DoubleDeckerDreams

I just finished my second day of binder-open-taking-notes-listening-intently class. Yes! It has almost been a week since I’ve last entered a classroom, but that means I’m actively exploring the city of London! Independence day has recently passed and I can honestly say it was one of the most enjoyable nights to be in the UK. I’m taking quite a lot of pictures and I’m consistently posting them on Facebook. I’ll be adding links to the public album and give a summary of my adventures ;)

Excursion to Sigmund Freud’s House (Child Psychology)

This was the home of Freud in the last year of his life. He brought all of his precious belongings into this home and escaped persecution from Nazi forces. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take pictures inside, but rest assured everything was there. I enjoyed this experience, especially as an aspiring psychologist, and I am certainly appreciative that the Freuds decided to make their home a public museum. The garden was beautiful. The museum even has a modern art exhibit of pieces that touch upon the themes of Freud’s theories, such as the unconscious and sexual drives. Some of the pieces were graphic to say the least. One collection that I found particularly interesting was a set of photographs of grassy, or forestlike scenery. If you just glanced at the pictures you would of thought, “Okay.. trees..” I was underwhelmed until I read that the photographs were the scenes of homophobic crimes and murders. Afterwards, I met up with one of my friends I met through the Social Justice LLC in freshman year and I finally got to show off my flat to someone outside of the program :) Later on, I met with another friend that I met here and we toured the first few shops down Oxford Street. I say a few because we were exhausted! Early classes and walking everywhere make for tiring days.The album also include a few pictures of my walk to the Phoenix Theatre the night before to see the musical Blood Brothers as an FSU Centre event.

Day Trip to Brighton

Brighton is about an hour away from Central London on Coach. Perfect opportunity for us to catch a nap. Our tourguide, however, thought it best to violently awake us from time to time over the microphone to tell us that the Austrailian Consulate was where they filmed a scene of Gringotts Bank for Harry Potter or that there was a huge fox outside or that we were now approaching the Royal Pavilion. On the way to Brighton, I caught a glimpse of another Cuban flag (the first one I saw was near Covent Gardens, and is what I found out to be the Cuban Embassy). The glimpse of a flag was followed by a huge mural of a dancing girl standing on la isla. Needless to say, Cubana is a Cuban restaurant, bar, and salsa club which I MUST visit sometime during my stay here. It looks a hundred times better than Gordo’s back in Tallahassee. Ironically, the London Cuban restaurant is not owned by Cubans and has a Columbian band that plays on some nights ;) Brighton is a seaside retreat for many who desire a dip in their “cleansing” waters or a stroll on the pier or pebble beach. No sand here. Just pebbles.

NOOOO the rest of my post was just deleted! :( Since I don’t want to back track I’ll be more concise than before.

Royal Pavilion (Indian on the outside, crazy ornate detail on the inside!) I wasn’t allowed to take pictures inside so I’ll post some paintings I found on Google of my favorite rooms later.

Lunch on the Pier was beautiful. I love the beachy carnival atmosphere :) Tried Fish & Chips for the first time. It was a good but heavy and greasy meal (I could barely eat my leftovers) but I had a tasty ice cream cone with a chocolate flake to counterbalance my sodium overload for that day. We visited some shops and it was a cute little town.

Pub Food, Tower of London, Olympic Site, and Greenwich

Album Continued

I’m having more and more great nights and meeting more and more great people. Tomorrow I’ll be busy working on an assignment so I’ll probably post in more detail about my weekend during study breaks. London is warming up to me and becoming a pleasantly familiar place though around every corner is a new discovery. I’m getting close to finishing my book, and I have realized that there is NO WAY I could have fully comprehended the novel without actually being HERE in London!

6:52pm

I signed up for two Psychology courses: AntiSocial Behaviour and Cross-Cultural Child Psychology. They run Monday through Thursday from 9am to 1pm, though sometimes I will be going on excursions during these times as arranged by the professor. It’s pretty interesting so far. I was attentive for the full three hours :) We’re going to have a guest lecturer soon. We will also be touring the Tower Bridge, Wellcome Museum, the London Dungeon (by the way people describe it it reminds me of Terror of Tallahassee on Gaines St), Freud’s House, and other trips I can’t recall right now. 

