London- Week 1

---

Ok, so the parents talked me into this. Olivia, this is all your fault. But here it goes, my venture into "blogging."

This site will serve as the epicenter of my abroad experience. Throughout my time here in "Europe," I will catalogue my adventures, if you can call them adventures. I have Europe in quotation marks, because I have already learned that most people in the UK don't consider themselves Europeans. In fact, they don't like people from continent (specifically the French), mainly because none of them speak English. So no one truly enjoys traveling there. Well, that's what they told us at orientation at least, and so far I've found it to be the general consensus.

Once I got here I realized that the room I got sucks. It's a set of bunk beds, one closet, one desk, one dresser, and one chair, all for two people. I panicked a little, but I crammed most of my stuff in places and under the bed. After a very painstaking effort, my mom and I have somehow convinced the Student Affair's director to order more furniture, which he says is predicted to arrive on Thursday. We'll see about that. So far I've at least gotten a chair out of him so I can sit down in my room without climbing up to my top bunk. The consolation I guess is that we have the best kitchen out of all the dorms here. We have a George Foreman grill, a coffee maker, a blender, and a dishwasher- items that most of the other flats can't boast of having. I've already tried cooking with Phoebe- my roommate- and what we've made so far was delicious. Maybe I'm biased since I actually cooked it. I think everything you cook yourself tastes better than it actually does. So at least I'm not starving, although I definitely don't eat as much as I do at home or at school. I'm too busy!

My first week has been all about exploring. So far, I've walked all around South Kensington, visited Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace, and I've wandered through Notting Hill's famous Portobello market. Unfortunately, the blue door from the movie Notting Hill was auctioned off, so I couldn't see that. But the market was great! Lots of little antique stores all selling old British things like cute tea sets, cricket bats and balls, old looking keys, trinkety jewelry and all that kinda stuff. They also have fruit and vegetable stands all along the streets. I bought a book- Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, and an adapter that said it would convert a three-pronged US appliances to UK outlets, but of course that won't work for my computer. I currently have it plugged in to three different converters which jutt out about 4 inches from the wall- very annoying.

Last week we had the start of semester party at Bunker Bar. It was a lot of fun. With your ticket you got three free drinks- cheap beer or wine. I had one and gave the rest of my vouchers to friends. All of you know I'm not the drinking type, but since I'm here I'll sample it. It is part of the culture after all. A few friends and I have gone around to pubs. I'm still learning pub etiquette- more complicated than you'd think. We went to some club on Saturday night at the London School of Economics called Crush. It would have been a lot of fun if it was just me and my friends. There were too many guys there, mainly Indian guys. They kept trying to dance with all of us even if we said no. Plus it was a million degrees in there so I was drenched by the time we left. While I wouldn't go back at least it was an experience. We also found a place called Sports Cafe in Trafalgar Square (which is a really cool area too, although I don't have pictures yet). It's free to students on Tuesdays and apparently they're showing the super bowl, even though it doesn't start until 1am our time! I already know a bunch of people are going to go watch it. I don't have class until 1 the next day...maybe. Well I guess that's it for now. Stay tuned and I'll have more to come!

---