Let the Studying begin!

So I haven't posted in awhile...sorry but classes started on the 13th of January and my whole schedule was shifted and things got a little crazy. I will try to remember everything that I can so bear with me. Anyway, like I said classes technically started on the 13th but as I do not have class on Mondays I got a nice day off to further clean my room, do a little grocery shopping and get ready for classes. Speaking of grocery shopping, people go shopping often here, like every few days. Why do you ask? Well first off, the British do not shop in bulk, you buy what you need for the time being and then you come back later. The reasoning is that: 1. the food here doesn't have as many preservatives as they do back home and people eat a lot more fresh food rather than frozen so if you bulk shop, your food will spoil before you get to eat it. 2. You walk everywhere! There is no trunk of a car to place your groceries in as you leisurely drive home so you buy as many groceries as your arms can carry for an extended period of time. However, I have found for the most part that I prefer this method of shopping as you are more likely to only buy things that you need rather than random things that look interesting. Also, there are a lot of what we would call convenience stores at home (like Tesco express, Pret, and Gregg's) that look like they would sell gas station food at home, but they actually sell great fresh sandwiches, salads, and soups that are great for lunch when I'm at campus all day.

Right, so back to classes. Tuesday is my longest day of the week. I have Film and the Book from 10-12 and then a break and then American Underground Cinema from 1-5. They only have one subject usually one day a week which is why the classes are longer. For instance, my American Underground Cinema class is a screening from 1-3, lecture from 3-4, and seminar (recitation) from 4-5. Wednesday I just have my Jewish Traditions class from 11-1. And Thursday and Friday I have Novel in 18th C Europe from 2-3 as it is taught in only two 1 hour seminars on two different days. Why? I do not know. For the most part class is going well. It's a lot more reading based than at home as your only grades are maybe 2 essays that you complete throughout the semester, however; you can't slack off on the reading like at home because that is most likely what the essays are going to be on. For instance, in some classes I have massive amounts of articles and segments of books and then for my Novel class we are literally reading 7 novels this semester and then writing 2 essays about them, with the first essay due at the end of February!!!

Anyway like I said class is going fairly well. The first week was a breeze, as was this week but American Underground Cinema was a bit eye opening to say the least. Originally with the title I thought this class was going to be revolved around Independent Cinema but it is more Avant-garde and Experimental Cinema. Which is fine because I do want to learn about that kind of film but I think it is going to be more difficult than originally anticipated. For all the film buffs out there you have to watch something but look at it as more a form of art than a film and do not ask what is means or what the plot is but rather why the filmmaker decided to make this film and what it conveys. This is actually really hard to do especially with the things that we watched last week. Now I get that it is art and I completely understand where the thought process was coming from but I'm just not used to that way of thinking yet I guess. What I mean is, first we watch two birthing films and when I say birthing films I don't mean what you see on TV with some lady in a hospital room with a sheet over her the whole time and magically there is a new baby. No! this was up close lady parts, among other things, as this baby was being born...so...yeah. Then we watched another film that was up close and personal with 7 actual autopsies being conducted for half and hour at various angles and distances. For those of you that know me you know that I can deal with a good bit of medical stuff but I do not like looking at organs so it is safe to say that after watching these three films I was quite nauseous and then we had to go to seminar and talk about them as a work of art. Honestly, it didn't click for me until people started talking about it more (maybe it was the nausea) so I guess I will learn in time how these films are art.

Ok so on to better things. I honestly can't remember what I did the rest of the week up until Saturday so it must not have been that interesting. Saturday some of my flatmates and I met up with some other girls from UNC and did some tourist-y things around London. We ended up going to eat at this fantastic pub right across from the Maughan Library (our school library) called the Knight's Templar. It was a really cool place and I think it was actually a bank that had been converted into a pub. Nevertheless, the most interesting part about this place was the bathrooms. I'm serious. We ended up all going to the bathroom after one girl told us we have to go see it and this bathroom was huge! I kid you not the sink was like a mini replica of the Chamber of Secrets all in marble and very elegant with a little poster on the wall about how they have wedding receptions in the pub. All in all, a pub for the books. We then started walking toward the Tower of London Bridge and like typical tourists stopped every so often to take pictures. We ended up walking by St. Paul's Cathedral, across the Millennium bridge, by the Tate Museum of Modern Art, the Globe Theatre, among other things and made our way the the Tower of London Bridge. After taking some pictures there and deciding to come back to tour the Tower of London prison turned museum we decided to go through Borough Market on the way home. It is an awesome food market where they have great meats and cheeses and sweets along with the typical fruits and veggies for decent prices. I ended up sharing a piece of traditional British bread pudding with Teresa which was amazing and a lot better than any bread pudding I have had in the US. Content with our journey we made our way home tired and a little cold because we knew we had to get up early the next day. Also, while I am remarking on the weather it is obviously different than at home as I have said before but another thing is that where at home it is cold in the morning, warm midday to afternoon and the cools off at night. Here it is decent in the morning and even a little warmer towards midday but as soon as afternoon comes around it gets cold really fast. I guess since the sun sets earlier it kind of rushes everything but it encourages you to get up early to make use of the sun and the warmth while it's there.

