Classes have begun!

Well, summer's officially over and classes have begun here. We take almost all our classes at City University, which is a five to ten minute walk from Thoresby, which is nice. City's kind of like a Northeastern, if you know that school.

In case you were wondering, which I'm sure you were, I am taking:

Environment, Communities, and the Arts: A class about how we can use ART to save the environment, or rather how art can get people passionate and inspire them about environmental issues. Interesting and a really nice professor but a LOT of reading and work outside class.There's about 13 of us in the class, smaller than any class I had in high school.

Intro to Sociology: Haven't started it yet, I have it for the first time tomorrow! Supposedly there are 200 people in our class..woohoo college lectures!

Film in the City: Class about films set in London. Seems pretty easy although there's a lot of reading outside class. We watched Notting Hill last class! There are only about 8 people in the class.

Creative Writing: 9:30am all the way in Notting Hill..meaning we basically have to wake up at 7, get on the over-crowded tube for thirty minutes, then walk to class. The class itself pretty much consists of short prompts and reading our work outloud, which has been fine so far. There's probably about fifteen people in the class. The professor is not as laid back as I would expect a Creative Writing teacher to be, but he seems intelligent.

So far it's been a heavy workload- we pretty much stayed in all of last weekend just doing work! We only have 11 more weeks here, so the classes move very quickly. The grading system is also completely different here, which I'll have to get used to.

We have a boat party on the Thames river this weekend!!! I have a really nice dress to wear and I can't wait. Hopefully I'll post pictures from it, but now I've got to go to bed- it's 1am!

Still loving the city, the people, the good life

xoxo emmy

Shopping in London

Hey everyone, I decided to do a quick blog about typical shopping in London since many of the stores are different here. Enjoy!

In the US, we have our beloved CVS. In London, we have Boots. Look for the blue signs on any street. They usually have some food and clothes in addition to all your typical CVS goods.

Classier than a Star Market, but definitely not Whole Foods. Good cheap deals. Don't expect to find some of your favorite American goodies though, like Oreos or Goldfish.

Waitrose is the shit. Fruit, meat, vegetables, bread, and cheese are all very fresh and delicious. Not quite at a Whole Foods level but better quality than Sainsbury's and only a little bit more expensive. Kinda like a Sudbury Farms for my Sudbury people.

Mixture between a Target and an H&M. Sells mostly clothes, but I also got sheets and bathtowels there too. The clothes are cheap but still fairly good quality, and you can get really cute stuff.

VERY cool store. Tons of funky vintage clothes, like letterman jackets for girls, huge Christmas pattern sweaters, tutus, 70s style flannels, and lots more. They also play good indie music so you feel pretty cool in there.

Classy clothing store. Tagline is "fashion for the young, urban woman." This store was also pretty common in Spain too. Not too cheap.

An Italian based company that was really big in the 80s. Known for its racy advertising in the 90s. I've kind of always been obsessed with this company so I was really excited to see one for the first time in London.

Take Nordstrom and multiply it by 10. Harrods is probably the most expensive high end luxury department store in London. The clothes are absolutely gorgeous, but it's more of museum than a store. Definitely worth a look though. 

Goodbye Orientation!

Just two days left of Orientation! In some ways it feels like we just arrived here...yet when I think about saying goodbye to my parents and everyone back home it feels like a century. Orientation has overall been great (I have a few complaints with the way Arcadia runs things, but nothing major.) I realized that I didn't share a lot of things from Orientation, so here's a quick summary!!

London Eye at night. This part of the city is gorgeous and all lit up at night- check out Big Ben and Westminster Abbey during this time of day too.

Platform 9 3/4. Now don't get TOO excited HP fans...it's really not all its made out to be although you can take a super cool pic like I did.

Paul McCartney's CURRENT home. You can ring the bell, I doubt he'll come out for you though. If your tall enough you may even be able to climb the fence (but you may get arrested.)

Windsor Castle- just outside of London. It's very pretty and old fashioned, if you're into paying 13.50 for that kind of thing.

