Week 1 :)

I think I am officially settled. I am learning my way around my flat, and learning more and more about the city. It is more confusing to get around and to orient myself because there are very few straight streets here. It’s not like NYC where you have 5^th street, which is next to 6^th, and 7^th, etc. There really is no real organization of streets or easy ways to learn them. It will just take time.

London is a really cool city. EVERYTHING is a little bit backwards. It just takes some slight adjustments. The first grocery shopping experience was interesting. The nutrition facts are different, they don’t have a lot of the same food, and nothing tastes the same. Everything is so bland. Even the bread is bland- even though I am not sure how that is even possible! The last few days I have been trying to cook or eat in to save some money because I know I will be eating out non-stop on out weekend trips. Also, the whole driving on the other side of the road thing is weird. Luckily the streets say “look left” and “look right” on them at all the cross walks. The words and symbols they use for everything are so weird too. Just trying to work the oven/stove top was a challenge! The “hob” is the stovetop and the “cooker”, which is the oven has to be turned to a little symbol that looks like a shark tooth. Who knew? Also the normal printer paper size is a little off. An 8.5” x 11 is really like 8” x 12” and they call it A4 here.

Orientation was Friday and I had my first day of classes today. It went very well. I am in a combined furniture design and event design class. It sounds like I am going to pair up with a furniture design student and do a project where we pick the event, location, etc. It sounds like fun. Our professor, Jordi, is nice and young. There is a bit of a language barrier, but it will be fine.

School is 2 miles from our flat in Camden. We have decided that we are going to try and walk to school as much as possible. It is a really pretty walk through Regents Park, and takes about 40 minutes. We can take a bus or the underground, but we figure it is a good way to get some exercise and save some money. So, as long as we aren’t rushed for time, we will most likely walk. Even in the rain… Today, I had to drop some forms off at school at 9am, so I decided to run to school, run home, shower, and then walk back to my 11am class. Then we walked to Oxford Street to check out the “touristy” shopping area (and that it was), and then we walked home. So, so far today I have walked about 9.5 miles. If we go out tonight, it will probably add up to11+ miles just today. Hopefully my blisters will go away soon!

The weather has been much cooler than I expected. Actually I didn’t know what to expect, but I wish I would have packed more jeans. It has rained every day, except for today. But it has yet to rain all day. It usually just rains for a few hours, and then it is usually always party cloudy. I wore a tank top on my run this morning hoping I would get some sun (because there wasn’t a cloud in the sky for once), but I wasn’t very successful. It is pretty shady in the park. Oh well. During the day it has been about 65-75 degrees, and at night it has gotten down to 50-55. BRRRR!

Oh Saturday we went to Primrose Hill to check it out. Unfortunately we did not see any celebrities. It is a beautiful area! Then we went to Camden Market, which was cool. The market was HUGE and you could spend days there. We just stayed a couple hours.

We planned our trip to Paris (next weekend), Ireland, and Greece. Just a few more trips to finish booking. It takes SO long to plan and book everything for 6 people. There are multiple trains/flights/buses to each weekend, several different hostels and hotels, and everyone has different schedules, so multiple different to and from flights! It is so confusing, and causes a huge headache! That’s why we can only manage to plan one a day.

On Sunday, we went on a bus tour of the city. It was so fun to hear about all the random stories, facts, and history about the city. We briefly saw/visited a lot, but I cannot wait to go back to most places. The list of things to do here just keeps getting longer and longer! We only have one class a day, and because we will be traveling most weekends, we are going to try to do some stuff on the weekdays. We are hoping they will be less touristy (and maybe less expensive) too.

We have been out every night but last night, because we needed to catch up on sleep! We have met a lot of fun local people who have showed us a good time. There is a very informative magazine/website called timeout.com/London. It lists the places to go and things to do for the week.

I am (surprisingly) adjusting to not having my iphone on me at all times. I wish it worked because the GPS feature/internet would be awesome! There are so many times that I wish I could just use UrbanSpoon to find a place to eat, or the Map to find out where I am! I got a phone here, but it is a joke. It looks like my first cell phone, and it is so hard to text with! I forgot about T9. My cell number is 07542183379. It took me forever to memorize! I got a pay as you go plan, which included 100 min to the US per month. I get free incoming class and texts and it is free for my friends and I to talk (as long as we are in the UK). Disappointingly Skype hasn’t been working very well because the Internet in my flat is terrible. Someone said something about upgrading the internet, so I need to look into that!

If you are friends with me on facebook, you can see some of my pics. If not, or to look at ALL my pictures, go to...

http://kristenepage.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php