First Week In London

Well guys, I've come to the conclusion that I ought to take a page out of Margaret's book and start my own blog so that I may chronicle my own adventures in the UK. This will allow me to store every little fun detail of my experiences for all to read so that I won't have to repeat every story to all the people I know. Already I've participated in some fun activities and have been telling people all about them, so I'll just start from the beginning ... the flight.

Sept. 24, 2008: My flight leaves at 6:10 pm from DTW. The day before I was still in Chicago and had a missed-bus experience and arrived back home on a train, luckily. The day of my flight, epic packing took place, which also resulted in my forgetting my new umbrella and my retainer. But oh well. My teeth haven't been shifting on me and I like the rain. Moving on.

So I arrived at the airport, was checked in, was making last-second phone calls and texting, I boarded the plane, we were all chilling in our seats ... only for our plane to be declared unsafe for flight as some "fasteners" on the shell of the plane were not fastened as they should be. So we were all switched to another plane an hour after I should have been in the air. Our new plane was indeed secure and we took off two hours late.

The flight itself was enjoyable. I had two seats near a window all to myself, and the Northwest Airlines media services were quite enjoyable. I watched The Happening, a terrifically horrible movie, followed by my dear favorite Toy Story. Then I tried sleeping. With two seats to myself I didn't do so bad with about two hours. Around 8 am we landed, and after a quick move through customs, I was greeted by Margaret who rode the Tube into the city with me before her classes! It was so great to see a familiar face!

Unfortunately, it was up to me to get to the IES Residence Hall with all my bags: count 'em, a 44-pound suitcase, a 24-pound duffel with a wonky strap, a 20-pound backpack, and my little messenger bag. Firstly, I'm a weakling, so it was rough going. Secondly, even though Margaret helped me plot my walking course from the Tube station, I wasn't sure which Tube exit to take, and decided it best to seek help from a guy in a reflective vest I assumed was some kind of street officer. He helped me decide on the direction to go, and after 30-40 minutes of dragging my luggage through Chelsea, the most expensive and posh neighborhood in Chelsea, and on 2 hours of sleep no less, I finally arrived at IES where I sluggishly began to settle my stuff in my room.

After half-unpacking, cat napping, and going to the introduction meeting, I finally got some food from the local Tesco and Waitrose stores and began adjusting to my new neighborhood that would be my home for more than two months.

The next day included an introduction to the IES Center, some lunch, a coach ride around London, and then concluded with a visit to the British Museum, which will be frequented more often in the future. We stopped at a local cafe and walked on to Covent Garden for browsing. That night, internet was finally available in our room and I was made even happier.

Saturday was something of a free day, though we were provided with tickets with Yard Standing to see Timon of Athens at The Globe Theater. A very entertaining and surprising play, it was very funny for a tragedy and was notable for its inclusion of some very outlandish bathroom humor. The play itself includes some "whores," so granted, there are typical Shakespeare innuendos. But there was a lot of sexuality and I'm sure the cast was a very close and trusting group by the time the curtain went up. Also, nudity. Early in a play, a somewhat older actor, perhaps early 60s, runs around with a loincloth something covering his nether regions, though he was generous enough to flash his bum. However, in the second act, the actor playing Timon spends his time on stage in underwear. And there is a particular scene which, in their interpretation, includes Timon pulling down his pants and acting out a scene of defecation. Not only did the audience members who did not have a girl's head blocking their view of the stage see clear full-frontal nudity, but the scene was kind enough to include the actor smearing his fake feces on the faces of the two other actors. Despite being undeniably gross, it was a riot. Furthermore, the play also included a netting system above the stage and yard standing so that the actors appearing in the ensemble as birds, and also other Athenian characters, could, with the aid of wires and hooks and bungee cords and Cirque du Soleil-like ribbon things, drop down from above onto the stage or into the audience. It was quite a complex bit of set design and I was very impressed, though I doubted Shakespeare ever made use of such things in his play during his time. Nevertheless, any time a guy bungees down into the audience and springs back up and then ends up on the stage is cool with me.

After the Shakespeare play, Emily, our grad student advisery person, paid for all of us to eat at the Tate Modern's cafe, a somewhat pricey place. My salmon piece and sodabread and dill cucumbers/pickles and bowl of chips (fries, people) with a glass of tap water came to about 9 GBP or so, which is like, $17 and some change. But it was filling and really good and I didn't pay. Emily has a big budget for treating us all out to places, so I'm cool with her covering.

