Say YES!

My new "say yes to everything" (well, almost everything...) attitude is making me wonder why I ever said "No" before.  In the last year or so of my life I have realised that I am the kind of person who, more often than not, politely declines invitations to things that are new or slightly beyond my "comfort zone".  I am the kind of person who after making a commitment to something new almost immediately regrets it.  Then I stress myself out thinking about the stressfulness of the newest commitment.  Ridiculous, I know.

What a relief to have had this epiphany!  After acknowledging this tendency to say "no" simply as a mechanism to avoid stress, I was able to correct the situation.  My new life here in London is one where I can start new.  I can paint myself a different colour without being seen as a chameleon.  Here's to saying goodbye to fear and hello to opportunity!

Silly Londoners

As I acclimate myself to this new culture and city, I find myself scratching my head over some things.  I decided to keep a list of the especially silly things.  Maybe I will discover the secret reasoning behind these oddities soon enough.

• Eggs are kept unrefrigerated, near the bread in grocery stores.
• Londoners love crackers and they love cheese, but they have yet to discover the magic of Cheez-Its (or anything like them).
• Spoons come in two sizes: tiny and HUGE. Tiny like for baby food, and HUGE like too big to fit in your mouth.
• Flavored ketchup... 'nough said.
• Mac 'n' Cheese comes in a can? Next to SPAM and Spotted Dick? No.

And now it's time for Silly Songs with Larry...

Richmond Park Picnic

This afternoon we picnicked in Richmond Park.  At nearly 2,500 acres, it is the second largest park in Britain.  Best of all it's just a short walk from my dorm room!  Although we didn't see any this time, there are lots of deer, fox, and other wild animals within the park.  I'm willing to bet that if you venture off the paths, deeper into the park you'll find the wildlife.

Today we only explored a very small part of the park because we were on foot.  Next time we go, we plan to rent bikes and ride down all of the paths.  We saw lots of families walking their dogs, flying kites, and riding bikes.  We even saw some people riding horses through the park.  (This is something I will certainly look into.)  The park is full of beautiful oak tress and lush grasslands.  It's dotted here and there with lakes and ponds, but we didn't make it to any of them today.  There are also lots of rivers and streams that run through Richmond Park.  We spent most of the afternoon laying on a blanket in the grass and soaking up some sun (for the first time for me in about 3 weeks).  Now that I know how to get there, I'm sure I'll spend many more afternoons in this park (weather permitting, of course).

Below are a few pictures I snapped while on our afternoon picnic adventure.

Fresher's Ball

The Fresher's Ball: the finale to the week of Fresher's events put on by Roehampton to help us all get to know one another, our community, and what life is like at "uni".  

Tickets were £20, which was a little hard to swallow, especially with the conversion into dollars still on my mind.  I had no intention of staying until 2 a.m. (when the ball officially ended) but was having too much fun to leave before then.  It was here that I was introduced to something called "silent disco" in which everyone wears headphones to listen to one of two different DJs.  It doesn't sound like fun, I know, but it really was.  One DJ played typical clubbing music (rap, hip-hop, etc.) and the other played what I would describe as radio hits (rock, indie, alternative, etc.).  The best part was occasionally removing your headphones and listening to everyone singing (out of tune, of course) and watching people dance to different beats.

Again, I stole pictures from friends to upload them here because I didn't bring my camera to the event. (Thanks Jessica for being the paparazzi!)

The Girls at the silent disco. (From left to right: Jessica, Me, Ulfath, Terry, Elisabeth, and Anne)

One of the DJs

After the madness and hilarity, we looked like this.

Inventing the new dance fad: the bunny-hop!

Dancing with Elisabeth.

Silent disco jammin!

Get your dance on!

I wish I could upload the video of the singing at the silent social, but alas I cannot.  Check out the Facebook to see it.

It was the most fun I've had so far in London, and it has me looking forward to the Summer Ball in June.  Who knew a "silent disco" could be so much fun?

Movie Night Vote

Hey Guys!  To everyone who came tonight, I hope you had a good time.  Next week it's going to be even better!

