Thursday, September 23, 2010

I have made it to London!

Hey!

I know it's been almost a week and I haven't updated the blog yet, so there may be a lot more information in this post than you actually care about, so just bear with me.

I left Chicago on Sunday and began my LONG trip to London. The problem with the flight was that I left at 6:15 Chicago time and arrived in Dublin at 1:20 Chicago time, so I was not able to fall asleep at all on the plane, as I don't normally go to bed until 1 or 2 in the morning anyway. So, I got to Dublin about 20 minutes early and raced to the gate for my flight to London. On that flight, I managed to fall asleep for about 30 minutes. Then, when we arrived in London, it was about noon London time, or 6AM Chicago time, so I was exhausted and getting a little loopy. Combine that with trying to lug two enormous suitcases around a very confusing airport, and being unable to find the taxis, after asking 2 or 3 people, and it was a very dramatic first hour in London. I eventually found the taxi and was just coherent enough to give him my address. He was very friendly and got me to my dorm, where I had to register and figure out how to get to my room (it's really confusing, even now).

As for my dorm, there are four wings, each labeled with a different world city (London, Paris, Rome, and New York). I live in New York. My floor is pretty awesome, and I like everyone that I've met here. There are usually people around and most of the time, they keep their doors open, so it's easy to just pop in and out of people's rooms. My room is a little bare and depressing, but I am planning on making a wall of postcards and letters, so if anyone wants to send me some, I'd really appreciate it!

What I have done so far since getting to London...Monday night, a few of the people from my floor and I went to a bar to watch a soccer game. After that, we came back to the dorm for a little while, and then the guys and I and a few different girls went to another, American themed, bar where they play American sports on the televisions. It was really fun, and I met some British guys who offered to buy me drinks. We got back to the dorms at about 1:30AM, which is apparently late for London. Then yesterday, we had the meetins with our departments and I have chosen my classes! I'll be taking Chaucer, Modern English Language, Modern Period I, and London in Literature. I also met some people who are also in the English department and are here for the entire year, so I won't be totally alone next semester!

Last night, a few of the girls from the floor and I went out to Soho to get dinner, and we ran across the London premiere of Eat, Pray, Love. We couldn't quite see, but we were SOOO close to Julia Roberts! It was insane, in the best possible way. Once all the celebrities went inside the theater, we left and found an Italian place where I come some amazing tortellini. We then returned to the dorm and I was apparently way more exhausted than I thought, because I fell asleep almost immediately and slept for 10 hours.

Today, I went to a talk on Living in London, which seems like it's going to be very helpful. I then made my first international friend, a girl named Janna from Germany, who I'll be hanging out with tomorrow on the London bus tour. I also signed up for a Jack the Ripper walking tour, and meant to sign up for one of the club outings, until I realized I didn't have enough cash on me at the time, so I'll just have to go back tomorrow and do that.

That's about it for now. London is awesome and I'm so glad I decided to come. There will hopefully be more updates in the near future, so until then!

Love,
Emily

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