My First Full Week (Mon-Friday)

---

Day 5- We woke up this Monday morning and HAD to attend an orientation. We were all very excited to decide are classes and see what days/times we had class. This ended up being a very long day to say the least. We had to listen to all the safety orientations, and how to use the student email and blackboard. We met several professors and the American football coach. My favorite parts were the breaks, during the first part they brought us tea and pastry’s which I thoroughly enjoyed. During the second break they brought us sandwiches and greek salads. Tea was also available, so I was happy. I have grown accustomed to drinking tea, I enjoy mine milky with sugar.

They also taught us some of the slang in London. Don’t ask someone “How’s your father” with out knowing the slang definition.

After what seemed like hours of boring lecturing, we finally picked our classes. Every American study abroad student has to take a London: City of Change class. In this class we take field trips and learn about London. I am also taking Shakespeare: Text & Performance, Info. Systems in Business, and Investment Analysis. My Favorite part is having Wednesday’s and Friday’s off.

We then attended our first class! London : City of Change the professor we had met earlier and she seem’s really nice and made it clear that we were all here to enjoy our chance to study abroad. We all took it as this class wasn’t going to be to Taxing. Mom don’t worry I will keep up on the reading’s and I will regularly attend class, since I know your worried about that. During class we toured the area around our university and flat’s.

After class I convinced a few of my class mates to join me for a trip to the Student Union. What a great decision that was! In the States most student unions consist of a few places to eat and maybe a small place to shop for school supplies and school apparel. Well the London South Bank Student Union is a full Bar and occasionally turns into a night club after 8 pm. At anytime after 11 am you can order a pint for 2 pounds. I don’t think much studying will get done there, but I will most likely tell my mom im going to “Study” at the Student Union.


Day 6- WOW!!! I was getting a great night sleep when I was abruptly awoken by this loud, ear-piercing, sound. I searched my room for what was causing this sound. I was so out of it that I thought it was my phone alarm. After a few seconds of trying to turn off my phone, I realized that it was a fire alarm. My flat-mate Liz, banged on my door alerting me that we had to go outside. I threw on shorts and my Pea-coat. It was funny to see everyone out in the courtyard at 3:30 am. I know I had an interesting conversation with someone but I have no recollection of it. A fire truck came and they checked it out and alerted us that we were allowed to go back to sleep after 30 frigid minutes.

Today was also our first day of classes, I went to my Shakespeare class very nervous since im not the biggest fan of the theater. However the professor is a professional actor and made the day very enjoyable and eased my worries. I was very glad when I heard that I didn’t have to act. He let us out early to our surprise. I went and ate lunch before preparing for my next class.

I attended Info. Systems in business and it is by far the biggest class that I have ever had. It was only one hour long, because we didn’t have seminar for that class in the first week. I’m not to worried about this class because it is mainly the creation of databases and I have taken Access before which is the program we will be using.

Since I don’t have classe on Wednesday I decided to go to the American Sports bar with a few of my flat-mates. Jomar, David, Liz, Marcus and I all enjoyed some pints at the bar. We then got a table and discussed our first day of classes. Liz also told all of us some information she had learned. Although it is stuff that made me cringe, it was still stuff that was necessary to know.

• One of the 9-11 terrorists, who hijacked a plane that crashed into the Twin Towers, attended London South Bank University.
• The London Road building(where I have one class) use to be a prison. (As I look at it know it all makes sense, where the cells were and the tiny hallways.)
• Elephant and Castle is and “up and coming” neighborhood and the government recently invested 1.5 million Pounds into rebuilding it and making it a safer place. (Several people I have talked to have said that it is not the best place, some have even used the term Ghetto of London. And this is a 15 minute walk from Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye.)

Day 7-Today I woke up later than I had thus far. I mad myself a nice breakfast even though it was around lunch time. After that a few people decided to go to the Tate Modern. I decided to join them. We all walked there together taking the longest way possible, but it was a way I hadn’t walked before so I enjoyed it. Once we got there we all broke into our respective groups and wandered. Jomar and I had a a lot of fun. Im glad that we walked together because we truly admired the great works of Picasso and Salvador Dali. We looked at the brush strokes and lines that they used. Of course, our favorite piece of art was a mirror. It was funny that it was actually a piece of artwork in the Tate Modern.

