Yesterday morning my two roommates, Catherine and Stacey, arrived to our flat. They are both BU students, friendly, and excited about traveling. It seems like we will all get along well. I was happy to see so many people arriving to the building throughout the morning. As I arrived a day early to London, my first night at the Crofton there were very few individuals around. After getting to know my roommates a bit, I met up with my friend Leigh and her roommates for an early lunch at Med Kitchen, a small cafe a five minute walk from our dorm. We all enjoyed the scrambled eggs and toast and decided that a return trip would have to occur sometime soon.
At 12:45pm everyone on our floor took a walking-tour around Kensington, guided by our RA, Erin. It was great to finally have a chance to explore the area. The neighborhood of Kensington is one of the nicest and most expensive, and not to mention one of the most beautiful, to live in throughout London. All of the buildings facades consist of either white stone or red brick with columns and intricate plaster work. Many of the buildings on a block look identical giving the area a uniform yet unique feeling. The only word that comes to mind to describe the architecture of this area is stunning.
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| A quintessential Kensington street |
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| One of the buildings at Imperial College |
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| Gothic statue of Prince Albert in Hyde Park |
During the early evening, Catherine and I decided to take a trip for groceries, and so with a map in hand we set out for the store. We originally planned to go to Sainsbury's, a more budget-friendly store, however because of an early closing time on Sundays we ended up going to Waitrose, a higher-end grocer. The combination of crowds, unfamiliarity with the layout of the store, and decision process to choose products that looked good, made for one of the craziest grocery shopping experiences in my life. In the end, Catherine and I found our way around and purchased some food to get us through the first week.
Taking the advice of Michael Oliver (one of the heads of Student Affairs for the BU London Program), a group of eight people from my floor decided to take a trip to a local pub called The Queen's Arms. We tried the local cider and decided that it will be a favorite of ours this semester.
Today I attended the beginning of our series of Orientation lectures on academics, student life, and the history of London. My favorite part of the day was hearing all about the history of the city from two different professors who will be teaching courses this semester. The first gave a brief introduction to the different main boroughs of London and then described the history of the architecture and creation of many of London's main museums. The second professor introduced us to the culture of London by analyzing the influence of America on the UK and the differences between the two places. He made many fascinating points about class, race, religion, and pop culture and the role they play in each of our societies. I also enjoyed a speech given by the Chairman of the BU London Program. He compared our journey to the "Grand Tour" that many famous historical figures took during their life around our age. His best advice was to take advantage of every moment. He said that if ever we find ourselves distracted from the history that was surrounding us on this adventure that we should stop, contemplate, and simply appreciate it.
Following our academic lectures, I ventured up Kensington High Street with Stacey in search of an Orange (our cell phone company while abroad), Argos (store to buy many personal items including everything from bedding to hair dryers), and Boots (the UK equivalent to CVS). This street was filled with restaurants and many shopping locations. We were surprised to find all of our favorite US stores such as Gap and Urban Outfitters just blocks from our building.
Our successful purchases left us hungry and in want of some of England's famous fish and chips. To get to a restaurant we had heard about we took our first ride on the Tube or Underground. The subway system of London is very developed and busy. It is made up of 13 different lines and looks like a colorful snowflake of intertwining stations. One difference between Boston's T system and the Tube is that you tap your card both when you enter the station and leave. This way you are charged a fee based on how far you travel. We traveled two stops and then arrived at the South Kensington station. From there, we found a restaurant in the area with fish and chips. Although it wasn't the restaurant we were originally looking for, the food was still good and we enjoyed the irony of the fact that we were enjoying fish and chips in a western themed restaurant complete with cowboy signs and country music.
I am really looking forward to tomorrow. We will be taking a boat trip down the Thames River and visiting Greenwich!
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