Add cloudy/rainy skies, wet socks, and jet lag. Stir until utterly exhausted. And you have my week!
Haha, but in all honesty, as tiring as this week has been it's also been pretty great too. Follow the jump and see what I've been up to!
Monday started the first of our three days of orientation. First off we had a talk from a London "bobby" (a police officer) about U.K. laws and safety-- he was a riot! He looked like this skinny, scrawny, nerdy looking man, but he was making cracks like it was nobody's business. I've noticed that everyone so far has given us a lot of warnings about buying and selling drugs, and the lofty consequences that come along with being found involved in that. Not that I plan on finding a new part-time job or anything, but I guess it must be a bigger problem over here with teens and young people our age than I thought it was.
We also had some general talks about our academic schedule and our student life, followed by a much-appreciated lunch break-- I'm still adjusting to a U.K. eating schedule! My stomach was getting quite rumbly. Afterwards we had the first two of a series of academic lectures, entitled Modern British Culture and Britain and Politics. Each was about an hour long, but sadly, only mildly interesting. It's a good way to get a crash-course in the basics of British culture, government, history, and the way the country operates today, buuuuut... jet-lag-induced ADD gradually began sinking in. Not to mention the fact that one lecturer would actually stop speaking and, in a put-off manner, ask kids showing vague consciousness to elbow and wake up those who were falling asleep... I mean, come on, you're talking to a room full of sleep-deprived teenagers about the political systems of the U.K. Do you really think you're going to rally up a lot of enthusiasm for this? I didn't think so.
That night my roommates and I took our first major grocery shopping trip! I'd say it was a success, don't you think?
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| Note the reusable grocery bags. I'm eco friendly! And it didn't hurt that the seven block walk back seemed much lighter and less cumbersome! Always thinking, always thinking. |
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| Big Ben, it all it's clockly glory! It's actual name is the Westminster Clock Tower. But I'm not that fancy. |
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| The Houses of Parliament |
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| The London Eye! This ferris wheel was built to commemorate the new millenium. |
After our tour down the river, we docked in Greenwich and had the afternoon free to explore for ourselves. My roommmates and I, along with another friend from our floor, set off for an adventure! We strolled around for awhile, and then went to wander through the Old Royal Naval College. The architecture and chapel of the campus is just beautifu, and its sloping lawns and greenery really looked stunning and accentuated on such an overcast day.
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| Old Royal Naval College lawn |
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| They even gave us a nifty little plaque about the filming process! |
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| The actual Painted Hall, and the aisle they used in filming. |
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| Johnny Depp's "Jack Sparrow" costume on display in The Painted Hall |
The four of us also walked up the hill to see the Prime Meridian, which marks a longitude of 0 degrees and draws the International Date Line. As we approached the top, huffing and puffing all the way, we found that they wanted to charge us each £7 just to get past the gate to see it. Umm, excuse me? Ask broke college kids to spend good money for something that can actually be seen through the gate? Mmm I'll pass, thanks.
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| As cool as it would have been to see it up close... £7?? To stare at what is basically an invisible line on the ground? Really? No thanks, London. I'll take creeper pictures instead. They're free. |
My roommates and I took the train back down to the financial district, and continued our wanderings down the Thames. We saw the Southwark Cathedral (the oldest Gothic cathedral in London), stopped in The Globe Theatre and got our Shakespeare fix, and even walked across the Millenium Bridge! The Millenium Bridge is a solely pedestrian bridge over the Thames, opened in the year 2000... and featured in the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie. You know that bridge in the opening scenes that the Death Eaters fly over and destroy? Yeah, I walked across it! And made it in one piece! May or may not have been the highlight of my day :)
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| A cloudy day, but not a Death Eater in sight. :) |
Today was the final day of our orientation activities, and consisted of two more academic lectures. The first speaker, Caroline Donnellan, gave a talk on London World City, and she was actually really good! She gave such an articulate, interesting insight into the architecture and design aspects behind so many of London's buildings and monuments, and how other countries' styles have influenced that of London. The next speaker was about a thousand times duller (but I mean, really, how are you supposed to spice up Empire, Europe, and Economics? It's a lost cause). I think there was a collective mental check-out in the room during this one.
Roomies and I ran some errands for the rest of the afternoon, and then kind of just chilled around for the evening. Tomorrow is our first day of London classes! I start with British and European Marketing Strategy... at 9 am. Until 1 pm. Ouch. Luckily the class is held in the classroom right in my flat. Think it would be frowned upon for me to show up in my pajamas? :-P
Wish me luck! G'night, all!
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