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Published: September 17th 2008
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pre-landing
Right before landing a bit outside of London. There is a castle in the left corner, but I couldn't get to my camera in time. Hello all!
I arrived, safe and sound in London Monday morning. I apologize for not being able to write right away, as this entry will be quite long. The seven-hour flight was actually really pleasant. I sort of have a history of having bad luck when it comes to airplane seat neighbors, but I had a really great experience this time.
I sat next to Jason from Colchester who was returning from NYC after visiting with some friends. He was so easy to talk to and it was really fun hearing all about his worldly travels. After finishing his undergraduate degree, Jason worked for five years in the British music industry and saved enough money to take a whole year off to travel all around the world. He started in Europe and basically hit up every country around here, then he went to Asia and visited Singapore, Vietnam, and Laos, traveled to Australia, and finally finished his adventures in America this past March. Pretty impressive for someone who is only 28 years old! His travels sounded completely appealing, and I envied his acquired depth of cultural understanding and insight. We had a really long, enjoyable conversation, and it was
Notting Hill
view from Westland Hotel for orientation fun to hear him try to speak the minimal Vietnamese that he retained from his month-long visit to Vietnam.
Besides Jason, so far I have only met a few other true Brits, but they have all been so nice. For example, while waiting in Newark for my connecting flight to London, a man overheard my conversation that I was attending the University of East Anglia, and he told me that he went there for undergrad and is now a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. He was really excited to meet me and assured me about five or more times that I would have the time of my life at UEA and in England.
Upon arrival at the Heathrow airport, IFSA-Butler (my study abroad program) provided a coach bus to take students to the Westland Hotel, which is in Notting Hill. Actually, someone mentioned that the building across from the hotel was featured in the movie - thought I would mention this bit of trivia for all the Meg Ryan fans back home, since it is kind of cool, I guess, to sleep right across from a building where she made a film. I have my own hotel room, and
it is nice to have my own space to relax. I will be here until Thursday morning, and then I will be taken to UEA, which is in Norwich, about two hours by train from London.
We went to a nice Italian restaurant down the street called Zizzi's, which was pretty delicious. I sat with some girls who are also going to UEA (there are four schools in total at this orientation: Cardiff, Leeds, Middlesex, and UEA). One girl I met is also studying biology/pre-medicine, but she is attending Leeds, which was kind of a disappointment since she was the only one who seemed genuinely interested when I mentioned studying biology.
After dinner I took a walk with Mary, who is an English major from Tennessee and who flew straight to London after spending half of her summer in Spain. (Have I mentioned that everyone I have met is so intensely interesting?) We hit up a Walgreens-like store and were entertained by the man at the register who kept us for quite a bit longer than necessary, I suspect in an effort to poke fun at our accents. We got him back, though, after he tried very unsuccessfully
to pronounce 'Chattanooga' - it was so funny. And everyone says 'Cheers!' in place of where we would say something like 'Cool!' and it is also used as a thank you or goodbye; it is so charming. I think I will start saying 'Cheers!' intentionally from now on to try to make habit of it.
Yesterday (Tuesday) was quite a bit more intensive. We went as a group to the IFSA-Butler London headquarters, which is actually a really pretty building near the hotel. I will post pictures as soon as I can. The orientation leaders talked to us for a long time about what to expect when living in England - the people, the weather, the politics, the social life, etc. It was a lot of information given to us all at once, but it was all so organized. They gave us these really official-looking binders that were tabbed and alphabetized and color-coordinated. It was an organization-lover's dream. So, just an FYI to those who are thinking of study abroad: IFSA-Butler is the way to go.
We met up again as a group later last night to see "Rain Man" onstage at the Apollo Theatre. I rode the
London
Picadilly Circus tube for the first time; it was quite exciting. The show itself was okay. It was amusing to see Josh Hartnett onstage (he wasn't...very good, in my opinion). But it was exciting to be about 15 feet away from him in real life nonetheless. For those of you who wonder whatever happened to Josh Hartnett (I did), there you go: he is onstage in London. Who knew.
After the show we were on our own. Most of us checked out the nightlife. We ended up at a Sports Bar, which was a lot of fun. The people here are the most engaging, friendliest bunch I have ever met. Another bit of trivia: of all major cities in the world, London is home to the most number of spoken languages. So, it is interesting being out and about because wherever you turn, there is a different culture represented. I met an Australian guy named Dax and a South African guy named Matt who were really funny and good dancers.
Anyway, I am allowed ten free minutes of internet a day at this hotel, and anything past those ten minutes is grossly expensive. So, this is kind of annoying as
I am used to being spoiled back home for having free wireless essentially wherever I go, but that is the only thing I have to complain about. I am currently at an internet cafe down the street from my hotel, but it is always so busy that today was actually really lucky I was able to find an open computer. I get free internet at my school, so I should be able to write more by the end of the week.
Driving to the hotel from the airport, England looked pretty much the same as back in the states except for the driving-on-the-other-side-of-the-road thing. Also, I noticed that billboards are ridiculously close to the highway. And pedestrians, as Mary and I came to find, do not have the right of way. The curbs are marked with "Look left" or "Look right" reminders for pedestrians, which is kind of amusing. Other than these minor differences, I already feel comfortable and am having a great time meeting everyone. London is really cool and posh, and everything is really exciting, so I'm looking forward to doing more sightseeing today.
I am thinking of you all and hope everything is sound back
Apollo Theatre
Josh Hartnett onstage :) home. I will post again as soon as I can.
Cheers!
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SaraRae
Sara Leahy
Yay!
Hola mi amiga! So happy to find out you have a blog and that you made it safely to England. Sounds like you are already having a great experience so no doubt this will be an amazing adventure for you. Have you learned a lot of new words? Can't wait to hear more from you! Te extraño! Ciao!