Orientation Begins

My first full day in London.  My roommate's great and we get along very well.  NYU London (NYUL) puts on a whole slew of orientation events in these first few days to help get us acclimated into the new city as well as academically.

Today was great because we got a lot of information which makes me feel a bit more grounded.  Definitely more than I felt yesterday.  And it'll only get easier.

I got to see a bit more of the area surrounding my dorm today and was able to check out the other NYU buildings.  And I met some people in the process, which was great!  Future travel buddies!

Me and My Roomie Naveada

Oh, I was also able to finally pick up some towels.  Hallelujah!  Next I bought my UK phone - the cheapest one I could find.  It's a pay-as-you-go phone, yup pretty old school, so you just "top-up" when you need more minutes and/or texts.  Pretty convenient.

My totally hip new flip phone

Next, my new friend, Taylor (who is also a senior at NYU and previously studied abroad in Tel Aviv), and I went and got lunch at this place called Hummus Bros - which I had heard great things about.  It was delicious and cheap!  Always two great things.  We split a regular-size order of hummus and guacamole.  What could be better than those two things combined?  And the pita bread was extremely fresh, and yes, warm!

The server also gave us mint tea at the end on the house.  Now I don't know if that's because we were two American girls or because it was our first time there, but either way I'm not complaining!  That was also delicious. 

Last event of the day was the Pub Quiz.  NYUL rented out the basement room at this local pub for us.  There was food, drinks, and trivia game!  I suck at trivia and my team wasn't too skilled at it either.  But that's okay.  It was still a lot of fun and I met new people!

Our Pub Quiz Team - Team Tom Candome Daley

(I didn't come up with it, but still think it's hilarious)

My First Ever Legal Drink:

Aspall Cyder

Cheers to New Friends and New Experiences

(Naveada on the left, Taylor on the right)

Overall, I'd say it was a pretty successful day.  I'm very much looking forward to starting classes on Tuesday and getting into the swing of things with a new schedule.  But right now I'm enjoying this time of the unknown and of incredible uncertainty.  Right now I'm a tourist, pulling out my camera at every opportunity, and I love it.

This city is great, I can already tell.

Some observations:

-London doesn't have street signs.  It took me a while to figure out they were posted on the corner building of each intersection.  

-London drivers are a lot nicer and move a lot slower than NYC drivers.

-Everything sounds better with a British accent and I want one. 

-There are not trash cans on every corner and yet the city is still impeccably clean.

-They call the bathroom/restroom the "toilets".

-It is extremely necessary to look both ways when crossing the street because they drive on the opposite side.  It'll take me a while to get used to that one.

-Expect it to rain.  Everyday.  It can be sunny one minute and windy/cloudy the next.

Cheerio!