Waiting to Exhale

For the sake of fun I put two days worth of belongs in one!

20 September 2007 Thursday

Hi Hi Hi!!!!!! I'm alive and survived the plane ride over the Atlantic. It seem that the only time turbulence happens is when there are miles and miles of cold salt water 30,000 feet below you. But nevertheless it was a nice trip. The person I sat next too happened to be another study abroad student studying at the Universtiy College of London (UCL)- what odds!

The only way I can desacribe my landing day in London is through the majesty of numerics:

5:05AM- The time we arrived in London air space
6:00AM- the permitted time by London law that we can land
500,000,000,000- the amount of circles the airplane made around london
7- the kiosk number of the immigration lady that I did not want. She was incredibly mean. She told old men to start at the back of the line which had a 2 1/2 hour wait.
2- my eyes looking at the entrance into London
5- the amount of times i almost got runover by a car because I failed to realize that londoners drive opposite of americans
1- my taxi driver who picked me u after "queing up" and waiting
65- mph that the driver was doing down Cromwell Road
1- Smiling Mario because he loved every minute
4- obscenities that Mario heard his cabby say to other fast drivers on the "correct side" of the street
3- the number of Ambassador Hotels in London.
0- the amount of knowledge I had in order to find the right Ambassador Hotel
1- the amount of guesses it took for my cabby to find the right hotel
infinity- How much I love in city

I must say that everyone I've run into is super nice and sometimes super sloched! I came to London via a study abroad program CIEE. As soon as I got in and settled in my Hotel room, I started roaming about to see what I could see. I met my program coordinators James and Elizabeth- they are sweet! They showed me the way to the free museums. So in one day I got a glipse of the natural history museum, and the Victoria and Albert museum as well. But I was so exhausted after the long plane trip and the walking that I went back to my hotel- just in time for my room not to be ready.

So I asked the receptionist if she had another room and she said " I can't give you a different room until your roommate gets here." I said, "roommate" she said, "roommate"

Just my luck that my roomate happened to be sitting in the lobby at that time. He lives in Miami and is a pretty cool kid.

When all the student in my program arrived we all went out to dinner at this sweet restaurant called Wagamama. It was a healthy japanese food place and it was all sort of delicious. I call it the London Japanese chipotle because there is one on every corner. It was at this restaurant that I realized why Americans have such a high obsceity rate. Our portions are always huge and we fry all of our food. This place was the perfect health food eatery and it is one of the most popular restaurants in London.

So Thursday September 20, 2007, excuse me Thursday 20 September 2007 :) ended up being the longest I've been awake counting at a full 26 hours being wide awake. But it also ended up being the first of many best days of my life!

Cheers:)

Friday September 21 2007

Today was my CIEE orientation. We had two people come in and talk to us about live in London. the first guy talked about cultural misperceptions in London and the US. We as Americans all have a picture of what a Brit acts like (stereotyping) and Brits have a picture of what Americans act like. We are said to be taller, louder, more aggressive, louder, rude, and uncultures oh yeah and louder.

I admit that I am a very loud person and the quant british way of talking in a restaurant setting was a challenge my first morning eating breakfast (which was delicious btw)

The man at the orientation described London as a very diverse place to be. He truly means diverse in all types of ways. And what's great is that the social perceptions of Americans in terms of how people dress and sound and orientate towards in thems of sexual orientation and the ethnicities people represent are not overall frowned upon. James the coordinator told us, " People do not come to London to become English the way people come to New York to become Americans, people come to London to be themselves." This is truly a mecca for all people who feel the need to express their true inner selves without feeling like they are being judged.

Friday afternoon we took a tour of London and Westminster and Friday evening we went clubbing. Of course Mr. Clopton had to find a place to shake it up a bit. This was a crazy night. Me and my roommate left the club at 1:45 AM the Underground closes down at 11 or 12 midnight. So we tried to find a correct bus to take us across town to our hotel. Of course we had no idea what we were doing so we got on a random bus and it happened to be the correct bus. Lucky 14 for us!

The driver told us where to get off the bus and we began to make our way back to the hotel. Still not knowing where we were going, we decided to ask random people where Cromwell Road was located. Not the most intelligent thing to be doing at 2:30 in the AM. We met alot of interesting people. All in all by the time we had gotten back to the hotel we had been invited to an after after party by a random group of londoners (whom I thought wanted to kill m and my roommate :), we had discovered two drunks flicking cars off on the sides of streets and we had been petitioned for sex in a lift by a dude(elevator). I felt like Senator Craig :) Of course we deadbolted the door and remained real quiet, but no one ended up coming to our door.

Today, we moved into our dorms. I have a single room to myself on a corner, with my own shower an sink and toilet. I share a kitchen in a common area.

The other international kids are really cool I've met a couple of my flat mates (translation floor residents) nd everyone immediately says knows I', from the US because of my accent. I find that quite entertaining.

Well that was a lot of writing. I have to be back on campus soon- so I will be typing to you later.

Cheers- (rough translation, bye, see ya, thanks, hold on, to health, ok, i agree, hmm)