Luckily I didn’t miss my flight, and had a solid amount of adventure time in the airport. It began with me attempting to hit on some (maybe German? maybe dutch?) boys, and culminated in me randomly seeing Jeff because we were on the same flight to Heathrow, and then creepily texting him to see if it was really him.
Good to see I’m still as awkward as ever even in my new role as a “world traveller.” I’m nothing if not true to myself.
My flight was EPIC. They also gave me tons of free stuff, like hot chocolate and a key lime pie. I realized that the reason I hate flying is because I hadn’t been flying far enough to get free snacks. So, this is huge progress in becoming a world traveller...I can now go on planes, as long is food is provided.
Upon being reunited with Ilene, we did a quick (okay, not so quick) squeal sesh. We took a bus to Queen Mary University, where Ilene is enrolled, met some other study abroad students, and then went to find Ilene’s flat. We met a couple of her flatmates (one of whom goes to Duke! And apparently I already knew… but forgot I knew. Oops…).
Ilene and I departed her dorm to go explore central London and ran into her friend Helena! We then made our way to Central London on “the tube”. We all bought Oyster cards (yeah, we’re legit), and then took the tube to Holborn and wandered around. I goaded Helena and Ilene into walking into Bloomsbury, the area where UCL (the university I’m enrolled in this semester) is. We walked past my flat, which looked super cute, and also across the street from UCL’s campus. This is the entrance to campus. You may recognize it from every brochure UCL has ever made ever. It’s like their version of the chapel…
It was during the course of the day that we discovered three things.
1. We do not speak English. At least not British English.
We first realized this upon asking around to find a pub for dinner. Although, let’s be real, it was an issue all day.
However, I am apparently a chameleon. At least, according to a random guy we met in the pub, who was impressed by my British accent. (Though, if anyone has ever heard me do any accent ever, you can rest assured that he was quite drunk. Whatever, I’ll take the compliment and run. “Cheerio, which way to the lift?”)
2. Our lives without 4G? Drastically different. That is definitely going to take some getting used to.
Trying to look up something about orientation or enrollment? Strugs. Though to be fair, wifi wasn’t working for the first half of the day. I do think it made us get oriented much quicker… No one was telling us to go left in five hundred steps….
3. Which brings me to the last point, we have absolutely no sense of direction, without the use of Google Maps and Navigation.
A lot of our conversations went, huh.. where is Tottenham Court Road? Where are we now…? Should we go this way or this way… Zan? If I’m the most directionally skilled in a group, you know we’re screwed. Luckily London conveniently places maps all over the city, with huge YOU ARE HERE signs. Even I can eventually figure out where I’m going with that level of guidance.
Highlights of the day:
1. Stumbling upon SOHO. This place was beautiful! Basically everything about it is the reason I’m studying abroad in London. Here are some pics that I managed to snag… More to come, because Soho is super near my flat, and also did I mention it’s gorgeous? Also, seems like they have great snacks.
2. Running into Duke kids! Meeting the British people in Lene’s flat and in pubs was super cool and obvs the point of studying abroad BUT, it was also nice running into other Duke students studying abroad in London. Definitely helped with the culture shock (yes, still exists in London, hmph.) It’s a little weird directly enrolling in a whole other university, but so far I’m pretty glad I did it!
3. Pub adventures! Went to two pubs today. At the first one, I ordered my first pint (not going to lie… it still tasted like beer, even in London. I felt legit though, so it was worth it).
Also the Manchester United game was on and everything felt just very… British. Also if I were to be someone who believed in having a “team”, it would probably be that one. So, I was pretty thrilled. Our second pub trip was at night. I also learned a new term “chat upon,” which either means make conversation with or hit on, but the rando used it. Is it appropriate to ask what slang means in a social setting, or am I supposed to just play it off and pretend I know what the hell is going on? Unclear….
At this point where we’d gone about 24 hours without sleep.
Luckily, we had this Cosmos pitcher to revive us.
If you’ve read this far, you’re a saint, and probably deserve your own pitcher of alcohol. Can’t really do much for you in that regard though
Meow
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