So on Saturday "Freshers' Week" began. It's basically a week of orientation for the freshers at UCL, but it is so unlike orientations in the US. The week started off with an icebreaker party at the Union bar, which is a bar on campus that is relatively cheaper than other places in London. I have since started walking from UCL's campus to my house by myself at night, which I feel comfortable with now. I'm confident that the area I am in is pretty safe.
Earlier that day I met up with Samantha and her friends and walked around different areas of London, including Covent Gardens, where there were a bunch of crazy street performers (such as a guy juggling knives on a ladder).
On Sunday I went to Spitafield Markets with my friends Adrian and Emily, who both live in Astor. It was a lot of fun to walk around, but everything was very expensive. I bought 3 prints of London for 7.50, so my room could have a little life in it.
On Monday I had a meeting with the Econ affiliate tutor. He approved the two classes I wanted to take. Unfortunately, I am still nowhere near figuring out my classes. Each course has both lectures and tutorials. The Econ department gave us the time table for the lectures, but not the tutorials. The History department, where I want to take a class, will not tell me which classes are available to take until Thursday. Meanwhile, the Econ department puts not caps on class sizes UNTIL Thursday (so as long as you enter your classes officially by Thursday, you'll get the ones you want). However, I don't want my history class to conflict with Econ. Finally, the SSEES dept has no timetable whatsoever for their classes. It's a very complicated way of doing things.
After my meeting, I went to the Tower of London with Emily, which of course was a field day for me, but a little boring for her. We also walked down Oxford St and bought a frying pan, spatula, and a small spaghetti pot (I think it's actually a sauce pan, but whatever). The only place we could find these was in a department store, so of course they were expensive. The frying pan was around 8 pounds, the spatula 8.5 (I know, what?!), and the pot was 19 pounds. But, I need to start cooking and stop eating out, so I had to pay the money.
Monday night I went to a club with my friend Kate and and English student named Nick. It was fun, but we didn't keep track of the time and left around 12:30 (when the tubes were closed). We had to walk from Leicester Sq back to UCL, which was a long walk full of creepy guys talking to us on the way back.
Unfortunately, I woke up this morning to realize that I had caught my friend Adrian's cold. It's not TOO bad, I just feel very weak and my throat hurts. Plus I have no appetite whatsoever. Hopefully the cold will be shortlived!
That's all for now. I updated my pictures website with pictures from the past few days: http://www.picturetrail.com/justinekelly
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1 comment:
Hey! This is Matt W.
I see you've already bought some pots and pans, but if you need any in the future, or other cooking-type supplies, go to the East End! I don't remember if it's at Aldgate East or Whitechapel, but just take the District Line to one and walk down Aldgate Road to the other and you'll run into this big open-air market. They sell all kinds of crap, including pots and pans. These are the type of people you can bargain with, if that's your style, but if not, you'll still save a bundle. There are also Pakistani/Bangladeshi grocery stores along this street, and the look like they just have food, but if you wander in and go to the back, a lot of them have pots and pans (and dishes and such) for really cheap.
It's totally frustrating that none of the academic depts work together in the UK. I hope you were able to work it out!
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