Halfway through my first week in London, and I can still hardly believe that I made it here. Today has been my first real shot at ‘down time’ upon arriving.
My trip here was long, but decent. An eight hour flight took my friends and I from Oregon to Iceland, where we soon boarded a plane from Iceland to London, which ended up being nearly three hours. Our arrival at the place we would be staying was not until late afternoon. By then, we barely had time to unpack before we opted into a walking tour of the area to see where everything was in relation to our rooms. Once that was finished, we immediately walked the few blocks to the college for a dinner and orientation with everyone involved in the program – the three of us nearly falling asleep the entire time due to our overnight travels.
To say I slept like the dead that night would be an understatement.
On Sunday, we had another morning orientation, then headed off with a group of people to see the Spitalfields Market. There, we saw crowds of vendors and sampled delicious foods. I personally had lunch from an Eritrean food stall since it is one of my favorites and hard to find around my home town. In our walking around, we experienced multiple cultures and languages just in passing — much more than an average day in Oregon. On the way out, we sampled some chocolate coconut tea that was to die for, and a friend and I purchased a few grams of it to have in our rooms and take back to the states. It tasted as if you were eating coconut chocolate. . . quite a delicious flavor for a tea, if you ask me.
Monday was my first class for Myth, Legend, and Horror. The professor is wildly intelligent and often times gets carried away with random subjects as he knows so much about everything. A welcomed resource in this foreign town. So far, I have yet to have trouble finding food that is acceptable for vegans. A lot of their foods are labeled clearly in relation to whether they are vegetarian friendly, and so forth. Of all the foods I have sampled so far, there have been no disappointments. Everything is so fresh and delicious compared to back in the states. My little group even noticed that their expiration dates come sooner, probably because they do not load it with preservatives and so forth.
Tuesday was our first field trip day for Myth, Legend, and Horror. The first stop on the map was Warwick Castle, a beautiful, well-preserved chunk of history. The castle was enormous and each room within it held various time periods to show how life changed within its walls throughout history. There were manicured rose gardens and even a working trebuchet – ultimately making the trip worth it.
From there, we hopped back on the train to head for Stratford, where Shakespeare was born and buried. The little town was so cute and almost seemed set back in time – the buildings old yet well taken care of. There were statues around erected in memory of Shakespeare, and places boasting more amazing food and random items for sale. My friends and I even entered a magic shop, complete with hilarious host and scrumptious butterbeer.
Wednesday was laid back in the sense that my friends and I planned out how we would be spending our weekends – concluding that this weekend we would do local things around the area, only to take the train to spend next weekend in Scotland. We have yet to decide whether we wish to head for Paris or Ireland, considering the cost of everything (don’t even get me started on the £ to $ conversions. . . ) Outside of that, we decided to attend one of the local pubs in the area known as The Thirsty Bear. We chatted with some locals and merely sat to eat our dinner and observe London life around us, as well as discuss what we thought of it all so far.
We have learned that people put much more effort into how they look here, and almost suspect that they can tell we are tourists by the way we dress. Women here are constantly in heels or dressy shoes, skirts or dress pants, and dressy tops. The men are almost always in suits, or at least something close to that range. Our group almost wishes we would have known this beforehand, as in our debriefing, they had said jeans and shirts would be fine – but now we feel we stick out like sore thumbs amidst the crowds. Another thing we have noticed is that despite it being an English-speaking country, we often have to slow down or repeat what we say due to our different accents; something we would have never thought about otherwise. Considering the language and cultural variety in this city, it makes sense.
Today (Thursday), I merely went to a local cafe on my own and brought my books to read. It was pleasant to settle into a chair at an outside table, sip at my coffee, and whittle away some of the reading required for class.This way I am getting in small breaks while still experiencing the area and getting a feel of it, without always having the ‘go go go’ mentality.
Overall, I am excited to see what the next few weeks bring.