So to prepare for my flight for London, I deprived myself of sleep for more than 24 hours so that I would sleep for the whole flight. Unfortunately, I was seated between two large men, and there were two toddlers in front of me and behind me (one was a kicker, the other was a squealer). I basically slept for 2 hours out of the 9 hour flight. I watched some movies to entertain myself. When I landed, we had to wait in a queue (or line) for 30 minutes before we could go through customs. Thankfully, I told security I was American, and they bumped me up to the front. Unfortunately, the front of that queue was the end of another one... it was an hour before I got to the customs agent. I had no trouble getting through though. Finally, I got my bags and got a cab. Word of advice: only use a cab from the airport. There's traffic, so the toll is super high and my bill was about 80 pounds.
I got to the residence hall before most of the people so I decided to unpack and take a quick nap before any planned orientation. I was in such a deep sleep that I woke up to my roommate in the middle of unpacking. Her name is Julia, and she's from Chicago. She goes to Loyola University in Chicago. We were kind of creeped out about how much we had in common, so we've become fast friends. After we got to know each other better we went on a tour of our neighborhood. We're living in Chelsea on Manresa Road at Kings Street. Chelsea is one of the most "posh" neighborhoods in london. Apartments here range from about 5-7 million pounds. Everyone is extremely well dressed, and the children riding their scooters are even better well dressed. Don't worry, it's one of the most safest places to be in the world. In fact, the most common crime in London is pick pocketing. They're so good at it, that mugging is almost nonexistent.
We did a bunch of orientation stuff, getting to know you games, etc. A couple of us girls went to what we thought was a pub, but it turned out to be an American style bar... Just our luck. It was called Henry J. Beans. Good food, but American. I was so exhausted that I went to bed at 5pm and woke up at 8am the next morning. The next day was the same, just orientation stuff, and for dinner, my roommate and I went to a pub called Cross Keys along the Thymes River. Did I mention I live two blocks from the Thymes? Ya, it's pretty sweet. Today we had even more orientation... it's getting so old, but it's good to get to know everyone. There's a social tonight at 7 at a riverside pub. I also went to Covent Garden with a couple of girls and we met some really cool British people our age. That's definitely one of my goals this year, to meet more British people. They're really down to earth and if they like you, they'll pick on you. It's like familial affection. There's this place called the University of London Union which is like a student center for all of the colleges in London, us included! I'm going to get a membership there. They have clubs I can join, a school store, a restaurant, and a bar. They actually encourage social drinking to bring student together. It's also the cheapest booze around. Anyway, those were my first days of London. I'll post more photos soon, but I just didn't want to look like a tourist.
