We arrived on Tuesday morning and just hung out in the airport until a bus could come and take us the 45 minute drive to our university. We got to the uni and had to drag our suitcases (four for me, bye) off the bus and into a building where we got our welcome packets, and then across campus to our dorms and up to our rooms (three flights of stairs, also bye). We then threw everything in our rooms and had a couple quick meetings and then they had a pizza party for us at one of the campus cafés. So great. Yay pizza. Then I set up wifi on my computer and got to say hi to some friends in the states before I went to sleep extremely early (thanks, jetlag).
We woke up on Wednesday and had a little orientation meeting with all the other international students. They broke us up into groups and we had a campus tour, then some free time before another meeting in the afternoon. Me and Paige decided to take the bus to Putney high street (downtown, basically) and get our international SIM cards and get some food and just look around. By the way, buses are the great and effective public transportation is where it's at. Took us like ten minutes to get there and it was such a cute little area.
Yay campus is actually so beautiful.
Here's the Putney Bridge that goes over the River Thames (not pronounced how it's spelled) which is so freakin' cute.
So we did some grocery shopping and got some necessities like towels and shampoo and explored the little mall that they have there and all of the adorable stores. Like Poundland, the British version of a dollar store, and a T.J.Maxx knockoff called T.K.Maxx (Mom was excited about that one). Then we came back to drop our things off and have our meetings and library tours.
My flat mate Renee, who is completely adorable, invited me to church with her last night and so I traveled to somewhere in London (who actually knows how to work this city) to do that. Really different from any church I've been to in the States, but still great because Jesus is amazing in any country and any church.
Today we woke up and had more orientation things, like fixing our class schedules and getting our student IDs. I look Asian again, as always.
I don't know what any of those numbers on the card mean, so hopefully no one can use them to steal anything from me. Fingers crossed.
Then they had their version of Get On Board Day and I accidentally signed up for tae kwon do and sports (ew sweat), but in true British fashion, they said that the sports teams scheduled most of their events early enough where they could still have time to go drinking together afterwards. Also, fun fact, Wednesday afternoon and evening there are no classes in any uni across Britain as that is their sports time, what a handy little break, so Wednesday night at the on campus bar is either a cause for celebration or mourning. Then we walked about ten minutes down the road to go to lunch at the most adorable little café where we're determined to become regulars.
Who serves lasagna with fries? Awesome people, that's who.
This was outside the café, so obvi I had to.
Later, Paige and I were true city girls and we took the bus to the local ASDA (owned by Walmart, so everything is fabulously cheap) to buy groceries and more necessities (nail polish remover and tea). Then I came back and attempted to organize my things and also noticed how much I'm lacking simple things, i.e. I've had to open multiple things with my nail clippers because of a lack of scissors and I had to stir my tea with a concealer brush because I have no silverware. Fun times.
Well that's all for now, folks, we're about to go to a welcome party at the on-campus bar aka the student union (still weird that alcohol is literally everywhere) so wish me luck. I love you all and just want to squeeze your faces.
xx
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I have a mailing address now, so send me fun things!!
And to see video documentation of my journey to London and a campus tour, you can click here.
YOUR IN LONDON. AHHHHH
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