First Week

Monday, August 18th
The trip to London began with the road trip to Albany on Sunday, the 17th, where I said bye to my parents. It was a rather casual “goodbye!” as I joked about getting deported. Then Omar and his mom, Mitzy, drove me down to New Jersey to hang out at Andre’s house for a bbq. It was quite a bit of fun with the people who showed up (myself, Omar, Andre, Shannon, Kim, Andrew, Jason and Elliot). That night Omar and I stayed at Kim’s house, and we left the next day (on her birthday). The following day (Monday the 18th) we departed from Newark to Gatwick, London. I definitely forgot to take the water out of my Nalgene which proved to be an awkward moment at security. I’m an all-star. Luckily, I didn’t get sick on the flight and my horn wasn’t damaged.

Tuesday, August 19th
After we landed, the Immigration Officer lady gave me a little bit of a hard time as I was trying to enter the UK, asking me all sorts of questions about why I was coming into the country and wanting supporting documents. I had already gone through all the trouble to get the Student Visa which required all of that. Ah well. We retrieved our luggage, made our way to the London Center group and boarded a coach bus for the trip into the city of London. The jet lag was killer, and I was really dragging all day, trying not to fall asleep.
We checked into the Holiday Inn in Kengsington, and immediately ran over to the London Center for a quick orientation session, followed by a short walk around the surrounding blocks of the London Center. I had the worst time focusing on anything, and I was very overwhelmed with everything. Later on, after getting food, we went flat-hunting. This was when it really set in that I am going to spend the next 4 months of my life in a foreign country. I guess it hadn’t sunk in that I was going to be away for so long. In the months and weeks leading up to the trip, I tried to keep a very level head about it, but the truth hadn’t hit me like it should have.
After this, we came back to the hotel, crashed for a small bit, and went out to dinner at Nando’s Chicken Restaurant, which, although we couldn’t figure out how to properly order and receive our food, was extremely tasty. After this we went out on the town with nothing but our Oyster passes (unlimited weekly Tube pass) and a camera. We went straight to Buckingham Palace, then to Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. This was exactly what I needed to feel better about being so far from home. The shear amount of history and intricacy in the buildings was mind-numbing. Although we were rather tired, Omar, Andrew and myself had an amazing time for our first night in London.

Wednesday-Friday, August 20th-22nd
Flat-hunting sucks. It was fun at first, but after the 4th place we’ve looked at, it all ran together and made the decision become much more difficult. We nearly got a flat on Abbey Road but it was taken from us at the last minute, and we were also offered two flats by Nick, one near Edgeware Rd. and one above the pub that he owns (also near Edgeware Rd). We turned both of those down due to two other flats that we had to make a decision about. One in Brixton and one on Edgeware Rd (also looked at one up in Dollis Hill). We eventually took the Edgeware Rd. one, owned by Amman (maybe Arab? Maybe Egyptian? Not sure yet, but he lives right below us). It’s not a dream house, but it will do for 4 months. Needless to say, not much was going on these past 3 days besides ramming around town looking at flats from 8am-8pm. One positive thing from the experience is that we know how to use the tube much better now.
After signing the lease, we all went out to dinner (Andrew, Omar, Eric, Laura, Megan, Robin, Rebecca, Seth and myself) to celebrate. After some burgers at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen, we went to a pub. Andrew, Robin and I tried to go back to the hotel to drop off our bags and come back, but we got lost walking back and found ourselves at the High Kensington St. tube station, which wasn’t where we wanted to be at all. We tried taking the tube back to the hotel, but got on the wrong train and headed straight back to Earle’s Court, where the pub was. I gave up and had a drink.

Saturday, August 23rd
This morning felt great, not having to find a flat and all. We went on a huge walk with Bill Sheasgreen, starting out at Westminster and ending at the Tower of London, seeing a changing of the guard, some parliament buildings, Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross, Royal Festival Hall, London Bridge, and a food market that was amazing). After this, I did some practicing and catching up with people from home. Later, we hung around the hotel room and watched the Proms concerts and some British television shows, including the ‘X-factor’ (Britain’s American Idol), ‘Mock the Week’, ‘Last Choir Standing’ and others. This was our first real time to crash.

Sunday, August 24th
Today was the Notting Hill Festival, a celebration of the cultural diversity in London, mainly Afro-Cuban. It is the second largest carnival/festival in the world (right behind the one in Rio). It was so much different than the festivals and parades in the states, mainly due to the amount of crazies that were there, along with no open container law. It actually reminded me a bit of Ithaca, with the care-free attitude toward everything. We bought some liters of Bulmer’s cider (reminiscent of the Ireland tour) and walked around town drinking them. It was rather strange walking by the police and having them say ‘hello’ to you without thinking twice about someone downing an alcoholic beverage in front of them.
After the festival, we moved into our flat on Edgeware Rd. This proved to be a pain in the neck, walking around Underground stations with all of our luggage and the trains being packed, and us not getting on the correct train at first (I feel really dumb doing that now). Once our stuff was here, we went back to ICLC to grab some things, came back to Edgeware Rd. and had dinner at this Halal place just around the corner from our flat. We ate some chicken tikkamasala, chicken something-else-that-was-very-spicy, and lamb curry, with mango lassi to drink. It was delicious, and I hope that my body copes well. It feels great to finally be settled into a flat, although we still only have one set of keys. We went out shopping (around 8pm) and found some small food shops still open, which was an experience to say the least. Just about everything is different than in the states (brand names, types of food, ideas of ‘snack food’, pineapple jam, etc.), except for Oreos, Ovaltine and some types of cereal. We bought a liter of 1.5% milk (best of both worlds I guess) and some other household things (trash bags, dish soap, some cereal, some instant noodles for lunch, etc.). All that is left is to decide the rooming situation, then sleep.