So my UK PR adventure starts...well it actually started a few days ago but give me a break, I can't get on here every day (well I can but the computers here are old and shitty and therefore slow...ugh so annoying).
So it is officially Day 3 today....got here on Tuesday May 15th around 11am. Flights were good....Amanda, Kelly, Ryan and I met up fine at the airport. The journey was a long one however with an hour and a half flight to Montreal, a two and a half hour layover there, then almost seven hour flight from there to London....ugh. Then the car we hired wasn't there at the airport so we looked and looked and waited and waited and finally got fed up and hired another one. By then we were over an hour late anyway though and soooo tired considering we'd been travelling aaaalll day. Also we were supposed to pick up Tammy (from Memphis) at Terminal 4 so we were so late we had no idea where she would be. We went to the Terminal but couldn't find her and didn't know what else to do so we just left hoping she was at the college already. Needless to say she wasn't and she had quite the crazy journey to get there....we felt SO bad! Everything worked out in the end though...
Once everyone got in, around noon or 1, we went and had some food, did intros and such. Everyone is SO nice and friendly, it's great. There are a couple quiet ones but everyone else is def outgoing so it's very nice. My roommate Robyn is from Southeast Missouri and she's really nice too. The rooms are def small and the temperature isn't the greatest but they're good enough. I don't plan on being in there except to sleep and change. Oh and there is NO elevator in the dorm! Which is just lovely when you're on the 3rd floor.... and that's not even the best part b/c we're technically on the 4th floor....there is an extra floor... the 1st floor starts on the 2nd, if that makes any sense....yeah that was great hauling two heavy big suitcases up all those stairs all by myself. Luckily this guy named Sebastien met me coming down and he carried them up for me. Yay! Apparently people take pity on you if you're short and weak like me :)
We had a quick orientation and tour in the afternoon....the campus is gorgeous! All the buildings are red brick and covered in ivy and we're in the middle of Regent's Park so there's gardens and trees everywhere, it's lovely. ..just how you think a British University should look.After that a few of us walked with Dr. Freitag to a post office nearby and he showed us where there was a close drugstore and grocery store, etc...then we walked back on our own. When we got back ate again and went back out on the Tube (love it!) to the London Eye. It was really cool...kinda boring cause it goes around really slow and it's majorly expensive (I think) but you could see sooo far, which was great....got some nice pics.
We kinda just wandered from there...Dr. Freitag always walks back to the College from there every year but no one went with him lol. None of us were really in the mood to walk much. We all got on the Tube again and ended up at Piccadilly Circus (which is sooo cool...it's just like Times Square in NY with flashing signs and ads everywhere). We couldn't decide on a place to eat though and it was getting annoying b/c there was a few ppl leading the group and b/c the group was so big there was no communication so half of us had no idea where we were headed.We ended up splitting in a few different groups...me, Leora, Bethany and Katelyn ended up at Planet Hollywood, which sucks b/c we didn't want to eat American food since we're abroad (even though we're in Britain and the food here is pretty much all food from other countries) but we were wet and hungry and tired of walking so we didn't really care at that point lol.
Then we just got the Tube back to the dorm and went to bed....needless to say I slept like a LOG.Wed (yesterday) woke up around 10:30, had a shower (the showers here suck btw, they are tiny little cramped stalls. There is one across the hall from our room and it's great cause it's in a little room and I try and get right up and grab it before anyone else gets in there lol. So far I've been successful so we'll see...). We all met up for breakfast....well lunch I guess since it was around noon, and we all went to our first lecture at 1pm! It was pretty boring actually and we only had an actual lecture for the last 20 mins or so b/c we did introductions and Q&A and stuff up until then.
Dr. Freitag gave us some of his background and it's really interesting...he's ex Air Force and has worked at the Pentagon and stuff lol. He sounds like he'd be all hard core like a drill sargeant or something but he's really not...he's pretty funny actually and he's all into theatre and acting so he's always making some grand gesture or silly joke. We talked about the assignments and field trips and stuff so it all sounds really interesting...it's going to be ALOT Of work though and it will be hard to fit in schoolwork with sightseeing.After lecture a bunch of ppl went out but Jesslyn and I stayed and researched weekend trips for Paris and Amsterdam...we went to student services, looked up flights and hotels for a couple hours. Then a couple other gals showed up and we read chapters and articles we were supposed to read for today.
Everyone kinda broke off in little groups again so I have a feeling it's going to be like that most of the time. It's alot easier to travel that way anyway. Katelyn, Jesslyn, Bethany and me went out around 8:30 and got on the Tube and just went randomly to a line and a stop. It was cool to just go and not worry about getting to a particular place. We ended up in Westminster at a pub (a very loud, crowded and smoky pub) called the Fountains Arms or something....I had a rum and pineapple that cost over £5 (which is over 10 Cdn dollars!). We just got on the tube again and ended up in Marylebone where we went to a little grocery store then to a little restaurant called Ask...it was really good food. I had Bruschetta which was nice (their veggies here are more fresh then home for sure). It's also becoming clear to me that spending $ going out is going to be an issue lol. The food in the cafeteria kinda sucks and we're out and around so much it's inevitable that you'll have to buy food. I think I'll be fine though, I can budget (I'm used to it being a poor student). Then we just came back and went to bed...it took me an hour to get to sleep then I kept waking up every hour...then birds outside the window start around 3-4am and it's soooo annoying. It's a nice sound on the one hand but not when I'm trying to sleep.
Tomorrow it looks like it's going to be the 1/2 price theatre ticket booth (it opens at 10am and you can get theatre tix for the same day for half the box office price!) then wandering around the city a bit, probably go to Buckingham Palace, Harrods, shopping, etc. More later! :D
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