Mind the Gap

After two weeks in London, I'm almost feeling like a local. No thanks to the week-long orientation, though. There were no name-games or ice-breakers -- much to my delight -- nor was there any real direction on the finer points of London life. We were plopped into our dorms and, more or less, left to figure it out for ourselves. There was one brief information session and a couple of brisk walking tours around the Kensington area. I can't recall learning anything useful from those. It didn't take too long to become acquainted with our neighborhood and the nearby tube stops with all the walking we did the first week. Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens are about two blocks away from my dorm and three of London's best museums are only a ten-minute walk away.

Orientation
Apryll and I were surprised to leave Tulsa on time with all the snow and ice. But we arrived in London without incident and also without luggage. (It was on the next plane.) Our program wouldn't take us to the school so we had to find it ourselves. Once we got to the Richmond campus, we were surprised to find almost 200 other American study abroads. For the next week we loosely followed the orientation schedule that included three walking tours (Kensington neighborhood, Jack the Ripper and Along the Thames), a panoramic bus tour, visits to museums and a booze cruise on the Thames. We opted out of the boat ride and were glad to hear later that we hadn't missed much.
Since I've already been to London, I didn't feel nearly as overwhelmed as some of the other study abroads. Navigating the tube was fairly easy and I could find my way around despite my poor map-reading skills. It was refreshing to be in the city with nothing to do aside from exploring, but I don't think I went anywhere during orientation that I hadn't already been before.
My favorite part of orientation came on the Saturday before classes began when we visited the Portobello market in Notting Hill. For miles the street was lined with booths selling antiques, cheap clothes and fresh food. We spent several hours shopping, laughing at the fake designer purses and "American clothing" stores that featured neon t-shirts and shiny gold body suits.

Dorm
My dorm is on a wide street lined with tall, elegant buildings, several of which are embassies. My room is enormous by dorm standards with a high ceiling and crown moulding, but I share it with three other girls. It's very pretty and very old and feels like a maze when I try to find the bathroom. It's a coed dorm so we share the bathrooms with boys.

Classes
I'm only taking 12 hours so I only have one or two classes each day. They're also shaping up to be easy so I feel like I never have any homework or reading to do for them. One class, Art in Context, has one lecture a week and one field trip when we visit art galleries around London. My other classes -- Travel Writing, British History and Creative Writing -- have been good so far. My professors are all very English and interesting to listen to. My Creative Writing professor tried to get my class to promise not to read any novels this semester. She only wants us to read short stories and poetry. Definitely not going to happen.

Other adventures
With so much free time on my hands I've been doing plenty of walking around the city. After a gallery visit this morning near Picadilly Circus, I walked back to campus just to see the neighborhoods. I've also been watching lots of football (soccer) on tv and am trying to figure out how to get tickets to a game. On Friday Apryll and I saw Stomp with some friends and ate chinese in Leicester Square. We've made our way to plenty of touristy places (Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Harrod's, Tate Modern, etc.) but we're trying to pace ourselves and leave something for the rest of the semester. Last week our friend Chris came to visit for a few days so we showed him around the city.
On Saturday we're going to Oxford and Stratford with our school and we're trying to figure out how to get tickets to the Ok Go concert on Sunday.

I'm Going Back!

Seven days in London over the summer was enough to convince me. Despite my first hostel's iron-barred windows that overlooked a cemetery and my fear of looking the wrong way when crossing the street, I decided I had to spend more time in England. My friend, Apryll, and I will both be studying for a semester at Richmond American International University, located in London's posh Kensington district. We'll be living right down the street from Harrods, the famous up-scale department store, and Princess Di's old palace.

Apryll and I are both excited about living with the Brits and have already planned all sorts of adverntures around the island and mainland Europe. Somewhere in all that, I'm sure I'll make it to class. Yes, Mom and Dad, I promise I'll go to class. We fly out on Monday to start orientation. School begins on January 22. So wish us luck, check up on our adventures and let us know what's happening stateside.