On Saturday, the 14th we were transported by bus from our hotel in Central London to Queen Mary in East London. The drive only took about 30 minutes, which was surprising given the traffic here in London. Once, we got to campus we were dropped off based on our housing. The majority of the students on my program, including myself, are living in Pooley House, the largest dorm on campus. When we pulled up to Pooley, our suitcases were unloaded, we were directed to our housing registration, and the bus pulled away.
I wasn't expecting for IFSA-Butler to drop us off with that little guidance, but I assume since the majority of us are Juniors in college they felt we knew the drill already. At the registration we were given a key to our room, a white card (to swipe into the building), and an inventory form (to write room condition complaints on). Then, we were off to see our rooms.
Unlike most universities in the states, the UK doesn't like the concept of "the roommate." Hence, my living situation now consists of a single en-suite room that shares a kitchen with 8 other single rooms. I really enjoy this as it completely gets rid of the weird roommate situations the majority of us have had in our 4 years of college. Luckily for me my 8 other flatmates are wonderful. There are 5 British students and 4 Americans. The 4 Americans are all around my age (20 years old), while the British students are around 18-19.
The week the freshman or "freshers" move in is known as freshers week. This consists of a week of parties and events that you socially drink at and meet other freshers. On Saturday night, I went to a party at the pub on our campus, "Drapers." We had predrinks before. For us Americans, this is known as pregame. I've since taught my flatmates that word and they've started using it. Anyways, during predrinks I learned numerous British terms like, wellies (rainboots), and learned all about the British education system. It's so different than ours I'm not even going to go into the details. We then headed to Drapers, which basically was set up as a club. They played a lot of 90s music, top hits, and things I had never heard of.
On Sunday, I woke up and went grocery shopping with a group of girls from my program. I am never taking my car for granted again. It is very hard and heavy to carry your groceries from the store, to your dorm, and up 3 flights of stairs. That evening my friend, Annie, cooked for a group of us. We had chicken kieve and mashed potatoes. I can't cook at all, so this was wonderful. Then, I was headed off to a "Black/White Party" at the Whitechapel campus. The Whitechapel campus is right down the road from my campus, Mile End. It is where all the medical and dental students live, as their degrees take longer and have a very strict set of classes. I found it quite odd that Queen Mary does this, but seeing that their medical school, the Barts School of Medicine, is 115th in the world their students really do have to hit the books.
The Black White party was quite fun. I went with Meg and Robyn, two girl from my flat, and Sarah, who lives in the flat below. It was also Dave's, a boy on my program, 21st birthday. So, Meg decided she had to introduce us Americans to Jagerbombs. Not sure how I felt about it, but since then Meg has taken it upon herself to make as many Americans as possible try them (as you can see by her tweet below).
Monday I spent the day shopping at Stratford, which is a wonderful mall two tube stops away. I went with three of my friends Annie, Allison, and Chelsea. Chelsea and I were able to get cutlery (no one understands silverware or utensils over here), pots, pans, plates, and bowls. This was essential as we hadn't been able to cook for ourselves yet. We stopped at the Nandos at Stratford for dinner. Nandos is my all time favorite restaurant here in the UK. It's basically all perri perri chicken however spicy you want it and tons of delicious sides. I'm going to miss it so much once I get home!
Monday night was spent with Chelsea. We were told by our British flatmates Meg and Sarah that the Newcastle accent is the most annoying British accent. The area around the Newcastle is like the area Jersey Shore was filmed in, so there's a remake called "Geordie Shore." We spent the night watching the first two episodes trying to understand what they were saying.
Tuesday night was the first time I made dinner. I made tortellini and survived, yay! Then, it was off to the International Student boat party. The boat departed from the St. Katharine docks, which are located right next to the Tower of London. The views were absolutely breathtaking and I met so many new people.
Unfortunately this night did not have a good end. We got back to Queen Mary around midnight and were completely exhausted. I went to sleep around 2am after talking to my parents. That night the fire alarms went off 5 times between the hours of 4-8am in Pooley. Everyone had to evacuate the building 3 times, for about 45 minutes each time. The reason for all of this...someone decided they wanted to smoke pot in one of the flats. That person has since been removed from housing, good riddance!
Then Wednesday I got to meet up with my Dad! Myself, Allison, Chelsea, and Annie met up with him at his hotel. The hotel had a 12th floor lounge with an awesome view.
We then headed to dinner at an Italian restaurant. We were all so tired from not getting any sleep the night before that my dad felt like he was at dinner with 4 old ladies. The food was so good and it was great to have a good dinner. Sadly, something was wrong with the red meat I ordered and I ended up having food poisoning for the next 3 days. This led me to be bedridden for a couple days, but don't worry I'm all good now and will have a fun post to share with you soon!
Much Love,
Francesca
