Mate! She's a bloke!

My first week of classes are over. We haven't really gotten to the meat of our subjects, but I have for sure been introduced to a lot of new concepts and teaching styles.
Mom, you'll be glad to know that I am actually STUDYING while I am studying abroad.


But that doesn't mean that I haven't been able to have some fun. On Thursday night, we went to a Member's Only Club. Richmond was able to rent out the bottom floor of the VERY nice and VERY expensive club. My friends and I had a lot of fun there, but since the tubes close between 12:00 and 1:00, we had to take the Night Bus back to Kensington High Street. The buses are quite difficult to navigate during the day when it is sunny and semi-warm, but at the end of the night when we were tired, cold, and super wet, they were even harder to navigate. It was still a really great experience, and we now have a better understanding of the bus system. I still prefer the Tube!
Picture of my friend Rachel and I before going to No. 5 Cavendish Place.

On Friday, we had a pretty relaxing day, just walking around Kensington High Street looking in the shops and had lunch at Wagamama's. Wagamama's is one of our favorite restaurants in London. They serve all natural, fresh food...they have Rramen, noodle dishes, and rice dishes. Everything there is great, and you feel good after eating such fresh food. That night, we went to our local pub, The Gloucester Arms, grabbed dinner, and chatted up some locals. The people can seem to be a little standoffish on the street (especially since I'm used to 'Southern Charm'), but once you meet them in their environment (the pub), they are quite friendly!

The next morning, we got up early and headed downtown to the British Museum. I had already been on Wednesday with my class, but it is such a large museum that we felt that a return trip was necessary. My friend Katherine has a very handy book called "Top 10 of London," and we were able to locate and see the Top 10 most important things at the British Museum. We saw the Rosetta Stone, the artifacts found at Sutten Hoo, the Elgin Marbles, etc. It was a great way to spend the afternoon! After that, we went to a little souvenier shops across the street that I went to the last time I was in London. It is called "Fancy That of London" and has great, touristy souveniers for low prices.

That night, we went to SOHO to a live music night at a Pub called Spice of Life. It is definitely one of our favorite places in London thus far. We had dinner in the downstairs performance area, and waited around for the bands to begin playing. The three acts were all really different and fun.

Today, I met up with Sara Naeseth (a sorority sister of mine from P.C.) for some Lebanese food in her neighborhood of South Kensington. They have all kinds of food in London, and Lebanese did not disappoint my palette. There was a great deal where you could get a starter, main course, dessert, and mint tea for only 10 pounds. So we jumped on that! I had falafel (my favorite food over here) as my starter, a lamb salad for lunch, and assorted baklava for dessert. Then, I went back to her flat and met some of her friends. Her flat is so much nicer than my dorms....and I am definitley jealous. After that, I came back and met up with Katherine and Amanda (my fellow Harry Potter freaks) took the Tube to King's Cross. We found the Platform 9 3/4 monument and had a lot of touristy pictures taken there. After that, we found a really great pub for dinner. I had a traditional English breakfast for dinner: sasuage, bacon, sunny side up eggs, toast, beans, and roasted tomatoes. I finished the dinner off with a Strongbow. It was just what I needed for dinner if I couldn't have a breakfast dinner at WaHo.

P.S. If you are reading this blog and want to leave me some love, feel free to! I feel like I am writing this blog to myself sometimes!

Start of Classes

On Tuesday, I had three of my four classes. I like all of them so far, but I am particularly excited about my Travel Writing Class. We are reading books about people who travel (not necessarily travel literature by Bryson, but works about traveling by Kerouac, Guevera, Guthrie, etc.). We actually get to do a bit of creative writing on our own. The other two classes that I am in, Childhood, Socialization, and Culture and Political Sociology, sound like they will be interesting and manageable as well.

I was lucky to be able to catch the inauguration. My roommate and I found a live feed on the internet, and we got in from class and online just in time to see Biden sworn in and then on into Obama's inauguration and awesome speech. I was sad to be out of the country at the time, but it was an exciting time to be an American in the U.K. right now. Obama was on all of the covers of the newpapers and on all of the new programs.

