Day Eleven - Catching up

I have been meaning to update for about a week now. Needless to say, a lot has happened. I’ve made exponential strides in the attainment of friends, the exploration of my surroundings, and the advancement of my studies, as it were.
On Tuesday of last week I had my registration appointment with a study abroad advisor. I officially registered for Renaissance Literature (which I found out today is pronounced, here at least, runAYsance), Modernism II, Introduction to Third World Studies, and Word and Sentence Structure. They are split up, for the most part, into large lectures, from 50-100 students, and smaller seminars, which have about the average 20 ish students that a Marist class would have. Each of these meet once a week, so each class meets twice a week, but the lecturer is usually different than the seminar tutor. My Modernism and Renaysance lectures only meet every other week, though, so at the end of each even week, my weekend will last from noon on Thursday to 10am Tuesday. Pretty sweet. I haven’t been to Word/Sentence Structure yet but I will go tonight from 6-9. After the appointment, my orientation group met and worked on the challenge at New Cavendish, and we were able to get most of the questions answered by looking things up on Philipp’s computer. We searched for something to eat in the area but, after one of the characteristic 15 minute rain showers hit, we ended up at Pret, and I’ve found that I often end up at Pret, which is disappointing since they are almost as frequent as Starbucks. We agreed that we would meet the following day, but at a TBA time that would be determined that night via (expensive) text messages. That evening my homesickness hit a new low – yes, I had had social interaction that day, but it wasn’t friendship. Time passes so slowly here, and I feel like I’ve been for a month instead of 11 days. That night after dinner I missed everyone so much that I curled up in my bed and cried. I then proceeded to play computer games since I had nothing else to do with my time, apart from reading for classes, and was numbly aiming and clicking when I heard a knock at my door. I made sure my eyes weren’t too puffy and answered it – it was Savesha, the girl from 7I, and another girl from 7G. The other girl (whose name may be something like Raffi, but I forget) introduced herself and they asked how I liked it here so far. They echoed my observation that it was quiet and Savesha sympathized: “its booring I knaowr!” I learned that Hayley (who I have subsequently met) lived in 7H, and Ruth (who I have not yet met) lived in 7K, but the girl in 7L was unknown to us, so we went down to knock on her door.
This, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, was the sharp upward peak of my experience, the turn-around point, and the graph o(t) of my optimism o over time t that I have been here is certainly undifferentiable at point P where P is last Tuesday night around 10pm. A blond girl opened the door, and said “Hi” in an unmistakably American way. I looked at her sweatpants, which said “Mary Washington” down one leg, and knew before she told us that she was from Virginia. Fredericksburg, Virginia, to be exact. Which is where I grew up. I lived there for about 6 years and did all of my elementary school there, at Smith Station Elementary. The girl’s name, appropriately, was Joy.
I may sound like I am being dramatic, but it really was a great moment. We started talking – she was studying abroad this semester as well, and was in the exact same boat as I was in dealing with the changes. She hadn’t made very many friends yet, and hadn’t really explored too much yet, but wanted to travel and experience London and just needed a friend. We exchanged cell phone numbers and I was ecstatic. Finally, a real, full-fledged friend. I IMed my mom and roommate, telling them that things were looking up – I had found a friend! – and then I realized that my friend Rupert, who I hadn’t heard from since I left the States Friday night despite the fact that I had sent him an email, and who I greatly missed, was online and had IMed me! Perhaps that was the peak of my happiness.
The next morning (as it was decided, predominantly by me) at 11:30, I took the Tube to Piccadilly Circus where I met with my group. It is similar to Times Square in that it displays several electronic billboards and is surrounded by the theatre district, but it is, as you may have guessed, a Circle and not a Square, and the billboards are positioned on London’s historical first theatre.
We walked around for a bit on a scavenger-type hunt through the theatres, past the Royal Opera House and the Royal Ballet. We saw Drury Lane, but unfortunately there was no muffin man to be spotted. After that Gina had an internship orientation to go to and Philipp was meeting a friend, so just me and Rachel were left. She had been to London twice before, so we spent the day wandering around and seeing the sights. We found the National Portrait Gallery, which houses so many famous portraits it is unbelievable, and after a while all the faces started to look the same (but it is free so we can go back anytime we want). We turned the corner and found Trafalgar Square, the vastness of which was simply amazing. I cannot put into words the aura of history and grandeur that it has.

We posed with the Lions.

We could see Big Ben just down the road.



Taking a detour from the main roads, we walked through St. James’s Park, which I’m sure will be so gorgeous in the spring. It was one of the coldest days yet, so strolling in the park was more rushed than enjoyable. Stopping by the bird-filled lake, we were told by a man sitting on the bench behind us as he rolled his cigarette that a pelican was once seen to eat a pigeon in that very park – he had seen it on YouTube. Sure enough…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO5ifLzLYiU

Disclaimer: It’s not for the faint at heart, or for the animal lover.
From the park we could see a huge old building nearby, so we went towards it.


We crossed the Horse Guards Parade Ground, and the sprawling building used to be the headquarters of the Royal Army, but now just houses the Horse Guards. As we strolled under and through the building, the clock struck 3pm, and Voila! The changing of the guards happened right in front of us.

I hope to see the changing of the Buckingham Palace guards as well. We walked towards Big Ben and Parliament, and headed behind them to Westminster Abbey, but since the entrance fee was 9 pounds, we decided to save it for another day.