So back to the tour. That's right! on Sunday Katie, the two Emilys, Teresa and I got up bright and early to get on a charter but to go tour Windsor castle, Bath, and Stonehenge. Our first stop was Windsor Castle which is in the cute little town of  Windsor, about 25,000 people the tour guide said. If I were to move to England, this town would be on the list of places I would live. It was a quaint traditional English town that overlooked the English countryside, which is beautiful and so GREEN! We spent about two hours here and although we couldn't go into the castle as it is still a private residence that the royal family visits we did watch some guy make fudge, feed some swans, and explore the town and adjacent train station that once serviced Queen Victoria's private train from London to Windsor Castle when she came to visit. From here we went to Stonehenge. It was about an hour and a half away and although we were admiring the countryside while the tour guide was talking, as soon as he stopped I got really tired and fell asleep. When we arrived at Stonehenge we had about another 2 hours to explore. Apparently about 6 weeks ago they moved the visitor's center about 1 kilometer away from where it had been in order to keep the natural look of Stonehenge and its surroundings. This new visitor's center was great and had little shuttles that you took to the stones themselves. You could walk, but as it was cold and we were on a strict time line we took the bus. We were also provided with and audio guide, which I highly recommend if you ever go anywhere that they are available and a decent price. So we walked around the Stones and listened to our audio guides for a little over an hour. However, I guess they are still working out some kinks in the system because it took about 15min for a shuttle to show up to take us back to the visitor's center and then we had to run to get back on the bus. Our final stop was Bath. This was a great city with so much history and since I have been to Italy I experienced a little Deja Vu as it really does embody all of the Italian architecture with a little bit of traditional English elements thrown in here and there. We got to tour the Roman Baths and go see Jane Austen's house and some of the upperclass apartments that were expensive both back in the day and now. Our tour guide said a 3 bed apartment in the Royal Crescent sold last year for about 3 million and some odd POUNDS. That's about 5 MILLION DOLLARS!!! All in all it was a great tour and it was a perfect day weather wise, sunny with no chance of rain to a good day to be outside all day.

Monday the 20th, even though we were tired from the day before we decided that we were going to try and attend the movie premiere of Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit that afternoon because, well because when in London.....So Emily and I got to Leicester Square around 12:30 to go stand in line and Teresa and Katie were going to meet up with us later. Well when we got there we didn't see any sort of line forming but we found the theatre it was going to be at because it was plastered with move posters. We saw these three girls putting on gold wristbands by the theatre and as they were walking by us I asked them if they were going to the premiere. They said yes and they just got their VIP tickets. I asked them how they got them and one girl handed me a newspaper and said all we had to do was go show it to one of the guys at the front of the theatre and we could get wristbands. So just like that we now had VIP wristbands to not only stand in the VIP section of the Red Carpet, but also to go see a free screening of the film afterward. As soon as we got them we started calling and texting Teresa and Katie and telling them to hurry up so they can get passes to. Teresa got one but unfortunately Katie was barely late :( So we continued to stand in line until 4 when were were moved to our section. There was a tallish man in front of me when we got to our section but after talking to their whole group of people a little bit, I found out that they are regulars to this scene and one girl said she had been to OVER 50 PREMIERES. Anyway, one of the girls had a stool that she carried with her in case she was stuck behind someone tall and she let me use it! Teresa was also given a stool by another man which is a genius idea and I would have never thought to bring a stool to a movie premiere. So we stood and waited for a long time but we finally got to see Kiera Knightley, Chris Pine, and Kenneth Branagh who I got a picture with! We then went inside and Kenneth Branagh made a little speech while Kiera, Chris and some producers stood beside him and then we watched the film. As a film student, I thought the film was decent. It put a slight twist on a typical action film but was still predictable, but that is just my opinion. As for the experience itself, we were incredibly lucky to get VIP tickets. It was an awesome experience and I am very glad that I checked it off of my bucket list, but I would not do it again. Simply because it was a lot of standing to then go and beg for someone's attention and since I want to be on the red carpet some day and not beside it, I will wait. Haha just kidding, well kind of. There happens to be this lovely two story Burger King that overlooks the Red Carpet area so we all decided if we went to another premiere to just go camp out in Burger King where we can sit and watch and it's warm! Sounds like a plan to me!

