First Days in London

Hi everyone! I got to London on Wednesday and we spent the day walking around Chelsea like zombies (jetlag). A girl at the train station when I was just arriving overheard me telling someone that I was going to IES and so we shared a cab. When we got to the residence hall it turns out we were roommates! She's very nice, her name is Kaylen and she goes to school in South Carolina. Here's a picture of our (very small) room and a picture of our view.














I like Chelsea a lot - lots of restaurants and shops etc. Hugh Grant lives on our street (and apparently he bought all the houses on the street so that he wouldn't have any neighbors.) I'll be stalking him later and will post pictures of his house.

Today we had a lot of orientation activities and meetings, getting classes finalized etc. So far I'm taking British Women Novelists, Shakespeare, Theatre in London, and probably the History of London and I have three interviews next week to get an internship.

Nothing too exciting to write about yet, still settling in. I love the little quirky British things like having MANY rules and laws from the fire department: only two people can sleep in a two person room, it's illegal for people to sleep on the floor, etc etc. They're very careful about fires. But not lead pipes. The RA said they've only had them removed 10 years ago. That's 1998. Constant use of lead pipes seems like a more surefire way to kill someone. And further, their laws are very strict about fire safety, but sometimes when the alarm goes off in our building, they say the firemen just walk over.

Also, anywhere else I've been/stayed the rules are "Don't drink alcohol here" "No Smoking Inside." Here, instead it's worded "Drink alcohol only in your rooms and kitchen." "You can smoke in the garden."

So far I love London though! It looks a lot more like Paris than I thought it would.

Here is my first and so far only touristy picture. Many more to come, I'm sure.