LONDON! I AM HERE WOOT WOOT

Hi lovelies.

So, I am in England. I know the title of this post was pretty subtle so you may not have caught it but I AM IN FACT CURRENTLY RESIDING IN LONDON. Aww yiss. Well, this was supposed to be a video post but then I couldn't figure out how to put the video in the post. Not that I don't understand the basic concept, but there were problems. Could a more computer savvy person solved them? Probably. Could a sexier person have solved them? I answer that question with another question: Do they exist?

I landed in London on Jan. 4th (4 Jan.-I need to start thinking in European date order) after sleeping on both flights. My flight from Minneapolis to Denver was unnecessarily large (think, international 6-seat rows) for going from Minnesota to Michigan but I was not complaining. No one was sitting next to me. Only one person was sitting behind me. And I don't clearly remember taking off or being suspended in air. I have a vague notion of the landing. The flight from Detroit to Heathrow was pretty nice too. I sat next to another American exchange student who will be in London for a month. It made me feel very lucky. :D She was super nice, and gave me some good tips because she was way better at preparing than I am. Surprised? Yeah, no, not really.

I got to Heathrow and took a coach to Victoria Station. I knew I was in England when I couldn't understand the announcements due to the thick accent of the announcer lady. Well, I may have known I was in England before, but post-flight grogginess was muddling my brain a little. But not enough to prevent me from DOMINATING the public transport system. I got to Victoria Station and attempted to get a taxi but I don't really think they were interested in such a short fare. It's interesting, when I asked the taxi drivers where Goldsmid House is, they had no idea. Then I showed them the address and it was all, "Oh, you just go down this street then turn at that street and you'll be there, love." Now, that sounds like simple directions but I managed to get a bit confused and actually had to ask 3 taxi drivers how to get to Goldsmid before finally finding the place. This was while lugging a backpack, 50 lb. rolling bag and a 42.5 lb. duffle bag. And the duffle didn't sit on the rolling bag. Good news: I felt like a beast when I finally made it and the relief tasted like Christmas. Bad news: My freakish shoulder cracking was highly exacerbated by this rather strenuous exercise and my back is still recovering. However, I'm in London so no complaining.
I chilled around my dorm for a bit, set up my room and then slept 12 hours from 9:30PM(or rather, 21:30)-9AM. Which meant that I thought that I had made jet lag (fancy word: desynchronosis) my bitch. Yeaaaaaaaaaaah...nooooooooooo.

The next day I went to the store and picked up some nectarines which have been my breakfast the past couple of mornings (num!), dropped them off at my room and headed out for adventures! I decided to walk to UCL from Goldsmid the first day. We had a 2:00 (14:00) meeting at UCL so I left at 10:00-10:30ish. It turns out that my dorm is 3 miles away from the campus. Now, this would suck, but I get to walk past Buckingham Palace, a couple parks, Trafalgar Square, Oxford Street, a Chipotle...lots of really awesome places. The walk take a little under an hour but feels like it takes no more than 10 minutes. Can I just say, I'm really really lucky? Ha ha, of course I can, it's my blog. I AM SO LUCKY. We met Paola who is super nice and helpful. She showed us around UCL, I finally met up with the rest of the Pomona people. We walked around UCL for a while (I had gotten there two hours early and explored a little bit) and then went to The Court for dinner. Woo pubs! I had fish and chips (only 3£, yay!). They were...greasy but tasty. The mashed peas were just special. Chunky baby food special. No drinking happened though (on my end), because I needed to get back to Goldsmid and I wasn't super sure how I wanted to do that yet. I took the tube back to Goldsmid and purchased my very own Oyster Card. I am now a tube MASTER. Or something like that. A lovely British chap pointed me to the right station to get on the Victoria Line. The Brits are so helpful. Seriously, Minnesota nice actually pales in comparison. I didn't think that was possible. It could be that some of the niceness is an illusion created by the completely charming accent (just like the intelligence-see Arrested Development), but it has been super helpful so far. I slept at 12:15 and then woke up at 5:30, 6:30, 7 and finally 8. Jet lag, I will destroy you! Once...I'm...less...sleeeeeeeeepy.

