London: An Introduction

I’m in London. Have been for just over a week now. And my blog title is finally relevant: hurray! Things have been crazy. I think I’ve lived several lifetimes in the past nine days. I’m going to try and summarise it all, but I’ll likely forget half of it.

First there was the whole ordeal of getting to my apartment and dumping my suitcase. This took some effort, especially after completely failing to understand the tube system and getting lost in a series of stair-filled stations. When I finally got to Great Dover Street and ploughed my way through the herd of freshers, I could have died of relief.

Equally fantastic was the size of my room. It’s massive. It’s literally three times the size of some other rooms I’ve seen here. I don’t have a freezer, and the kitchen lacks a toaster, but it’s not too shabby here.

My flatmates are great. I’ve landed myself a nice bunch of freshers, all interesting and friendly and – can you believe it? – tidy! There are seven of us in our flat. Didn’t meet a couple of people for a few days, but we’re all settled in now. I’ve even established a sort of routine, with amazingly absorbent weetabix in the morning and some form of dire college cooking in the evening. I’m sure my cooking skills will improve. Probably right about the time I get sick of beans.

London is… incredible. It’s everything I thought it would be. There’s so much I want to do that I can’t even write it all down. The important thing is that everything’s doable here – swing dancing, apple harvesting, 90s clubbing, market going, gallery viewing, picnicking, etc etc. I’ve done all these things in the past week.

I’ve also gone to the Tate Modern, traipsed from coffee to cupcake to Covent Garden to Carnaby Street with Melbournian Maddie, met one billion people, participated in a pub quiz (the first of several million), and registered for uni and all that.

I’ve wandered through Hyde Park and Hampstead Heath, both beautiful, and I’ve discovered the most delightful kitschy shops on little windy streets.

I’ve shopped. I’ve mastered the underground. I watched How to Train Your Dragon in a beautiful old church. I also watched the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, but it was much less entertaining (although the marching band played a rockin’ Bond theme). I’ve had coffee at the ‘best coffee shop in London.’ Somewhere in between, I found time to go and see a fantastic exhibition on science fiction at the British Library. And I can tick Borough Market and Covent Garden Market off my ‘markets to see’ list – though I’ll definitely be returning to both.

I also signed up to the mailing lists of countless clubs and societies at the Freshers’ Fayre, including (but not limited to) the history society, the musical theatre society, a choir, the Gilbert and Sullivan society, the dance society, the law society, the Erasmus society, the English society… oh, and let’s not forget the Harry Potter society. My inbox is getting a little cluttered. I think I’ll probably wind up picking and sticking with about three societies. We’ll see.

There’s so much more that I can’t even remember right now. I’ve been spending every day just out in the city exploring. And I have list upon list of all the things I’m desperate to see and do! (My law readings don’t make an appearance on this list.)

King’s seems a fairly decent place. It’s got a nice terrace with a Thames view, for one thing. For another, the library is absolutely beautiful. Oh, and here’s a little picture of what I see every morning on my walk to the Strand campus.

It’s crazy wonderful.