Since orientation has been going on, it’s been hard to find time to write, even in the evenings. But now it’s time to catch on the stories of my adventures, beginning with where I left off.
Monday afternoon, I landed at Heathrow and made the long trek to Immigration. After waiting in line for an hour, I was admitted to the UK, picked up my bags, and started working out how to get to my hotel. The Underground was much less expensive than the express train to Paddington Station, so I decided to take that route. While carrying 100 pounds of luggage, I changed trains at Hammersmith and got off at Paddington station. I exited the station into entirely unfamiliar territory, in a different area from all the maps I had seen. Through a combination of guesswork, solar navigation, and memory, I made my way over the rough brick pavement to the front of the station where I caught a cab to my hotel for the night. After dinner, I dropped into bed exhausted.
The next morning, I went for a walk and ended up stumbling upon the office of IFSA-Butler, which is the intermediary between SMU (my home school) and City (my school in the UK). They informed me that for orientation, I’d be staying in the apartments above their offices and could move my luggage over that morning. After a quick stop to take care of my cell phone (more on the phone situation in a separate post), I once again hauled my heavy luggage across London. Though I’m only here for a few days, the other City students are staying here for the semester. As a year-long student, I’ll be staying in University housing closer to campus.
Yesterday (Wednesday) morning, I went running in Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, past the Royal Albert Hall. It was a fantastic run, with some of the best scenery I’ve seen in an urban area. It was so good that I repeated the run today with another American student.
I went to the theatre (more British spellings there) last night and saw Shakespeare in Love, which was quite funny. An excellent play. Students can generally get cheap theatre tickets in London, so I’m looking forward to seeing more shows.
I’m going on a walking tour of central London today, so I’ll probably have a few more pictures to post tomorrow. I should be moving into my City University housing within the next couple days, and I’ll be sure to post pictures then as well.
