Dyana Cummings is a junior from
Concord, North Carolina. She is an honors student majoring in
Psychology with a minor in Sociology.
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| Our First Week |
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Posted by Dyana:
September 14, 2007 |
Hey there everybody! So as you can guess,
I am in LONDON!! We have been here for about seven days now and
already so much has happened. Things are a bit different, as
expected. It has taken a little to get used to the traffic
coming from the other direction and I am still not used to the
food. They do not use salt and they limit the sugar in
everything. Europeans seem to be more concerned with health,
but this may also be because the government provides free
medical care to their citizens.
The flight over here was not as bad as I
had expected. The on flight movies were good, but the food was
as normal-not so great! Once we landed at Gatwick we had to
stand in the queue (line) to get through immigration for three
hours. This had to be the worse part of the trip, only because
I had to lug around a 40lb carry-on bag that did not have
wheels. Next time I am traveling I am definitely rethinking
that. After getting threw immigration we met Dr. Schuhl. He was
really easy to spot. We followed him to the bus that took us to
our flats (apartments), which turned out to be about an hour and
a half trip. We got to our flats and had to unload our luggage
and bring it up to our rooms. By the time we all got our
luggage into our rooms, as you can imagine, we were all
exhausted and hungry.
We arrived to London on a Thursday. We
spent the rest of the weekend basically exploring our
neighborhood and getting acquainted with the underground
routes. We are located only about 20 minutes walking or on the
tube from the Anglo-American building, which is where our
classes are being held. We are only a second from the local
grocery store and library. And we are also two tube stops away
from some of the trendiest shopping areas in London nowadays.
We have classes on Monday, Tuesday, and
Wednesday. Leaving us with four-day weekends. I am taking the
history of London, European Art and Architecture, European
Literature, Theatre and Spanish 201. The European professors
are amazing. I absolutely love the classes that we are taking
and I am sure that I am not the only one. We have labeled
Mondays our “walking” days because we have both Art and History,
which our professors have us out walking around London and going
to different museums and things. Besides that, our Theatre
class gives us the opportunity to see a bunch of plays and
musicals for free.
Beyond wondering around and going to
classes, I have already found time to also go to the Tate Modern
Art Museum, Covent Garden Market, Camden Passage Antique Market,
an exhibit titled “Sacred” at the British Library, and we began
to explore the National Art Gallery. All this in just one week
and right here inside of London itself. This semester can only
get better!!!