Saturday January 10 - On the plane ride over from Charlotte to London I sat next to a British teenager name Ashley. He was very nice and even gave me the window seat to sleep against. We talked a lot about America and Britain. We discussed schooling, music, driving, and traveling. He had been to America a handful of times but always went to Disney World with his family. He helped me find my luggage easily and we are now facebook friends!
Sunday January 11 - At the airport I met up with a BU girl named Katherine. We took the Gatwick Express to Victoria Station where we took a cab to our dorm, "The Crofton". Which is on Queen's Gate Road. Before even unpacking I went out and walked around the neighborhood with my BU friends Matt and Alex. When I got back I met my room mate Carly who is very nice and is a journalism major. Then BU gave us an offical walking tour of our neighborhood. And we had meetings about dorm rules and such. That night no one really went out because everyone was so tired.
Monday January 12 - On Monday we had a boat trip down the Thames. It was kind of foggy and rainy but we saw most of the big sites and I took lots of photos. I started to make really good friends with some of the girls on the floor: Carly, Hillary, Ashley, and Jackie.
That night there was a BU hosted pub night at a pub "Builders Arms". We made teams and had a British quiz which my team did horribly at. My team got a pitcher of "Pimms and Lemonade" and I am not quite sure what it is but it tasted good :-)
The pub got crowded because there were about 50 or 60 BU kids there. So Hillary, Jen, and I decided to head over to Imperial College which has its own pub. There we sat with three British boys Alex, Nick, and Andy. We talked with them for awhile about sports, tea, and schools. (They basically think the NFL is a joke and is nothing compared to the effort needed to play rugby) They all take "maths" and were really fun. We drank these things called "snake bites" that are a mixture of bear, cider and some type of syrup. We all really liked it but the boys though it was gross because I think it is a chick drink.
Its very interesting that people don't seem to tip here. I accidentally tipped the bartender and he looked like I had made his day. I keep accidently tipping people.
Tuesday January 14 - From 9:45 till 3:15 we had "academic lecutres" from BU faculty that they called a "Britain 101" in the Royale Geographic Society auditorium. We had an academic orientation, a student life orientation, an internship orientation, a speach from the chairman. Then the more historical lectures included a lecture entitled "Britain" and a second lecture entitled "Empire/Europe". The lectures were very interesting and I learned a lot. For lunch Hillary, Ashkey, Anna, Carrie and I went to a place called "Kensinghton Creperie" which basically served all kinds of crepes and I thought was very good.
After the orientation Carly and I went on a really big grocercy store run to a place called "Sainsbury". We have to taxi it back because its a 20 minute walk back. It was very interesting to shop here in London because most of the brands are different and some of the basic food is different. We have American style dorms with kitchens that about 10 people share so I am going to have to learn to cook!
That night Ashley, Carly, Carrie, Dara, Sarah, and I went took the tube down to Soho took look around. We walked from Oxford Circus to Piccadilly Circus. There was lots of shopping, nice stores, and bright lights. We want to go to some clubs/bars in that area this weekend.
Wednesday January 14 - We had more lectures from 9 am to 4 pm. These were entitled
"London History", "Economics of Britain" (which was very boring and poorly done), "British Goverment", "The Grand Tour", and "British Culture". I learned that people had been studying abroad for hundreds of years. However, back in those days they would be away for 2 or 3 years at a time and it would be very dangerous and risky.
We were told repetitively throughout all the lectures about Britain's skepticism with the EU and its identity crisis since losing its empire and world power status.
Wednesday night is the "big pub night" at Imperial collge so my friends and I thought would go early at 8 but it was already packed. And we saw our British friends Andy and Nick doing a "power 200 minutes" which means they take a shot of bear every minute for 200 minutes. We have the power HOUR in America but not power 200 minutes. The British seem to drink A LOT. And they drink a lot of beer. I had soo much fun as my friend, Ashley, and I made friends with 4 new British guys, Tom, Edwin, Aiden and Brodge (nickname?). We might hang out with them this upcoming weekend!
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