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.
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