We got plenty of pictures here so let me know if your interested in viewing them. If you ever have the opportunity to attend the Tate Modern, do so with and open-mind and spend time look at each piece of work. Try to figure out which way each brush stroke went, admire the lines of each artist, and just enjoy the once in a life-time opportunity to see such pieces.

Day 8-This was the first time I had my Investment Analysis class. I went into this class truly excited because I could see myself ending up as an investment advisor or something in that career field. It has always interested me. Jomar and I showed up to class at 1 pm as our advisors had told us to do so. We sat in class for 20 minutes when the professor asked who we were? Turns out we were in the wrong class. As we embarrassingly walked out, disrupting class, several people were sad because they loved our Accents. The teacher then told us our class started at 2. Jomar and I made our way to the student union where we both enjoyed a nice pint before class. At 2 o’clock we arrived back to the classroom and learned we were actually in the correct place. I was quite displease with my first day of this class, because the teacher talks like a man who has lost his life-savings through investing. I was hoping for someone who would spark my interest and really help me figure out my life plan. I don’t think I will be getting that from this class, but who knows. It was also very interesting discussing tesco instead of Walmart as we would have in the states.

At night, a bunch of us went to a pub down the street called the Crown. I liked the interior of the pub but the management definetly needed some work. William from Wales was wearing a soccer jersey and the owner came over and alerted William that he had to either cover it up or leave. They have a strict “ No Futbol Apparel” policy. After one pint William and I decided we were going to recruit a few others to go to a different pub. There was 23 people in our group at the crown so it was quite large. We recruited a few other mates and headed to “Flowers.” Flowers of Forest is the closest pub to my flat. We played several games of Pool, but there aren’t number’s on every ball just a que ball, an 8-ball and then an equal amount of red and yellow balls. Turns out im not to bad. We also enjoyed several pints. After playing a few games of pool, everyone that was at the Crown made their way to the Flower. After a bit longer there, someone decided we should all head to a flat. We ended up going to William and Remi’s flat. They have one of the greatest views of London I have seen thus far. From there 8th story kitchen you can see the London Eye, Big Ben, and all the other buildings in the London Skyline. I was honestly taken back for several minutes by this.

Day 9- Like I said earlier, I do not have class on Friday’s. So a few of us decided to venture around London today. We went to Trafalgar’s square, and tossed coin’s into one of the fountains. We also got soaked because the wind blew the mist straight at us. Luckily I was wearing my rain jacket. We then took pictures on the lions. Im sure I will be back to the Square soon. On our way back we ran across a small market that is only there once a month. It was very cool to taste the cheese’s that were there. Also they had some seafood, which interested me. A few people bought things. I decided to save my money for later cause I knew we were going to Borough Market.

At Borough Market, we meandered through the endless amount of stalls that had various products. Once we had been there for about 30 minutes I had decided what I wanted to buy. I ended up buying 3 products. The first was 5 pounds worth of 20-month aged cheese. I honestly didn’t even get the name of the cheese but the taste is so defined. As soon as I tasted a meniscule portion, I knew I had to purchase some. I also bought a Lancaster cheese. It is a softer cheese but looked great and had a nice aroma to it. The sales man then talked me in to buying some English breakfats sausages. I decided to oblige in his offer since I was getting a big block of cheese and 8 small sausages for 4 pounds. Other people I was with bought the 20-month aged cheese after tasting it. While other bought jelly, which will most likely be my next purchase at borough market.

After returning from borough market we took some time to relax, however, that was cut short when I received a few text messages telling me to come to Flowers. I went and had several pints and played several games of pool. I have been told that Flowers will be my “local” I really didn’t understand this. Im guessing because it is close to me and the pub I attend most often. After being there for a few hours, a group a of women showed up. They were celebrating a 40th Birthday, I never learned who was the true birthday girl since they all seemed quite intoxicated. Me and my buddies/mates abruptly exited after we saw a fireman enter. Our sense’s turned out to be correct. This wasn’t any ordinary firemen. Im glad we left.

---

Photos

Thames River
Will ruining my picture on the way to the Tate Modern

Tate Modern
Jomar and I with a very detailed piece

Flat Party
Random picture of a Flat Party