So I’ve been in London for 14 days now! Here’s what I’ve been up to:
• Acadia Orientation at High Street Kensington: Basically a bunch of boring introductions in a very posh sector of West London. They lost my luggage flying from LAX to Heathrow, so I had nothing for the first three days. The other kids on the trip were awesome, though, and helped me find a “cheap” shirt at Urban Outfitters. This was my first real encounter with The Pound. Welcome to 50-dollar t-shirts. My luggage was eventually delivered, and I was a very happy girl.
• Host Family Stay in Southport: Southport is a seaside town about 7 hours north of London. Yes, that’s seven hours of riding in a coach bus, furiously sucking on ginger drops that are supposed to make you less carsick. It worked fine until ginger overload ending up making me sick instead.
My friend Martha and I were assigned to a family of five. The dad was a postman, and the mom was a childminder, which meant that when we first got there we were greeted by throngs of children who weren’t theirs. They had two daughters, ages 15 and 11, and a son, age 5. The oldest girl aspired to be an air hostess. She had apparently called another host family’s daughter a slut, and since then the families became mortal enemies. They duke it out in competition dance, in which all the girls of the family (mom included) participate. The 11-year-old, on the other hand, wanted to be an actress. “Oh, that’s really cool,” I said. “Who’s your favorite actress?” “Paris Hilton,” she responded. I considered doing a proper cultural exchange and describing what Americans think of Paris. But realized they weren’t appropriate thoughts for children. (Although maybe the 15 year old was on to something.)
The youngest was a 5 year old. His favorite things to do were: 1) do a card trick, and 2) play hide-and-go-seek. The card trick consisted of choosing a card and placing it on the top of the deck. Then, in a loud voice he would say, “shuffle, shuffle, shuffle….” But not actually shuffle. He’d pull up the first card and ask slyly, “Is this your card??” “OH MY GOODNESS,” we’d respond. “THAT IS MY CARD. HOW IN THE WORLD DID YOU FIND MY CARD???” “Magic,” he’d say. Repeat 20 times.
Hide-and-go-seek is a good game, except that the only place to hide in the small dining room was behind the door. So we stood in the same spot every time. Repeat 20 times.
Actually, one new game he thought of was Put My Unwashed Feet in Your Face. This meant sitting on the couch in front of the TV frantically beating feet off of my head, while the host dad looked on. Martha was so smart, though, and discovered a system of defensive tickling.
On the first day of home stay, the other study abroad students and I boarded a train and went to Liverpool—home of the Beatles! It’s a cool town with tons of good shopping (they say the further north of London you go, the cheaper it get. I wish I knew this before going back south to London.) The second day, we were supposed to have a family day, but the dad had work. The mom and the other girls had come home at 4:30 in the morning from someone’s 21st birthday party. They suffered from headaches and tiredness. One of the girls said she dropped her phone in the pool by accident because she was drunk! So Martha and I went into the town of Southport and walked around. It was a pleasant town. We went to a long pier and walked to the end and curiously couldn’t find the ocean. I guess it had a super strong tide that pulls the ocean back hundreds of yards.
• Mile End, East London! We finally drove back to campus to settle into our own sweet flats. Let’s say that again, just for the ring: our own sweet flats! The residences here are all new. The room is huge. The kitchen is fully equipped and really large. I get my own bathroom. Plus, I have the corner room! This means I get an extra window right next to my bed. Someone also left this cool mirror arrangement on my wall, which I like a lot.
This week has been orientation, in which different members of the community take turns saying welcome to you. It is also “freshers” week, basically the equivalent of New Student Week at Northwestern. I feel like I’m a freshman all over again, asking people interesting questions (ex. What’s your name? Where are you from? What do you study?) and signing up for way too many student groups (or “societies,” as they call them here). Overall, though, I’m quite impressed by how nice the campus is.
There are times I miss Northwestern. I miss some of the people and afternoons in Peet’s Coffeeshop. But being in London is also a much needed break. On the verge of some serious life choices, I can put things on pause for a while. Even when I buy 99 pence chopsticks, I stop and weigh the value of three months. I think it’s just enough. Worth the chopsticks, anyway. (10 for 99 pence!)
Note on tomorrow: Classes start! Like the nerd I am, I’m excited. I’m also nervous about entering the British system, and even more anxious about nailing down the classes I want. I swear, the system is ARCHAIC. But more on that later. Sleep now.
And some pictures to keep you going...
Some awesome new friends
Homestay "brother"
Homestay room
Hey, where'd Southport's ocean go?
