Beginning to Explore

As incoming students to a new country, the University provides several opportunities to get out and about in the city in the first week. They make this very cheap. So I took advantage, and took a little initiative of my own. 

We went on a cruise of the Thames with the other international students. We left from the school and went to the Tower Dock, right next to the Tower of London (which I will actually go inside at some point). Got to view all the sights, and the skyline, at night. Of course I forgot my camera. But I am poaching some pictures from the group I was with. 

 There was also a bus tour and we went to see the sights in the city. We stopped at Buckingham Palace but didn't go inside. Thankfully (or not, depending on how you view it) it was not a 'changing of the guard,' so we were not swarmed by thousands of people. The Palace is open to the public at the moment so the Queen can pay for the damages from the fire a Windsor Castle. If only all of us could sell tours of our house to make a little extra cash...

 Friday my roomate Amber and I both won free DLR passes for the day, thanks to filling out a student survey. We decided that despite having a little too much fun the night before, to head out and explore. The DLR is associated with the Underground, but is privately run and mainly goes to the Docklands, which is east of London. The Docklands is the newly rebuilt area of the old shipping docks and wharfs that were in use since Roman times. The Docklands were in disrepair after being heavily bombed in the Blitz in WWII and were in financial ruin after ships got bigger and could no longer make it that far up the Thames. Fortunately investors revitalized the area and it has become the new financial hub of the city, with giants like HSBC setting up HQs there and trendy shops, new parks, and old warehouses interspersed it is a really cool place. We wandered and then checked out the Docklands Museum.

 On Saturday I met my friend Robin and some of her friends from Kent in the city and we acted like tourists. I met them at Westminster Abbey and we walked to Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, Lesiter Square, grabbed some lunch and decided that we wanted to see the British Museum. So we took the roundabout way to look at Regent and Oxford Streets and made our way there. Oxford Street was absolutely packed with shoppers. It was packed like Disneyland in summer packed. But the museum was really cool (because I am a history nerd) and we saw the Egyptian, Roman, Ancient Britain exhibits. We then wandered back down through Soho, Chinatown, and had dinner in a pub before saying goodbye. We will definitely have more trips together soon.

Today I set out towards Heathrow on the tube. It was the finals of Extended European Ultimate Championship Finals (xEUCF) and I was headed to Harlington to watch some ultimate. Thankfully with my Oyster card it was easy to get there, and far cheaper. I missed the mixed finals (which was apparently very hammer heavy) but grabbed good seats to watch the women's final (Iceni from London and LLLeeds from... Leeds) and the open final (Chevron from UK and Skogs from Sweden). It was a good day of sitting in the sun, meeting some new people, and watching some good ultimate.

This week has been good. Although watching some frisbee today made me hungry to play again. Gym is in order tomorrow, along with my first day of classes! (Which means I should go to the gym after classes, don't want anyone to think I'm stinky) There is a lot more in store for this next week, which should be good fun. 

I am going to sleep now to rest up for the first day of school. 

Good night!

First Week

Last night I debated whether or not I should stay up to watch the USC v. Washington State game that started at 3:15am my time, take a nap and then watch the game, or to say the hell with it all and see the score in the morning. I ended up going to sleep (I know, "Bad Trojan! Bad!") in light of the busy week I had. Next week against Cal, I will probably stay up for though...

Anyway, after contemplating all the things that have happened in the last week, in some ways it seems like quite a lot has happened, and in others, not so much. I will start where I left off... kind of...

After getting in on Saturday, I was really jet lagged. It didn't quite register how jet lagged I really was until I tried to do something, aka get some groceries. You know when you are so tired that your head seems to float above your body and you wonder why your limbs are moving and have no ability to control your giggling whatsoever? Yeah I was there. Unfortunately the Tesco was not as close to campus as we had been lead to believe. So two hours later, I returned with a few other Americans, groceries in my thankfully remembered reusable bag. Somehow I managed to unload the groceries and totally crashed. 

Tesco is a brand store. This is a Banksy graffiti. Get it?

I don't remember that much of Sunday, because this passed in much the same fashion. Going to get more groceries, sleep, unpacking, sleep, meeting new people, sleep, etc. I think I blogged at some point during this day. Not interesting, but Monday was Orientation... and a total shit show. 

Monday was confusing. Queen Mary, despite all the awesome things about them, have not yet really entered the digital age. Enrollment, registration, email sign up, EVERYTHING is on paper. So most of the pertinent information was not really relayed to us at all. I got all ready to go to Orientation (or so I thought) but once out the door, was greeted by hundreds of confused international students. There was induction for international graduate students, orientation for international undergrad students, late orientation something-or-other for other international students and induction orientation for international study abroad students. Hence the confusion. At least I got a free lunch out of it. Tuesday was more of the same, more orientations, explainings, waiting in line, but I was finally part of the University. I have the ID card to prove it, complete with awkward picture. 