On Tuesday night, we went out in SOHO to find Spice of Life. Spice of Life is a pub upstairs and then a live music lounge downstairs. They have different theme nights; last night was blues night. It was really cool, and I think that we will head back for the other nights. (Especially Open Mic night)

Today, my History of London class went to the British Museum to get an idea of what Britain was like immediately before and after the Romans came here. The British Museum itself is a really beautiful building, and inside it is crammed full of artifacts from so many different parts of the world and so many different time periods. After we looked at lots of bronze swords and helmets and coins from early in England's history, we were allowed to wander around on our own. Since it is MASSIVE, a couple of girls and I decided to travel to the Egyptian room and take a look at the mummies.
I also got a chance to see the Rosetta Stone! I was able to snap a picture...luckily, at the British Museum you are allowed to take as many pictures as you like.
I am going to have to go back...I feel like I only saw about 1/25th of what the museum had to offer. Thank God for free admission!

Tomorrow night is the Beginning of Term Party at a posh downtown Members' Only Club. Richmond has rented it out for the night. Since most people don't have classes on Fridays, a lot of events are planned for Thursday nights. It is cocktail attire, so it gives us a fun chance to dress up and look nice.

The day I saw James Franco was the day that changed my life!

I've successfully been here a week, and I'm having a great time thus far...no homesickness/culture shock in sight.

We went on the Jack the Ripper tour on Friday night. We went to a very sketchy area of London down near the Tower of London and went up and down the alleyways that Jack the Ripper used to kill his victims in. It was a gruesome story, a bit scary, and very cold. Our tour guide read us the indepth autopsies and police reports on the murders. All but one of Jack's victims were around 5'2," brunette, and stocky. For once, I am happy to be almost 6'. And of course, decided to tell us that there was a copycat killer on the loose...hopefully, it is a joke, but just in case I'll make sure to stick with a very large group when I'm in that part of town. After Jack the Ripper, we decided to make it an early night and caught the Tube back to our dorms.

The next morning (Saturday), my roommate Amanda, my friend Katherine, and I got on the Tube to go to the Tate Modern museum. I am so happy that we decided to go on the day that we did and the time that we did...because it was at the Tate Modern that we saw James Franco. We didn't get to talk to him because he was getting on the elevator that we had just gotten off, and we didn't want to be stalkerish. BUT WE SAW HIM. It was the definite highlight of my trip so far.

Here is a picture of Amanda, Katherine, and me outside of the Tate Modern:


In addition to the James Franco excitement, I really enjooyed the Tate Modern. There were some of Monet's waterlily paintings, some of Matisse's painting, and quite a bit of Picasso. We didn't understand how a pile of bricks on the ground or a octagon cut out of white paper and pasted on the wall were considered "art," but they were all on display! There was some pretty disturbing video art as well that I could have gone without seeing (when it says 'disturbing imagery' in Europe...they mean it!), but the museum was a great morning trip, and most importantly, it was FREE!

After our exciting day at the Tate Modern, we got back to the dorms in time to start getting ready for the Superhero Boat Party on the Thames. I dressed up as Cat Woman and had such a great time! The view was beautiful, with the London Eye, Parliament, and the Bridge lit up, but unfortunately it was misty and very cold, so we spent most of our night inside on the dance floor.

Sunday was lazy. We grabbed a late lunch and then went to the Harry Potter tour of London. We saw where the Ministry of Magic, Knockturn Alley, and Diagon Alley would be if we followed the directions in J.K. Rowling's books. We also heard a lot of background about the character's names and the inspirations behind the Philosopher's stone and the Invisibility Cloak.

Here is a picture of the witches with our wands!
(left to right: Stacie, Julianne, Awesome Tour Guide, Katherine, Amanda my Roommate)
After the tour, we had to prepare ourselves for the beginning of classes. :(

My frist class of the day was pretty chill for me. My first class wasn't until 3:00. Katherine and I went to Kensington High Street (the closest area for shopping) to get some stamps and toiletries, but ended up also going into H&M and Topshop. I found an awesome skull and crossbones scarf (YAY SIGMA!!), a houndstooth, equestrian looking blazer, and black skirt all on sale for 10 pounds or less at Topshop. It was quite a successful shopping trip.
We grabbed lunch and this sandwich, salad, and soup place that seems to be everywhere in London called Pret a Manger and headed back to eat. If you "eat out" at these places, rather than eating in the dining room, it is about 1 pound to 1.5 pounds cheaper! So needless to say, as college students on a budget, it is in our best interest to get it to go whenever possible.

