Settling In

  London, England, United Kingdom
Sunday, November 9, 2008

Wow! I've already been here 2 weeks (yeah, that's 1/4 the term!). London is a complete 180 from Holland ... we live in a building with 2,000 other students, we have to take the underground to school, Webster London is realllllllly disorganized (which as you may guess, I have no patience for), our group is separated in class and in our living situation, etc. It's been quite the adjustment!

Mind the Gap

So far our classes haven't been too bad. Our Arab-Israeli Conflict Professor is apparently the leading expert on the subject, which is awesome. He is really laid back and manages to crack a joke or two while talking about such a serious subject. Our Research Methods professor, on the other hand, is brand new. Like our first class was her first time on campus, kind of new. As you might guess that means she feels the need to follow all of the rules, which is super lame. That combined w/ the fact that she has no sense of humor ... oh, and that she teaches RESEARCH METHODS, is enough for anyone to want to severely hurt themselves!

During my first week here I managed to have quite a bit of fun. We've found some nice English pubs to hang out at in the evenings. We walked around a bit and found Piccadilly Circus (Everyone acts like it's a big deal, but it's a lame version of Times Square). We also carved pumpkins for Halloween. They don't really celebrate Halloween like we do, so we brought a little Halloween to London.

Us in Picadilly Square

Carving Pumpkins

If you haven't heard, London has quite the Theater Scene (both for plays and movies). Our student ID's get us amazing discounts ... if you show up on the day you want to see the play, as a student you can get the best available seat for 25 pounds. Last Friday we got 6th row seats for "Avenue Q" ... it's the one with the puppets. It has got be one of the funniest things I have ever seen. It included such songs as, "It's OK to be gay," "The internet is for porn," and "Everyone's a little bit racist." Saturday we hoped to cash in on our student discounts at Lion King, but they are hateful and only give discounts during the week. So, we headed to Hairspray. We got 1st and 2nd row tickets, which were a little close, but still really good! The most entertaining thing is watching them try to cover up their British accents to talk like Americans ... some are definitely better than others!

Avenue Q

Sunday afternoon we headed to the new Bond film. It premiered here in London last Wednesday. It was pretty good! Just thought I'd rub it in your face that I could see it before you ;).

There hasn't been time for the theatre this week. I had class Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday night, I made the poor life choice of staying up allllllllllll night to watch the election coverage. It only started here at 11:00pm. We played beer pong to get us through the first couple hours ... my team won 5-0!!. (Note, we have nothing that would come close to qualifying as a beer pong table, so we stacked a bunch of coffee tables on top of each other ... it was awesome, see the pictures). Everyone slowly trickled out throughout the night. I think I was up the latest. I fell asleep somewhere between McCain's concession speech and Obama's acceptance. The final results only came in about 5:30am London time ... My sleep schedule will never be the same.

Beer Pong Set-Up

Beer Pong

Wednesday I slept the majority of the day and then we were forced to attend a Chinese and Japanese Business Etiquette talk (What I learned = they have a lot of rules). Wednesday was also Guy Fox day. Our talk ended just in time to catch the huge fireworks display held in the park outside our school. Thursday night I had to go to a Chatham House (it's a think tank) Discussion on Business and Human Rights. Afterward I headed out w/ the rest of the gang to celebrate Alycia's (a girl in our group) birthday. We managed to have way too much fun! It reminded me of the good ole days at Murphey's!

Friday night we were more or less forced to go to the Webster welcome party (2 weeks in ... sooooo welcoming). After our official appearance was made, we headed to see Burn After Reading ... definitely not what I was expecting, but pretty funny.

Saturday London held the "Lord Mayor's Show." From what I understand of the whole thing ... it's a tradition in which the Lord Mayor (the elected Mayor) must present himself to the King/Queen for approval. It's basically a giant procession (read: Parade). It probably would have been really fun if, you know, it didn't rain all the time in London! I'm not sure I have ever been that soaked and cold!! At least we got to see an entire band dressed up as Batman.

Rainy Parade

Band of Batmans

We also got a little lost and came across the London Bridge ... much to my surprise it hadn't fallen down (haha ... soooo funny ;)

Sarah and I at London Bridge

London Bridge

That's about all I have to report. Thanks to everyone who continues to send email updates and comments!
Cheers!
Becca


P.S. Hola Jose!