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!