Modules Have Begun

Classes started this past week so I finally have a really reason to get up before 9am. I was starting to become one of those people that wanted to go back to school because it gives me something to do and think about.

I am excited for my classes although none of them are easy. The university categorizes modules by level, so I am currently taking three meant for second year and one for final year students. Those last one will be much more difficult because they expect a higher caliber of work and theorizing. I think I am up to the challenge.

So far I like that classes only meet once a week with a section or film screening later on. It allows for more free time to do other things, but it also means I need to be productive on my own. I need to work on my individual productivity the most because I have grown used to constant class meetings covering all material pertaining to the courses in great detail. One two hour lecture a week obviously has less time for class-wide theorizing on major topics, so it is all up to me to connect the dots and make further connections.

Since art history isn't technically a major here I am taking a combination of history and film classes, but this semester they are offering a class in Impressionism and another in Modern Art. I was enrolled in a Spanish Realism course but I mistakenly thought that it was Spanish fine art, not literature. I didn't realize my mistake until receiving the reading list for the course and downloading one of the books. I noticed that the entire book was in spanish and then checked if the other six were also not in english. After realizing that all of the full novels that I would need to read were in spanish, I decided to switch into Cine-Museology, which focuses on theorizing cinema and the museum. This will likely be one of my hardest classes, but also the one that I am most interested in. There are only eight students enrolled and we screened Woody Allen's "Manhattan" on the first day, all of these are promising characteristics of a class.

One great thing about the amount of free time is that I can take a trip down to Covent Gardens with my flatmates, Sophie and Hetty, on a Tuesday to walk around and explore without having to worry about classes or class work. There were musicians to be heard, food to be eaten and sights to be seen. There was a talented group of people playing string instruments who drew a large crowd on the balconies above them, so I got to enjoy their music until their time was up.

With this kind of time on my hands I am either going to be very well traveled within London and broke, or I will be making money with a part time job and much less free time. Hopefully I can manage a combination of the two.

Orientation #1 Done

I'm here!

My belongings are finally moved in, and while it is currently a bit bare it will be home.

This past week has been a whirlwind of events with little to no down time. I arrived Friday, and after a 10 hour flight I got to put my +100 lb. of luggage down and explore. We were staying near Covent Gardens in a student hotel with terrible water pressure and 2 beds squished into a room made for one. It was tolerable and I met awesome people, but I still kept reminding myself that in 2 more days I was moving into my permanent room.

At a performance in Covent Gardens where the man in the center was the juggling performer who also clapped for himself.

Through the UCEAP Orientation the first weekend I was able to check off some of London's tourist must-dos. Firstly, some friends and I checked out what kind of nightlife London has on a Friday night before we had to wake early for a trip to Greenwich.

This is my favorite trip so far. We started by the old Naval Training School and the Painted Hall moving towards the Queen's House. Our tour guide was an older woman with fuchsia hair and tights, and she loved to talk about the drama behind the Painted Hall. I learned that the interior painting of one dining hall took 19 years and spanned two different ruling families in England. As a result, the poor painter, Christopher Wren, was almost not paid in full for the feat.

Greenwich Park is somewhere I would love to live simply because of the colors, river and overall atmosphere. From the top of the park I could stand on the Eastern and Western hemisphere split, the first Prime Meridian, at the observatory and see across the Thames. By the way, the new blog header is a photo I took from the school up to the Queen's House with the Royal Observatory hiding in the background.

Royal Observatory from the Queen's Building

After exploring, all of us rode a boat from Greenwich to the London Eye passing countless riverside apartments and wharfs before reaching the London Bridge, Westminster, and the London Eye. I am quite glad I was able to experience London by boat as well as train, plane, bus and underground. All that's left is by bike!

The last big thing planned before I moved into Queen Mary was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the musical. It incorporated parts from both movies, and despite not having real Oompa Loompas the differences really made it worth the watch. 

After the busy weekend we were sent to our universities to get settled in and attend additional orientations where classes and university procedures were further explained before classes begin. Life in London is going to get even busier, but I will try to post soon after new or interesting things happen.