Butler Orientation
Travel Location: London,United-Kingdom
Alex, my roommate at St. Giles Hotel stumbled throughout the hotel (walls are paper thin and I could hear him a couple floors down at our friends’ rooms). In the morning, he couldn’t find his passport = uh oh.
I woke up at 8:30 AM to get some breakfast that was paid for. I had some weird scrambled eggs and weirder sausage along with some normal potatoes. I met more students and exchanged interesting first impressions of London. Our orientation started at 9:00 AM. We were lectured about study habits, academics, safety, politics, and activities to do. It was all very helpful and I found all of it very interesting. I learned that males between the ages of 16 and 24 are the most likely to be mugged here in London. That was somewhat surprising to me. I also learned that all British students study during the day so that they can go out each night. It’s misleading to us Americans because we only see them partying at night and think that they do not study. Lord Taverne of the House of Lords came to lecture us about the British political system. I learned a lot about current issues, where Tony Blaire stands, and the government structure. *Little known fact = It is called Great Britain because when the Vikings and Saxons invaded England from the eastern seaboard, many were forced to a small coastal area on France. This small area was called Britainy = “Little Britain”. Therefore, the larger island is called Great Britain. It’s not that they were on some egotistical trip.
Anyway, lunch was also provided for us. We had some sort of chicken in…something red. It was really great! They also had some rice that reminded me of pilaf rice. There were tossed greens and they didn’t forget to put in potatoes. We had a quick Q&A section with some administrators from King’s College. I got to ask them some questions about transportation and academics, neither of which were interesting so I won’t mention them here. They did mention that we should get what is called an Oyster card. It provides discounts on public transportation, also not interesting.
We finally get shuttled to our accommodations on campus. I’m staying at the Great Dover Street Apartments. I thought I was staying at the Stamford Street Apartments but that was a typo they made. I’m a 40-minute walk away from campus! Way different from Harvey Mudd! I’ll have to take the bus, which will cost me $2 each way, that will take 20 minutes, including walking distance to the station. I’m told that this area of London has great places to eat but is very expensive, more so than the rest of the city. The first thing I noticed about my room is that it’s small. By the way, I have a single. But the room is roughly half the size of an Atwood single.
Three of us from Butler are staying in the Gt. Dover apartments. We arrived at around 7 PM. The security guards gave us a brief introduction to how to swipe our cards to get in as well as where our rooms were. I’m in Building 6 on the 4th floor which is flat # 70. The flats are basically suites with 7 singles. There’s another American student here from Washington University in St. Louis. She arrived shortly before I. My other suitemates are Sunny, Legonda (?, British accent prevented me from hearing this one), and Shyla. Another student is an exchange student from Spain, but he hasn’t come back from break yet. They all seem really cool and very willing to help us dumb Americans out. I found more Americans and the 6 of us ate at a pub across the street. I had a steak burger which was $10. We hung out for a while (they don’t give you the bill unless you ask for it) and decided to run some errands. We don’t have dressers here, only a closet. But I don’t have clothes hangers so that doesn’t help either. I’ve decided to live low-maintenance and live out of my suitecase for the next six months…it’s sloppy but who cares. Check out the bathroom! The toilet has been incorporated INTO the shower! So when I shower the toilet gets all wet…interesting lifestyle. My bathroom light actually doesn’t work so I’ll shower in Sunny’s room tonight. The heater is a sad excuse for a heater…I barely feel it though it’s turned all the way up.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the temperature is in the 40’s throughout the day, so yeah I’m cold. But grandpa’s trenchcoat has proven invaluable! I don’t think I’ll even invest in an umbrella because it’s so good.
Back to the room, we have a full-size kitchen as well as lounging area together. Laundry machines are very far away and I don’t even want to think about that right now. My window has a sad view on a desolate park. What I thought was a paved area turned out to be a turf soccer field! They turned on the lights at around 8:00 PM and I watched them play a pick-up game. I plan to play with them sometime later on.
I found out that we’re near the team Arsenal, a premiership league team. Tickets can cost as little as $10 if bought 2-3 months in advance. I’m definitely on that. I’ll see if I can go to 4-5 games this semester.
I still don’t have internet access and am actually writing this in a Word document per suggestion made by Donna. I don’t think I’ll get internet until tomorrow at the very earliest. Then I plan to do a major update of the travel blog.
Tomorrow is orientation at King’s College for all of the US and Canada students. It starts at 1:00 pm. No idea what we’ll talk about. It’s 11:30 PM and I’m exhausted so bye all and I’ll talk to you later!
P.S. I bought an outlet converter that allows for American sockets (England is a different shaped socket that outputs 240V whereas American is 100-120 V). However, the converter I bought only outputs 45 W and my laptop uses 65 W so I’ll have to buy another one. It’s these small logistical things that I’ve forgotten about and are proving to be pains in the but.
