Things are Looking Up in London

Pray to the powers of the blog, and yee shall be granted your wish. Apparently, posting all the things that were getting me down about my semester in London so far on my blog fixed them all! Let's start from the first one.

I'm adjusting to the weather; you have to quickly around here. I bought an umbrella, but I might invest in a more decent one so that I don't look so...shaggy all the time. The tube is back to somewhat normal service. I gave myself PLENTY of time this morning, with "lost American" time scheduled in to make sure that I wasn't late. And sure enough, I get lost around a strange block I had never seen before. But it was cute; I saw children being walked to school by their nannies & saw some more of the people that live near me, so I enjoyed the walk. I got to my first class on time, and it's actually a class that I'm on the waiting list for and just hoping to get in. It's a political science class called "Islam and the West" and the professor is really intense, and I think I would really like this class. The three hours went by pretty quickly, and I made every effort I could to secure a spot in the class, so I just have to hope he lets me. If I don't get into it, it's not the end of the world, but it would help me out a lot. As I was in class I got a voicemail about scheduling an interview for a potential internship. It sounds like something that I would enjoy, and hopefully I'll be able to post more about it in the future - interview is Monday, wish me luck!

I'm already starting to feel better, perhaps it is because I unpacked my vitamins and started taking them...hope I'm over the worst of it. I looked into the bikes, I think I'm going to try it in a week, and maybe just for a week, and maybe I'll stick to Hyde park. It just looks like a cool London experience, since they JUST put the program into place. Anyway, I had a solid five hours before my next class, and I wanted to really go explore a new part of London. I Googled some places near the school building that had gluten free lunch options and found a few just a few tube stops away. I got to Leicester Square pretty quickly, and I was proud that I had been pronouncing it right. I wandered the square finding a few places with gluten free food, most of them more out of my price range, but it was nice to see it was there. I finally found an outlet of a chain that I had heard about before on my Twitter, wagamama. They had an allergy-awareness book, just like a lot of chains I visit frequently, and I picked out a rice-noodle based dish. It was really good, but HUGE! I ate about half, and caught a quick tube ride home to put the rest in the fridge. From there it was off to the V&A Museum. I got off the tube, and decided to go to the Natural History museum instead since it was closer. I managed to get through about a third of the permanent exhibit before I had to go to class. Unfortunately my camera was dead, so I couldn't take any pictures, but I have a feeling I will be back at that museum VERY soon. I went to my "Contemporary British Theatre" class, which is a drama class for non-drama majors who just want to go watch shows and talk/write about them: PERFECT for me! My professor told us that she won't be taking us to the big commercial stuff as often, but to brand new plays in smaller & more diverse venues. It sounds good to me because I've seen the same productions of many current West End shows before on Broadway (a lot of shows that closed on Broadway and transfered to London.)

Came home, re-heated my Wagamama, blogged/twittered/facebooked, and now I'm going to research the company I am interviewing with. London felt a lot more like home today.

Strike & Bike

London weather...I was warned. Didn't have "the best" first day of classes that I've ever had. The London tube crews went on a 24-hour strike on the day of my first class, and of course the bus system was jammed and traffic was awful. I gave myself about an hour to get to class, twice as much as it would take me to get to that location on a normal day. We got about halfway to the building in that hour, so I ditched the bus and started running the streets of London. In jeans & a sweatshirt, with a backpack, oh, and did I mention one of my roommates got me sick? Why do I ALWAYS get sick the second week of being in a new country. (I was horribly sick for about 4 days my second week in South Africa, had to skip a lot of nights out and even one day at school.) I showed up half an hour late, and to my excitement, the professor hadn't even shown up yet. No, he walked in a full hour after I did.

So I decided I wouldn't let this happen to me again. I have been kind of in my cocoon of the hotel, my flat, the school building, and their surrounding areas. I've been to a few local restaurants, cafes, and pubs, but nothing of extreme interest. Yesterday I met up with my friend Vince (who I lived with in SA) and he gave me a personal walking tour of some of the neighborhoods. It was good to see somebody from that group of people. Anyway, I am starting to look into a new program that the Mayor of London introduced about two months ago, where there are bikes EVERYWHERE that you can borrow for up to a half hour for free (if you pay a small weekly or yearly access fee) - it's a really good bargain, even if you only do it like twice a week. Here is the info for anyone who is interested.I am going to wait until I can breathe properly again, and then I might give it a shot. I also might bike through Hyde Park a lot, since I live within a two minute walk of it. I haven't even ran in Hyde Park yet! God, I wish I wasn't getting sick so that I can enjoy London, now that I realize I've been here a week and basically done nothing but grocery shop, move into my flat, and go to informational meetings. I miss the excitement that Ireland offered - we hit the ground RUNNING with no time for adjustment, and that is more my style. I came to London with the intention of spending as little time in my flat as possible, and just enjoying the excitement of the city - free museums, world class shopping, nightlife, history, unfamiliar architecture, etc. I think tomorrow I am going to spend the few hours I have in between classes just exploring the city without an agenda...except making it back for my next class on time of course.