Afterwards we spent an hour or so wandering through the Tate Modern, though modern art wasn't exactly everyone's cup of tea that night, so everyone seemed eager to split. Though, I did see a very impressive painting of Jane Seymour (the headless wife of Henry, not the actress) where her head was actually a piranha's. It was a very fierce painting, quite striking and really made an impression. It was the favorite among many of us.

After the Tate Modern there was a 20-minute search for The Leaky Cauldron pub used in the films, but to no avail as I think we were misinformed as to its location. So we went back to the residence.

Sunday was a free day, and boy was it free. I stayed in my pajamas and got money matters and phone calls and internet stuff taken care of, and some bits of reading. I also realized my affinity for heatable tortelloni packages from Tesco this day.

Monday, our first day of classes. We had an early start so we could go visit the University of London's Senate House Library so we could get a tour and our library cards. I will return if I must write a really informed paper, and also so I can get a glimpse at their special collection selections because they have some original Jane Austens and yeah, two Shakespeare folios worth 2.4 million GBP each, or something like that.

The first class was fun. I did my reading and felt prepared. Professor Murrin is a hoot and is very informed. But we're still stuck on understanding what the hell "kidneys of valour" could be. After the class I got more food from Sainsbury's grocery store. Buying food in London stores has become a specialty this week of mine.

And now we're caught up to today! My waking time these days is 8 am, a horrible time to wake up. Why? Because Michelle likes her sleep and, if she stays up past midnight, as she's doing now, she won't get her good sleep in. So she must look into staying on top of her reading so she doesn't have to do the reading after spending time on the internet at midnight! But I digress. So class was today. More fun. Murrin still hilarious and knowledgeable. Readings are easy because I'm reminded of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Narnia.

Following class, a little exploration of London occurred in our first experience with London rain. We visited nerd central, Forbidden Planet, where I looked around at the coolest Lord of the Rings action figures and busts and nifty/pricey 399.95 GBP Balrogs, and other sweet action figures. Major Doctor Who section. There was a TARDIS wheeled suitcase thing, presumably for children who don't pack a lot. So cute. We all wanted it. Then we stopped by Angels, a costume store, which actually had two old 1992 Batman Returns Catwoman masks, one of which I may purchase for my amazing Catwoman costume I plan to make for Halloween next year. I also learned that some sort of Halloween festivities may be occurring, so I must now give thought to what in the world I could go as for Halloween here. Suggestions are welcome!

Anyhoo, went back to res hall. More Tesco shopping. I am now stocked for a few weeks. More tortelloni, more canned vegetables, and mmm, bagels. And some snacks. They were necessary. I basically sat on the internet earlier and was fiddling with more tasks and such, then Lisbeth, my awesome roommate, told me about a store in Cardiff in Wales - we'll be, um, going to WALES on Thursday!!! - that is really cheap considering the exchange rate, but has great clothes, so we were shopping online and we pretty much intend to buy stuff once we're there. And yeah, did I mention that we're going to Wales on Thursday?! It's going to be amazing. And I must say, we have a guy at the IES Center - he's totally off-limits on account of that, as they usually are - but he's Welsh, his name is Ceri Bevan, and darn it if he's not my UK crush for now. He's going to Wales with us. But again, off-limits.

Anyhoo, the night was capped off with ... tortelloni and Dr. Horrible! There was an attempt to watch The Tudors on the internet but someone's computer failed at the job and we watched NPH instead. Always a nice alternative. And there was some fun talking in the common room after. I'm pretty much chatty with all the girls now, nearly, but the boys are still a group to be dealt with. There is a real gender segregation thing going on, though I have become friendly with two of the guys who are a little more interested in hanging with us girls. And the separation will probably be shot to bits once we all go to Wales on a bus together. Although, my prediction is that there will be no study abroad couples in this program because all the guys are after English girls, and all the girls are MOST DEFINITELY after English guys. We shall see.

And now you're brought up to speed with the past several days I've had in London, England. In the future, I plan to post shorter, sweeter, less time-consuming messages than this. I never thought I'd need a blog, or would be able to maintain one, until I realized just how much I could share with people so far, and a full week hasn't passed! And without movie watching and TV and friends and other distractions, I have plenty of time to get work done and be a blogger for the quarter!

Enjoy! And wish me luck while I'm abroad! Specifically in finding Alan Rickman. You know that's a story you want to read from me!