Welcome to London!

            The last few days have definitely been very busy and crazy.   Since so much has happened during the past few days I will break down what I have done by day.  I wont do this with every blog post, but it seems necessary this time. 

            Wednesday night my parents drove me to Newark airport to begin my London adventure.  It was a bit sad saying goodbye, especially as my Mom looked like she was about to loose it when I was getting out of the car.  While taking off, there were a million thoughts going through my mind such as excitement but also nervousness.  The entire moment was so surreal as I realized I was off to a different country by myself and there was no turning back.   The flight was really smooth and everything about British Airways was great.

            Thursday morning I arrived into London Heathrow at about 9:30am.  I then made my way through customs, which took like 2 minutes because I have British Citizenship.  British Airways Terminal 5 is gigantic, the worlds largest passanger terminal and the UK’s largest freestanding structure.  There were literally hundreds of British Airways planes everywhere I looked.  After getting to the lobby of the airport I met up with my AKPsi friend Shayna to head over to our residence Metrogate in Kensington.  To get there we took the Heathrow Express train to Paddington station and then a taxi the rest of the way.  London black cabs are great since they are pretty reasonably priced and the cab drivers know literally every block and location in the city as they have to pass a test to get a license. 

           When we got to Metrogate Shayna and I found our other AKPsi friends Meagan and Chelsea who are my twin and little in the fraternity.  It is great to have a few goods friends with me in London. After checking in we visited our first pub down the block for our first British meal and drink.  Our residence in located in the heart of Kensington, which is the most affluent part of London.  Every car parked outside is either a Astro Martin, Masarati, Bentley, BMW, Mercedes, Audi or Range Rover.  The world’s most expensive apartment building is only a few blocks away where the average apartment costs about 20 million pounds (about $36 million dollars).   There are tons of pubs and restaurants on Gloucester road around the corner from Metrogate.  Kensington gardens and High Street are only a few minutes away.  The area that we are living cannot possibly be any better.  The rest of Thursday was spent walking around the area to get an idea of where everything is and getting acquainted with Kensington.  We also had to walk to Foundation House (our school building where we have classes) to pick up all of our orientation materials, which is about a 10 minute walk from Metrogate.  I am in a large room with three other roommates who all also go to AU.  The room has a bathroom, four closets and two sets of bunk beds.  Its not the best room ever, but it could be much worse.  All of my roommates seem to be pretty normal and we havent had any issues yet so thats a positive.  

My block- Queens Gate Terrace

Metrogate House, where I live. 

Gloucester Road, around the corner. 

             Friday morning and afternoon we were all exhausted from the night before and we had to sit through hours of orientation meetings for FIE which were held at Imperial College.  All of the info was basic stuff that I have sat through at every other orientation in my life.  Some parts were interesting such as the school administration encouraging us to go drinking and to try as many beers as possible.  During most of the orientation meetings I read the British slang book we received which has over 100 phrases for saying that you are drunk…most were hilarious and Im sure they will come in handy.  After the meetings we all went back to Metrogate to relax and nap.  Friday night was out first real night out in London and it was pretty much pure craziness.  We went out bar hopping in Oxford Circus and during the process we seemed to make many friends and enemies and also happened to accidently crash a party held by CNN.  It was a great first night out. 

            Saturday morning we had a 2 hour bus tour of London led by a blue badge guide.  We pretty much drove all over London and we got a great overview of the city.  After the bus tour I went on a 2 hour walking tour of the Kensington area, which included stops at Kensington palace and Hyde Park.  After the tour I went to buy a British cellphone and we later went to the movies where I slept through 20 minutes of the movie since I was so exhausted from all the touring of the day. 

            So far London has been absolutely great and the city has been so much nicer than I ever expected.  I have had tons of fun in my first few days and I cannot wait for what is in store for the next few months.  Also I  get unlimited incoming texts on my US iPhone.  Feel free to text me at my usual US number.  I have limited outgoing text messages, but I might respond!  

-Rees