Also, skipping ahead to this past Friday the 24th, Katie, Teresa, Emily, Sam and I went bouldering, which is like rock climbing but without a harness or helmet.  It was really difficult, but a lot of fun. The hardest part was trying to get back down the wall after you had climbed up because I am use to repelling down with a rope. It was a great workout and if the place itself wasn't in the middle of nowhere I would go back often. 

So I think that's all for now. I know it's a long post but I was catching up on a week or two. I will write soon to give updates about my American Underground Cinema class. Also as far as trips go, we have planned trips to Amsterdam and Belgium, Copenhagen, Dublin for St. Patrick's Day, and Budapest for my 21st Birthday!!!

As usual here are a few picture relating to the post and I think the rest are all uploaded on Facebook!

Drinking the spring water from the Roman Baths that is said to cure all ailments.

Bouldering. This wall was actually pretty high

Me and Kenneth Branagh!

Orientation and Exploration

January 9, 2014

Orientation was broken into 4 parts, from Sunday to Tuesday. Sunday was the day after I got here so I was still very jet-lagged and it was really hard getting up. Emily and I made our way to the Strand Campus which is on the other side of the River Thames. Day 1 was just a welcome meeting so nothing special. However, afterwards we had AFTERNOON TEA yay! and got to meet a lot of other study abroad students. Afterward, we went on a tour of central London. It's so strange here how the sun starts going down at like 3:30 so even though we started the tour at 4:30 it was already dark, but still really cool. The picture in my previous posts shows a few of the places that walked around and such. Our tour guide was from Scotland and very funny. We ended the tour at Westminster Abbey which was great, but no one had really been paying attention to the roads we were taking and whatnot because we were just following the tour guide and now we had to make our way back home. Had I understood the Tube system at the time I would have taken that no problem, but we decided to take a bus instead. We start walking to the nearest bus station and can't find a bus that goes back to Elephant & Castle station, which is where we live. So we just start walking, thinking that were heading back towards King's campus. We end up walking across a bridge and walking right beside the London Eye and eventually found a bus to take us home. So even though I seem to get lost every time i go outside, it's always an adventure and we found new and cool places to visit later on.

I honestly can't even remember what I did on monday besides go to orientation about student life so I will skip Monday for now.

Tuesday we had orientation that covered Study Skills...fun and Living in London (which was actually pretty insightful and the woman who lead the discussion was hilarious).  Afterwards I went with a group of people to Oxford St, which is like the main shopping street in London where all of the Posh expensive clothes are. However, they also have some amazing bargain stores like Primark. Picture a Forever 21 but like 5 times bigger with multiple floors and British clothing and Home Goods put together and that would be Primark. I stuck to the basics and got another towels some washcloths and some leggings lines with fur.. so warm!!!

Wednesday I explored the Maughan Library, which is the Library for the strand campus. It's freakishly huge and the Round Reading Room inside was the inspiration for Dumbledore's office although there were people studying for exams so I haven't taken a picture yet. Afterwards Teresa and I went to the International Students House to sign up for a membership for discounted student trips, which kind of ended up being a bust since most of the trips we wanted to go on were somehow already booked up but oh well. On the bright side we finally found a store called Argos that we had been searching for for days. This store is AMAZING! One of our orientation leaders said it was like Narnia and I really didn't believe her until I went there. Basically you go into the store and there are nothing but tables with tablets, kind of like an Apple store but the tablets have a catalog of everything the store carries and you browse and pick what you want and put it into your shopping cart. Then you go up to the register and pay and from behind a mysterious wall, like Narnia, an employee emerges with your purchases ready to go. Seriously as simple as you can get AND its super cheap. I got a kettle for 5 pounds! Anyway that was basically the highlight of my day and if I ever need any other household items I am going back.

Thursday I literally did not leave the flat. I slept in and spent the rest of my day organizing my room, which looks a lot better now and I will post pictures soon. I definitely recommend factoring in rest days to everyone who studies abroad because as much as you are trying to fit in in such a short amount of time, you need days to let your body catch up as well, especially if you still have a touch of jet lag like I did.

Friday I was back on campus for a Film Studies department meeting which was very insightful. That evening a few flatmates, friends, and I went up to Leicester Square for dinner at a traditional British restaurant called Stockpot. I, of course, had Fish and Chips which was delicious.  We then made our way back towards home and stopped at a pub called Dover Castle. It was a cute/small pub with mostly students which was nice and I had the cider that was wild berry flavored and it was amazing. Definitely a pub to return to.

