Wednesday: At some point on the flight it turned into Wednesday. Tried to sleep since we were due to arrive at 7am local time (2am EST), but unfortunately it didn't work. Gave up and watched a couple movies, read, etc. Seven hour flights seem so short to me after so many Asia trips. We arrived 40 minutes ahead of schedule somehow, but then waited in a very long line at immigration. Once we cleared that and customs with no problems, we found the Underground and headed into the city. It was very good that we arrived early because we were supposed to meet Jamie outside the Camden Town tube stop at 9:30 and got there at 9:20. Jamie also studied at Longwood. She graduated with me in 2009, but went straight into her masters at UCL (Public Archaeology) and is now going into her second year as a PhD student at King's College London. I'm thinking the UCL Institute of Archaeology just needs to merge with Longwood lol. Meghan will be sharing a flat with Jamie and two British students Jamie knows. I'm staying with them until I get my housing assignment from UCL. Federal loans can only be used for university housing.
Jamie's parents are also visiting right now. Her UCL graduation is next week. It's held a year after you finish! Crazy! I wonder if I'll even be able to come to mine? I had been a little confused as to our end date. Classes technically end June 8, but the course is listed as being a full calendar year, going until September 25 of next year. Since graduations are held at the beginning of September, the masters students hold their graduation ceremony the following year. That's all thesis writing time. So I guess it just depends on how fast you write your thesis. I think I'm going to have to write fast if I were to apply to an American PhD program because US schools start at the end of August. Jamie said it can be done but to make sure you talk to your adviser about it at the very beginning. I'll definitely be doing that because right now I'm thinking that is my number one choice for next year. Or maybe I'll have to take a gap year and get a job or do a UK doctorate program (which only takes three years by the way) or maybe just stop at the masters and get a job... Right now my goal is to be a professor, which means I would definitely want that doctorate, but we'll just have to see how this year goes and where the Lord leads!
So Jamie and her mom met us and we took our stuff to the flat. Then we walked to UCL and found the finance people so I could sign my loan paperwork that I didn't get in the US. Then we went to housing to pester them about not knowing my assignment yet and to make sure I was getting one. They said that I should be getting one and know it by Friday.
Jamie gave us a bit of a tour around the campus and showed us where some monks hand out free lunch everyday on the University of London (UL) campus which is pretty much merged with our campus. We ate their lunch, which they apparently do to promote their vegetarianism. It was a vegetable curry and it was very delicious! I'm told that they tend to serve something with a lot of vegetables and potatoes or rice, meaning gluten free! I'm totally making a point of being there as much as possible!
Free lunch! (Jamie left, Meghan center)
The lunch perked me up a bit after not sleeping all night, walking all morning, and having not eaten since a PB&J when I got on the plane. Then we walked to the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons - totally up Meghan's alley! It was definitely interesting for me, too, after taking anatomy last year. The Science Museum was open for special late hours (no children allowed), so we went there as well. Both of these were free! Meghan and I ended up leaving before Jamie and her mom though to go crash for the night... We had be up waaaay too long!!!
Tours given at the Science Museum are done in cockroach costumes. Don't ask. I didn't.
Just outside the Camden Town tube station.
All in all, my first impression of the city is that I can totally live here for the year no problem. It's got a good feel to it. I feel comfortable so far.
Thursday: Meghan got an email that her letter from UCL that is needed to open a bank account here was ready (I can't get mine until I have an address), so we went back to the Institute to pick it up, to the bank, back to the Institute when the bank wanted it addressed specifically to them and not 'To Whom it May Concern', back to the bank, and then to a different bank Jamie uses to exchange cash
(Check out the upper right... hehe)
From there we walked to Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. Jame's Park, Piccadilly Circus, and Chinatown. We didn't go into Westminster or the Palace because you have to pay and we don't have our school IDs for the student discount yet. So that's an adventure for later. Plus, you can only get into Buckingham Palace once a year!
Big Ben
Westminster Abbey
We planned to have dinner in Chinatown at a restaurant Jamie claimed to be authentic. I was a bit skeptical at first because I've never had food I felt was truly authentic outside of China itself, but when she said that a Chinese student is the one who showed it to her and that Chinese people actually eat there my hopes rose. It turned out to be really good! The only thing that I can say wasn't authentic was that they had removed the bones from the meat and I was okay with that! They also had my favorite spicy green bean dish. I'll definitely be returning. From there we went to a gelato place called Scoop that Jamie said is the best around. Oh man it was sooooo good. We were going to walk around the riverfront, but Meghan and I were cold (I feel like I skipped a season and it's like the end of October or something) so we decided to head back and do that another day.
Friday: First order of business was to go back to the Accommodation Office because I hadn't received an email about my living assignment. We were told to come back at 3:30 because the guy in charge would be in by then. In the meantime we went to the British Museum, which is right next to campus and free! There we got to rant about how the Elgin Marbles were damaged when they were forcibly removed from the Parthenon and should be returned to Greece. It was really cool though because I felt like I was literally walking through my survey of art history book. So many of the standard artifacts are there. I thought it was particularly cool to see the Mesopotamian art.