My first and only class of the day is History of London, which seems like it will be a pretty nice class. We have only one day a week in lecture class, and then on Wednesdays we meet up at different locations around London to go to museums and sights. This Wednesday we are going to the British museum to look at skulls of early Britans. I'm pretty excited about it.
Tomorrow I go to my Travel Writing, Political Sociology, and Childhood, Socialization, and Culture classes. And then only two days until the weekend since I don't have any Friday classes!

Orientation Week

I am nearing the end of my orientation week, and whoah has it been a busy week!

The flights in general were not too bad. I flew out of Atlanta around 1:30, go to D.C./Dulles around 2:30, and then waited for my flight to the U.K. I was lucky because I ran into Christina Armistead (who goes to P.C.), and she was on all the flights that I was on her way to studying abroad in Grenoble, France.

The flight over the Atlantic was good...if a little cramped. I was lucky to have an aisle seat, but I still felt a little like a sardine in a can. I was only able to sleep about an hour total for the entire trip and watched "Eagle Eye" and "Lakeview Terrace" instead. We touched down at Heathrow at 5:45 their time...which was early morning our time. We got on a charter bus for the university at about 7:00 a.m., and drove through rush hour traffic to get to the neighborhood of Kensington.

The neighborhood is so quaint and scenic, but when I first got here, all I really wanted to do was sleep. Since my roommate wasn't here yet, I unpacked fairly quickly and then took a two hour nap until she arrived. And after that period of tiredness, I havn't really been jetlagged at all! After we got her all settled in, we went on a scenic tour of the area. There are quite a few famous people's homes in Kensington and the surrounding areas that we visited: Winston Churchill, Winston Churchill's secretary, John Stuart Mill, T.S. Eliot, etc. I got very excited to see T.S. Eliot's house, and I am going to be passing it every day on my way to class.

After our walking tour, we had dinner, went to an orientation general meeting, and then we went to the Tube to buy our "oyster cards." Oyster cards are cards that cost 3 pounds and then you can load them with however much money you want (20 pounds in my case). That way, when you want to ride the Subway, all you do is swipe your card, and there is no fooling around with tickets.
After buying our cards, we went to the pub. The Builders Arms is literally 100 yards from my dorm room. It is a really nice local place that serves food and drink to the locals and of course, the college students. We met up with a couple of more people there, and had a great time just sitting around, shooting the breeze.
And, I am quite ashamed to admit, after the pub closed at 11:00 p.m., we all took a trip to McDonalds (P.C. people, I guess life isn't too different much over here....but there are NO Waffle Houses) on Kensington High Street. It was the classiest McDonalds I have ever been to. There was a grand piano. And two levels.

The next morning, we went to our classroom building (Asa Briggs Hall), and I was able to finalize my schedule.
In the afternoon, we went on a 3 hours bus tour of London. It was a great way to give us ideas for where we would like to go back when we have time to explore places in depth. Places on my list: Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, walk across the Thames to see Big Ben/Parliament, Trafalgar Square, etc.
That night, we all gathered up, and went out to Central London to explore what nightlife they had to offer.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was a lot more chill. A group of us went to buy pay as you go cell phones, which allow us to communicate very cheaply.
We also signed up for tickets to events, but unfortunately, even though I was in line 45 minutes before ticket selling occurred, me and a couple of my friends were unable to get tickets for any of the West End shows. Thus, we made our own fun, and went to a pub for some appetizers and a pint. The Gloucester Arms is the pub's name, and it is very classy and suprisingly inexpensive (by British standards). After everyone else got done with their shows, we went out to another club called Opal, which was decorated like an underground cave.

Today, we have to go to a library orientation in order to get set up, and then my roommate and I are going ot buy costumes for the Superhero Boat Party on the Thames tomorrow night. Later tonight, we are going on a Jack the Ripper walking tour!

Things I like about London:
-The hustle and bustle
-The pubs...they aren't only centers for drinking, but also a GREAT place for socialization and meeting locals
-The AMAZING strong beer on tap
-The history
-The people
-The accents
-Basically, everything

Things I don't like about London:
-The showers are super cramped
-On the sinks, you can't mix water temperatures. There is a hot tap and a cold tap, and any mixing of water temperature must occur in your hands
-Everything is quite expensive

Address

My address at school is:
Julianne Crew
C/o Student Mail
Atlantic House
Richmond, the American International University in London
1 St Alban's Grove
London W8 5PN

So, MAIL ME STUFF. I love letters, and if you send one, I will try my darnedest to return the favor.
And if I send you a postcard, I would love for you to return the favor as well. :)

Only a week before the greatest adventure of my life thus far! YAY!