“It may be poor for your psychie”

In the past couple of days lots of new things have been happening here in London for me.  Yesturday was my birthday, and when I wrote to you I wasnt too sure how it was going.  It went really well actually.  I met up with lots of people from the first two nights to go out to an NYU-sponsored event around 845PM.  We started with a dinner and games around 730 however in our communal kitchen on the 16th floor.  By the time we got to Smithys for NYU, we were around 20 people!!  Hanging out at the pub was really cool, everyone danced, we had a few sing-offs.  At one point it was getting too hot so I went outdoors, and my phone rang.  My friend Amanda was calling me from Prague, she had just arrived that day and was calling to wish me a happy birthday, which was so nice of her.  I will be seeing her at the beginning of October when she comes to visit London.  After Smithys, people went in all kinds of directions, and after a while we all wound up back at home in Nido. 
Today I woke up around 12PM, and took care of some things before meeting up with people to go on a tour bus arranged by NYU.  Our ride was around 4 hours long, all over London.  Our tour was narrated by an older British woman who was possible the most hillarious and judgemental person Ive ever heard speak.  She was brutally honest about EVERYTHING in London as we drove past.  We saw basically everything in the city as well, I couldnt think of one thing left out.   We started off by going past Kings Cross/St. Pancras Station where Harry Potter leaves for Hogwarts from.  We drove past about three hundred museums which are all free in the city of London, so I will have to make my way to many of those that interest me.  The must do ones include the Tate Britain, National Gallery, and the Museum of London.  We drove through many “posh” shopping districts including Oxford Street, Sloan Street, amoung others lines with tons of local designers and big names.  Harrods is the largest British Department Store, and it is currently owned by an Egyptian man whos brother or cousin was married to Princess Diana and died with her in Paris.  There is also Marks & Spencers which is much less expencive, more like a Target I guess.  We drove past many famous streets, in and out of districts with funny names like Mayfair, Bloomsbury (where ULondon and NYU is), and past many remarkable parks, including Hyde Park, Regents Park (home to the London Zoo and a place I have run in, very cool, similar to Boston Commons).  We also drove past many palaces, including the largest, Windsor Palace however the Queen wasnt home, there is a flag they fly outdoors to tell the public when shes in residence.  The Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street, which is completely barricaded and guarded on both ends, was not in either.  We saw BIG BEN which is actually the name for the bell inside of the tower, and Westminster and Westminster Abbey.  Outside we walked around and took a look out over the Thames River to see the London Eye and the houses of Parliament.  There was a permenant PEACE protest going on in the square near Big Ben, with tents and everything, that has been going on for more than 3 years now.  Hardcore. 

We moved along to see tons of other stuff that just seems so overwhelming to think about.  Waterloo station, St. Pauls Cathedral (Feed the birds…tupence a bag!), the “pickle building” which is  a building owned by a Swiss Banking Firm that is shaped like a Pickle.  We drove over Tower Bridge, which is commonly refered to as “London Bridge” however the original is now in Arizona and the current modern one is actually just a flat plain bridge.  We drove past criminal courts where the judges wear wigs (the longer theyve been a judge, the longer their wig is, which spawned the turn “Big Wig”).  We just did SO SO MUCH in one ride, with lots of narration about things and history.  However, unlike in Florence, this bus tour just made me more confused about how to get around and where things are in London.  One thing is apparent however, London is far LARGER than Florence…when I go for a run, I wont be able to see the whole city.  We also saw Picadilly Circus, which during the day tme was much more calm and fewer people.  Still pretty crazy!  In one district, there were all the embassies for countries around the world, and of course the USA was the most giant.  It even had its own park across the street with lots of statues of famous Americans!  Canada and South Africas embassies however we located in Trafalgar Square, because Britain kind of used to own them.  Trafalgar Square is the center of London, with huge monuments, lots of cafes, and a large square in the center with a fountain and street performers.  It was a real lot to take in all at once. 

After that was over, and I thanked our tour guide for such a nice narration and for anouncing my recent birthday to 60 strangers, we all decided to go on a group trip to Angel.  Angel was once a very scummy part of town, but like the Lower East Side in NYC, is becoming more and more  trendy and gentrified.  I lead a large group to do some home-shopping at the ONE POUND STORE.  This expands my portfolio of recipts from single unit currency stores around the globe.  I went there myself the day before, and everyone bought at least 10 pounds of junk from china in the 1980s…where is my kickback for bringing business??  Afterwards, we thought it would be nice to go out to eat for real food, so we found a local Thai Restaurant and had a GREAT dinner.  Afterwards, we went back to Nido and hung out discussing travel plans for the semester. 

