"Mind the Gap"

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Today was my first day in London and it was pretty cool. (February 3, 2010)
My day started really early this morning. For some apparent reason, my body decided to wake me up at 2:30 am. I tried to go back to sleep, and it was no good. So, I got out of my bed and went to the common room to putz around on my computer. Most of my putzing was just surfing the web for information on jet lag, and an hour of that made me tired. So, I went back to bed and fell asleep rather successfully. The next thing I remembered was my alarm going off at 8 am. I turned that off and got ready for my day.
The first part of the day was another bout of orientation at the Anglo-American School Building, which is the building where I will be taking my classes. To get there, there was a bit of navigation of the Tube, or Underground, involved. That was pretty successful even though there was one transition, and I have to thank the success to the group who I was with. After getting off the tube, we headed to orientation where we were given more advice on living in London, safety tips, and stuff about our classes. A bunch of it was rehash from the housing and safety orientation we had the night before, but we got other useful info like the fact that the oyster card can be used on the buses.
After orientation was done, we were given some time to search for lunch. A couple of people and I found a little café on one of the streets near the school building. It was a really small place with a very friendly staff consisting of a man and his wife. The man was nice enough to help us figure out what we wanted to eat, and I ended up getting a good chicken sandwich with lettuce, tomato, good cheese, mayo, and oddly enough cucumbers. The combination was very delicious and satisfying. As we were paying our bill, the man gave us a short lesson on what the denominations of all the coins we had were, and we successfully paid for the bill.
After lunch, we were scheduled to have a walking tour of the area. This tour was extremely fascinating, and the tour guide was amazing and very entertaining. The best part of the tour for me was the visit to the West End. In London, the West End is the heart of the entertainment in London. There are many movie theatres there that hold premieres for new movies. There are also smaller theatres that show all sorts of old movies, and there is even one that has a huge Sound of Music sing-a-long night every month. Yet, the reason I love the West End is the fact that is Musical central for London. It took some time to find some of the major theatres on our tour, but I saw some. The coolest for me was the home of Andrew Lloyd’s Webber the Phantom of the Opera, Her Majesty’s Theatre. I only got to see the outside of the theatre, but it was perfect for the show. The way it was designed made it seem like it was the outside of some opera house. I also got to see the theatre where Webber will be showing the Sequel to POTO, Love Never Dies.
Along with the West End, we visited China Town. It was decorated for the Chinese New Year and was fairly close to some of the theatres. We also got to see Big Ben (The tower itself is called the Clock Tower but the bell inside is called Big Ben), Trafalgar Square, the building where the White Star Lone had its office, and the square where the opening scene of the movie My Fair Lady takes place. All in all, it was such a good tour. Pictures are coming soon.
Some Tips from my First Day:
•Planning on an extended stay in London then get an oyster card. It is good for both the Tube and the Buses. Very useful
•When using the escalators and stairs in the Underground, always stand on the right and walk on the left. Do this, or you will encounter some angry Brits.
•When going on or off one of the subway cars, always mind the gap.
•Always have a map of the city and a map of the tube with you. They are extremely helpful