Anyone who knows me knows that I am happiest on a sunny day, when the temperature is consistent (I don’t care if it is hot or cold, but just stay one way or the other) AND if you know me really well, you know that my hair is my thing – I love my hair and I spend a lot of time making sure it looks nice.
Well here is what I have discovered in my week here…. London could care less. The weather is always gloomy and as far as a good hair day, well between the rain, the wind, the in and out of the tube, the walking around, the hot then the cold, it does not stand a chance. Let me explain. The thing about London is that it may be pouring and freezing above ground, but in the tube, it is always warm. So your damp coldness becomes all sweaty and musty when traveling on the tube. It’s not a fun feeling, and it is really difficult to have to keep taking your coat on and off while you are trying to watch your purse, pockets, keep zippers closed, keep your oyster card (tube pass) handy to swipe in and out of the tube, and of course your umbrella ready at a moments notice. It is quite the juggling act and the temperature changes do not make it anymore pleasant.
Oh well, I realize that adjusting to this kind of city life is all a part of the experience, and it is not meant to be like home or else is wouldn’t be study abroad would it?
It has been exactly one week since I have begun this journey and I must say it has been a long and trying week, full of highs and lows and every emotion in between. Overall, I am beginning to feel much more settled. Laura and I live so well together which is a major relief. We have figured out where to get good food and now having had two days of routine – one with our internship and one of classes – we have a better feel for what our everyday life as Londoners will be like.
Classes today were pretty standard. It was like the first day of classes at Elon, only our professors had British accents, which I am beginning to get so used to, so it has lost some of its charm – especially when they are telling us all of the academic things we will have to do during the semester. I am taking two courses on Tuesday and Thursday - at theater and a history course.
The theater class is first on Tuesday from 11:15am – 12:45pm. It is all discussion based and on select Wednesday and Monday nights we get to go to nine different theaters and see straight plays (unfortunately no musicals) that Jinny, our professor, has selected for us. Out of the nine, we are required to read five of them before hand, write two reflective papers, attend all shows, and lead one oral discussion. It seems like it will be a very discussion based class and Jinny’s passion for theater will make it charged and interesting. We only meet once a week since actually seeing the plays take up the other required class time, which is great, and frees up our Thursdays in the morning.
After a quick and delicious lunch at Pret A Manger (a cheap sandwich shop where I got an Italian sausage, greve cheese and tomato sauce warm wrap- it was like a hot meatball sub on tortilla bread), we went to our History class, which is taught by Sean on Tuesday and Thursdays from 1:30 – 3pm. He is a character - a great storyteller and historian who swears like a sailor. The class grade is made up by only three essays (25% each) and a “trivia quiz” at the end (the last 25%). He seems intense about grading – all grades are non-negotiable, which those of you who know me, when it comes to writing, I like to be able to feel like I can talk to the professor about why I received the grade I did. But, he is very laid back with everything else, for instance, the trivia quiz at the end instead of a written final. This is traditionally an activity they have in pubs – the idea is as you keep drinking the trivia becomes more…. entertaining, to say the least. So we basically have a group jeopardy style test at the end, and we can pick our own teams, which is great. The essays are a little scary simply because I remember very little on British history from high school and there is no textbook – we have to rely on finding our own sources. Also, he just kind of talks, so it is hard to figure out what we actually need to take notes on and which bits of information are going to help us with the essays and the trivia quiz. Everyone knows, I like structure, and this class does not seem to have a lot of it, which could be fun and laid back, or it could be frustrating – we shall see.
After class, we ran some errands – purchased our plays for the theater class and ran to the grocery, and now we are just making some dinner. It’s raining…. big surprise right? So we are staying in tonight, which, with a long internship day tomorrow, is probably a smart idea.
I must say, come the end of these three months I can tell already I will have a love / hate relationship with this city. It’s actually funny because I was watching Sex and the City last night (compliments of my mama who left it in my suitcase for me to discover when I arrived) and Carrie was talking about her love affair with New York City. In the beginning of the episode she is prancing around the city, the voiceover going on and on about how wonderful it is. By the end of the episode and after a number of unfortunate events - the museum closed on her, the wind blew up her skirt and the taxi’s were impossibly loud and hard to get to pull over in the down pour – she does not feel quite the same way. This is exactly how I feel being here. In a cute pub or a delicious café, I love London. I love my internship so far, the British accents and the independence I feel being in and navigating a big city on my own. But I hate the rain, the expensive everything, not knowing my way around, having to commute everywhere and factor in time for it and how it seems everyone that works here does not know how to give good directions, and half the time they don’t even understand English. It is really hilarious because before coming, people would say to me “oh how wonderful, you will not have to deal with a language barrier,” and while I realize I have it much better than the girls in Italy, the diversity of this city definitely creates a language barrier. There are millions of non-English speaking people who live and work here, and trying to get them to understand what you are asking for (because of not only our accents, but also we are accidentally calling it the American term) is difficult. You would have thought when asking for sandwich bags in the grocery store today we were speaking another language. Note to self: zip lock is not a word recognized here J.
There is also the stress of being my own travel guide while planning trips, but I want to thank everyone who emailed me with itineraries and ideas, it has been very helpful and we are going to figure it all out by the end of this week.
Our days really fly by. I was thinking being here would be such a break from the constant running around, meetings and the many classes and homework of my usual Elon schedule. But commuting takes up a lot of time, and our internship days are a full 10am -6pm workday. And since they fall on Monday and Wednesday, after work I will have to rush to the theater and allow time to figure out where they are. But as I said, it has only been two days of our normal routine, and I think having the three-day weekend and only one class on Thursday (because the theater class only meets on Tuesday) will free up some time. I just don’t want to feel stressed here. I want to be able to relax and enjoy this time in London. I think I will find a way to do that, at least I hope so.
I cannot wait for my mom and Don to come visit in just a few weeks, and Ike and Brezny to come for Thanksgiving. I only wish you all could come, if not to see my life here, then just to give me a big hug (especially you, Lynnie) J Hope you are all doing well. Say hello to the sun for me, and ask it to come visit!
Love you
Jenny
No comments:
Post a Comment