Hi there all,
So I can’t decide whether to start with the past few days or the first few minutes, which I must say were not so good! But I think it would be best to start with the past few days.
The flight over was long and quite boring as my friend Nicole and I were a few rows apart. At first there was no one next to me, and like I thought, right as I was about to lift the armrest to give myself more room, the flight attendant comes up to me and asks if the seat is free. Yea. . .unfair, I know!! After some time I started to converse with the woman and she was quite nice. She was originally from England and was going home to see her new niece. She had studied in Florida so she understood what I was feeling. It was pretty nice to talk to her considering how rude the flight attendants were. . . but we made up for that by creating nicknames for them and just looking at each other in disbelief whenever someone said anything stupid or rude. Oh yea and don’t even get me started on the food. . .yuck! But it was bearable with my MP3 player and a book of Sudoku that Sam gave me.
I had to get up a few times to stretch my legs and I would go visit Nicole. I tried to sleep but was unable to thanks to that darn time difference.
Finally we made it to London. We spent an hour in line waiting to get our passports stamped. When we finally reached the front we didn’t need any of the paperwork we had brought along as the woman was quite nice and just asked us a few questions. . . but I did think to myself. . . “Why did I bring all of these papers?!?!?!”. We then went to get our luggage which was all the way at the end of baggage claim and had actually already been taken off the carousel. Surprisingly enough we found it quite easily and headed toward customs, which we didn’t have to go through. I honestly felt as though I had done something wrong when we walked through the empty customs area and out into the airport’s departures/arrivals area. We then sat down and had some breakfast, although I really wanted dinner. We then headed out, hailed a cab and were off to the London School of Economics for orientation. Since our flight arrived early we had lots of time to waste. We walked around the area and sat in some of the parks and just appreciated the buildings around us in the Bloomsbury area. After checking-in (Nicole and I grabbed each other as roomies) we tried to take a quick nap but failed miserably as the cabin of the plane had been dimmed so people could sleep, which only messed with our biological clocks more. At about 330 or so, if my memory serves me correctly, we met with all the other UC students studying at other universities. There were 4 schools total, with 9 students headed to my school. Everyone got along nicely, of course you had the usual drama, yet milder, that you have when you throw together a lot of people, mostly girls with about 5 boys.
We went to Primrose Hill that night for a view of the city and dinner at a local pub. It was gorgeous and quite pleasant. We played a game that had to do with British pop culture and I failed miserably, but so did most people. After dinner and drinks most of us were exhausted so we headed back to our rooms. My room was not very clean (apparently no one else noticed) so Nicole and I covered our pillows and used our towels as blankets. We fell asleep around 10 only to wake again at 3 and not be able to fall back asleep until much later.
On Thursday morning we got ready and headed to our study centre. We went in the wrong direction at first thanks to the one guy who wanted to act like he knew everything, but eventually found our way. Let me just say now that the building was gorgeous and it makes realize what the UCs do with our money . . . no tuition fees only educational expenses which go to put giant flat screens on the walls of the study centre. Ridiculous. . . . Anyway so we went over a few important things and then met with some people from our universities. They were both quite nice.
After, we headed to our tour of the Houses of Parliament were we ran into the 2 people from Royal Holloway again as they had been given 2 spare tickets. The tour guide was extremely nice and knowledgable, but I suppose that is pretty important in regards to keeping her job. Overall the tour took about an hour. People wanted to go to the Red Lion Pub but there were no seats and I was afraid of expense. Eventually we split up. Nicole, myself, and a UCI student, Jennifer, going to Royal Holloway decided to look for something else. We ended up at a different pub-type place and had a nice lunch. After lunch we took the Tube back to our rooms and freshened up before the hit the theatre (notice how I’m trying to spell words the British way. . .as much as I usually hate seeing it that way) to see Avenue Q. I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it. My favorite characters were probably the Bad News Bears as they would keep telling another character to do bad things. . .kinda the whole angel/devil dilemma.
That night I was finally able to call home but not for very long as I had to use the calling card on my cell and there wasn’t much credit on the cell. We walked for a bit trying to find a place to go but eventually just ended up heading back to Bloomsbury and walking around for a bit before going to our rooms to sleep.
Friday morning we all met to collect our tickets for a bus tour and a boat ride down the Thames River. We started off in a group of 9. We started at Trafalgar Square which was awesome. We then hit the National Gallery. It was AMAZING. I was able to see a few pieces that I always admired in my art history class senior year of high school, including Van Eyck’s piece that appears in the Desperate Housewives beginning. I forgot the exact title but it is “’Some Guy’ and his Wife”. Absolutely beautiful and amazing just actually looking at the original and being able to see all the details we had discussed in class. Another I saw that I have always liked was Constable’s “The Haywain”. I also saw Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers”. The texture was intense and very realistic actually. Jennifer and I talked about going back to London and spending more time there as we originally only had a half hour. I was planning on buying some postcards from the gift shop but, a) they didn’t have the Van Eyck one and b) I figured I would be back.