Straight out of my first art history textbook.
Notice it has five legs. This was so it would look normal from both the side and the front!
Once back at the Accommodation Office, I was given the choice between an expensive single en suite on campus or a cheap single a 40 minute walk away from campus. I said I'd walk. It's ten minutes past Meghan and Jamie's place, so I'll be near them, getting exercise, and not paying an arm and a leg! It's also a building full of graduate students. Jamie lived her UCL year in a single on a hall full of freshmen (called freshers here as opposed to our term freshies). SO glad that didn't happen to me!
Just inside the UCL main gate.
After that we went to Borough Market. It's an open air market full of various vendors selling things such as cheese, wine, baked goods, homemade jams, fresh fruit and vegetables, and meat pies. I found a gluten free bakery vendor! That was exciting. I got a chocolate ginger cake and it was delicious. She said next week she would have bread, so I plan on going back. We had a glass of wine and a cheese board at The George, a super old tavern, London's only surviving galleried coaching inn. Then we headed back to Camden Town.
Hmm good thing I didn't have a horse... lol And it was rebuilt in 1676. I think there was something that said the original inn on the site was sometime back in the 12/1300s!
Saturday: Meghan went to the races with Jamie and her family, so I was left on my own. Until my loan money comes in I'm only doing the free stuff! I enjoyed getting to explore by myself. I'm the kind of person that will just wander around everywhere until I figure the place out. I walked down to Trafalgar again, so that I could go in The National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. I definitely recommend both! Then I wandered around the area of Piccadilly Circus and Chinatown. I got to actually explore Chinatown this time. A couple days ago we ate dinner, but that was it. I was very pleased to find some authentic Chinese food marts! They have my favorite coconut juice!! Then I walked back to campus and explored it more before walking back to Camden.
Trafalgar Square
Chinatown
You're not in Farmville anymore!
I did a little grocery shopping and cooked for the first time since we got here. I also finally found a gluten free section in the store! It's really small, but at least it's something. I'm told that there are other places to go with more stuff but they're more expensive. There was one kind of gluten free cereal, so I bought it to try and thankfully it was good! It's like a cocopuff but made with quinoa so it's healthier! I think I'm going to be eating a lot of potatoes, eggs, and yogurt because they're cheap!
Sunday: A couple weeks ago at Mouth Ararat, Pastor Todd told me he has a friend named Mark in London and connected us on Facebook. Mark spoke very highly of Chiswick Baptist Church so I decided to pay it a visit. It's a small congregation. They were quite welcoming and the preaching was on point. They also sing traditional hymns. I have a feeling my mom would love it. Mark couldn't be there that morning because he was traveling back from another part of Britain, but he said he was going to tell the pastor I was coming. When the service ended and someone across the aisle shook my hand and asked my name and then responded "Oh, Erin from Virginia?" I realized he had told more than one person! Turns out this person, Joe, is from Kentucky and the pastor and his wife are from Maryland! I stayed for lunch (they eat lunch in the basement after Sunday morning service) and realized just how international the congregation is. I had Joe on my right, a French lady to my left, an Italian man across from me, and a bunch of Philippinos cooked the lunch! The fact that the Philippinos are the cooks is very good for me because it means rice!
They invited me back for the evening service at 6, but since it had taken me an hour on the tube to get there I was thinking I probably wouldn't make it back. Then on the tube I realized I was going to pass through South Kensington Station, which is where a ton of museums are (It's actually called Exhibition Road!) so I got off and went to the Victoria & Albert ("the world's greatest museum of art and design" as they call themselves). It was awesome!!! Definitely my favorite so far. And I'm such a nerd that I actually took notes. In my defense, there's a bunch of stuff there that I know will be part of my research!
Next I realized that I could go back to Chiswick for the evening service because I was still closer to there than to Camden. This would be good because I could get a further feel for the church, so I went. Mark was at the evening service and everyone there thought it was funny that I hadn't met him yet. Turns out he had met Pastor Todd when Todd came to GB on a mission trip several years ago and then Mark had spent time in the US staying at Todd's house, going to Mount Ararat and teaching (I think kind of like Longwood's partnership or practicum) at Garrisonville Elementary! This was in the spring of 2004, so it was my senior year of high school and was still around. I vaguely remember someone staying with Todd, but Mount Ararat is a very large church.
Again, the preaching was great and the people fun to be with. That night they didn't have set hymns to sing but asked people to choose them as they went. I only knew one of them (Come Thou Fount)!! So weird! Oh and I forgot to mention they preach from the King James Bible. Double weird!! But I still felt that I wanted to come again, so I expect I will. There is a genuineness there.
When I got back to the flat, Meghan was the only one there and said Jamie was staying with her parents, so we ate dinner and chilled. I had some leftover chicken roast Jamie's mom had left for me and I finished off my chocolate ginger cake!
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