One Week!

This past week has simultaneously flown by and seemed like an eternity. While on my daily Tube commute this morning, it occurred to me just how comfortable I feel not only on the Tube, but walking the streets of London. I feel like I’ve been here a month or more and can see myself staying long past the end of the semester. The past couple of days have been more focused around the start of classes on Monday, but we have also had trips out to do cool things around London.

On Tuesday we had a couple of meetings at the Arcadia Center so my friends and I went down to London early so we could get SIM cards and things sorted out and just have some time to enjoy the city. We sat at Starbucks and people watched and I had my daily caffeine fix. At the center, we had an hour and a half long presentation that we had basically already had about the main differences between British and American cultures, what to do in an emergency, etc. Then we went to lunch at a cafe called Pret a Manger and I had a hot tomato soup and some bread. It was great, especially because fall weather has definitely come to London and I was a bit chilly! Yay! After lunch we went home, went grocery shopping, and I made myself some pasta for dinner. I ended up making way too much so I was set for dinner the next day.  I realized I hadn’t bought Tupperware yet so I quick ate all the yogurt out of a yogurt container and dumped it in there. At 7 we had a small get together in the park across the street with the kids who just came from the other schools and we played human bingo as an icebreaker but then had to go back because the park was closing. I went out with my friends to McDonalds, had a Belgian Chocolate Honeycomb Iced Frappe (because I really don’t think that’s served in the US?), regretted the decision to drink that soon after, and went to sleep.

On Wednesday we finally got our class schedules!! Best part-I have NO CLASSES FRIDAYS! I can finally start booking flights to visit my friends in Europe! Woohoo!! My schedule is alright, on Mondays and Tuesdays I have the afternoon and evening free, On Wednesdays I have a 9-10:30 lecture and then a 6-9:30 class and on Thursdays I only have the 6-9:30 class. I also have a lot of my classes with my friends which is awesome!! For lunch I found a pretty cheap meal deal at a pharmacy nearby. I got a salad, a juice, and chips for only 3.99. We had a 2-hour lunch break so during the second hour I went on a small walk with one of my friends and explored the area behind the center. There are a ton of cute shops and the British Museum is just a block away and it’s free, so now I really have something to explore on those free afternoons.

At 3 we had a tour of the Senate House Library, which will be our main library while we are studying. It has so much and I am so excited to study there.

Later that evening, we took the Tube to Piccadilly Circus to see a West End show, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. It’s about a 16-year old boy who wants to be a drag queen and it’s his story about how he gets there. It was AMAZING. The music, the dancing, and the fact that the main character could even walk in the 9-inch heels he was wearing was extremely impressive and I absolutely loved it.

Yesterday, Thursday, we had a meeting about FYSAE (the program I’m on) and then we had a lecture about British history and identity. It was really interesting and has a lot to do with Brexit. After the lecture, we were sent in groups to different parts of London to do an “ethnographic study.” We chose to go to Borough Market, a big open air market that has been in operation for about 1000 years. I love, love, love big markets so this was both awesome and damning for me, mostly because I now know about this place and will not cease until I spend my entire bank account there. I got a Laugenstange (bascially a pretzel but in stick form) for lunch and it tasted just like they do in Germany. I nearly cried. We walked around the market exploring and enjoying the wide spread of free samples.

I got an earl grey goat’s milk ice cream in a charcoal ice cream cone, which sounds fancy as heck and was equally as delicious.  Here are some more pictures just of the market:

Because this was part of a school project, we walked down the South Bank to a seating area inside the National Theatre to work on the presentation before out next event.

There was an amazing little bookshop in there with hundreds of books that I couldn’t afford and therefore admired from afar. At 5:30 we started our next event, which was an afternoon tea on a double decker bus. It was even cuter than it sounds.

The program is run by a bakery in London who made all the sandwiches and cakes. They were all outstanding and I got quite full. I had Earl Grey tea and English Breakfast tea and miraculously did not have to use the bathroom while on board. The views from the bus were awesome and it rained for the first time since we’ve been here while we were driving around, which was just perfect!!

After the tour we were all exhausted and made our way back to the house, finished our presentations, and fell asleep.

It’s weird to think we’ve only been here a week. It seems like an absolute eternity. Like I said at the beginning of this post, I feel completely at home here in London and like I’ve been here for a long time. I can’t wait to see what this next week, month, and the rest of the semester has in store, I’m sure it will be fantastic and unforgettable. Have a great night.