Saturday Teresa, Katie, and I spent most of the day exploring Camden Market, which was an experience in an of itself. We visited various shops with all sort of things. Some of it felt very gypsy-like to me which was fun. We ate baguettes and got to taste hot apple cider with malt wine in it, which was really good and tasted like a much calmer version of Apple Pie Moonshine haha.

Anyway that it all for now. I know it was a lot, but I covered almost a week. I will try to post pictures as soon as I again, but here are a few for now.

One side of the Maughan Library

A purple casino in Leicester Square

Fish and Chips!

Settling In

So this is my first post from my study abroad trip to London, England even though this is my 4th day in the country. I have been so incredibly busy that I have not had a second to think so just bear with me and I will try to post new things daily or as often as I can. So a quick catch up on what has been going on:

Friday Jan 3- Friday was the day that I left America and flew to England, arriving on the 4th of January. However, this day did not go as smoothly as it should. After driving 2 1/2 hours from my house to RDU and freaking out the whole time about the fact that I had not been mailed my entry letter (the letter that lets me get into the country) yet, therefore calling King's College every 30 minutes until I was transferred to someone that could e-mail it to me. However, this letter must be printed. So here to save the day is the lovely banker at a Bank of America in Burlington that we stopped at on the way that graciously printed it off for me. So now I was able to breathe.......or so I thought. We arrive at RDU with no time to spare until my flight leaves, run to check in my bag and I can't find my passport in my book bag. Turns out that the previous night my mom made copies of my passport and neither of us thought to put in back in my book bag after we were finished so it was still laying in the copier at home. So the panic begins again! After MISSING MY FLIGHT that was suppose to leave at 11:45am along with my study abroad friend that was on the flight, I was stuck. Everything was full and I wasn't going to be able to leave until the 4th at the earliest. However, while my sister is driving my passport halfway to Raleigh and my Dad driving to meet her halfway and bring it back, and after talking to every single American Airlines associate there (who all had different information about everything), a miracle happened and I was booked on a DIRECT flight from RDU to London and even managed to arrive before my study abroad friend.

Sat Jan 4- Now in London Emily (my friend) and I had to make our way to our flat. We took a taxi and it ended up being an insane 85 pounds (~140 dollars) split between us. We reach our flat, which is kind of in the ghetto, and made our way to our rooms. My lovely room consisted of a broken window that didn't close so the room was FREEZING, a sink that drips from the bottom, and a weird air bubble under the bottom of my shower. Also, as soon as we opened the kitchen door it smelled like rotten fish and curry, which made me want to be sick. So we decided to be productive and go get our international phones. Well for all of you getting ready to travel abroad, the iPhone 5 has a NANO sim card, not a MICRO sim card so you can't just get an European sim card put into your phone, you have to buy another phone. Also on that note, if you do have the 4s or some other phone make sure that your provider (Verizon, AT&T) has unlocked your phone before you leave so that it will accept said European sim card. So I now have two phones, which is fine, just unexpected. Also, it took FOREVER to get the phones and I kept on falling asleep standing up in the store because although it was 8:30 or so in London, it was 3:30a.m. at home. So after we get our phones we make our way to Ewen Henderson House were the lovely JORDAN D'AMATO left me a ton of stuff like bedding and toiletries and kitchen items to use. THANK YOU JORDAN!!! In fact, it was so much stuff that it filled my big suitcase and the guy gave us a bag that the post (mail) comes in to fit the rest. Also a big THANK YOU to Emily Mann who without I would not have been able to transport all of these lovely gifts. We also got lost on the way to Ewen Henderson because the bus system here is very confusing and the city is NOT AT ALL in any sort of grid pattern like New York and there are a bunch of little towns and traffic circles and craziness so was about 5:00pm or so when we finally got back to the flat. At this point I sloppily made my bed, threw everything else on the floor and slept until about 10:00pm that night. Also we bought some milk and cheese and bread from a local Tesco express and so I had microwave grilled cheese that night for dinner.

So even though this covers only the first two days and honestly it was hell, it can only go up from here, and it has! A recent storm somehow shut my window so now it just won't open, which is much better (and warmer). I met my flatmates which are myself, Emily, another American girl from Berkley, Katie from Australia, Sam from Germany, and Jay from Thailand (which accounts for the curry smell in the kitchen as he cooks it almost daily, although I'm still not sure where the rotten fish smell was coming from). And I am slowly but surely learning the transportation systems in London and can now take the bus to and from campus without getting lost.

That's it for now. I will try to cover this week so far in a post tomorrow as it has to do with orientation and whatnot, but for now here are some pictures to leave you with.

P.S. Pictures of my room to come later when I have the time to actually organize it!

Tour of London that we did after our first orientation session (this started at 4:30 and it was dark)

My 2nd phone with a mini jar of Vaseline for size comparison

My King's college student ID card, making it OFFICIAL!