Classic Old Fashioned Telephone Booth- you haven't been to London if you haven't taken a picture in this.

Self Explanatory. Lots of books, posters, keychains, postcards, etc. I got myself a nice John Lennon "Imagine" poster for my dorm room.

Pretty part of the Tower of London...perfect for anyone who likes all that 15th century nonsense and/or torture devices.

London's very first underground station! It still has that vintage look which I adore.

Tower Bridge- not to be confused with London Bridge. My artsy little pic :)

Well, that's most of it! Gotta go read for my Environmental class now.

xoxo emmy

British Lingo Dictionary

I'm in love with British lingo so I thought I'd make a little list here:

Lift : Elevator

Queue: Line, as in waiting in line

Trolley: Cart

Biscuit: Cookie

Litter: Trashcan

Rubbish: Trashcan or bullshit (e.g. that 9/11 conspiracy theory is total rubbish)

Quid: Bucks, as in amount of money (that shirt at Primark was NOT worth 40 quid.)

Torch: flashlight

Chips: french fries

Crisps: chips

Trousers: pants (pants means underwear, or sometimes knickers means underwear too.)

Rubber: eraser

Course: Major, as in what you major in in college

University: College

College: High school

Candy Floss: Cotton Candy

Mum/Mummy: Mom/Mommy

Petrol: Gasoline

Dodgy: Sketchy (that area is a little dodgy)

I'll submit more soon!!!

Homestay & 9/11 Anniversary

Hello everyone!!

Right now we're in the middle of our homestay weekend! My family is both British AND Pakistinian...so it's kind of like getting a 2 for 1 deal. We have an adorable little girl in our family (British children seem to be far more polite and mature than American children...she's making me feel pretty bad about my table manners NGL) and our host mother just made us some delicious somosa and tea. So I'm happy.

It's really strange that tomorrow is the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, and I'm not in the US for it. I feel a little bad not being home. We watched this weird British show about government conspiracy theories on 9/11. It was a little awkward to explain to our host family that that's not the general view of Americans. Apparently some people here think that 9/11 was directed by the U.S. government because insurance was going up on the twin towers......

Besides that, there's a lot I love about this country. Everyone is more polite and better dressed, especially the girls. I'm feeling pretty bad about my own fashion style after looking at some of these girls in the city. Everything is so "quaint" as the typical American tourist would say. The accentats and lingo are to die for, and the British TV shows are great (I Love Doctor Who!!!) The city is beautiful and alive. I could never imagine getting bored here.

Downsides? The weather. We're not even halfway through September and I'm already in big sweaters and jeans. The exchange rate (but you can hit  up Primark, similar to a Target or H&M, for good deals.) The fact that not every place has a public restroom...I feel like that's a must-have.

Still really miss you all, although this place is starting to feel a little more like home. It's nice to have home cooked meals on our homestay, anyway!

xoxo
emmy

And we're HERE.

Voila, Abbey Road! Are you jealous??? Of course you are.

I'm kind of kidding...afterall, it's only a crosswalk. It's funny when you anticipate something so much....walk all the way down Garden Road and all there is to see of this famous landmark is a standard, ordinary crosswalk. No flashing lights, no John Lennon ghost. Feel like that generally happens to me when I see something famous in real life, somehow it's never quite the way you imagined it. Still a mini life milestone though, for me at least.

The wall was pretty cool though. Everyone signs their name along with a Beatles cliche like "all you need is love." Kind of a representation of the power the Beatles had over the world. You can look for my name if you visit!!

We also stood outside Paul McCartney's actual current home, which was the most exciting part of my day. We wanted to ring the bell but it looks like Paul's guards thought of that idea long before we did.

London is fantastic. Only a week has gone by but I feel like I'm already turning into a little city girl...navigating the tube, hitting up the nightlife, meeting locals, and generally learning to live on a lot less (I've probably lost about five pounds so far.)

I really miss you all from home though. Skype and Facebook and ridiculously expensive texting can never be enough...I'm thinking of you all everyday <3

Cheers for now! (as the Brits would say.)