Fall 2007
Heather Cecchini
Jessica Wilson
First week of being in London
On Friday, September 7th, all 35 of us arrived at Heathrow airport
after a
rather long but good flight with British Airways. Luckily everyone was
able to claim their two 50 pound bags of luggage easily and we did not run
into any problems with lost or stolen bags. Upon arrival, we were all so
tired and jet lagged from the overnight flight, however we were filled
with anticipation and excitement of what was ahead of us for the upcoming
semester. We met Dr. Bussard and Took in the airport and quickly boarded
a coach bus which took us to our residencies. The first thing we all
noticed, upon our arrival, was that we were driving on the opposite side
of the road. Although we were aware of this before arriving in London, it
was still so different and scary at first.
We all were dropped off at our flats; twenty-three of us in Kilburn Park and the remaining twelve in Islington. We had an hour to start unpacking, quickly check out our flats and shortly after we had tours around our neighborhoods. While walking around we were able to learn a little history of our surroundings and locate all the places we would be walking to for groceries, postal services and local restaurants.
The second day was spent touring central London on a coach bus with our tour guide Heather. She showed us many important buildings and landmarks in London which gave us a good idea of where we wanted to explore further on our own. We were able to walk through St. Paul’s Cathedral, which was a great way to kick off our semester in London. We were even able to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, which was exciting because we had to run through the streets of London to catch a glimpse.
For the rest of the first week we all had a lot to learn. We had to become familiar with the tube system, which is our main source of transportation throughout London. Learning how to cross the road was now an interesting and somewhat amusing task, as we were all warned to look left instead of right first and of course were afraid of getting hit (and still are). We had to gain confidence in our surroundings and adjust to the time change, despite how busy we were. In addition, we were warned about safety on the tube and when walking around London, especially concerning the pick pocketing and theft that occurs daily. Settling into our flats was a task within itself. It took some time getting used to living with all new people and of course figuring out how everything in our flat worked (or didn’t work). For example, the toasters, ovens and microwaves are a lot stronger here than in the US, which some of us learned the hard way when the smoke detector went off! We also had to figure out how to work the adaptors and surge protectors, trying not to ruin any electrical appliances we brought from home. Overall, the biggest adjustment was adapting to city life, considering we are used to living in areas like Selinsgrove.
London is a very diverse city and therefore the first week was very different from being on campus. So far, living in the city has been an eye opening experience and we are loving every minute of it!
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