Week 2: The "Study" Portion of "Studying Abroad"

Hello from Londontown!

The first day of classes was on 1/22. Mondays are my “busiest” days with three classes back to back starting at the aching hour of 12 noon starting with Management Information Systems. Everyone in my class had a foreign accent, including the teachers. I really enjoy it though; it is a part of being in Europe! More study-abroad students were in my next class, Principles of Marketing. We already have a group project due on Wednesday 1/31. I am out of my last class for the day – Theories & Systems of Psychology – and ready for dinner by 6:00 pm. All three of my classes are in different buildings about a five-minute’s walk away from each other. (At least I don’t have to trek up any hills!) To celebrate the ending of our first day of class, we (the girls and some new friends) went out to a pub on Gloucester Road. We didn’t stay too long because I had class early the next morning…

I walked into my class at 9:00 AM on Thursday (1/23) morning greeted by my first and only woman professor (I was stoked!). She teaches the class I was most looking forward to: Organisational Behaviour – the combination of business management and psychology. Yes, I *am* a nerd, and darn proud of it!

After Rasa got out of her class at 11:50, we walked down to High Street Kensington (aka High Ken) to purchase our ISIC (International Student Identity Card). We also scoped out the prices for our textbooks. Rasa is lucky enough to not have to buy more than 2 textbooks, where as I have 6 books to buy for only 4 classes. The class Rasa, Cloud, and I thought would be our “fun” class unfortunately was not what we were hoping for, so after a discussions at dinner, we decided to drop it.

So how is the food in the cafeteria? Not too bad. MSMC girls, imagine our old caf (not including the other dining area) cut in half! But the good thing? I don’t feel guilty eating potatoes and pasta in one meal. I need those carbs for all the walking that I do! We ended the school night with a few rounds of Uno and BS downstairs in the common room (which contains the ONLY TV I have seen all this time). I sure do miss my shows, but there’s always the DVD collection, right?

Rasa and I woke up Wednesday (1/24) morning to flurries on the bushes and cars outside our window! I grabbed my camera of course to capture the moment before it all melted away. We also stopped to take pictures of the ice/snow leftover on the cars. I don’t have class on Wednesdays until 3:00 in the afternoon! So, Rasa, Becca, and I went shopping at High Ken for Becca’s dress whose birthday we would celebrate on Saturday. We found an awesome dress just in time to get back to Atlantic (our dormitory). Rasa and I spent the rest of the day taking care of classes – dropping/adding as necessary. We are definitely lucky to have only 12 units that will transfer over. I am going to have to savor this semester because it will be the least amount of units I will ever take!

What do I absolutely love about Thursdays? I have only one class, which ends at 10:20 am. What does it mean when it is 10:21 am on a Thursday? My weekend officially begins! Love, LOVE, LOVE! What did I do? Go back to my room and NAP! We had some errands to do and I ended up buying my own cute little dress from French Connection UK. We then hopped on the tube to Bayswater, which has tons of places to eat. We ate at a great Pizza/Pasta restaurant in a shopping centre. (We will definitely have to go back and check out the shopping there!) We met up with a few of our new friend’s friends at a local pub afterwards. Gotta love 3-day weekends!

Something that is awesome about London is that you can soak up the culture by visiting their museums…FREE! On Friday 1/26, Rasa, Becca, Cloud, Christel (classmate from Chicago), and I visited Tate Modern, a power plant turned national museum. We gazed at original pieces of art from the 20th and 21st century like Picasso, Monet, and Matisse. We also enjoyed an exhibit called The Unilever Series: Carsten Höller. His “artwork” is called Test Site and is literary a series of slides. Not frames or picture slides, but slides, the kind you hop in and slide out of. What a blast! We did a “trial run” from the THIRD level before we each screamed and giggled our way down from the highest (5th) level! We quickly hopped back on the tube because I had a group project meeting. After dinner at the caf, we went out to a pub. Rasa and I called it an early night because we needed to be up early the next morning.

