I wanted to start this blog as a way to keep you updated on my comings and goings over here and also use it as a place to keep memories of my big adventure. A week has already past and so much has happened from arriving here to my first day of class. I will try and catch you all up to what has been going on. So hold on to your hats and enjoy the ride across the pond to a jolly old place called England.
Getting there
So lets start at the beginning which would be the plane ride over here. Scratch that. The beginning would probably be all the false starts that happened before I even got on the plane. I was supposed to leave on Wednesday January 6th. That was the plan. Unfortunately Mother Nature was having a, how do I put this, a temper tantrum of epic proportions. There was a snowstorm in England and basically all the British Airway flights were either cancelled or delayed. So my flight was delayed an hour no big deal. It seemed as if the snow was going to stop. Then it picked back up again and the weather report said it would probably snow another fifteen inches. Fifteen freaking inches. As the British are not use to that type of snow you can bet that my flight was going to be delayed again. And it was. Twice.
Yes folks my flight was delayed until 1:45 a.m. and then again until 2:15 a.m. So I officially did not leave the country until Thursday January 7th at 2:15 a.m. Let me just say at that point I was so stressed out and tired that I was ready to call it quits right then and there.
The Airport
So yes I did finally manage to get to the airport. But then the toughest part of all came. Saying goodbye to my parents. Saying goodbye was really hard. I won't lie about that. Sorry if its sounds cheesy or like I'm a dork, but it's true. This will be the longest time I will go without seeing my parents. The longest it had been was two months and this time it is going to be four. The walk to security felt like the longest walk ever because once I got there, I would have to go through all by myself. So with tears, hugs, and I love you's, I walked through security all by myself and left my parents on the other side.
Arrival and Move In
After a pretty uneventful flight (crappy food, turbulence, but tons of movie choices) I arrived in England. I was pretty proud of myself as I went through Immigration by myself and managed to maneuver both my fifty pound bags on to a trolly cart and go through customs. My Aunt Su and cousin Ben met me on the other side of customs. Su took the cart from me and we got to the car park and Su got me to where I needed to be.
So Su takes me to pick up my keys and then we drive to my my residence. We get there and wait for it....there is no elevator and I live on the fourth floor. Yeah if I wasn't already doubting my choice to come here before I left I was certainly rethinking it once I saw the stairs.
So Su, Ben, and I dragged my bags up four flights of stairs and to the very last door on the hall. My roommates Esther and Rocio had already got there so I said hi to them and good bye to Su and Ben.
The room is very tiny. There is a bunk bed and one single bed. There was a dresser that didn't work, but we pulled off the great dresser hist of 2010 (we switched the working dresser outside in the hall for our broken one) and so we now have a working dresser. Our closet is broken though. We can't do much about that.
Anyway that night we unpacked and then passed out right after.
Orientation
Like all good school programs F.I.E loaded us up on orientation after orientation. The most interesting thing I learned at orientation is not to act overly enthusiastic at our internships because the British are a cool, calm and collected people while we Americans tend to be a bit overwhelming in our enthusiasm. I promise to keep my cartwheels to a minimum.
Touring the City
We went on bus and walking tours and got to explore the city which was neat. Esther, Rocio, and I went off on our own during some spare time we had and explored Leicester Square, Trafelgar Square, and Piccadilly Circus. The city was bursting with light and the sun had already set. There were huge signs all over the place lit up by artificial light and there was buses and cars all over the place.
A few hours before we went into the city we had gone to Kensington Park which happens to be right across the street from us (seriously walk out the front door and you can see the park) to look for the Peter Pan statue. Sad to report that we did not find him. There was only one sign to the statue and we could not decipher what direction it wanted us to go. I guess we will just have to wait until it is night then we will take the second star to the right and straight on till morning. Or we could just wait until it gets warmer and then it won't be such a big deal taking a while to find him.
I must say though, the squirrels are awfully friendly here in England. One came up and tapped on Esther's shoe while another fell in love with me. I was getting a little freaked out by how close it kept getting and so I kept running around in a circle trying to get away from it. But it kept following me. I had to break it to him that I wasn't interested in an inter-species relationship.
Class
I started classes on Tuesday. My first class was Media in Britain. My Professor Christopher Cook wants us to call him Chris because "we are equals, we are peers." Ok....not exactly what we believe in America but I can work with it. So Chris it is. He is taking us to the BBC on Tuesday and I am really excited about that.
My afternoon class on Tuesday was my British Life and Cultures Class (BLC) and Professor Ridgers was cool as well. He really wanted to know what we thought of the country so far and what stereotypes we knew about when coming into the country. We ended the class talking about national healthcare and how it worked in England and would it work over in America.
On Wednesday I had Contemporary British Theatre with Matthew Morrison (yeah not the star from Glee, don't I wish) who gave us a brief overview of British theatre (note: not all theatre takes place in the West End. Who knew?). Our class is seeing a show every Thursday for the next seven weeks. Matthew (yes Matthew) also wants to do play-writing and directing workshops.
This should make for an interesting semester. Each class offers me something different and I like that.
Today
Tonight I am seeing the show "39 Steps" and before that I am taking a tour of the National Theatre. It should be fun. I'll let you know how it turns out!
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