My First British Schooling :)

15 January 2007

Today is the first day of classes and why not start the week off with a bang…BANG! 2pm class about Diplomacy and International Relations, hurray!!! Well it was a very informative class and I think I will really enjoy myself. The only “downside” is that the grade in the class is based on two assessments; that’s right two! Nevertheless, the lecturer knows his material and I think I will learn a tremendous amount from this 3-hour class. Anyway, it was my first time going to the Regent Street campus (seeing as how I am now going to a city university the different buildings are all over the map) and I had planned out my route before I left and I got there with no trouble whatsoever. Well… except for the giant wind tunnel that seems to form a block away from the building, but its ok, as long as I can stay on the ground and not become air borne I think I will be just fine. I swiped into the building (I can do that now that I have my id) and I proceeded to find the room (hard part number two). You see the first difficult task was to find the building; check. Now the second one was to find the room; check. I literally walked into the building and made a right and that’s the room. So I sat there for a while, 2 o’clock came and I continued to sit there more and more people filed in as 2 o'clock approached and I began to wonder where the teacher was. I took out my crossword puzzle book and I began to work on the giant 2-pager that I had started the night previous while watching an episode from Season 4 of 24 (the best show on tv and dvd). About 10 minutes go by and the teacher finally arrives and asks for some strapping young people to help him with his boxes upstairs. A couple of students went to help and I sat there and continued my crossword puzzle. 5 more minutes passed and I finally was able to finish it and the class finally began. Now granted the lecture is only an hour long so the time was limited. Anyway, the syllabi were passed out and the numerous amounts of handouts found their way to my desk (alright first reading assignments and homework). The time flew by as we discussed the syllabus and began the lecture. Luckily there was no seminar that afternoon so I had the rest of the day off.

I went to the hotel at 4:30/5 pm to meet Doug and his mom before they were going to take me out to see the longest running British musical, “Blood Brothers”. I took them to a small crêpe place I read about in Vindigo (thanks dad and mike) and it was really good. For those of you trying to make a comparison it was similar to ravenous in Saratoga. We ate in less than 30 minutes and found ourselves on the tube headed towards Piccadilly Circus (aka London Times Sq.). The theatres here are much smaller than those on Broadway, but the production was very well done. There was a lot of British humor I didn’t understand, but overall I really enjoyed the production. The first act was eh…but the second act was far superior and it was emotional and very well done. Afterwards we journeyed back to the hotel to figure out what the plan of action was going to be for Tuesday. I don’t have class on Tuesday, so I figured I would tag along with the Seldins and see what sights they were seeing.

I had a good time exploring the British theatre district with Doug and his mom as well as experiencing a very well known British musical. As I walk around the city more and more I am starting to really get a feel and appreciation for this place and my comfort level is starting to come around. I am excited to see what tomorrow will bring. Until tomorrow….