Choices to Be Made

Not that I have a lot of experience or anything, but ..... it seems to me that pubs in Europe are different places than bars in the United States. Still in other ways, these places are very much the same, and I am sure we'll see plenty of bars here too.

Be that as it may, the drinking age in England is indeed 18, so even our host agency plans social events at the local pub for us "global citizens," and if you think there are lots to choose from on the Main Line ..... well just imagine.

The beer is dark, served at almost room temperature, and it's not cheap. Some of us have been out every night since we arrived. Others, less frequently. How you spend your evenings and on what you plan to spend your money are things to think about.... And that's just for starters.

There are lots of choices that anyone planning to study abroad has to make. While it helps that Villanova GCPers have already been in class with each other for a semester, we only have impressions of each other. Assumptions are easily made, and "going along, just to get along" is an easy decision - but maybe not the right decision for everyone.

The First Week

Day 6: A More Official Tour of London

After another late morning of sleep, we got ready for our official tour of London with a licensed guide. Since I hadn’t done any real sight-seeing as of yet, I was especially excited for this trip, even though we knew we wouldn’t really have time to stay anywhere for long. From our flat we hopped on the tube and traveled to Westminster. Our first stop, of course, was the Abbey, which houses the tombs of figures such as Charles Dickens and Darwin.

Right “next door” we got a glimpse of Big Ben and the Parliament building. Some day in the not too distant future, I hope to make it there some Wednesday at noon, when the Prime Minister has question time.

It will be absolutely fascinating to see the way their government works, especially after taking Comparative Government last year at good old NDA! We continued to walk past the old Scotland Yard building and the London Eye before reaching Trafalgar Square where Napoleon’s forces were defeated. When we have more time, I'll be sure to get more pictures!

As we walked towards the bus stop to ride through Fleet Street, we passed lots of great theaters! I discovered that Criminal Minds star Mandy Patinkin is doing a London concert series, found the England’s National Opera House (which is featuring La Boheme) and saw the theaters for Avenue Q, Oliver, and Hamlet, currently starring David Tennant!

After another “theater dork” moment, we boarded our first red double-decker bus (top level of course) to ride down Fleet Street, home of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber. On this street are the places of the original barber and pie shops (now occupied by a Starbucks and McDonalds) as well as the building that was used as Gringots Wizard Bank in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Again, a huuuuuggeeeeee dork moment for me. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any good pictures from the bus, but I have the feeling I’ll be back there several times! We got off the bus minutes later at Saint Paul’s Cathedral, which is absolutely gorgeous. Images of Mary Poppins immediately popped into my mind as we approached the steps to take pictures. We'll put this stop high on our agenda for a return visit.

After walking around the perimeter of the church and about halfway across the Millennium Bridge, we heading back to South Kensington for the rest of the day. Dinner out was at Nando’s, our local “don’t get lost” landmark. A showing of the DVD Made of Honor on Krista’s laptop rounded off another great day. (Our flats do come equipped with televisions, but about all we can get is the BBC!)

Day 4 (Thursday): Pub Night and a Show

Today was a wonderful day. I slept in until noon, so it already is feeling like home here! Andrew and I went exploring in Piccadilly, and decided to check out the half price ticket booths for the West End shows. The theater dork in me definitely loves this city! Since we went day of, good seats were kind of limited, but we got great seats to see Chicago for only 24 pounds! Needless to say, I was incredibly excited. Andrew got to see a whole different side of me!

We walked around the city for another two hours, to find the theater we were going to go to later that night, and I am in love with it, it’s like a mini New York, but with British people! Soon it was time to head back to the flat and get ready for pub night with EUSA and the rest of the group. Tonight we went to the Prince Regent Pub, which could easily be the nicest one in our neighborhood.

After staying an hour for food and drinks, Andrew and I left to get ready for the theater. My sense of direction turned out to be excellent (if I do say so myself). I got us to the Cambridge Theater quickly and took our seats for the show: my first West End production. The two and a half hours flew by. The show was amazing, and as with many shows in New York, I was astounded by the level of talent here. Sure, it wasn’t one of my favorite shows in the world, but it was impressive nonetheless. I can’t wait to see some of my all time favorite shows while I’m here, like Phantom and Les Miz! Definitely a productive and enjoyable day across the pond!

