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!