London Calling... (yes how original)

So, because everyone knows how bad I am at responding to AIM/emails, and on the advice of several of my friends here, I decided to start a blog describing my adventures here. Not that I'll be posting ALL the details here, of course. You'll have to email me for the "juicy bits" ;)

Because I've already been here for two weeks, there is no way I am writing down every single thing I've seen/done/drank (the list is far too long). I will try to summarize for anyone who cares; for those of you who don't, I'm not sure why you're reading this...

Wednesday, Sept 5th: Arrive in London, totally frazzled and travel-worn. Get to dorm, unpack in the RIDICULOUSLY tiny (and empty) dorm. Get TravelCard, meet my awesome roommate (VAL!) and ummm... random other first day stuff. Accidentally met all my new friends while Val and I get in the elevator with EVERY OTHER PERSON who lives on the 6th floor -- Sonja, Mary, Mike, Ian, Brandon, Griffin, Devin, plus a few awesome ppl like Gretchen and Zach at the pizza party, and whoever else I forgot. We all bond. the rest is history. Pub night at Cadogen Arms; i get wasted off one pint of StrongBow. Go me.

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Thursday Sept 6th: Academic Orientation to IES, I fall asleep during the lectures. Not my finest hour. Appologies to anyone if I snored during something important. Pub night, part deux: Cadogen Arms again.

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Friday Sept 7th: Brandon and I attempt to get breakfast; wind up walking up and down Kings road and settling for overpriced bagels and muffins. Final registration, travel fair, GUIDED BUS TOUR! Plus awesome tour of the British Museum. Pub night the third: attempted to find the "End of the World Pub" (either we got lost or it was a joke and never existed in the first place, both are entirely possible) end up at Trafalgar Pub. Mary gets hit on by a random guy, we drink beer out of coffee mugs in front of our RA (props to Manny for playing along with the whole latte thing)
(Me and Griffin in front of the Tower Bridge)



Saturday Sept 8th: Orientation trip to Greenwich! Fun boat cruise that left from the tower of London, awesome tour, amazing paintings and architecture. We went to the Naval Museum, and the Royal Observatory, saw the hill that people historically had rolling races down (one kid decided it would be cool to ACTUALLY roll down it, and hurt her ankle... dumb kid). Umm got Mexican food, got lost going back with Sonja and Val, ended up taking and hour and a half instead of 40 minutes. Went to the Globe Theatre!!!! Saw Love's Labour's Lost; man, Shakespeare was funny. Decided Irish accents are very hot. Pub night X 4: Henry J. Beans -- expensive drinks, American music. Zach drunkenly sings along to "Born in the USA". Quite entertaining.

(Sonja, Brandon, Ian, Me and Val in Greenwich)

Sunday Sept 9th: No Idea. Definitely broke the pub streak though. Thank God. My roommate just reminded me that I slept till noon, and then took a 5 hour nap in the middle of the day, while they watched The Departed. Aren't I so exciting?

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Monday Sept 10th: Again, no idea. Maybe I did some food shopping, but everyone else was in class.

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Tuesday Sept 11th: First Day of classes!!! Did i mention I have class from 10am until 8pm, and that its a 40 minute commute to and from the dorm to the Centre? Yeah long day. Gretchen and I have Bloomsbury Era together. Looks like it will be interesting to say the least, although i'm not a huge Virginia Woolf fan. Creative Writing should be MINDBLOWING! Professor (i'm supposed to call them tutors) is so nice, only 3 other people in the class, hugely writing intensive. Freewriting is going to kick my ass though, damn it. Brit Lit into film is going to be interesting, thank god Val is in it with me. Didn't realize it was September 11th until halfway through my last class. Felt oddly sad that no one mentioned it.

Wednesday Sept 12: Shakespeare the Dramatist, with the most adorable old man I've ever met in my life. He's 87 and still going strong, can quote any Shakespeare play at the drop of a hat, and is more active than most 20 year olds I know. Kudos to you, Professor Chapman. I wandered down to Drury Land and buy tickets to see... IAN McKELLAN in King Lear!!! so excited. Spur of the moment, Brandon and Rachel ask if I want to see Lord of the Rings (yes, the musical). So we run to the tube and in a strange unintentional tribute to Sam Chas, Lisa, and Michelle, decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator. Halfway up, what do we hear? "There are 193 steps. This is the equivalent of a 15 story building." Yes, not only did I take those damn stairs AGAIN, I had to run up them. Needless to say, I left my lungs in the Tube. We did make it to the show, allthough we were so late we had to sit in the back. What the show lacked in music and script (the songs were perfunctory, the actors just seemed like they were trying to fit three huge volumes into a two hour show and character interaction was at an all time low) it more than made up for in spectacle. The stage just blew my mind; every single section of it moved!!! the costumes were pretty impressive, if unoriginal, and the fights scenes were pretty cool. I loved the acrobats and bungee jumpers flying around, and when the orcs came into the audience, it was just plain cool. Went out for a beer afterwards and discussed. It's so nice to meet people who love theatre!

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Ok, one week down, one to go. I'll post the next week tomorrow, and then you'll be all caught up! I know you all are thrilled ;)