Arrival - June 6th 2010

It’s strange to think that almost a week ago, I was sitting in my family’s Toyota, stuck in terrible New York traffic with my nagging mother making sure I had everything and anything I would need for the next two months. I was more anxious than nervous, not knowing what to expect, whom I was living with, where exactly I was living. As a sophomore going into her junior year I felt like I was heading back to the beginning of freshman year. I loved it. However, reaching the airport and finding out I had roughly 25 minutes to get on my plane was less than exciting and being rushed to say goodbye to my parents at security was less than thrilling. Surprisingly I had the urge to cry when I had to scramble to say goodbye to my parents, since this had not happened at any other departures we have had, this was quite a shock and I struggled to fight back tears. I made the phone calls and mass texted all my close girlfriends saying that I would miss them and would bring back good-looking blokes for them since they are hardly any at JMU.

I was surprised by how much I felt like I was off to be on the MTV show “The Real World”, where instead of seven strangers there are twenty-eight. The flight was easy, a quick read, a long nap, one episode of Glee later I was in London; Two am in the U.S. and roughly seven-thirty here (in London). Customs was what I was most anxious about, I’m pretty sure I re-wrote my landing card a few too many times to make sure it was right. However, it ended up being even easier than the flight. Two more dreadful hours and a nap on a coach bus ride later, seventeen of us were dragging on Bedford Place up to our door, number 14. Luckily, I did not have to be one of the girls that had to drag 30lb suitcases up 5 flights of stairs, instead me and three other flat mates were able to throw them down one flight in order to move in. With no time to waste we were rushed off to our classrooms for an orientation, which was torture. Jet lagged and with three hours to spare, one of my two roommates, Lawler, and I unpacked showered and headed yet to another torturous orientation. That night, after being denied a beer at the Friend at Hand (due to being id-less and looking like I am 12) a terrible burger later, we wanted to fall asleep at 5:30. However, Sean, or as we call him Rusty Junior (RJ/Junior), force us out for a preview walk of the Thames. A few miserable hours later, I was out by 9:30 for a twelve-hour slumber.

The next day seemed to blur together with the last but with no boring orientation meetings only one simple orientation that night. That night we had failed attempts to find a place to go out, only for me to get drunk on our couch and call out how lame our “never have I ever” was. Typical for a new crowd.

That Friday the rest of the group showed up exhausted. Unfortunately, for the whole group we had yet another meeting a short break and then a Twilight Thames walk and dinner. Thames was beautiful. Our advisors made it adventurous for us to see our neighbor hood and my group ended up walking over the Millennium Bridge, just up the river from the London Eye, Big Ben and many other cliché London sights. We ended up having dinner at a restaurant called Tas, which was Turkish food. I am always up for a new experience, but I have to say the highlight of the meal was the bread and what resembled a dil sauce dip before we ordered. Our pidas took forever to receive and one table was long done before our table had even taken a bite. Besides the food, the atmosphere of the group in general was hilarious. At one point or another I believe we all couldn’t stop laughing. With that we decided to check out nightlife in Oxford Circus after the meal. It ended up being a small crew of eight but it was a great way to meet each other. We walked down what looked like a busy pub street, only to see that the pub was for a much older crowd. Not a problem we just went to the one across the street where I had my first strongbow. Delicious, cider beer that hit the spot. We (Lawler, myself, Katie T, Elizabeth, Vikki, Dylan, Ryan, and Sean) all took our pints outside and more or less hung out. With closer examination of the bar we passed earlier we all figured out that not only was “The Kings Arms” for an older crowd, it was also a gay bar. Which we only found funny because none of us besides Ryan had noticed that there were no women when we had walked passed. The night was fun because I find with the smaller groups real personalities come out. For example, any guy that slowed down his car or looked at one of the girls the wrong way Dylan would pop out of the crowd nod his head, or stare them down till they drove off. Only to joke about it after the man or “creep” would pass by. It was on this night that Lawler and myself no longer dubbed Vikki and Elizabeth bitches.

Saturday was another full day of orientation adventures arranged by Rusty and our other advisors. In the morning we had a full orientation to the house rules and what is expected of us during our stay in London. We then were lead on another neighborhood game that lead us to find Brunswick Centre, which I think may become our new favorite place to go. Later in the afternoon we headed down to the East End of London to a neighborhood outside of the financial district. Sketchy, or as Londoners call it White Chapel. Let’s put it this way, every girl held onto her bags for dear life. Later that night we all head to Marquis Conwalis, which was fun, it was all of us around the table laughing and getting to know each other. Plus they had fruli which is a delicious strawberry beer. We then head to the London pub a little ways down, where I was disappointed in what I paid for a tiny shot of vodka and then ran in the rain home after last call. We all convened down in the dungeon for some more drinks and laughs.

Sunday was just brutal to get through because everyone was so tired. In the morning we did the royal tour, which was fun, coming here a second time is great, there were a lot of things I never noticed. I also got to enjoy changing of the guards instead of worrying about taking a billion pictures. After a quick lunch break, we had a scavenger hunt around our neighborhood and besides getting lost we tied for first. That night we went out to dinner with the boys at a great place called the Diner, after we picked up a few beers and we all just hung out. I think we all truly enjoy getting to know each other and hanging out. It really reminds me of dingledine and how we just can enjoy being amongst each other.