I'm currently sitting in the common room in my house in Notting Hill. Today was our first day off and it's crazy to think how much has happened since Monday afternoon since I left Horsham. In this blog I'll attempt to summarize all the exciting events of the past four days.
Monday: Me, Mom, Dad, and Eddie left Horsham around 1:30 pm and headed for the Newark Airport. We stopped at a rest stop for some burger king for a late lunch where we watched some of the Winter Classic. We arrived to Newark around 3:30 and relaxed in the airport where Beth and Marisa (my two room mates who also go to SJU) and their families met us. My check-in bags passed the weight-limit test - I was so relieved. Before we knew it, it was time to head through security and officially start our journey to London. It was hard saying goodbye to my family but I keep reminding myself I will see them in a few weeks. We made it through security swiftly with no problems and headed to gate 54 and waited for two and half hours to board the plane. Though the flight was delayed 30 mins it turned our to be the smoothest flight of my life (minus the 15-20 mins of heavy turbulence with 2 1/2 hours left in flight time...I got a little nervous knowing we were still over the ocean, but it passed). I actually managed to get a few hours sleep. Our flight seemed to be making great time, duration was suppose to be 5 hours and 44 mins, yet we wound up circling above Heathrow for almost an hour due to heavy, heavy winds. We landed about 10 am (Tuesday) London time. Of course it was raining but the reality of being in London was amazing.
Tuesday: After getting off the plane, quickly going through customs and baggage claim, and meeting with IFSA-Butler representatives, we were transported to where we would be living in Notting Hill. During the ride to the house we truly saw how bad these "heavy winds" were. By that point the rain was coming down in buckets and the wind was whipping and wailing so much that it literally looked like a hurricane outside. Charlotte (the academic advisor for IFSA-Butler) who was traveling with us even turned to us and said "I'm so sorry. It's usually not this bad."
We arrived to the house around 12:30 and unpacked and rested for a few hours before hoping on the tube to the St. Giles Hotel, where all the IFSA-Butler students studying in England were meeting, for a welcome meeting. The Tube is wonderful - so reliable - Septa needs to learn from them. At the meeting we were told of the cultural differences to expect between the UK and the US. We were told of ways to keep ourselves safe and less of a target for the "petty thieves" of London, where pick pocketing is the "the national sport of the country." Andrew, one of the IFSA-Butler head coordinators, joked there was a movement to get pick pocketing entered into the Olympic games.
After the meeting we all ate dinner and of course I had fish and chips. After dinner a group of us went out for a celebratory drink at a place called "the Adam and the Eve", got lost, figured out our way and made it home safe and sound. We were all exhausted and were asleep in half an hour.
Wednesday: We were up bright and early at 7:30 AM...still fighting jet lag...and headed back to the hotel for a full day of orientation activities. We were shown presentations of what to expect from our UK classes and the differences between the US and UK grading systems. After this presentation I felt a sense of appreciate for the opportunity I had to take a variety of classes at SJU (University students here study for three years taking classes specific only to their intended program of study, they have no other choices). We were also told to expect student protests on our campuses for the government, in the next year, is cutting governmental aid to University students increasing tuition from about 4,000 pounds a year to 9,000 pounds a year. If only that were the case at SJU (even with the exchange rate)...we all had to chuckle slightly at this.
We had a safety presentation given by a man named David Castle. David Castle previously worked as a London police officer and was a very, very funny man. One of his life goals is to go to Iowa. We were also given a talk by Lord Taverne on the differences between the UK and US political systems (Marisa and I felt Dr. Smith would be proud of us being able to keep up with everything Lord Taverne was saying and actually understanding it all).
We had lunch and after went to a specific meeting for Birkbeck (where I will be studying this system). I'm really looking forward to my classes.
The rest of the afternoon was free so we went to get our UK phones. The realization that we were, in fact, in the land of petty thieves came to light when the phone store we were standing in was robbed. Though I did not see the actual robbery, my friends and I saw an employee run out the shop after the robbers, heard the alarms go off, and were still there when the police showed up and took a report. We were able to hear enough of the employee explaining what happened to the officers. These "petty" thieves escaped with 3-4 cell phones; we heard the total worth of the stolen items was around 400 pounds.
After making our exit, a little MORE paranoid then we already were, we returned home and went to PRET (a pre-made sandwich shop across the street from us) to grab dinner before getting back on the Tube to head to the theater to see the play, "The Woman in Black." The play was very scary, which I had gathered from seeing the trailer of the film version in the movie theater in November, but it was still a lot of fun. After seeing the play I still can't decide whether I want to see the movie...though Dan Radcliffe is in it so maybe I will... After a jolly time at the theater a group of us wondered around Notting Hill. We went to a bar called "Prince Albert" and were disappointed to discover this particular bar was only open/served individuals 21 and over, and we thought we were out of the USA. We decided to just go home and get sleep.
Thursday: Today was our first day off. We slept in until 10:30 (I think the jet lag has finally ended) and five of us girls, Marisa, Beth, Liz, Kali, and I, headed out for a day of shopping. We stopped at Starbucks, and I refrained from getting anything (be proud Mom). We then made our way to a grocery store down the street. It turns out stopping at Starbucks was a blessing for right before we crossed onto the side of the street where the store was on we watched and heard the shattering glass of a window breaking and failing in many, many, many, pieces to the ground. The broken window was above the store two stores down from where we were headed. Somehow, thank god, no one was under the area of the flying glass and thankfully no one was hurt; truly an act of God. The window broke due to the strong winds, the gust have gotten up to 60 mph at times these past few days. We still had to walk by the shop to get to the grocery store and had to weave in between broken glass that extended all the way out to the end of the side walk near the street. We tried to stay as close to the street as possible, but the glass was everywhere. Dad be proud because as we walked by I kept my hands - covered with my gloves - over my head and my hood up over my hands and kept head down and turned away from the window - in case any more glass flew out. After yet another, not normal London event, we got most of the food we needed. Beth was the last to check out. The cashier (after ringing up the rest of us) asked Beth if we were Australian - clearly we fit in - HA! We then headed back home to drop off our food and eat lunch before Marisa, Beth, Liz and I headed back out to Argo's on High Street Kensington for bedding, towels, etc that we ordered. On our walk back we couldn't resist going into H&M. Though their after Christmas sale prices were VERY tempting I only bought a small travel size mirror (for make up purposes of course).
Feeling very successful the four of us headed back to the house and relaxed before going to dinner (our friends John and Andrew joined us) at a place called, The Churchill Arms. The Churchill Arms is a deceiving place; from the outside (and bar you enter into) lead you to believe you are entering into a nice, English pub, yet when you went back to the restaurant part you find ourselves in a Thai restaurant with the appearance of the Rainforest Cafe, with plants hanging everywhere above your heads. Still, the dinner was delicious. We headed back to the house and five of us (Andrew, Beth, John, Liz, and I) prepared for a night out in Notting Hill. We wound up going to a restaurant/bar called Loko Mexico and had a very nice time.
Marisa, Beth, and I share a triple. This is my part of the room.
Off to a day of shopping!
Dinner at Loko Mexico.
No sightings of Harry, Wills or Kate yet but tomorrow we have another day off and plan on having a tourist day --- so there's always the possibility......
London has been amazing so far and it has been nice to stay in touch with my family through Skype and my friends through facebook.
Check back to see how the tourist day went. Again, I thank everyone for their support, it means the world to me.
Cheers,
MK
No comments:
Post a Comment