packets with information on where to shop. Which leads into my next experience - my afternoon as a Londoner doing day-to-day errands on public transportation.

Let me say first as a disclaimer that I've liked most of the English people I've met so far. They're very friendly and I love their accents. However, that being said, I was perhaps a little too jetlagged to experience Sainsbury's on a Sunday afternoon. I took the bus to Sainsbury's (sort of like British Target). I went a stop too far and had to walk a little ways, but I enjoyed that since I got a sense of my neighborhood. The East End of London was considered the poor part of London for a long time, but it's on the rise now, especially with the 2012 Olympic site being built here in the East End. It's very multi-cultural and I saw all kinds of people on my walk (all with British accents, which is so cool). Sainsbury's itself... oh man. Think Target the day before Christmas. In England you have to basically put down a deposit to get a shopping cart - to unlock it from the other carts... I'm sorry, trolleys... you have to put a pound in it. I thought "p" referred to penny (oh what a silly American I am) and so after struggling for about 5 minutes, I asked for help, which I got from a very grumpy employee who informed me that "p" referred to pound. After a very overwhelming hour or so of shopping, during which time I discovered that the English don't believe in the refrigeration of many things, like eggs; that you have to walk on the left side of the isles, just like when you drive; that American brands do exist in England (they LOVE Keloggs cereals); and so after dropping a half-carton of eggs on my foot (yes, they did all break) I decided that I had done enough shopping to last me for a few days. I then checked out (the check-out lady was the first nice person I met in all of Sainsbury's), only to remember that I had to carry all of this stuff back with me on the bus.

I have a whole new respect for people in America who only use to the bus to get places. Not only is carrying groceries while on the bus challenging, but the bus never gets you directly to your door, especially when you're an idiot like me and get off 2 stops to early and then are too confused about your actual location to get back on the bus to avoid walking a mile with really heavy groceries and general dorm needs

To cheer myself up, I decided to go on an adventure to Ikea. While I didn't make it to Ikea, but I really enjoyed my trip. I LOVE the Underground. It's absolutely amazing and I plan to take it all the time. By the time I realized that due to a temporary closing of one of the stations I needed that I was going to be too late to get to Ikea before it closed, I had already been on the Tube for a while, and had also gotten to ride an Overground train (very slow, but it went by the Olympics site which was really cool to see). I didn't really mind the trip since I had a free pass valid through Monday from Arcadia so I could ride as much as I wanted. By the time I got back to my room around 5:30, I was exhausted so I unpacked my shopping purchases, made some dinner (there are no meal plans at Queen Mary), and accidentally fell asleep around 8. So now, it's 6 am on Monday morning and I'm awake and ready for my first day of classes!

Sorry that this was so long - I clearly should have started this blog earlier!