I am living in the freshman dorms, or flat houses. This is an odd step backwards in time for me because suddenly being a part of awkward meeting people in the building, parties in people's rooms getting shut down by house leaders, no one knowing anyone and building awkward friend groups that last 5 minutes was a part of college that I thought I had gotten past. Apparently not. But my nights most of the week have involved meeting new people and partying a bit. It's been a blast. Odd to be viewed as the 'old fogey' of the group at 21.

My flat mates are really fun though! There are six rooms in the suite style apartment, so I have a sink in my (thankfully furnished) room and we share a bathroom(s) and kitchen. Amber is another American, from Connecticut, (we feel like creepy old people together), Livio is an Italian, Agnes is from Poland, (they are both older but starting their first year) and Faith is from Surrey, and Shea is Irish. It's a really interesting mix of people. I'm learning a lot of new sayings and tidbits everyday. 

I will post the touristy pictures and adventures in a separate post. But before I start to do that...

Useful British Tidbits:

• Hob = Stove
• Oyster cards are FAR cheaper than buying paper tickets. 
  
• Beers come in liters (For those of us with low tolerances, this was a problem initially)
• Fire doors are just an extra way to set off the super sensitive alarms
• They walk on the left, get used to the awkward 'which side are YOU going to' when going anywhere.
  

Cheers!

Arrival to London

Since I have once again become lax in my updating of the blog, to those of you to whom I have not spoken, I am studying abroad in London this semester. Hopefully I will be able to use this space to keep everyone abreast of what I am up to while on this journey. (I apologize to everyone in advance about the language, the Brits are already rubbing off on me, I keep catching myself saying things differently.)

Things before leaving were rather less hectic that I had originally thought they were going to be. Despite worrying my mother to no end by procrastinating on my packing, I got everything together with the help of Andrea and her amazing stuffing skills (she got my duvet into a sleeping bag stuff sack so it fit easily in the suitcase (Thank you!)). She only made me leave a pair of pants and a sports bra, which I think means that my fashion sense is slowly improving. That or her standards have fallen. (I am hoping it is the former). 

The trip to the airport was good, the whole family (minus the bro) stuffed in the car drove to Reno and then had sushi for lunch before heading to my flights. I flew Reno- Chicago- London. The first flight was just fine, except the man beside me was spilling over the armrest and despite me squishing myself against the window, I could not avoid touching him. (Also, why is it that old men make the same awkward, snore-like breathing noises whether they are awake or asleep?) When I got to Chicago, I was worried about making my next flight because I had only a short lay over, but the gate happened to be very close, so it was no problem at all. 

The problems (small) arose when I got on the place. Once I boarded, I took a sleeping pill to try to avoid some jet lag and get through the 8 hour flight. I should have remembered how sensitive I am to medications and my body's propensity to get rid of anything it doesn't like (incidents with wisdom teeth and hernia surgery come to mind). But none the less, right before we started taxiing I had the need to throw up. A small disagreement with the stewardess (flight attendant?) ensued after me leaving my seat to go to the bathroom.

"Ma'am, you are going to have to sit down."

"But I have to use the bathroom."

"You need to sit down until we have taken off and the Captain has turned off the fasten seat belt sign." 

"OK, I need to throw up. If you want to clean it up, I will gladly sit down, otherwise..."

"I can not tell you that is alright to go to the lavatory."

"OK."

So I went to the bathroom and was back before take-off. Crisis averted. I then proceeded to conk out until they served breakfast 7 hours later. I think next time I will just go with a TylenolPM.

Once in Heathrow, I had to go through customs, and was very thankful that I had applied for a visa. The student line was very long, and I saw several students get turned away and have to go through another line that looked rather ominous. But then I got to the meeting point with other QMUL students and headed straight for the bus. 

The bus was very large, but did not have nearly enough cargo room for everyone's things. Thankfully, I had duffel bags and a backpack as opposed to large suitcases because they let me load my things in the seat behind me, and despite some very awkward maneuvering, I was allowed to go on that bus instead of having to wait for the next one. I was still a little nauseous though, and sitting in the back and watching the traffic go the wrong way out the window in a full bus going through narrow streets did little to help. I made it all the way to campus though, about an hour later, with no problems. 

The rest of the day consisted of moving into my dorm suite, meeting room mates, touring campus, attempting to unpack (which I will probably procrastinate on just as much as did on packing), finding a grocery store, nap, set up computer, let my family know that I survived, try to follow Metro's progress at sectionals, try to follow the USC v. Washington game (I didn't get to the end of it, I fell asleep, but waking up to hear that we lost 13-16 was so disappointing!) and falling asleep.

I woke up at 4am, fell back asleep at 8am, and woke up again at noon. Hopefully my body will figure out what time it is soon. Other than that, my plans for today are just to continue to get myself set up. Tomorrow orientation starts, which should be interesting.

More updates to come!