Olympics & Orientations

Day 3

Another predominately sunny day has come and gone in London. And that stereotype continues to be shattered for me. I have quite an affection for the sun so this has been quite lovely.

There was an orientation for Study Abroad students from 9-1, led by one of the people that I have been exchanging emails with all Summer, so it's nice to finally be able to put a face to a name. They basically just went over some services that are available to us here, the local area, talked about traveling in and around London, practical shopping and a number of other things to do in the city.

Following the orientation, my flatmate Jess and I decided to go the Olympic Park and large, new shopping mall. We thought it was just one tube stop away from Mile End station (which is a few blocks from campus), as it turned out that's not quite the case. So, we got off the tube, went outside and saw the massive shopping mall, and all I'd heard over and over was that 'you'll be able to see the Olympic Park right past the mall!". Not the case. We saw some housing developments, which we decided must be accommodations for the Olympians. I took pictures of them regardless and that's how I will explain them when showing my pictures, even though it might just be some housing development that has nothing to do with anything. We ambled around for awhile, realized that we didn't know where it was, and finally decided to go back to the station and ask. I was incredibly determined that we should find it ourselves, but it's a good thing that we asked because I don't think that that would've worked out.

As it turns out we had to take another train, one additional stop and then it would be right there and obvious. Thanks everyone, who told me it was one tube stop. I could've saved some money on my Oyster card (speaking of which, does anyone have any idea why it's called an 'Oyster card'?). Getting lost or getting off at the wrong stop is certainly part of and I think really a necessity when you're in a new city and maybe even more so in a new country.

We got on the train and went a very short distance and it became obvious that this was the correct train to be on; we could see the main stadium and the swimming building, which was quite cool to see.

Contrary to what was said at the Orientation earlier in the day, "If Ikea made stadiums, that would be it," I think it looked very adequate. Granted, I didn't get right next to it or inside of it, but I wasn't too far away and it looked fine to me. When we'd gotten as close to the grounds as we could go there was a little shop and cafe. Everything at the shop was pretty expensive. And that's now, the games are practically a year away still! Think about how expensive that place is going to be when it's on. I bought a pack of erasers for £3 just because I thought it would be cool to have a little something from there. And now I can sell them for scads of money in 50 years (probably not though).

After wandering around that area for a little while we took the train back to Westfield Shopping Center. Where I made a few exciting purchases; an incredibly cheap cell phone, a calculator watch, and a tiny alarm clock. The cell phone was nice because we went into one store and I explained that I would only be here for a few months, I don't need anything fancy, and I won't be using it very often, the clerk said that it would be cheaper and easier for me to go to a store a little down the way. I was shocked by this because it seems to me that whenever you're in the market for something people will do just about anything to sell you something. But he didn't. We went to the other store that he'd recommended and got a phone. The guy who helped me set it up was hilarious. He asked all these questions about high school in America. The best was, 'What the hell is a pep rally?"

If you'd like to talk on the phone let me know, and I will call you because it won't cost me that much, but if you called me it would cost you a lot.

I also wanted a watch and the cheapest one I found was £2.50, a blue calculator watch. Too good. I also purchased a tiny orange alarm clock, that actually works! Many of the shops were 'quite posh', a little out of my price range. But, I did venture in TopShop, which made me miss Lizzie and Addie because they're always saying it in a British accent.

At this point the mall started getting incredibly crowded and we were both a bit overwhelmed. We left. Then we made it back to campus and had some dinner with our other flatmates, Benn and Tristan. I really enjoy the communal mealtimes, it's a pleasant way to wind down and talk about the day with the people that you live with.

Had an epic skype session with Jessica and then went to bed.

Day 4

I had grand plans of waking up this morning at 7:30 to take a run by the canal (there's a canal that runs along campus), but that did not happen. The alarm went off and I was just too tired. When I woke up again it was 8:45 and orientation round two started at 9.

I freaked out for a minute, let that pass. Then I quickly changed out of my pajamas, slammed a bowl of cereal, and ran to the ArtsTwo building, still a bit early!

Some of the major departments did presentations.

TIME PASSES

I've just returned from an orientation on how to use the online learning website. Fun times. In finding out how to access this website I've found out that there just about a million books that I need to buy. Yay.

Today has been full of orientations that have succeeded in making me feel a bit more disoriented and stressed about the coming classes. I suppose that's the way it is every semester though.

I think I'm finally going to go on that run by the canal. It's the international student boat cruise on the Thames tonight, so you can look forward to that later! I'm hoping it will be more than just a booze cruise for some of the students ; )