We then hopped on the bus and took it to Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, only to realize there were no speakers which bummed out my friend Curtis who goes to UCR and is here at Royal Holloway. So we decided to walk through Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace. Crazy beautiful there. We took some pictures and assisted a group from Sweden (I think) in a stunt. . .basically 5 people had to figure out how to touch the ground with only 2 feet and 2 hands. They pulled it off and it was actually pretty funny. We then went in search of food and didn’t find much until we stumbled across yet another pub, which was out of my price range, so I didn’t eat. I got out the fruit snacks Sam had given me for sustenance.
We finally found a bus stop and took it all the way to the Tower of London where we hopped on the Thames River cruise. We were down to 6 people by this point, 5 girls and a guy. The captain of the boat kept teasing us because we were the only ones laughing at his jokes. Therefore he knew we’d just keep laughing. We hopped off right by the London Eye, grabbed some hot chocolate/coffee and then split up yet again. Some of the girls wanted to go on the London Eye but it was expensive so 3 of us headed back to the London School of Economics to clean up or grab a coat before dinner at Inn the Park at St James Park.
It was a really nice restaurant, so I felt a bit underdressed but the food was good. They kept pouring more and more wine just so they could charge us for it. In the end, quite a few of our glasses remained quite full as we stopped while we were ahead. I have no idea what we had for dessert but it was amazing! Believe it or not. . . it was too sweet for me so I limited myself to only half of it. Then a few of us went to a pub by Trafalgar Square and just enjoyed each other’s company before heading back for our last night.
Saturday morning was hectic since we had trouble getting a cab company. Finally my friend Sarah hailed a cab and she, Curtis, and myself hopped in. We took it to Waterloo Station where we caught a train to Reading. We barely got our stuff off in time at Egham Station. As the doors were closing, missing a few bags, Sarah and I threw our arms out to prevent the doors from closing so Curtis could grab the last two bags. Immediately we saw stairs and were quite worried but luckily did not have to take them. We then began to wait for the shuttle to get us but had no idea when it was coming, so when someone suggested sharing a cab we said sure. Bad idea.
A) he made the ride more expensive
B) he only paid 3 pounds while we paid 5 each
C) I had to have my overweight duffel on top of me and it pressed on my rib cage
(p.s. I later saw that kid at a bar on campus and scowled : ))
And here begins the sad part of my trip thus far.
I walk into my room on Saturday and my jaw drops. I have not really been homesick since Ive been here so I haven’t ever been super upset, but this disgrace made me cry. My room was in shambles. There were patched up holes in the walls that had not been painted over so I had these huge deep brown spots/lines on my walls which were supposed to be cream. My armoire didn’t close, my dresser smelled horrible, one of my windows was broken so it could not be opened, paint was peeling off the walls etc etc etc.
After waiting for a pay phone I finally called home and told my mom all about it. I just could not believe that they would give out a room in such condition. About an hour later, Sarah came to get me. She told me about her room, but agreed that mine was pretty bad. We went into town which cheered me up until I fell over. I was looking ahead at a shop and didn’t see the groove in the middle of the sidewalk for drainage, and down I went. I didn’t think much of it. Yea it really hurt but I figured it would feel better so Sarah and I continued our shopping, which involved getting a lot of toiletries and stuff. It hurt the rest of the night as I got to know some of the girls on my floor and went to dinner. It wasn’t until Sunday that Emily, from Australia, helped me take care of it. She of course told me I should have done it sooner but all the girls were quite concerned. We ran a cold bath over it and wrapped it up. I kept it elevated for awhile and then went to get some free ice cream around 330 or so. Later I was sitting in the hall and told the girls I was just going to go put up my leg. About 630, right as they were leaving for a BBQ, I lifted my pant leg and exposed my ankle which looked absolutely disgusting. Millie, who lives down the hall, took off the wrapping which relieved some of the pain. My ankle looked like it had a tennis ball attached to it. Millie ran to get ice but had trouble finding it and when she went to the reception desk they told her I could stick it out or go to the hospital, both of which I did not want to do. She finally found ice at the bar downstairs and one of the asst. wardens came up to take a look. It was a long night, but after a lot of ice time the swelling had gone way down.
Monday morning I went to the Health Centre and got a sleeve for my ankle and a list of exercises and then went about my errands. This whole week has been a lot of random meetings and stuff.
Wednesday Sarah, Jennifer, Curtis and I went into Staines to get some basics. And my room was painted. So I’d have to say it was a good day. I still have plenty of stuff I need, but will go to Egham on Friday.
I stayed up late Wednesday night to finally unpack and decorate my room and now it feels much homier.
So I know this was long. Kudos to those who made it through.
I dont have internet really but I'll try my hardest!!