Saturday 1/26 was JAM-PACKED! Rasa and I woke up bright and early to meet my uncle at Piccadilly Circus (think NY Times Square – London style). He took us out for breakfast at Patisserie de Valerie in Soho followed by a walk-through of Chinatown (where he picked up some cheap calling cards for me). We strolled through Leicester Square (think Broadway) before crossing Embankment Bridge towards the London Eye. Our 30-minute “flight” was definitely worth the 2-hour wait! The sun peeked out just as we reached the very top. We enjoyed the 360-degree view of London and then headed back to the dorms to get ready because the night had just begun. The ladies and I dolled up for a night out to celebrate Becca’s 21st birthday! We hopped on the tube over to Piccadilly Circus and ate dinner in Chinatown. Then we strolled down the street over to O’Neill’s, a very popular 4-story bar. We toasted to Becca for turning the big 2-1 and danced the night away (on every floor!).

This has been Week 2 of my London adventure. Stay tuned; the fun has barely begun!

Love,
Danielle

Week 1: Orientation

Hi everyone!!!!

My first week in London has been AMAZING! The flight was long but overall pleasant and once we got to London, it was go GO GO! Fellow MSMC students here to Study abroad in London are Merrisa Alaniz (aka Rasa) who is also my roommate, Claudia Estupinian (aka Cloud), and Rebecca Perez (aka Becca) who are roommates just 2 floors below me.

On Tuesday (1/16) we moved in (onto the 3rd floor with no elevator!) and before we can even get situated, we took our first walking tour of London. We live in the Kensington Borough (socially comparable to Brentwood for L.A.). After the walk, however, I was obsessed with finding flip flops to use as shower shoes because I forgot to bring some. Finding flip flops in London during January is pretty tough, but we found some! ("Only" for 10 pounds of course!)

Rasa and I were woken up on Wednesday (1/17) by one of the program coordinators because the group was leaving in 10 minutes! Apparently, our clock radio's electricity was not fast enough to keep up...but either way, we had to rush to get ready to walk to our Welcome. After that, the day was just all about taking care of paperwork and necessities like Oyster Cards (for the Tube), and mobiles. Before long, we were off to our next walking tour - Jack the Ripper night tour. I didn't pay attention very well because I was taking photos, so maybe one of the other girls can fill you in.

We did not get much sleep Wednesday night due to our excitement that we were actually finally able to connect to the internet and that the wind was blowing hard against our window. We were able to crawl out of bed in time for our Bus Tour in the morning. We saw and stopped by landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, St. Paul's Cathedral, the City of London, and more! Then, we arrived back to our dorms a little past noon to take care of our course registration. I was able to add a 5th class, so we'll see how that goes...15 units is *not* bad! (Hopefully!)

That afternoon, Rasa and I met with my uncle who has been living in London for about 4 years now. He took us around a little bit and promised to take us to other sites like the London Eye in future weekends. That night, we went to see Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre. That was so great! I really enjoyed it. I definitely want to go see more plays while I am here.

Friday (1/19) was a little bit slower. We just had an orientation for the library in the morning. In the afternoon, the 4 of us went shopping for other necessities like detergent and school supplies (the paper is a different size here). That night, we went on another walking tour, which included 3 pub stops. The drinking age is 18 here, so allow me to insert this idiom: when in Rome (or in this case London) do as the Romans do! (*Responsibly*)

All of Saturday late morning until mid-afternoon was taken up by SHOPPING at Portobello Market. Think European downtown L.A. Antiques, fruits, vegetable, coffee shops, clothes, knock-off bags all around! A caution for "pick-pocketers" was at almost every corner it seemed. Not even a camera in every corner of London can stop someone from stealing valuables when we're walking so close to other people on a 3-ft wide pavement (aka sidewalk). We won’t let this keep us from shopping here again though!

Barely any time passes by before we had to be ready for our Orientation Boat Party on The Mercia at Embankment Pier. We danced and enjoyed the scenery as The Mercia went along River Thames. We met up with another MSMC student - Clarisse Velasco - who is interning here in London.

Wow, and that was the week! Rasa and I got much needed sleep last night. Now, we are just uploading and sharing pictures.

I miss the Mount and all of you of course and I don't think it has really hit me yet that I won't be back for another 3 months and 3 weeks. Classes start tomorrow, so I don't know how many pictures I will be taking, but you will still hear from me! Let me know how you are all doing as well!!!

Hugs all around,
Danielle