Arrival in London (orientation and otherwise)

'ello govna!

I've finally gotten to London! And I am officially and completely in love with this city. I already feel at home here. Our orientation period consisted of tons of paperwork and lectures, a bus tour, an intro to the London underground, a ferry ride to Greenwich, a theater (or theatre) performance at the Globe, and a market crawl at 8am this morning. Granted, I have seen a lot of London in the past couple days, but after the market crawl today it was sooo nice to get my room together - unpacking, buying groceries, etc. Despite being busy and very tired I wake up every morning in awe that I'm actually living in London!

I can already tell that I'm going to have an amazing time here. I've met some really wonderful people from all over the country. Funnily enough though, my roommate Anjali is from the town where I was born, and three students here I've never met before all known someone I went to high school with! There is so much to see in this world - I've been learning that more and more every day - but sometimes the it really does seem so small.

Everything we've done over the past five days has been a highlight, but my favorites have been seeing Shakespeare's Love's Labor's Lost at the Globe and the market crawl this morning. I'm not a huge Shakespeare fan, especially when I don't know the story line because I honestly can't follow the plot, but I really enjoyed last night's performance! Yeah, I didn't have any idea what was going on, but the actors were beyond incredible and even without a plot the show was one of the funniest I have ever seen :-D Also, since we are all poor students we paid 5 quid (ha! I'm getting the lingo down...) for a standing spot right below the stage. While we were tired from walking around Greenwich earlier that day and it was late and cold and damp it was the experience that was worth it. The original Globe burned down, but the new building is in the same place and is an exact replica so it was really like it would have been in Shakespeare's time. I felt like a peasant! And one thing I have always loved about London is it's history and watching the show from this angle was like stepping backwards in time...

As for the market, I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did because we had been running around since Wednesday morning and the market crawl was at eight o'clock this morning and all I wanted to do was sleep. But I begrudgingly got up and took the long and complicated bus ride to the Columbia Flower Market. As soon as I saw all the shops like little English tea shops and garden sheds I wanted to buy a little country cottage and grow herbs... Seriously though, I bought three pots of basil, lavender, and rosemary! I don't know, something about the atmosphere and English men shouting, "Three for a fiver!" got me in the mood! I'm sneaky though, the neighborhood I'm in is super expensive so I'm really saving money by growing my own basil! You know - because I use so much basil and rosemary in my college student life. Whatever, I feel English now. So we walked through the Columbia Market, then over to Brick Lane which is the Bangladesh community in London that has a great street market not unlike a huge garage sale on the weekends. Our last stop was Spitalfields, the biggest of the three even with the ongoing construction. The stands had lots of homemade jewelery, clothes, bread, and soaps. I had to restrain myself but I did make a great find! When I was little I had a pair of really pretty red coral earrings shaped like roses that I adored. If I remember correctly I bought them at a street market in Italy. When I eventually lost them I was devastated. Until today when I found them at this stall run by two old men! The markets are relatively cheap so I swept up the last pair as fast as I could. Honestly though, the thing I love about markets (and the thing that also frustrates me) is that everything is constantly bustling and changing and you never know what you're going to find.

I'm starting to feel more like a Londoner though. I have an Oyster pass, which is this weekly travel card that all the commuters carry that gives you unlimited travel in certain zones. Every time I go through the till to get to the subway - sorry, tube - I feel so cool and urban! I can now wander the streets of my new neighborhood, Chelsea, without getting lost, and slowly but surely I am training myself to look right then left before crossing the street in order to avoid getting hit by a big red bus.

As for my neighborhood, it is really "posh" according to the locals. A lot of famous people have lived and do currently live here. Hugh Grant actually lives a couple doors down from my residence hall! Johnny Depp is filming here (yeah I know, I've got my binoculars and lasso at the ready), and Prince Harry was at the bar down the road! I promise I'll invite you to the royal wedding... And for those girls my age, 7 Pembrook Lane from the Parent Trap (the mother's house) is on my way to the tube! I'm really lucky to be living in such a beautiful and safe neighborhood. Yet another reason to love the home I'm building here.

Tomorrow I interview for an internship my program set up for me at the Royal Academy of Arts. If I get it I'll be working two full days a week on top of my classes, but the RA is really prestigious and the internship sounds like a lot of fun and great way to really integrate myself into British society, so I really hope I get it. Then on Tuesday I start classes, all based on British society - British Women Writers, British Women's History, British Youth Culture, and British Architecture. I swear, when I'm done here I'll probably know more about this country than the locals...

Cheers!