Beginning of a Great Time....

Touchdown in London Town!! I have been in London for a week now and I am having a BLAST!! The first days were were very quick, but filled with lots of activity. I arrived in London on Thursday January 5th at 6 in the morning. The flight was not as horrid as I thought it was going to be and I kind of enjoyed it at some moments. Getting through the airport was not the most exciting thing. I was confused and carrying 4 bags of luggage through the airport. I eventually made it to my destination and on we traveled to the university.

It took around 2 hours to get to the university because of construction, but most of my bus (including myself) feel asleep and didn't wake up until we got to the school. We got off the buses and headed to get our keys and head to our flat. I am living in Pooley House which is situated in the back of the campus with the train traveling in behind it. (Guess which side my flat is on?) The flat is really nice! There are 8 people living in our flat (2 guys, 6 girls) and we share a kitchen. The ethnicity of my flatmates are 3 English, 1 Northern Irish, 2 Americans, 1 Swedish, 1 Korean  and 1 Bangladeshi. Everyone in my flat gets along except for this one chick who plays her music very loud. I don't think that me and my sensitive ears can take anymore of it. -__-  My room is probably one of the largest. I have a mini fridge with a community freezer in the kitchen. The kitchen has two ranges and two sinks so there is ample space for cooking.

I got to the room and unpacked what I thought was necessary to unpack. The majority of my clothes are still sitting in the space saver bags in a corner of my room. I took a "little" nap and when I woke up I went to dinner with my American flatmate. There we met up with one American girl that rode on the bus with me earlier that morning. Later that night we went to the grocery and walked to the grocery store and bought small stuff that would last us for a few day It was a 40 minute walk there and back.s.  That was about it for Thursday. On Friday we had orientation until 2 and after that we met up and took the Tube (the subway in London) to Westfield Way which is the largest shopping mall in Europe and was built for the 2012 Olympics. We went mostly to get our phones, but we ended up walking through the mall just looking at the stores (there are around 300 stores in the mall and it is 3 stories :D) We came back to the University and then walked to a bar across the street and just hung out. On Saturday everyone went grocery shopping at different times. The problem was everyone walked back instead of taking the bus. BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER! It was a 20 minute walk and I was carrying about 20 pounds of groceries on my back! I came back to my room and rested until we went out again to a pub and chilled.

Monday classes started and it has been a very confusing process for associate students (study abroad students). We are not allowed to access the online registration so every class we want to add or drop we have to go to the department head and get their signature and then go to the study abroad director's office and sit with him while he makes the changes in the system. It has been a big pain because you have to catch everyone at their office hour and pray that the class you want to get into is open.

I practically have my schedule made, I just have to get the signature to drop my social psychology course and then go to the study abroad office and have them lock it into the system. My schedule as of now is Monday's I have class from 10-1 and then 3-5, no class on Tuesday, Wednesday 9-11, Thursday 10-2, and no class on Friday. It's a pretty nice schedule. I am taking 4 classes and I have been to three of them. There is a lot of reading, but I do not have to buy books for every class. I just go to the library and read the pages for that week, which is kind of nice.

The Library. The library is REALLY nice! It looks more like a club when you walk it because it has neon lights on the ground floor, but there is a open feeling when you walk in even if you do not know what you are doing.

The rest of the week was filled with me sleeping or learning about British and Northern Irish culture or even learning about myself. All of my American friends are from the North and my flatmate is a linguistic major and I never noticed how southern and accent I had until she pointed certain things out such as "y'all" and the foods I eat. But it's still interesting because I get a chance to compare everything to northern American, Sweden, Bangladesh, Britian, and Northern Ireland so I have loved every minute of it.

Overall the first few days here were really nice. I was/am still getting over jet lag, but it's been a fun experience.