Finally settled...

Hello!

After a little over a week, I feel like I've finally settled in. Jetlag is a thing of the past and I'm back to my 2am bedtime =P This past week has been a whirlwind of activity - it still hasn't really hit me yet that I'm in London for an ENTIRE semester! You'd think it would have planted itself in my head by now, but nope! It feels like I'm at a posh sleepaway camp!

I'm nearly finished with my first week of classes. Three and half hours per class is rather exhausting and at times hard to stay awake in. Islam and the West is exciting! I really like the format the professor teaches in and having our upcoming Istanbul trip is definitely something to look forward to. The class moves rather quickly, but Professor Enyat does a good job of representing the class from various viewpoints in a neutral setting.

British Life and Business is so far my favorite class by concept. Professor Nikolina is very down-to-earth and the class involves a lot of excursions outside the classroom. We're seeing Parliament next week! Lots of history and pop culture in this class, areas that I'm definitely interested in. Also we have presentations this term and I selected to do mine in two areas of advertising: the ban of advertising of HSSF (High salt, sugar, and fat) foods and a comparison of American/British attitudes of violence, nudity, and language. Lots of exciting stuff coming in that direction!

International Marketing was unfortuently kind of a let down. I had high hopes for this class given that the professor could have made use of a lot of different types of mediums, but instead its strictly lecture and quite a bore....its from 1pm -4pm Wednesdays and Thursdays and I've half snoozed twice on the first day and if it hadn't been for the pound of circulating Cadbury milk chocolate bar the whole class might as well have fallen asleep too.

Compartive Inequalities, a sociology class, I'm still lukewarm about. Professor Faught of LMU is a Mountain View Alumni from the days where it was still Mountain View Union and located on Castro Street. He lectures also, but the room was extremely hot and the fact that he lectured sitting down was very distracting. Again, high hopes for this class as it could very well contribute to my Marketing major...progress to come.

My flatmate, Michelle (originally from SoCal and a trasnfer from USF) and I went to go see tour Buckingham Palace Wednesday morning before our 1pm class. We were the first group in at 9:45 and the tour of the state rooms kept us occupied until about 11am before we ran around about half the perimeter of the estate, which I should mention is HUGE, to catch a glimpse of the "changing of the guard." I wish photography was allowed, but then again pictures just wouldn't do the place justice. The interior - from floor to ceiling, everything in between, and every nook and cranny was outstandingly GORGEOUS! Also, might I say that they keep that place CLEAN. I could not find a bit of dust anywhere. The state room where the banquets are held is breathtaking, not to mention the preparation for it all. The setting of the table alone must take place two days before the dinner and every setting is measured - a job that I probably wouldn't care too much for. Nonetheless, I wanted to swipe her china...such a pretty design!

Each place setting involves over twenty pieces and each piece may as well be as old as the monarchy. I was so fascinated by the commentary on the audio tour for this room that I listened to it twice. The palette of the decor for the remaining rooms are so lush and decadent. The walls are lined in damask designed silk wall paper. The furniture was all antique. There are over 300 rooms and the palace serves as the Queens living and work areas. There's so much history and every detail is simply breathtaking. For those hoping to make future trips to London, I highly recommend spending the time to visit the Palace - however be wary of the hours! The Palace is usually only open during the Royal family's summer holiday.

Before darting back to South Kensington for class, I grabbed my first West Cornwell Pasty (Winnie :D). I had the traditional small steak pasty, filled w/ carrots and onions wrapped in a flaky pastry crust. Absolutely delicious and filling! At less than 3 GBP it was quite a deal!

That evening, I made it back over to Chinatown. This time w/ Cheryl in search of Bubble Tea. There are no take away places for Bubble Tea =/ We had our first London Bubble Teas @ Hong Kong Diner on Wardor Street, Fantasia -like in taste. On a side note, good wanton (they don't say wonton....) soup. After we went on an Asian market - crawl. By the end of the night I had found microwave rice (Melissa Brown!), a HUGE bunch of Kai-lan, oyster sauce, white pepper, and a good portion of char siu. Also, we found good places w/ good prices to fulfill our Asian cravings. Lastly, I found Mango SAGO (Winnie!) w/ grapefruit!

Tonight (Thursday) all the kids from the program made caravanned over to a branch of the theater district to see the musical "We Will Rock You" - which was a compilation of songs from Queen. It was alright. Not my cup of tea, but it was good to have the experience! The Dominion Theatre was pretty, but the Patages of LA could easily take it down as awe-strucking. But little known fact is that it converts to a Protestant Church on Sunday mornings....

The days seem to be super short here in Londontown. I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to do all that I have to do. These days we've been all getting ready to book our travels across Europe and for some others, into Africa. We have a week long break in the middle of October and we're getting super antsy/excited to travel, essentially 10 days of bliss before our internship portion begins. My plans have been switching constantly as we become more and more aware of the prices, what's realistic, and what is geographically close compared to what we thought. In less than 24 hours my plans have gown from:

1) Spain --> Italy --> Greece, which we found out was a lot farther apart than we thought it was and expensive to experience given our time available, so that led us to...

2) Brussels --> Amsterdam --> Berlin --> Prague --> Zurich --> Paris all via Eurostar....BUT we decided that that though it was managable, it was too much traveling and left us little time to actually experience where we're going.....so now we're at....

3) Italy and Greece. Off of Ryanair.com, we found a great flight to Milan that was essentially $0, the catch being that it was about $40 in taxes/fees/etc, which still is a great deal considering that it costs about that much to travel from SJ --> LA and twice the distance. In Italy, we would love to see Pisa, Luca, Firenze, and Milan (way up top =/) and in Greece - Athens, Mykonos, Santorini. Unfortunately, to do and actually see both is impossible given our 10 days....so now I think we might be doing just Greece?

More details to come on travel plans! Also I am welcoming any tips you have for me in addition to contacts in any of these countries and/or flight discounts =)

By the end of this trip, I'm going to....

* be great at booking cheap, spontaneous travel
* have great toned legs and thighs from walking/climbing 85 stairs each time I decide to come up/down from my flat - which is often, also to note - it's a rather STEEP incline
* will have FOR SURE been to Dublin, Ireland (10/3 - 10/5) and Prague, Czech Republic (10/10 - 10/12)
* been able to survive on microwave popcorn
* have mastered the Tube map and all rail lines to/from Heathrow, Gatwick, and Luton airports
* NOT get killed from speeding motorists driving on the left side of the road
* have visited the Cadbury Factory!

More updates to follow!

avec joie de vivre,
Kimmie