To all who want to attend movie night next week, vote for the movie you want to watch! There's a poll on the top right corner of this blog.  Cast your votes before Friday at midnight and I'll try to get that one in the mail by next week!! See you there!

Half Moon

Tonight we went to a pub in Putney called the Half Moon, where local musicians can play live shows.  The cover was only £2.50, so that was the major reason for showing up.  At the end of the night, I can comfortably say that it was £2.50 well spent.  Here's the links to some stuff that we heard tonight that I was particularly fond of for one reason or another.

Otti Albietz had real soul on the stage and made his guitar sing right along with his seriously unique voice.  Gotta love the scruff, too.  For more of his songs visit his website.

Robyn Sherwell was the last artist of the night and she was fantastic.  Her voice is incredible and her lyrics hit the spot too.  More of Robyn's stuff can be found on her website.

Laurence Owen was as talented as he was hilarious.  He broke the show up nicely with some comedy and some pretty decent guitar playing and singing.  This wasn't my favorite song but I couldn't find it online so this one will do alright.  His lyrics are kind of vulgar but hilarious.  He did a cover of a song called "Baltimore Whores" that was just knee-slappingly hilarious.  More of his work is on his Facebook page.

Oh, and a side note to a special someone: I had a Bulmer's Pear Cider just for you :)

London Scavenger Hunt: Photo Frenzy

Today Roehampton sent us on a scavenger hunt around central London. We were given a disposable camera, a list of clues, and a 1-day travel card before we were sent out into the world.  We (6 other girls and myself) mastered the London transportation system in every sense of the word.  We took the overground train, the tube, busses, the Clipper (boats down the Thames) and, of course, we walked a lot too.  It took a little less than 9 hours to complete the entire list, and we were all exhausted after clue 5, but we finished!  The list of clues and disposable camera were then returned to the Student Union at Roehampton where they will be evaluated for quality. (It was a competition, after all.)  Hopefully in a few days they will upload the pictures to Flickr and then I'll post them on the blog.  We should find out in a few days who won the competition.  It was more about creativity of the photo than it was about finding the correct landmark.  I feel we succeeded in both of these aspects.

At any rate, here are some photos I snapped with my digital camera along the way.  Some are also stolen from my friend Jessica's digital camera. (Thanks Jessica!)  I took loads with my LOMO LC-A+ so more will be coming as soon as I finish the roll and have it processed.

Cheers!

A cupcake shop we stumbled into in Covent Garden.

Lemon Raspberry Cupcake = yum!

The famous statue and fountains at Trafalgar Square.

Lanters in China Town.

More lanterns in China Town.

Buckingham Palace. (The Queen is out.)

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben, Parliament Building, and the London Eye as seen from Westminster Abbey.

We 7 on the bus to Barnes Station.

Our main mode of transportation.

On the tube to Covent Garden.

Classic phone booths in Covent Garden.

Lion faces in Trafalgar Square.

Hands statue in Covent Garden.

Picadilly Circus 

Tower Bridge

A Few Photos...

Here are some more photos of my new every-day surroundings.  Be jealous, be very jealous.

Whitelands Playing Field and Richmond Park in the background. (This is the view from the student cafe in my dorm.)

Gotta love that sky.  Won't be too many more days like this unfortunately.

The back of Whitelands College where lectures are held.

Trees like this one, and better, are all over.

The back of the Froebel building where I'll have most of my classes.

The Froebel fountain. I love the lilly pads.

The pathway from my classrooms to the library and other things.

Home Sweet Home

Today was an incredibly busy day.  I received my keys for my dorm room and moved in all of my junk.  I've pretty much been working all day on getting settled.  So far, it's pretty homey.  The walls are quite bare, but I'll get some posters soon to help liven up the place.  There's more space for stuff than I had anticipated, which is good.  I'm going to try my very hardest not to fill it up with crap that I'll only have to move again in 11 months.

Tonight is my first taste of true independence in this new city.  But since it's already late I don't plan to venture out of my dormitory I don't really think that counts.  Tomorrow will be a true test of my bravery.  I hope to make some new friends and learn a lot about the year to come.  Oh yeah, and to not have a mental breakdown. 

I'm still missing everyone back home very much, but I am trying to remain positive and optimistic.  Under it all I am very excited to be here and very much looking forward to feeling at home.

