Just a note...this is an incredibly (long) detailed account of the past two days.
These past couple days have been a blur. I have been so busy that I have barely had time to breathe, let alone make time for the people I want to make time for. Yesterday started with meeting with my orientation group and exploring the area surrounding Piccadilly Circus looking for answers to extremely obscure questions. Normally I would looked forward to getting to know London more, but the mass of amounts of rain sort of put a damper on that. It took us around three hours to navigate "theatreland" in order to find things like the stage door to a theater that has a quote above that has "cheered generations of ambitious thespians". It probably would have taken less time, had the rain not slowed us down so much.
I spent the latter part of the day traveling out to west London to Asda (the British version of Wal-Mart...exactly the same company and everything). Although it was sort of a far trip, I was able to find things I hadn't been able to find thus far. I was definitely having trouble surviving with only 5 hangers. On our return trip, we made it safely back to central London, but when transferring trains we realized we had hit rush hour. It wasn't like rush hour at home, where you might have to stand on BART for your 45 minute ride home. The train was so packed, faces were smushed against the glass windows. My friend and I watched two trains go by, with only two or three people being able to shove themselves into the crowded car each time. It was then that we decided to just walk, we were only one stop from home anyway (again...in the rain)
When I returned back to my dorm, I immediately started to get ready to go out and meet friends from my program at a place called Sports Cafe. Although I did have a great time, Sports Cafe was certainly not what I expected. Sure, there were sports on all the televisions, but the music was so deafeningly loud there was no way I could hear the commentary I wanted to about the Oakland Raiders. All in all it was a good first night out, especially since we made our train home just before the tube closed for the night.
Today my friend and I set out to complete the photo challenge for our orientation quiz. It involved us going all the way out to north London, where the Harrow campus is, just to take a picture to the door of an art gallery. The trip was pretty pointless in my opinion, but if anything now I am even more grateful for the fact that I am only two tube stops away from school. Harrow campus students have classes there, but they are about 45 minutes away from all the action in central London. We headed back to central London to finish the photo challenge which took us another three hours. I have found that solicitors in London will not take no for an answer, today we were forced to answer questions about Britain by a man from BBC. Supposedly our answers could be on national radio, although I don't know when or where to listen to it. After that we stopped at TopShop, an amazing store that I could spend hours upon hours in given I had the time and money. Its times like those when I really hate the exchange rate with the pound. I did end up buying a cute purse, and I even got a 15% discount for being a student! England scores points in my book for that one.
On the way home we stopped at McDonald's, which I did not feel one bit guilty about because of all the walking I did today. I was disappointed to learn that they did not have ranch for my chicken nuggets. I wish I had taken a picture of the man's expression when I asked for my beloved ranch, he looked at me like I was certifiably insane. Exasperated and starving, I asked for ketchup and went on my merry way. After eating, I took a well-needed nap and then made myself dinner. Yes...I was still hungry, can you blame me? Even though I have only been here for 4 full days, it feels like it has been way longer. Because of this, I am starting to doubt the saying that time flies when you're having fun. Now, I can say I am glad I passed on going out again tonight. Its nice to finally have some time to breathe. (even if it means listening this awful girl cackle all night long...I am still working on where all the noise comes from in my dorm)
Time flies when you're having fun...
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Posted by Rachel at 4:06 PM
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2 comments:
no ranch!? ahhh!
At least you have a good pair of rain boots. Or wellies ... whatever they call them.
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