Visiting London, part one

I wrote this for the IDD blog but thought I would share it here. Part two next week.


I've spent the last three months studying in London as part of a program through my university. It's been an amazing experience and I'm so grateful for it. As a sort of natural result I've picked up a few tips for visiting London.

*Use Pret a Manger and E.A.T. These are both chains all around London which sell fresh, pre-made sandwiches. I'm not sure of exact prices at E.A.T., but at Pret you can easily get a fairly filling sandwich for under three pounds. The cheapest is the egg mayo sandwich at a pound fifty. They also have coffee, soup, and a few pastries. TIP: Try to ask for take-away. Restaurants are legally required to charge a special tax if you eat in.

*Go to the museums. London has some fabulous museums, especially the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, and Tate Britian. On the history side, there's the V&A (Victoria and Albert) and the British Museum. There are smaller museums and galleries that you can look up if you're interested. TIP: Go early. British school children are required to visit the major museums so with them and tourists, it can get quite noisy later on. Most galleries open at ten so you won't have to get up at the crack of dawn.

*If there is a musical performance you want to attend and you don't have tickets, go to the box office about 9:00 the day of the performance. Most of the major companies have tickets that are only available on the day. I'm not sure if this is true for plays or not, but the TKTS booths operate under a similar idea. TIP: Wear comfortable shoes.

*If you're in London for any amount of time, you'll probably hit rush hour on the Tube. Be prepared to be squashed up against the person next to you. There's really nothing any of you can do about it. TIP: If there are no handholds available, lean against the wall of the car and plant your feet.

*People in London walk fast. Now, so do I. If you walk more slowly or if you stop in their path, they will just push past you. TIP: If you feel like you simply have to have a photo of X or if you're lost, try to stop at the edge of the sidewalk or Tube platform. Walking fast is an added bonus.

Err, anyone here?

I have been a terrible blogger recently. I apologize. I've been finding myself, oddly enough, without that much to say recently. I mean, I'm in London. It's amazing. There are only so many times I can say that without it sounding redundant. But I suppose that I should just keep saying it. Because it's true. It's amazing.

The other reason is that this blog has turned so much into a book blog and I haven't been doing all that much reading. Aside from gulping down Jane Eyre and Shakespeare for class, that is. A few pages of The King of Attolia here and there while on the Tube has been about it. It's a strange experience for me, the person who usually reads 25-30 books a month. I suppose in a certain sense it's restful. I've just written off February-April as non-reading months so I don't feel that pressure to keep reading that I sometimes do. But I miss it. I keep thinking of books that I want to read and then realizing that short of buying them (expensive and bulky) there's essentially nothing I can do.

I did get a copy of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell from Foyle's the other day (I would pick out the most enormous book to buy) so I have that to look forward to.

This has been a very rambly sort of post. Hopefully it's not been too utterly boring! And I will post more here, I promise. If you're interested and you haven't seen it already, you can read about a recent trip to Bath here.

London posts

I've got two new posts up on my London blog: Orientation! and Catching up. I hope you enjoy them!

Orientation...or not

We were supposed to have orientation this morning at ten. But it snowed and they cancelled classes. No orientation today. It's supposed to snow more this afternoon so tomorrow is questionable as well.

I knew I was going to have adventures. I just didn't realize there was going to be snow involved.

UK Yahoo article on the snow.

Both runways at Heathrow Airport in west London have been closed, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights. London City Airport has also been closed.

I'm so glad I flew in yesterday.

A picture of the garden, taken from my window:

I made it!

Here I am in London! My host is really sweet and there are two other American students staying in the house. They share a room and I have one to myself. Everything is unpacked but we'll see if it all stays as it is now or if I change the set up.

I wrote a post about my travelling experience and will be writing another shortly.

My host has wireless so I'll probably be able to update pretty regularly.

Tomorrow

I leave for London tomorrow. I can't believe it. I know that I'll be there as a sort of academic fact but I don't believe it in reality. I've got pretty much everything taken care of. I need to get some pounds probably some time on Sunday. Hopefully I can figure that out with Alice. And I need to call the bank and make sure they set up the right thing on my debit card. But other than that, I'm pretty much set. I've looked at the route I need to take to get to my orientation on time and it all looks feasible. So...I'm prepared and yet I'm not. It's a very strange feeling.

London blog post about leaving.

Oh my gosh, guys

I bought my ticket to London. *faints*

An historic day

I went to the Post Office Friday morning and applied for a passport for the first time. *Eeep!* For some reason, this just makes the whole trip to England seem that much more real. (I'm still in the I-can't-believe-I'm-actually-going-this-must-be-a-dream state.)

Then I went over to the used bookstore across the street and almost died because they have so many books. Want, want, want. Unfortunately, they didn't have the one I really wanted to buy: The King of Attolia. Blast. But I did get I Capture the Castle in a lovely looks like new paperback edition for six dollars. YAY!

Also, I am re-reading Persuasion.

Let's see....I'm trying to think of any other happenings. Oh, job! I'm working at the local university now, cleaning dorms. This job is nice because it's so much less stressful than the job I had before. Granted, there's the "Oh no, we need to clean the whole dorm TODAY" kind of stress, but it's not like I'm feeling sick to my stomach whenever I think about work, which was happening before.

I'm also reading a ridiculous amount of books. Oh well, it's me. It happens.

My sister has left us and will be back on Tuesday (I think). She's in Santa Rosa, CA, attending the Young Woman's Conference. *tear* It's weird having the room to myself.

Gulp

We just had a meeting for the London program with the professor that's going with us. It was the first time I'd met her or known who else was going in the Spring. And you know what? All of a sudden it seems a little more real. Like, wow. I'm going to London. I really am. It's not a dream, I'm really going.

I'm excited. *


*and really scared that Something will Happen and I won't get a job and won't have the money to go, but I'm trying to tell myself to stop being utterly ridiculous, God opened this door for me and He'll make sure I get to go.


**NOTE**I haven't been posting for the last days because my computer's battery died. But a new one will be arriving in the next few days, so I'll be back to regular posting (hopefully) by early next week.

I'm in shock

Those of you who have been around for awhile know that in November I applied for my school's study abroad program, hoping to go to London for a semester next year. I expected to find out in March whether I would be able to go or not. Well, I went to check my mailbox this morning and there was a big old envelope from the Study Abroad office. I practically ran back to my room because I knew that whichever way it went, I needed to be sitting down when I opened it.

I'm in! I'm accepted to go to London in spring 2009!!! I can still hardly believe it!

The other thing is, I've been praying that if I wasn't going to be able to come up with the money to do it, I would just not get into the program. So now that I'm actually accepted, it's easier to trust that God will take care of me and I will find a way to go, one way or another.