Day 3 (Wednesday): First Class

This morning we woke up to get ready for class at 9:00. Not too bad considering I had all 8:30 classes last semester, and this time around it only takes me about five minutes to walk to the EUSA building. This morning we had Business Dynamics II for four hours with Professor Richard Tudway. Although we were all kind of nervous about having the same class in the same room with the same teacher for four hours, it went by surprisingly fast.

I absolutely adore being taught by British people, and I’m sure they could make even the most boring subjects seem like the most fascinating things in the world to talk about. From what I’ve heard so far, it seems like our class schedule and work is going to be pretty intense, but it will be nice to get into a routine here. Hopefully, I’ll be able to start walking in Hyde Park, which is gorgeous. I need to try to get up early while I’m here. I don’t want to miss a minute of this experience. The night was rather uneventful; I stayed in, talked to my parents, and played some scrabble before going to bed. It’s going to be a good semester!

Day 2 (Tuesday): Orientation and Scavenger Hunt

This morning we woke up and headed over to the EUSA office for our first full day orientation. After learning more about London, our neighborhood in South Kensington, and the do’s and don’ts of interning, we were given a scavenger hunt list that was designed to take us all over London. Before heading out for our day of adventuring, my team: Krista, Andrew, Jen, and I, headed back to the flat to figure out the clues and plan our route. Since we were told that we wouldn’t be able to find everything on the list in the four hours we were given, we chose to find the destinations with the highest point values.

The hunt was made up of different clues pointing us to some of the lesser known attractions of London, like the statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Garden. My favorite part of the day, by far, was our walk around Piccadilly Circus, the Times Square of London.

We saw tons of theaters, doing productions of all my favorite shows, and plenty of stores and sights to visit later. The final clue led us back to South Kensington to a pub for dinner, where we calculated our results.

In the end, my team pictured below lost by one point, but the knowledge we gained was invaluable. Not only did we get some great exercise, we got lots of practice using the Tube, and found some good landmarks that will help us get around the city. After spending some time with my fellow GCPers at the pub and in the flat, I skyped with my parents before ending my second day in London.

Departure & Arrival

Saying goodbye at the airport was really sad, but thank goodness for the technology of today! Skype is going to be my new best friend, I can tell. The flight was rather uneventful despite the news of snow flurries in London. I was able to get a little bit of sleep, and Krista and I were even graced with the presence of Alan Rickman on our flight. Unfortunately, I realized that Bottle Shock was one of the in-flight movies too late. I woke up just in time to watch the last scene. Regardless, it was a great way to start of the trip! After a long 7-hour flight, we’re finally in London. It still doesn’t feel like I’m here.

Once we got to London, maneuvering around Heathrow airport was pretty easy. We picked up carts, got our luggage, asked where the Krispy Kreme was, and waited for Kaitlin, our EUSA contact, to come pick us up. We were the first flight to arrive and had some waiting to do, but airport WIFI made the time fly by. Soon, we were on a bus headed to our flats at Manson Place.

The street we live on is beautiful, as are most of the streets here in South Kensington. Since this is a residential borough of London, most of the buildings look the same. Hopefully that won’t be too much of a problem when we try to find our way around!

Krista, Libby, Hannah and I headed down to Flat 1 to unpack before our short walking tour later on in the afternoon. Our flat is quaint, with one large bedroom, a common room, a kitchen, and, of course, a bathroom.

After our refreshing two hour nap, we headed out to meet Kaitlin in front of our building. She showed us all sorts of useful things, like the local tube station and grocery stores. Most importantly, she took us past the EUSA building, which is basically like our own Global Citizens embassy. We can get all the information we could ever need about London there, and will also be taking our classes there as well. After the tour we picked up some things at the grocery store before heading back to our new home. Finally, somewhat jetlagged and well fed, I talked to my parents before turning in early for a much needed night of sleep. Welcome to London!