Some pictures of the new digs are below.  More to come soon.

View from my door (half of the wardrobe and my desk)

The bathroom.  My fishy shower curtain and alligator shower mat are my favorite part.

My bed, window and heater.  Rupert too, although he's not wearing a silly hat, that's the over-the-bed lamp.

My desk.  Messy right now, still sorting it out.

The inside of my 2 wardrobes and my shelves in-between.

The theme song for the day: 

Mischief Managed

Today I conquered the bus system.  The charm of double decker buses remains.  A journey to IKEA requires one bus transfer each way, and both stops are very close to one another.  It's good to know that European IKEAs can still fill all the needs that I had come to expect from my experiences with IKEA in the states.  Hauling all of the new purchases was not as difficult as I had anticipated. All in all, a happy day.

The sun continues to grace me with it's presence and I continue to be endlessly grateful.  If the weather remains this way, I will be happy as a clam here.

Top Challenges with London Living (in order of most distressful):

1. Where are the OREOS?
2. No cell phone without credit? Seriously??
3. Looking right before left when crossing the street!
4. Really, no Oreos. :(
5. Valuing coin money (smallest bill = £5)
6. A SERIOUS lack of Mexican food.  Yes, I know, I know, Mexico isn't anywhere near here.  But neither is India, and there's plenty of that around. I just want a burrito, is that too much to ask?
7. Knowing when to tip and how to pay the bill in restaurants.  (It's been different in every restaurant thus far, and I've yet to find any sort of indication of which way is apropos.  The "locals" all seem to just know...somehow.)
8. Surprise rain. (Yes, I knew about this when I signed up to live in London.  Still, it's a bit odd that it just happens out of nowhere and ends just a quickly.  Strange...)

'Ello Gov'na!

After an 8 hour flight, 1 hour of customs, and 45 minutes of airport-to-hotel commuting, I have arrived in my new "home away from home".  The flight was pleasant.  I watched Hannah and Water for Elephants, both of which I'd wanted to see.  Around 3 a.m. EST, I peeked out the window of the plane and was blown away.  The best way I can think to describe it is to imagine the "I Can Show You the World" carpet ride scene in Disney's Aladdin.  The sky was a dark purple with thousands of blinking stars and fluffy white clouds were highlighted by the nearly-full moon.  It was certainly the prettiest thing I've seen in a very long time.

A happy surprise when we "alighted" from the Underground, a smiling sun and cloud-freckled sky. (My favorite.)  I've always said I bring the sun with me when I travel, and today was no different.  What a treat!

The journey has thus far been uneventful.  No lost baggage, no delayed flights, no transport mix-ups.  (Thank goodness!)  My "strong like bull" attitude helped when it came to hefting the suitcases up the stairs from the underground and down the road about half a mile to the hotel.

The search for Oreo cookies found me empty handed and craving America's favorite cookie.  It's simply too early in this adventure for such cravings.  A Magnum bar served as a consolation prize and I was happy to discover that the real ones taste significantly better than the American ones.  I guess there's hope for the future after all.

Over the next few days, I will hopefully acquire all the things that I will need for the months ahead.  I'm missing my friends and family already, but keeping a stiff upper lip for the time being.  I'll have my emotional breakdown in the privacy of my own dorm room (aka Thursday).

Adios Arizona

My trip to London is an adventure that I have been eagerly anticipating for over a year.  After so much anxious waiting, it's hard to believe that it's finally happening.  I'm sitting at the airport, biting my lip between racing thoughts of the weeks/months/years ahead.  I'm trying to remain calm and confident.  I keep reminding myself that this is what I wanted.

I'm finding it strange to not know when I will return to my home or see my friends again.  This feeling of uncertainty is something I am most certainly unfamiliar with.  In the recent days past I have had to say "Goodbye" to so many things that I love and I am struggling to swallow the feeling of emptiness left behind.  In spite of all of this, I am still ridiculously excited for my new life in London.  I can't help but feel that this nervous regret for what is yet to come will not be remembered when looking back years from now.

So, for now, I say "Adios" to Arizona, lift up my chin, and head out toward the unknown.