We tried to get some people to watch Arrested Development with us in a TV lounge, but the DVD players didnt work!  This next part is hard to describe exactly how it happened.  There are two towers in Nido, and the lounges are in the North Tower on the second floor, so we thought we would walk down to the lobby and cross it to get to the South tower elevators to get to our rooms.  The stairwells dont have access to the lobby in the north tower however, so we took a service elevator in the stairway to go back up in the North Tower.  The service elevator is suppose to hold 8 people, and we had 10 people, so we BROKE the elevator.  It fell about 3 feet before stopping and turning off.  We waited, STUFFED in this metal box, for 20 minutes before the “fire brigade” could be called in to get the doors open!!  Hahahaha wow we were sweaty and embaressed. 

Tomorrow I dont have classes, although they officially start tomorrow.  I plan to tie up a few loose ends tomorrow, get LOTS of sleep, cook for the week, go for a run to a new part of town which I will share with you all soon, and maybe even do something touristy.  Its a little weird not going to school on the first day of school, because tomorrow night all of the people Ive been hanging out with wil want to debrief and I will have nothing to say! 

Also, fun thing happened today.  My computer screen broke!  It was pink and blurry and “snowy” at the beginning of the summer, and then it stopped and wasnt a problem again so I thought it was just static electricity.  However, it started again, and the HP guys say I should send it home to get fixed.  ARGHHHH Just what I need! 

I am feeling a little bit better overall about being here.  The city is the best, its so full of life, and similar to NYC is always well lit and theres always people within eye distance.  It is VERY crowded in fact.  I have to learn how to use the Subway, and I definitely have to weed through some of the attractions to get done all the ones I personally want to do and see.  Lots of the museums sound nice, but British people aren’t known well for the artistry, more of their museum space is full of things they stole from conquered lands and never gave back!  I have to come up with plans for all the trips I am taking this semester, and a week NYU gives us for Fall Break at the beginning of November.  I also have to figure out what I am going to do during my off time.  I want to give blood in October, I would like to do some community service.  There are SO many options for CS here, I can work with kids in a local school, clean up the Thames river, hand off water and snacks during an “overnight run” for cancer awareness…the options are ENDLESS and overwhelming. 

This is a classic NYU student dilemma.  The options are absurd, a list of things longer and more exotic than anyone could do in a lifetime.  The options are things that most people never get to do either, so it makes choosing all that more difficult.  The first option however, and the only one I have to take seriously, is whether to get frightened and overwhelmed, and say screw it and sleep in everyday, or take the opportunities head on, pick the ones i can do, want to do, can afford, or can get to without getting rained on, and do them! 

I will try to write another one of these after my first day of classes, to let you all know how things are going!  I miss you all!!

Welcome Back- England Fall 2008

(That means, Welcome Back-England Fall 2008, roughly translated!  ha guess I dont have to do that anymore on this)  First, welcome back!  Some of you are new from last semester, this will be the place to come once a week or so to hear about how life is going for me over here.  Once again, it IS a little presumptuous that I think everyone I email the link to this will actually care about any of that, but you dont have to read it you dont want to!

I left for England on Tueday afternoon from West Hartford.  Mom and Dad and I drove up to Boston and hung around town until taking the bus to Logan for the flight.  I flew Virgin Atlantic around 7:30PM and the flight was one of the best Ive ever had trans-atlantic.  There were individual monitors for every seat, the only bummer was that the economy seats were VERY tight and I was not on an aisle.  I would recommend Virgin highly however.  The only mishap came at the very end when we all stood up to exit at Heathrow…a girl vomited EVERYWHERE in one of the aisles in front of me, I felt so bad for her she was crying and making a huge scene.  Wah wahhhh.  Customs was no problem, just a long line and then I went to get my luggage and met up with the giant blob of NYU kids by the exit.  We had to wait for a very long time for buses to come get us and by the time we eventually left, it was around 12PM.  They drove us to our living arrangements for the semester, a building called Nido which is a “student residence life center”.  English schools dont usually have dorms, so this is a novel option for England and of course, it is crammed full of American students.  There are kids from the UC system here, as well as a whole bunch of random kids who are just studying in London.  There are two towers, one with 16 floors and one with 12, so there are a LOT of people living here.  Check in was slow, but I eventually made it to my room on the 16th floor, and I landed on the bed.  Just as I was finally sleeping, my roommate arrived.  His name is Neil, he is in Stern, and is a sophomore.  He is from New Jersey, and is very normal, which is SUCH a relief.  We unpacked, and went to find a grocery store for dinner.  I went for a run on Wednesday night down to the Thames river, and was greeted by lot of people, and lots of stuff I have always seen on TV but never in real life.  During my run I saw St. Pauls Cathedral (Mary Poppins, feed the birds!), the Millenium Bridge, Waterloo, Westminster and Big Ben, the London Eye, Tate Modern Museum, the Globe Theater, and a TON more than I probably dont even know yet.  What a crazy time!  It also got me psyched up about being here, because up until then I was tired and cranky, lonely and lost.  Running is the same in every country, and getting lost is sometimes not a bad thing.

