Hilarious Anecdote No. 1

Yesterday I took a stroll down to the Parliament building and Westminster Abbey, to take some pictures of Big Ben (which is, random fact, actually the name of the bell and not the clock or the tower) and the cool buildings. I was being all touristy, wandering around with my giant camera.

It was getting late and I had to be at my prospective flat for a viewing pretty soon so I went to check my phone for the time. For some reason my phone would not turn on; it just kept going blank and then restarting. After about five minutes of this, I was getting worried because I wasn't sure how much time I had to get to my very important appointment. So I'm rushing to the tube station, worrying like crazy that I've lost track of time, and getting increasingly angrier at my stupid phone.

I was just about to give up and ask someone for the time when I realized. I'm basically directly under Big Ben. Which has what on it exactly? Oh yeah, A GIANT CLOCK. So I'd essentially been wandering around for ten minutes stressing about what time it was and the entire time, all I needed to do was look up.

Rain

So I still don't have a place to live... :(  It's a mess.

But what I do have is a cool British university email address. So that's kinda like a real address.

On another note, I started class today. It seems like the professor is super awesome and I'm really looking forward to it. Not looking forward to the fact that there are only two graded assignments for the whole year. Yikes. Add that one to my Con list.

And it's rained the past two days. Like really rained. I actually saw on the news today that there is serious flooding happening in certain areas because we're getting a whole month's worth of rain in 24 hours. There's that British weather I've heard so much about. Fun stuff.

Epic Win

Today I was feeling rather accomplished (I successfully traded in my crappy phone and plan for a better one; I opened a bank account; and I mailed some important paperwork--all before noon) so I decided to do some more touristy stuff because, hey, I'm in London. So I went to a Twinings shop (decided I will be doing a lot of Christmas shopping there), I walked around the area my school's in, and I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was pretty sweet and they have a huge assortment of stuff (I saw samurai swords, sculptures by Rodin, designer gowns, Japanese Lolita outfits--definitely the strangest exhibit, and ancient doors).

However, the highlight of my day was on my way through the tube station to the museum. There was a guy playing a harp and as I walked by him he started playing...wait for it...the Harry Potter theme song. On a harp. I died. Definitely one of those moments when I wished there was someone with me so we could've had a moment. Instead I awkwardly looked at the people around me to see if anyone else appreciated it as much as I did. No such luck.

Lesson One on the Brits

So one useful thing I learned at my orientation for foreign folks is that the Brits are rather passive-aggressive (this is coming from a Brit so any Brits who might read this--don't know why they would anyway--cannot get angry with me. In the words of our orientation leader, Brits do a lot of "tutting." While this trait might be annoying to some, I am overjoyed. I am definitely a "tutter," I just never knew to describe it like that. Basically, if there's something that annoys someone, instead of saying something directly to the person creating said annoyance, a "tutter," will stand by and just be very annoyed and sigh and glare. But no direct action. God forbid. "Tutting" is one of my favorite pastimes because I hate confrontation but I love letting people subtly (or maybe not so subtly) know that they're annoying the hell out of me. So in conclusion, I think the Brits and me should get along just fine.

(On a side note, I just noticed that my blog has a co.uk address and this makes me super happy.)

Pros/Cons

So obviously I haven't been in London for all that long so there's still a lot of time for me to discover things I love and things I hate about living here, but here are some of my initial pros and cons after my first five days.

Pro: Digestives! These little cookies/crackers/biscuits made up like 40% of my diet in Kenya. And I'm so excited to have them again.

Pro: Public transportation! As I haven't had to deal with any major delays or anything yet, I'm still pretty pleased with the transport system. It's great after being in Rhode Island and Vermont all of the last year.

Pro/Con: The British accent. I love it. But half the time, I have no idea what people are saying. I guess when British people are in American movies they cater to us so we can actually understand what they're saying.

Con: Having no place to live. My space in the hostel is literally a cubby with a mattress in it. I bang my knees or elbows at least five times a night.

Con: A lack of American football. I suppose this means I now have to get into the other, more boring football.

Pro: How unbelievably diverse the city is. In five days, I've met and befriended people from the following countries: Spain, Germany, France, England (obviously), Portugal, Argentina, Slovenia, and Norway.

Is it awesome? It's pretty awesome. (Ten points to Gryffindor if you can name that quote. And no it's not Harry Potter; I'm just mixing my references.)

Cheers mate!

So here I am. In London. Still no flat but that should be remedied soon (fingers crossed). I know everyone's been clamoring for me to create a blog (by everyone I mean my mom and Mady) so here it is! Here I'll document all the excitement, confusion, and craziness of living in London for a year. Look forward to more posts (and photos, hopefully) soon!