I'm on day like 25 in England and I'm happy to say that I finally made it to my school the University of Kent! After 2 packed days of orientation, and 1 day which not only included a museum tour but a walking and river tour as well, i'm in my single room writing this blog. Today was actually the 1st day of classes here at my new "Uni" as they call it. So i dragged myself out of bed at 9am, which i did not want to do, got lost for a good 10 minutes and then walked into class thoroughly but fashionably late. It hasn't been the most exciting day and I'd much rather talk about the last couple of weeks so i'll keep it brief. Class at 9am, meeting with my adviser (a strange french man), home, class again (but no one was there, very strange), home, attempt to pay my accommodation but got yelled out and an obviously sad about her life cashier, then home again. I managed to survive it though! Yay for me.
As for the last two weeks, which I neglected to inform you guys about as it has been seriously chaotic, they were great! From the 12th to the 15th I lived out my days in Chelsea with Laura and Matt and of course Jumbles my first English friend. On one of those days I was lucky enough to attend the Thames Festival in London which was a lot of fun! To the left you can see what I had for dinner, a big ol' plate of Ethiopian food. It was to die for, the chicken was great but the veggie stuff was amazing. All in all a great meal. Halfway through it started to rain and everyone went in doors to hide which reminded me a lot of Jane Austen novel, they always seemed to be slipping in somewhere to avoid the rain. I should have read that as a sign. After my great meal and some shopping at booths (their craft work isn't as good as the states i must say) I took the tube for the very first time! It was surprisingly easy as they have signs telling you everywhere you're supposed to go. The following day I headed out to Piccadilly once again and ended up in Selfridges, a very good department store here in England. They were hosting the "Museum of Everything" so i took a tour of their gallery which consisted of contemporary paintings some of which were done by blind people. All of it was very interesting and also, i must say, a bit hard for me to understand lol. The particularly liked the one to the left. It was actually about 20 different pound pills that were drawn on and turned into art. I later saw a sign that pictures were illegal so thank god i didn't get caught! Then Laura and I had some great Moroccan food which was served to us by a very over-enthusiastic waiter (I felt like I was in the States again!) and were later joined by Matt. Then after some very yummy Watermelon Martini's which were successful in hiding all taste of alcohol we headed home.
Then on the 15th, I headed off to Orientation in central London! Thankfully I was able to shove an entire duvet and sheet set, loaned to me by Laura and Matt Inc., into my suitcase so unlike the other unprepared tourist (SUCKAS) I had nice comfy sheets. While on orientation I did some very boring stuff (i.e. seminars, ice-breakers, money and school issues) and some very fun stuff (river tour, museum tours, theater). To the left is me grabbing a London Eye booth right out of the sky! This was during our river tour of Thames in which a very funny tour guide explained most of the famous London monuments right down to the stairs in which prisoners were walked down to be drowned. Also on the same day we toured the Tate Modern and saw some genuine Picasso's. Then later after an HOUR LONG walking tour (everyone was pissed) and a gross dinner at Waga Mama (avoid that place) we saw "The 39 Steps" a very British show in the west end! Then we headed home by subway, and the next 13 out of 20 of us were off to the University of Kent.Welcome Week in Britain is very different thing then the lame ones we're used to back home. There were a number of events for the "freshers" as they called them (not freshman as we were corrected multiple times) and all of them included drinking! My first night in Kent we headed out to a pub crawl, the second night we hung out with our new neighbors, and then 2 nights in a row we headed out to the on campus clubs. It's very odd for school functions to also have alcohol.
I think i'll continue this blog tomorrow =] but look forward to hearing about my:
Brand-Spanking new foreign roommates
The International Welcome Dinner
Sammy
haha... you have school.
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