Study Abroad, Honors Program & Other Student Experiences

I feel like I haven’t posted in a while, so here comes the latest update from life here in London.

Friday was, I suppose, the last day of orientation related activities.  I did some reading in the morning, but then I had an orientation at the Senate House Library at 1:30.  I’m going to live there.  The library is enormous and they have tons and tons of books.  I love to read, and I’ve decided that I might just hide in there for hours, because its absolutely gorgeous.  The orientation was very straightforward and it ended with getting my library membership.

After the library orientation, I headed to the London Center where all of the FYSAE students gave their ethnographic study presentations.  The presentations were really interesting and showed us a bunch of really cool places in London to visit that we may not have known about.

After heading back toward Palace Court, Sheri, Becca and I decided to stop at KFC for dinner, for one thing….Zingers.  Zingers aren’t available in KFC’S in the states, but they’re supposedly the item to get internationally.  So I wanted one.  It was delicious.  Afterwards, Becca, Sheri, and I decided we should go see Les Mis, because it was released in London on the 11th.  So we walked to the 2 movie theaters in Notting Hill, however, the one wasn’t showing Les Mis at all, and the other one was completely sold out for that night.  We were at a loss of what to do, so Becca suggested going to visit one of the places she went for her ethnographic study, so we started walking to Shepherd’s Bush, where there is an ENORMOUS mall and a huge movie theater.  It took about 15 minutes to walk there, and then the screenings for Les Mis were pretty much entirely booked, so we changed the plan for the night and decided we would go see Les Mis in a week or so.  We then decided that since we had walked all the way to Shepherd’s Bush we deserved a reward, so we bought frozen yogurt at this cute little place called Snog.  It was delicious. (=

We then came to the realization it was really cold.  I hate cold.  So we took the tube back to the house.  And just hung out there for the rest of the night.

Saturday, I slept in, and once I finally convinced myself to get out of my warm bed, I decided now was probably a good time to do laundry.  Here at Palace Court, there is only one washer and dryer, and they’re located in the basement.  The washer costs a pound and 60 pence, and the dryer is 20 pence.  May I just say its still extremely bizarre that a coin here is like a dollar bill.  It’s bizarre.

After doing laundry, Becca, Sheri, and I headed to a local cafe around the corner called Diana’s Cafe.  The walls are covered with pictures of Princess Diana! Everywhere you look, there she is.  We all ordered fish & chips, because it was inexpensive and delicious.  I also have to admit that my main motivation was the fact they had a bottle of ketchup on the table.  I don’t know what is here, but no one ever has ketchup readily available.  It’s depressing.  So because of the fact that there was a bottle of ketchup, fish and chips were necessary.

Moving on from Diana’s Cafe, we walked to the nearby Argos and a larger Tesco to pick up a few things.  Once we got back to the house, we fixed dinner which involved chicken, and steamed vegetables.  Delicious.

Sunday was mostly a homework day.  Becca and I headed to Starbucks just for a change of scenery.  And managed to get a lot of work done, while also getting distracted every now and then.  The rest of the night was spent doing work at the house, and making pizzas for dinner.  And just hanging out.

Today kicks off the start of the 2nd week of classes.  Should be fun!