That first night, I basically just ate and went to bed. The next day I got up and went to our welcome talk, which was pretty standard as far as universities go. We're excited to have you here, London is really big, academics come first, we're taking your money, etc and then we moved onto enrolment. This is where I began to realize how much better our university systems work. We had to wait in line for two hours just to get our ID cards and school usernames/passwords. Thankfully, I used that time to make a couple friends. I've lost touch with one since but one I ended up spending a lot of time with. Her name is Emily, she goes to American, and she's studying political science. I was glad I made one friend then because they basically had no events planned for us to meet people. Everything here is really about doing it on your own.
That day we did a little exploring. We walked around Regent's Park a little bit (it is really big so I have a lot of left to see) and we took a few shots.
Regent's Park (ten minute walk away - loves it)
Naturally we decided to go to a traditional English pub for dinner and had fish and chips! Photo op!
so fried
I'm not really sure how to describe it. I mean, I went to Paris and everything was absolutely delicious (and had to have some type of bread in it). I came here and everything is...fried. Or has a lot of butter. The first night at the dining hall I kind of felt like I was just nibbling on a stick of butter rather than eating real food. Anyway, we went out a bar called "Vibe" that we found in the guide book, but were way too tired still to stay very long. We had to walk through Brick Lane to get there though, and let me say, we were not at all prepared! Brick Lane is known for its Indian food. When you walk down the street, people from the restaurants accost you and yell different deals at you. It basically just sounds like random numbers. "17% here! Free bottle of wine here! 23% off here!" Since we weren't going to dinner that night, it was kind of annoying, but we are definitely returning when we are actually in the mood for some Indian food.
The rest of the week was just spent at various welcome talks. Computer use, libraries, blah, blah, blah. I probably could've just skipped the whole thing to be honest, but it was good way to have something to talk about with new people. People went out basically every night because we hardly had anything to do. It's nice being able to relax in a pub at night, instead of just sitting around someone's room. The atmosphere is so much more lively. Especially with the pubs around here - everyone is a student at UCL. It's a great place to meet people and have a drink. The one near us, The Court, is where people hang out the most. It's only a couple blocks away and if you buy a "yellow card" you get 40 pence off all drinks!
The first couple nights we went to a club called Roxy, which is within walking distance (we have an excellent location in central London). The first night was fun, the music was basically popular songs with techno beats added. The second night was one of the most bizarre nights of music I have ever experienced. It started with some songs that were popular about...ten years ago. Then it just went insane. First he would play Johnny Cash, then Madonna, then rap music. It was so bizarre. I went to make a request and he didn't have any Britney Spears, Kesha, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, or Pussycat Dolls. We had a serious crisis on our hands. Finally, I had a brilliant idea. Me: "Spice Girls?" DJ: "YES!!!" So after he was done playing "Rock Around the Clock" we moved onto "Spice up your Life." So. Strange. He later played some Lady Gaga, and some more '50s classics. Just a very strange night all around.
The next day we finally did some sightseeing and went to the British Museum (which is only a fifteen minute walk away - I actually had class there today!). The place was enormous so we only managed to cover a little bit. The odd thing about it is that almost nothing in it is British. Our first stop was the Rosetta Stone, probably the best known object in there.
me + Rosy. She is pretty useful
pharoahs weren't exactly lookers
recreation of something ancient and important
chillin with some Romans
he's seen better days
twinsies
The place was filled with stuff from Ancient Greece and Rome! It was crazy to think how old some of those things were. Some were 5, 000 years old. That's such a long time. Imagine how many times Madonna could have reinvented herself in that time? Or how many times Lindsay Lohan could rebuild and ruin her career? The possibilities are endless.
The first weekend was pretty quiet, we were all burnt out from the week. I finally met a cool group of people on my hall and we hung out at the school's union pub (yeah, the student union has a pub) and the drinks were really cheap! It was nice to have a relaxing, not too expensive night. Sunday night was our first big school event, which was at a club called Koko. It was awesome! The place used to be a theater and they converted it into a nightclub. There is a big dance floor where the orchestra seats would have been and you can chill out on the balconies overlooking the dance floor. The dj was on the stage going crazy.
That pretty much sums up the first week! More to come from induction week/freshers week/sightseeing adventure! Only a week behind now!
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