One Month

Today marks the day I've been in London for exactly a month. Technically I flew in on January 5th, but because of our red-eye flight, I was a walking zombie and miserable that entire day... so it doesn't count :)

It's crazy to me that I've been here for a month already because it still feels as though I just got here and while everything has been very exciting, nothing EXCITING has happened yet...

But, my highlights so far :)

1.  Taking classes with medical school students & masters students. What. I've never been in a class where there's med students and students who are 30-40 years old. It's normal here, but it's still strange for me to see someone my parents' age (if they had been teen parents, lol) in my classes. It's also a little intimidating to be in the same classes as med students since they're all freaking geniuses

2. The way science classes are taught here. Here, you're expected to read primary literature from pubmed... have you seen those papers?! They're like 20 pages long, size 5 font, incomprehensible pictures, and might as well be in Swahili. And, you don't have a choice. If you don't read a lot on your own, you won't do well on the exams since lecture doesn't go into enough detail :(

3. Multiple choice? Nope. Essays all day everyday. One midterm (20% of final grade) and one final (80% of final grade). If you're lucky, it'll be 50/50 & if you're unlucky, your final grade is 100% of your grade.

4. Technology & music. The English are slightly backward in both technology and music.... They play our #tbt songs which are great! But then it's like wait... the throwback never ends all night.

For tech, they still have do so many things, like seminar/recitation sign-ups, by paper and you have to go to the office to check on a taped up piece of paper what seminar you're in. Laura had to go and do something with post-its outside her department office...

5. Going out. People here don't stop. MTWRFS are all great days for going out.

6. Pronunciation. The Brits say things funny. And then you realize that no, you're the one who says it funny and they're actually correct haha

7. How hard the adjustment actually is. I personally thought oh London, they speak English, no big deal. It's a big city, can't be much different than NYC, living here will be a breeze. It's definitely been a hard adjustment for everyone and I've been homesick a lot even though I rarely ever get homesick..

8. The architecture is AMAZING. All the buildings are beautiful and just walking down the street is so scenic :) I'm guilty of taking pictures of all the cool/pretty buildings I see and then going back through them, I realize I took a picture of a McDonald's building or a Chipotle..whoops.

9. Fashion. People really aren't lying when they say Londoners love black. I can go days out on the streets without seeing any kinds of bright colors. So I take it upon myself to liven up everyone's day by wearing my bright pink fluffy Northface :) Fur is in, booties are always in, leggings are not pants (I still DGAF), beanies are in, tights with skirts are in.

10. How all these cool things are so close and so accessible! I take runs to and around Hyde Park and you can see all the memorials, the Serpentine, and also visit Kensington gardens. Buckingham palace and Trafalgar square are also walkable/runnable and it's just crazy to me that all of these places are so close! Makes me actually want to go out and run :)

11. How much more diverse London is compared to any big city I've seen in the States. I pretty much live in little Lebanon and it's a huge change in the kind of environment I've been used to. Also, their acceptance of LGBT rights is amazing- its not uncommon to see couples holding hands or being affectionate in public.

Tube strike

Yup. That just about sums up my day. Ilana, Charlie and I all had class at 9 AM today so we left our flat at 8:20 to catch a bus to UCL. We live about 1.8 miles away and it's only a 15 minute bus ride so we thought we could quickly hop on a bus to school. Nope. The buses were PACKED. I think I underestimated how many people really do live/commute in London... When we got to the bus stop this morning there was a crowd of people and someone who was waiting for the same bus as us told us he had been waiting for 40 minutes to try to get a bus. They were so packed that the bus drivers were only allowing people on if someone got off. 

So, we walked the ~2 miles to school and made it to campus at 8:55, right before our classes at 9. As I set off to the new location for my virology class, I got lost and somehow wandered onto the campus of another college... why are all university's so close together here?! I was only 10 minutes late for a 2 hour lecture & some people didn't even show up because of the strike... soo it could always have been worse :) I also walked back from class so I got a good 3.5 mile walk in today.. I can practically feel the pounds shedding haha

The strike continues tomorrow (and starts again next week) and so we're walking again, fingers crossed it doesn't rain! 

Also, insanity day 3 update: calves dead, hard to walk, pain continues tomorrow