The next day was International Student Orientation. Kun-Wei, Anjali and I had an excellent lunch-smoked salmon sandwich on brown bread with cream cheese, dill and smoked salmon as well as a mint hot chocolate-while watched the rain and British fashion. I love coats. So much. Classy classy coats. And was very impressed by the number of adorable but seemingly impractical pairs of heels that strode past the windows. International Student Orientation was cool but not terribly memorable. Although it did make me excited to be here. Oh wait. Nope, I think that may have been there before. I think it was helpful though. I wound up walking back to Goldsmid which was lovely. I was a little worried that there and back would be a bit much, but this was not the case-I want to walk EVERYWHERE. I had a veggie sandwich from dinner and finally got internet access! And met someone living in my flat! She's from America too (Bates College) and super nice. :D Yay! I can't wait to meet more people.



I took the tube down to UCL this morning and got all enrolled. I am officially a student at UCL with classes, an ID badge and everything! By everything I mean more pamphlets than I could ever possibly know what to do with. Cool... After enrollment some of us made our way to the British History Museum which is two, maybe 3, blocks away from UCL. Kun-Wei and I found ourselves there for 3-4 hours. When we finally looked at our phone clocks we were astonished. At least I was. It turns out that looking at Ancient Egyptian, Roman, Greek, Victorian era, Mayan, Aztec, European, etc stuff makes time fly. Really fast. We saw a Picasso painting and the Rosetta Stone. The. Rosetta. Stone. And an absurd amount of dead bodies/skeletons. Sooooooo cool. I SAW THE ROSETTA STONE. Sorry. I'm still a little buzzed off awesomeness. After the museum Kun-Wei and I split a hard pear cider at The Court. It was delicious. Mainly because I could barely taste the alcohol. Mmmmmmm. Sparkling pear juice with the slightest hint of adultness. Adulthood? Adultiness? We had dinner near King's Cross Station where I fully intending on going and totally geeking out about Harry Potter at some point in the very near future and then I headed back via tube. I know where my kitchen is now so I figured I search for some decent grocery stores. I think I'll do a bit more looking, but so far I am not starving. Mainly because of all the sandwiches there. Oh! Also, after enrollment I met someone who graduated from my high school with me. I thought that I recognized him (I don't know his name) and then he said "Minneapolis" to someone in my group so I asked. I don't know his name. He sorta recognized me? Or he at least said that he did. I don't know. I don't really care. But it was an interesting coincidence.



I keep expecting to run into The Doctor. I really really really want to run into The Doctor. I have it all planned out, I'm going to meet him, become his traveling companion, have crazy adventures and then die of happiness. The last little bit is subject to some change. I think I'd actually rather just keep traveling with him. Or maybe then finish up my degree. I look for the TARDIS on my walk to and from school despite knowing that I will probably not find it. No, I will tragically only find phone booths plastered with fantastically sketch photos of scantily clad women looking to service or permanently scar phone booth users. Alas, such is life. I love Doctor Who. It makes me so happy. I think I would have loved this country for giving me Doctor Who even if it totally sucked. Thankfully, it does not. It absolutely does not. (OH M G, I love this city!)



Also, their 10£ note has a picture of Darwin on it. DARWIN. And I saw a navigation tool at the British History Museum that was used by Darwin on the H.M.S. Beagle. Also, UCL's biosciences building is super Darwined out. I feel so at home. :) Here is to hoping that I don't get drunk at a pub and wind up with a tattoo of Darwin on my bicep. Or would that be cool? What if I started working out and then I could make Darwin talk by flexing. Hmmmm...it would be nice to have some incentive to do push-ups... Yes, this sounds like an excellent life plan.



I love the English accents and am delighted by the local vernacular. I'm determined to start using "dodgy" at least once a day. Also, saying "cheers" instead of "thanks" is super endearing. I may pick that up. I'm sorry if that's going to be a problem but it is probably going to happen. And "lift" instead of "elevator."

I'm going to try take more proper pictures, I'm still just soaking everything in though. Perhaps tomorrow when I plan to have an day of EPIC WANDERING, I will bother to take some awe inspiring pictures.

Madz is going down. She and her non-existant jeggins. I mean, I don't want to brag but...London has a China Town. Which is basically the same thing, right? Oh god, I'm really really sorry if that sounded racist. It was supposed to sound non-racistly competitive. But YEAH. Gauntlet? Thrown down.