We did some shopping along Victoria St, and later headed to Primark on Oxford St, which is the cheapest place around to buy clothes. So I did. Three shirts, a scarf, and a change purse later we needed some nourishment! So we hunted out a local pub near Victoria St Station – the Brass Monkey. It was full of after-workers, ties loosened, jackets unbuttoned, mostly men but some women too, all holding pints or glasses of wine and laughing, talking, blowing of steam. We managed to squeeze in and find a table, and I think we shocked the bartender when we asked for some food. The food was decent and the “chips” (this time referred to as such) were good, and I ordered a half pint of cider, Strongbow, which I must say I enjoyed significantly more than beer. After that, I jumped on the Tube towards Marylebone Hall. I was exhausted.
Thursday I slept in and then headed to the Regent St campus to turn in our group’s challenge. After accidentally heading to an International Film Festival instead, I hurried to the New Cavendish campus, because the answers were due by 1pm. I had a lazy day until the evening, when Joy and I went out to explore Oxford St, which I later found out, is actually the longest shopping street in all of Europe! We went into Selfridges, an (unbelievably) upscale department store, and we deduced that most department stores have a candy counter – theirs happened to be a Godiva counter. After gaping at some sweets and gasping at the prices, we found the discounted Christmas candy – Hallelujah! – and we bought a giant chocolate Christmas tree – 1 kilo of solid milk chocolate dusted with edible gold lustre. It had originally been 39.99, but had been reduced to 5. A lovely investment.

We ate at Garfunkels, a restaurant on Oxford, and both tried Cottage Pie – a variation on Shepherd’s Pie, I assume. There was no pie crust involved, unfortunately, but a round casserole dish filled with “beef mince” – shredded beef and some onions, etc. in a gravy sauce – topped with mashed potatoes. It was actually pretty good, and something I would definitely order again. We shopped around a little more, but most of the stores were closing around 8. We hopped on the Tube to Edgeware Rd to hunt out a grocery store that we had heard was there, but we turned the wrong way when we left the station. After passing one-too-many “Mohammad’s Falafel Palace”es along the poorly lit and increasingly rundown street, we figured out our mistake and turned back. Finally we saw Waitrose, the grocery store, and we were just checking out the all-organic and far-too-expensive produce department when they started closing up – the store was only open until 9pm. Reluctantly we checked out, me with my head of lettuce and two new potatoes, and headed back with our (predominantly edible) day’s purchases. We ate the top tier of the tree when we got back.
Friday we had orientation round 2 which was relatively boring, but I was a pro at getting to the room it was held in since I had found it somewhat unintentionally the day before. One of my lectures, Modernism, was also to be held in that room so I was glad to have scoped out its location early. The coordinators talked about health issues and university services and delved into culture shock a bit, which is something that I have doubtlessly been experiencing. I have been more depressed and introverted and headachy than usual, and I could sleep at any given time of the day for as long as I could (although not always at those times when I was actually trying to sleep). I was lonely because, after all, my friend count was at 2, which, despite being a huge leap from where I was earlier in the week, was not anywhere near the sense of togetherness and family and the comfort of reliability that I was accustomed to.
Joy, Rachel and I walked around and explored Regent St, found ourselves on Oxford St, and meandered down side roads and through little shops until we came upon Bond St. We were all hungry but we only had about two hours before the Study Abroad Boat Party started, so we parted ways with Rachel, who did not end up attending. Joy and I got ready (both wearing shirts that we had recently purchased on Oxford St) and took the [incrediblycrowdedwithcommuters] Tube just before 6. We got to Monument Station and followed the crowd (cloud?) of Westminster students down to our docked boat, which remained docked the entire time. We caught a brief glance of the Tower Bridge before we got on the boat, but I wasn’t able to snap any shots unfortunately.
The boat party was awkward at first and I found myself wondering – “How did these people find such huge groups of friends already?!” – while eyeing the bar and pondering what my second legal drink order would be. Everyone was walking around with raspberry-colored beer, which upon further investigation was identified as a “Snakebite,” so I ordered that. Memories of the Poison Skippy of Halloween 08 flooded back into my mind as the beer/liquor/fruit juice mixture flooded my taste buds, and I hurried (as fast as one can hurry to drink something with unwilling taste buds) to finish the cup. For the rest of the night I stuck with unmistakably sweet Malibu and Cokes, for 3.60 a cup. I found Philipp, who greeted me with kisses on my cheeks, and he became friend #3. He was sitting with a bunch of other Germans and a girl from Denmark, all of whom proceeded to kiss me on both cheeks when we were introduced – Ah, Europe! I forget what the French call it. Something like “biser” I think. Oh well. The music was the same thing I’d hear in Hatters, except when it cleared out towards the end of the night and they played The Thong Song. That was weird.
Fourteen pounds lighter and a little tipsy, we walked (me, in heels, doing whatever sort of thing came closest to walking – stumbling, tripping, jogging quickly with short steps so as to better keep my balance – I’m sure you can picture the comic scene on the cobblestone) back to the Monument Tube. Tube stations may be a desolate place at night, and I was certainly glad I had Joy with me. We hopped on the Circle Line Westbound and after realizing that we should have taken the Eastbound, tried out two more lines and made it back to Baker Street, where I bought the worst excuse for an eggroll I have ever experienced in my life before we came back and went to sleep.
And since it is 2pm and I still have almost a week left to summarize, I had better leave it at that for now. Tomorrow when I finish class I will continue, but my head is heavy and my eyes are sleepy, or any combination of those words.
Love,
Amanda