life in londontown.

now that i have officially been in london for two weeks, i suppose it's time for an update. when i last wrote, i had just moved into my hostel, where i spent my second week. that meant moving all of my luggage via tube from central london to northwest london. one roundtrip with some 50+ pound suitcase took about 2 hours. so imagine doing that twice. oh, and not to mention some of the tube stations don't have elevators (lifts). the hostel was nice and specializes in long-term stays for people who have just moved to london. i was fortunate enough to meet some really nice people who i have been hanging out with. it's nice to finally be meeting people.

after the chaos of first arriving and getting everything for school straightened out, i began the 'flat' hunting process. fortunately, the second place i went to look at was perfect. i am living in the clapham area located in southwest london. it's considered zone 2 (zone 1 is central london). the tube station is about a 5 minute walk from my flat. there is a nice park about 10 minutes away, although it's too cold to actually want to go out there. the area is pretty lively, with lots of restaurants, stores, buses, and tube stations around.

school officially starts next week. last thursday-sunday were two big design events in london and as students we were able to get in free. i met a few people from my program at these events. this week, I met everyone from my program for a meet and greet session on tuesday. today we had a nice gallery tour with one of our professors. our first stop was the wellcome collection. there were two nice exhibits focused on science, the body, and various health related topics. the collection housed some very interesting older cultural artifacts, as well as some thought provoking pieces on issues relevant today. from there the group proceeded to the british museum. i have been there before. the museum houses far too much to see in one day, and we just poked around a few exhibits. we then went to the john soane museum. it is located in the holborn area of london, it's really a beautiful part of london. when i studied in charleston, we discussed this museum. it was nice to finally see it, and not just read about it. john soane was an architect and collector. he designed his house to display all of his objects. there are lots of neoclassical and older cultural artifacts. some original models soane did, as well as original piranesi drawings, and other paintings, etc. it's quite a hodgepodge of items, but very interesting, nonetheless. next tuesday and wednesday will be my first day at the design museum and my official first day of class. i'm looking forward to finally getting into a routine.

overall, i am getting acclimated to the lifestyle here. i now know, unless i am going somewhere just a few blocks away, i can plan on it taking me at least 30-45 minutes to get anywhere. the tube is easy to navigate, although there are lots of weekend closures, which complicates things. i learned the hard way on sunday when i couldn't change lines and had to walk about 15 minutes in the cold rain to get to the station i actually wanted to get to. with the exception of 3 days last week, the weather has been cold, and windy. there's been a few rainy days, which is to be expected i suppose. it's been between 55-60 everyday. everyone keeps saying it's actually quite unusual and feels way more like winter than fall. i've visited the tate modern and the sunday brick lane market. beyond that, i haven't done anything too touristy. the british-american language discrepancies are quite entertaining. i've had fish n chips, but that's about as much british food as i've experienced to date. oh, i've definitely consumed my fair share of tea as well. ok i think that catches everyone up to speed...for the most part. more to come soon!