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Published: January 11th 2008
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I arrived at Heathrow airport on the night of the 28th of December. I met Hazel at the airport and her Dad drove me back to their house in Bushey, near Watford within Greater London, where I spent the next few days until I could move into residence on January 2nd.
On arrival in Bushey, I took the opportunity to do not very much for the first time in a while. I met some of Hazel's friends and she showed me around her very English neighborhood, we went to the park and to a couple of bars.
On New Years Eve we decided that despite the enormous hassle, we were going to go to Westminster and watch the fireworks. We arrived at Big Ben and the Thames at about 8:30, and spent the next half hour looking/waiting in line for the toilet. At 9:00 we pushed our way into an excellent spot, directly across from the London Eye and waited. And waited. For three hours. We managed to entertain ourselves so it was ok. At 12:00 the fireworks went off as Big Ben chimed, and the fireworks were very spectacular. They lasted fifteen minutes. My general theory is that
Big Ben
On New Years Eve fireworks are fireworks, but these were definitely very good. Or maybe I'm just trying to rationalise the wait. Anyway after the fireworks they shut all of the tube stations in the immediate area, and blocked off a lot of streets as well to avoid people rushing the tube system. We joined the procession and pushed to Trafalgar square, but we couldn't get into any bars (not surprisingly) and it took us two and a half hours to actually get on a train. The train to Hazel's local station wasn't running so we had to transfer a couple of times, get as close as we could and get a taxi, which cost 17 pounds. We got back home at 4am, which was actually ok for me because I was still on New York time, so it was 11pm for me.
I packed all of my gear on the night of the 1st and on the 2nd Hazel and I got on the tube and went to Euston station. To Hazel's displeasure, I'd forgotten to take the map out of my suitcase and didn't actually know where we were going with six tonnes of luggage from the tube station. Using my
amazing memory and sense of direction (and possibly a bit of luck) we actually found my address straight away so it was ok. My room is quite nice, it's on the top (seventh) floor of my residence, so you'd think I'd have a nice view, but actually my window directly faces an abandoned warehouse, so it's not great. I can see the BT tower though. My room is probably only a little smaller than my Penn State room, but it's a single, where in Penn State it was a shared room. I'll put a photo on here when I get it a bit more organised and decorated. I live in a flat with two other guys, we have two bathrooms, one shower and a large kitchen. One of my roommates is Martin from the Czech Republic, who's English is not great but we're working on it. The other guy is Chinese but I actually haven't met him yet. He's been here for three days but obviously we haven't both been home at the same time. Hazel helped me with her local knowledge about where to buy necessities for my room and flat. I live at the top of Tottenham Court
Road and a ten minute walk from Oxford street so I have every shop in the world within spitting distance.
Hazel stayed for the night of the 2nd and went home at midday on the 3rd. I spent the 3rd and the 4th at (dis)orientation, getting confused by the clashing orientation timetables and the distinct lack of organisation on UCL's part. It was a heavy contrast from Penn State, who had everything organised perfectly, down to many daily social events, and gave us two fall weeks to get organised before classes started. At UCL I had two days and not very much guidance. Despite that I managed to get most of the important stuff organised. I met a lot of other exchange students, literally 95% of whom were American. So I've probably have as many American friends in London as I did in America.
Hazel came back to spend the weekend (of my 21st) with me. We walked around and did a bit more shopping on Saturday, and then went and bought food and I cooked Dad's famous chicken curry on Saturday night, although I still need some more practice I think. Hazel had baked a cake, which
was really really good, so Hazel, Martin and I went out of the building (so we wouldn't set off the fire alarm), lit 21 candles and sang Happy Birthday. The Sunday was my birthday, so I slept in late. I woke up and opened my blinds to a clear blue sky and the most brilliant sunshine, which anyone who has been to London in January knows is extremely rare. We walked to and around Regent's Park and then walked up to Camden Market, which was packed and there were so many stalls and shops. It's like Fremantle times a thousand. I got some posters for my room and we went back home. At night we went to an Italian restaurant for my birthday dinner, which was very expensive, but the food was amazing, so it was definitely worth it.
It turned out I didn't have any classes on Monday, so Hazel stayed until 4:00 on Monday. We said goodbye for the last time until she flew back to America which was very sad. I started classes on Tuesday, and still had very little idea of what was going on. I completed my final enrolment today, so as long as
Happy 21st!
Martin and I lighting the candles. UWA approves it I should be all set. Despite the lack of organisation, the classes all seem very interesting and very intellectually stimulating (in contrast to the USA), which will be good. Also the learning is a lot more self directed. In fact at the moment I only have classes on Tuesday and Friday, although I still have one to be scheduled.
I have a phone, a bank account, a gym membership, an oyster (transit) card, and a handful of friends, so I'm moving towards being settled. Next week I will probably join one of the sporting clubs, They have a fair on Thursday. I wrote a resume and a couple of cover letters yesterday so I'll start looking tomorrow and hopefully have a job soon in either a music shop or a restaurant. Tomorrow morning I'm playing squash with my new Dutch friend Tamar and then we're going to walk down to Westminster with my flatmate Martin to do some sightseeing.
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