London is an interesting city. There’s such an intricate transportation system here with the buses, tube, overground, and taxis. (Uber was banned by the transportation on the first week I was here.) Nevertheless, it takes like 30-40 minutes to get anywhere worthwhile. It’s strange for me since I’m so used to driving my own car and getting to places within 20 minutes, unless it’s rush hour. But London’s rush hour is so crazy. The central line, which is the oldest and deepest tube line, has no AC or any kind of air circulation. It’s also the tube line that most people coming back from work will use. It gets so hot inside it’s actually very uncomfortable considering since I, who has been a Floridian for most of my life and even though I love the cold I am not accustomed for it, am bundled up with many layers for the coldness outside. Anyways, so far the only thing I’ve missed so far is my car. I’ll be pretty excited to go back home and drive my car for the first time in months.
As for classes, I really enjoy all of my classes. French is totally kicking my butt, but I think they have French 101-102-201 all rolled into a class. It’s a very different way of teaching with so much talking (in French) during class. It’s very intimidating, but I hope I’ll be able to speak a little by the time I’m done. My other class is Global Shakespeare and it’s definitely one of my favorite classes already. The whole point of global Shakespeare is to talk about the impact around the world and the different versions of Shakespeare’s plays in adaptations, acculturations, or straight forward translations. So as an anthropology major, this is extremely interesting a topic and I cannot wait for the rest of the class. My last class is a literature class on the Romantic period, which is my favorite period of literature. However, I normally prefer the books to the short stories and poems. So of course this class only deals with the short stories and poems. It is still really interesting and I’ve liked the lectures so far.
My flatmates are from all over the UK and other former British colonies. There’s only one other study abroad student in my flat and he’s American as well. Only freshman and study abroad students are allowed to live on campus, so that means that the American and I are the oldest. I would have thought that would have caused a weird dynamic with the other flatmates, but they’re actually really open and friendly. The flat as a whole has become friends with another flat in the same building and we all hang out and go on trips together. Last weekend we visited the Camden Market area and it was so amazing and very unique. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures, but the buildings would have attached different objects, like one building had an elephant or one had a shoe attached to the front. All the buildings were different colors with different types of items for sell. It was like going into Tim Burton-style town. Oh and the food is so amazing. We ended up eating at this Mediterranean Italian shop. We didn’t realize till we were leaving that there’s an entire shopping area dedicated to just food from all over the world. I have plans to return soon.