That brings us to Thursday…there is just so much to talk about that I feel like I cant do it all in writing.  Thursday Neil and I woke up early and went downstairs to meet up with the rest of the 250 NYU kids.  We were all guided over to our school, which is about a 20-30 minute walk.  Many of our classes are held in the NYU-owned buiding refered to as the “academic center” located on Bedford Square.  It is a really nice building, but it is kind of small, so to help with space, many classes are held at te University of London.  We also are considered associate-members at UL which means we get to use their student center, gym, facilities, and walk around the campus.  The campus is a little more defined than Washington Square back in New York, and of course seeing some of the greener area gave many NYU students the opportunity to piss about how unfair it is that NYC is renovating Washington Square Park back home.  I just rolled my eyes at that one. 

Thursday we had a giant lunch with some of the faculty who will be teaching us this semester, and then went into a lecture hall to be oriented about the generalities of our program.  A Policewoman came to talk with us, the Director said his bit, we were told about class policies, volunteering opportunities, etc etc.  Overwhelming amounts of information that I definitely have already forgotten most of.  Afterwards, I picked up the books I had ordered on Amazon at the Student Center and then went home to relax.  Later in the afternoon, I visited Vodafone to get my cellphone activated, and found the nearest modern grocery store which is calles TESCO Metro.  Today was the first time I thought about it, but a week before, I was simply sitting on a beach in Gloucester MA, waiting for life to start again.  I thought about it, because of the contrast, but also because Thursday was not an overly pleasant day, and that day at the beach was really nice.  I miss it!!  Thursday night my roommate and I decided to make some friends, so we went downstairs hoping to go to the Pub nextdoor, however in the lobby were a bunch of people I recognized from orientation as NYU people, so I asked if we could join up with them.  We all went out to a Pub called “The Rocket” and had a good time with some Brisith people! 

Friday was another stressful day, I woke up after getting another bad nights sleep to go to the NYU Student activities fair over at ULondon.  There was lots more information to be had at the fair, about volunteering, activities, usinig ULondons stuff like the gym and all of the clubs they have to join.  There were small information sessions too about things like How to Travel in London on the Public Transportation, and how to save money while living in London.  All good stuff, just so much to remember and consider.  In addition, now that I have all of my books, I remain in the dark about how hard and time consuming these 4 classes are going to be this semester.  I am taking History of South Africa, History of Society in Britain, Elizabethean Plays: Shakespeare, and Politics of the Near and Middle East.  High potential for being overwhelming, especially if I get involved in anything else. 

Friday I went for a run before dinner, back down to the river.  Then a smaller group of us from last night went out again, down to Picadilly Circus and SoHo which is kind of like New Yorks Times Square.  There are just TONS of restaurants, its where all of the plays and musicals are happening.  It was a very long walk, and it was an even longer walk back because London’s subway closes at midnight and only select buses run 24 hours.  I am not sure how this is possible, in a city of 8million people.  It was still a fun night though.

Today is Saturday, so nothing going on today which is why I have time finally to write this, and a few emails.  There are lots of little things to do as well today.  I wish I could sleep more, I still am so tired.  I will talk more about London as I write more of these, but for now Ill just say that it is a HUGE city with so much to do and see.  It is very similar to America, people are about the same.  I hope that 3.5 months is enough time to get familar with it and feel like a resident.  Thats enough for now!  Ill write again soon, maybe tomorrow or Monday?