January 14-31
My first impression of London was a man standing directly under a NO SMOKING sign at Heathrow enjoying a cigarette. No, back up. My first impression was the passport-checker-guy at the border who had the most ridiculous cockney accent I have ever heard. The only thing worse than the jetlag was realizing I don't really speak the language after all. The first two days are kind of a jetlagged blur now, but on the way back from orientation meetings my roommate Tanya and I discovered the greatness that is Charlie's, a little cafe on the way home from school. The bartender, Michael, basically didn't speak any kind of English that I understood, but they started happy hour an hour early for us and had delicious pizza, so we let it slide. The guys who work there still say hi when we walk by, which is fun.
On that first Saturday the entire program was sent on "directed explorations" of London. Basically they gave us a list of cool things to see and asked us to go explore in small groups. Of course, the weather was absolutely terrible! The group I ended up going with went to the British Museum, which is pretty close to where we live. The Ancient Egypt and Jade exhibits were pretty cool, but it took us 2 hours to see them! I think I only saw about 10% of the museum, so I'll have to go back. After the British Museum we wandered over to SoHo and looked around until we saw a reasonably priced (for London) Chinese place. Thanks to my precious baby sister, I was able to show off my sweet chopsticks skills when they didn't bring us forks. Thanks, Emily! The group split up after lunch, with most of the girls heading back to the flats and the boys going... somewhere. Unfortunately, we got lost, but we found Drury Lane and Covent Garden and saw a lady juggling knives while hanging upside down, so the day was still a success. Eventually we wandered home, slightly lost, soaking wet and freezing. It was awesome.
Sunday we had a program dinner at a pub called the Knight's Templar after a voluntary mass at the oldest continuously Catholic church in London. The church was part of some embassy during the reformation, so it wasn't turned into an Anglican church. The food was pretty good for a free dinner and it wa
s fun to have drinks with our professors. Apparently a couple of the professors are pretty fun when they get a little tipsy! All the kids from Dallas skipped out right after dinner to walk to another pub right by our flats called City Pride. They put the game on for us and told us that we could stay to watch it as long as we kept buying drinks; I don't think there was a single British person there besides the bartenders.Class started that Monday, my schedule is:
Mondays
1045-1200 - Themes in British Philosophy
200-515 - Accountancy in the UK
Tuesdays
915-1030 - Images of Britain in Art
1045-200 - Ethnic Conflict in Northern Ireland
Wednesdays
1045-1200 - Themes in British Philosophy
200-515 - Macroeconomic Analysis
Thursdays
1100-200 - Shakespeare's Theatre
I have Fridays free.
I went to see Ave. Q with a group of friends that Monday night and it was absolutely hilarious. The tickets were only £10, which is pretty cheap for around here, so our seats were kinda bad, but it was still really fun.
We did a few flat dinners and dinners with friends that first week because everyone was really excited about cooking for themselves. That wore off pretty quickly. Everyone has pretty much settled into a steady diet of pasta, stir fry, StrongBow and more pasta. The girls are generally better about cooking than the guys, but I talked to a guy last night who said for dinner he had steak and pasta. That's it. I guess that's all he knows how to make!
There was a screening of a movie called The Queen for the program on Thursday. After, I rode the tube to Brixton with some friends and hung out in a pub before going to a concert. It was really crowded and fun, but everyone was weirdly polite. At one point a guy actually said to me "Oh, I'm sorry. I think I spilled some of my beer on you." At most American concerts I've been to people seem to actively try to get their beer all over each other, so that was a little confusing.
The first jetlag-free weekend was a busy one. Friday night our flat and the boys next door had a floor dinner, which was hilarious. We decided the boys could cook first and they destroyed their
kitchen making pasta. Sauce and noodles were EVERYWHERE; it was a little sad. Afterwards, we all went out to karaoke night at the pub right by our flats, City Pride. I'm pretty sure 95% of the people there were Notre Dame kids. The next morning I got up early and headed to Manchester with Dan, Cooper, James and Lauren. By the time we got there in the evening, we just had time to grab dinner and walk around before it got dark. We spent Sunday exploring Manchester and saw the Manchester Art Gallery and the Museum of Science and Industry, which was really interesting to see from a British perspective.By the second week of classes, things started to settle down. I did manage to trip 3 times on Monday; it was both smooth and attractive. You would have been proud, Mom. On Tuesday night I watched Notting Hill with some friends (8 girls and 1 guy, haha) and we all freaked out because we realized you can see the Notre Dame center in the background when they're driving at one point. It was pretty much the highlight of our night. On Thursday my Shakespeare class went and toured the Globe Theatre, which gave me bad flashbacks to when I had to build a model, to scale, of it in 8th grade, but it was still pretty interesting.
Saturday the program sponsored a trip to Stonehenge and Bath and pretty much everyone went. Stonehenge was cool
for like, 10 minutes. In the end, it's a bunch of rocks in the middle of no where. Thinking about where the rocks are from and who put them there and why is interesting, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if a) it hadn't been so cold b) I could have gotten closer c) it wasn't so crowded. We stayed for much too long. Some kids actually got so bored they started chasing the sheep in a field. I'm not kidding.And because this is how trips work, our time in Bath was much too short. I think I might go back there when the weather is a little warmer because it was pretty sweet. First, we were all herded from the bus to the Roman Baths and told to meet back at 3 for our tour. We had about an hour and a half to explore. So we went and checked out The Circus and oohed and aahed at all the appropriate stuff. Then we hit the pub.
Before you judge us all for drinking at 2:00 on a Saturday, remember, that it was 5:00 in Moscow and it was a friend's 21st birthday. About 5 of us went to a pub and bought her a few round of drinks. The bartender said something like "Isn't it a little early to be drinking?" I said, "Don't worry, we're Americans." I'm not sure if he knew I was joking, but another friend explained that it was a birthday. We were almost late for our tour, but we made it. I like to think the Romans would have approved of us pregaming the baths just a bit. The tour was actually really interesting, but we had to rush through it to get back on the bus on time. When we got back to the flats, everyone just got changed and then had cake for Anne's birthday.
During all of the other stuff that was going on during Week 2, some friends and I had been making plans for spring break over dinner and between classes. There are 5 of us, Peter, Charlie, Coleen (my roommate), Lizzie and me. On Sunday night, we "cooked and booked" and finalized everything. Lizzie and I made fajitas, which were delicious, of course and we booked flights. We are going to Lucca, Italy, first where will are renting a house, then to Barcelona, where we are staying in a hostel, then to Paris, where we are staying with some friends. Total cost? About $300 each. Crazy, right?? I'm so excited!
Well, the plan is to update about once a week from now on, maybe twice a week if I'm feeling dangerous. Talk to you soon, kids.
And don't worry Mom, I won't talk to stangers.
