My trip here was not nearly as traumatic as Lauren and Maggie's, but still quite long. I didn't get much sleep on the plane due the constant turbulence and the 3 or 4 crying babies. Luckily, I sat next to a very nice British guy (Alex) who was only 2 or 3 years older than me and in grad school studying English and American literature. However, we talked more about movies, football (both American and soccer), and tennis than about literature. When we were coming in over England, it was covered in snow, which made it look a lot like the Midwest. Alex was convinced that the plane had simply circled Minnesota for 9 hours and we were actually still in the U.S. Despite the snow, the tube was still running, so I got on the Piccadilly line and went to Gloucester Road and got to the place where I get my key to my flat and then, finally, got to my flat.
Our flats are on Kensington Road and are right across from Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens and down the street from the Royal Albert Hall. Kensington is a very rich, fancy neighborhood and we are surrounded by foreign embassies. I live on the sixth and very top floor (which is A LOT of stairs), but is also the smallest amount of people. While the 1st and 3rd floor each have about 15 people divided into 4 or 5 rooms, we have only 4 of us that share a common room, small kitchen and bathroom. The other 3 girls sleep in one room while I somehow got assigned the only single room in the entire program. I don't know how it happened, but I'm very fine with it... until I discovered that it was also occupied by a cockroach, which I luckily managed to kill relatively quickly. The picture here is the view from my bedroom window. All the ceilings are very slanty, and we have a lovely view of Hyde Park out the common room window. Most importantly, since we are on the top floor, it is quite warm up here. So, am I liking my flat? Well, with a warm, quiet, now cockroach-free room, it is pretty hard not to like it.
Today, we went on a short walking tour around Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, and the Kensington area. Our guide, Allison, was extremely amusing with funny little quips about whatever we were looking at. It was very cold walking around for two hours, so Lauren, Maggie, and I got some samdwiches and came back to the flat to warm up until our official orientation.
That's all for now!
Shannon
Our flats are on Kensington Road and are right across from Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens and down the street from the Royal Albert Hall. Kensington is a very rich, fancy neighborhood and we are surrounded by foreign embassies. I live on the sixth and very top floor (which is A LOT of stairs), but is also the smallest amount of people. While the 1st and 3rd floor each have about 15 people divided into 4 or 5 rooms, we have only 4 of us that share a common room, small kitchen and bathroom. The other 3 girls sleep in one room while I somehow got assigned the only single room in the entire program. I don't know how it happened, but I'm very fine with it... until I discovered that it was also occupied by a cockroach, which I luckily managed to kill relatively quickly. The picture here is the view from my bedroom window. All the ceilings are very slanty, and we have a lovely view of Hyde Park out the common room window. Most importantly, since we are on the top floor, it is quite warm up here. So, am I liking my flat? Well, with a warm, quiet, now cockroach-free room, it is pretty hard not to like it.
Today, we went on a short walking tour around Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, and the Kensington area. Our guide, Allison, was extremely amusing with funny little quips about whatever we were looking at. It was very cold walking around for two hours, so Lauren, Maggie, and I got some samdwiches and came back to the flat to warm up until our official orientation.
That's all for now!
Shannon
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