It is a HOT 88 degrees outside. Our building is very old, and although it’s renovated we do not have heaters or air conditioning in the building. Very rustic.. It’s the kind of heat that that wakes you in a sticky film of sweat and a dry mouth. Speaking of which, I feel more dehydrated while I’m here, maybe it’s the air? I had my second grocery shopping experience today at Sainsbury’s. It’s so.. baffling.. lol to see how people live differently in this city. There is no such thing as a gallon of milk, eggs are not refrigerated, portions are tiny, no preservatives. I mean something so simple as going to the store is culturally different. It’s interesting! 

Unfortunately, I have been having problems with my bank lately. For some reason, although I called ahead of time prior to my trip, and twice in London, they keep rejecting my card at the ATM. Plus, I just learned they are going to CANCEL my debit card on Thursday. I mean, can you believe that?! Cancel my card while I’m abroad?! I was pretty angry on the phone today with the representative. So I’m going to have to make arrangements to get my card shipped to my address here. Really, such a hassle. Thankfully, I was able to get some money out. I just have to make sure that I’ll have enough to live without a debit card for a week or two.

Just a bump in the road.

I’m really enjoying my self-assigned travel read :) I picked it up not knowing that some of the places the book mentions I’ve BEEN to already. The motion picture is definitely going to be the first I see when I’m back in the States. Soon I’m going to go see a play with the rest of the program called Blood Brothers. I should start getting ready for that now. I’ll write again soon!

• Gone to an Irish Pub, O’Neils (fun!)
• Gotten lost in the city (not fun at all.. actually it was really overwhelming)
• Drank cider
• Eaten at Pret’s
• Had Big Ben’s Cookies (white chocolate and triple chocolate)
• Seen a street performer heckle at Americans
• Drank tea
• Seen some of the sights
• Met people
• Overall, I’m still in the works of getting used to things.. Having an adventure every day

7:04am

There is an alarm or something BLASTING (wee-oo-wee-oo!!). I’m currently in my flat :) (yes, I get to say that now) I’ve slept as much as I could because today I don’t plan on taking a nap. The flight was cramped. For nine hours I was shifting and turning around in my seat trying to catch a wink of sleep. I managed about an hour but the anxiety of it being my first flight and the turbulence didn’t make it easier. I kept the window closed across the Atlantic ocean and opened it a bit when landing. all I could say was Wow and Oh God lol. I was a complete mess yesterday. I teared up a little when we landed safely and now the hard part is over. We took the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station and from there caught a cab to the FSU Study Centre. Much colder than I expected. I really shouldn’t have packed to a list that they gave me and instead packed MORE and HEAVIER. I only took up 37 lbs of my allotted 50 lbs limit. I plan on visiting H&M and getting a few things. A scarf and some tights and a jacket might last me. After all, it’s supposed to get warmer. It’s 52 degrees Fahrenheit currently.

On the agenda today:

-10am Mandatory Orientation and Light Breakfast

-2pm Mandatory Alcohol Awareness

-4pm Practical Walking Tour

For the tour, the staff is going to show us around the neighborhood to get a feel for essential places we would have to visit. The grocery, and bank among other things. Hopefully, I’ll be able to interact more with students during that time. Today, I definitely need to do some shopping, for groceries that is. There is no drinking water in my flat for one. Not a filter or a fountain. It was really quite frustrating last night since I took some medication that gave me horrible dry mouth. Other than that, I think I’ll get sandwich meat and bread and pasta or something. I have to be especially frugal during my time here. The shower is TINY, but the water pressure and temperature are just right. Still though, I’m 5’9” and have to hunch over.

Waking up in London has definitely made the experience thus far seem more like reality. My roommate told me that after the first week or so you used to the pattern of things. I can expect that with every new encounter I will learn something from it. I miss my family and friends. I’m on my own out here. My actions will determine the experience I have. I can’t wait until classes start and there will be more structure in the day. This is only the second day! I’m going to start getting ready before everyone else in the flat wakes up :) I’m really lookin forward to buying tights (lace! animal print! gray! black!) and a basic trenchcoat :3 who knows this may turn out to be a fashion blog too ;)