My Flat!

So London is very stressful, let me just say. Between orientation meetings, adjusting to a new country, and finding a flat, I have found myself quite drained every day. I am very ready for classes to begin, to find an internship (hopefully) and to move into my flat and just start living the London life. A big cause of stress was finding the perfect flat for the semester, and I think we struck gold. After several visits to many alright flats, we finally got a hold of a landlord who had just put a beautiful flat on the market an hour ago. One of the student guides came with us, and after viewing it he said "you would be stupid not to take it." It is in the Bayswater area, three bedroooms & two bathrooms, right near two tube stops (different lines, which is really convenient for travel) and only a 15 minute tube ride away from Faraday House, Syracuse's academic building in London. I move in tomorrow, and I could not be more excited. Oh, not to mention that it is completely refurbished very recently. Meaning new kitchen appliances, a new washer/drier, new bathroom fixtures, new dishes/silverware, etc. Here are some pics!



The front



The living room (complete with big screen TV and DVD player)



One of the three bedrooms



One of the two bathrooms



The kitchen

Ireland Photos

So I finally got around to uploading my pictures from Ireland. Here are some of my favorites.






The viking festival in Dublin



The Guinness Factory



The peace walls in Belfast



"The Organ" of the Giants Causeway on the northern coast



Crossing the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge on the northern coast

Check out more pictures of the Belfast peace walls.

Just Touched Down in London Town

Belfast ended up being a lot of fun, but I think I can say that I enjoyed Dublin more. The tension that you can feel in Belfast from the conflict is a little overwhelming...definitely not an area I would want to grow up in. I already miss the Ireland seminar so much. The group of people was a lot of fun, our professor and TAs were amazing, and I just had a great experience.

I arrived safely in London yesterday, and we checked into our hotel that we stay at until we find a flat. I'm starting that search tomorrow, so I will report back, and hopefully be able to show off pictures of where I live. Even though I am in the city of London, I don't feel it yet. Maybe it's because I'm staying in a hotel for the time being, or that classes haven't started, but I just don't feel like I'm really here yet.

Hopefully once classes start, and I have a flat, and I know my way around the area I live in, I will really feel at home here in London.

And I plan on posting some pictures from Ireland soon :)

From Dublin to Belfast

Sadly, my time in Ireland is already halfway over. We just left Dublin this morning and arrived in Belfast, and our hotel has free wireless internet! Yay! Alright, let me try to unload everything I've done in the past few days without rambling...

Fun things first: We visited the Guinness factory, which was really interesting. Because I'm allergic to beer I didn't get to have a free pint of "the freshest Guinness you can get" but I still enjoyed the tour. We also had a full-on Irish dinner at The Merry Ploughboy Pub, complete with entertainment in the form of a four-man band and some Irish dancers. Last night we went to the national theatre of Ireland, the Abbey Theatre, and saw a play called The Plough & The Stars. It was a really emotionally-charged play about the Easter Rising by the Irish Republicans in 1916, which was really cool because we've been learning about it in some of our lectures. The play was so controversial when it came out in the 1920's that it caused riots in the streets, and I can see why! And finally, tonight we went to a rugby game at Ravenhill Stadium in Belfast - it was a BLAST, and the hometeam won! We've also had plenty of time to explore on our own, so I've enjoyed seeing things of my own choosing, and just getting purposely lost in the city and then finding my way back.

As for the academic side, we've been working HARD! They weren't kidding when they told us to prepare for a lot of work. It is a 3-credit course in 10 days after all. We generally have about three or four academic events in a day, usually lectures or tours. We've visited a jail, toured both Dublin and Belfast, toured the Belfast City Hall, and had lectures on all sorts of interesting topics ranging from the well-known Irish travellers to religion and political conflict in Ireland. It's really cool because there is still a decent amount of tension between many groups here in Ireland, so we learn about it in the classroom and then can see the effects in the city today.

Needless to say, I am very tired. We have a pretty full day tomorrow, so I better go get some sleep. I'll be going strong for the next four days in Ireland, and soon enough I will be starting up my semester in London! Hopefully I'll get in one more post before London starts up so that I can wrap up my time in Ireland.

Until next time :)

Intro to Ireland

So I arrived safely in Ireland, and I am having a lot of fun so far. My flights were LONG and BORING - I had four flights in total, adding up to almost two whole days of travelling. For some reason it was a lot more boring for me than travelling to Cape Town, maybe because I had one more flight to deal with. It was nice to be travelling with a group for the second half, though, instead of doing it completely on my own.

We are in Dublin for five days, and we are staying at Trinity College, which is right in the center of Dublin. The dorms there are basically apartments, so I share an apartment with one other person, and I have my own bedroom! Last night we got into the city and just learned about what we will be doing in the course, and then we had the night to ourselves, which was a lot of fun. Today we had a walking tour of the city, and we are on a lunch break now, so I popped into an internet cafe so that I could let my parents know that I am alive. I don't have much more time because we have our first lecture in half an hour, so I have to get running.

Loving Ireland, more later!