I joined 7 clubs: Wine Appreciation, Consultancy, Entrepreneur, Food Appreciation, Management and Strategy, Women in Business, and Netball. Perhaps I got carried away, but most of these just have fun events I show up to. It will be nice to not be on the planning end of things for once!
For those of you who didn’t glimpse my Facebook, I explained what Netball is. It’s similar to basketball, except there’s no dribbling, contact, or backboard. I went to trials on Sunday and made the team! It’s a lot of fun and the girls are hilarious. People have described it as an English sorority, so we’ll see how it compares to Kappa.
After joining societies on Thursday we went as a hall to Piccadilly Institute, a club south of my dorm. We had wristbands to get in for free and it was incredible. Very posh lounges, mixed with huge dance floors.
Friday afternoon I went on a coach tour of London with other General Course students. We saw St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, and back through Soho. St. Paul’s Cathedral was beautiful! I want to go to a service there soon and check out the stonework more closely.
The Tower Bridge
The guard at Buckingham Palace
On Saturday I went with some friends to the Tate Modern (excellent!) and then for dinner at Nando’s. It’s a fun South African-Portuguese fusion restaurant. I had a delicious bean burger and beer. Then we wandered along the Thames and back towards Waterloo station. I matched an exhibit at the Tate!
Sunday was a crazy day! I woke up and went straight to Netball trials. My only prep was watching a YouTube video on what the sport was. I met other people at the Russell Square tube station and we went to Waterloo to meet up with everyone else. Then some 200 girls piled onto an overground train destined for the Berrylands. Haha I laughed at the name myself. LSE has football, rugby, and cricket fields there, as well as netball courts. I stayed until about 5:30 PM then took the train back in city centre. I was meeting some GC’s for Tex-Mex at 7 so had no time to run home. I changed in the train station and headed to Trafalgar Square to the Texas Embassy Cantina. I had a great time.
Funny story- so the preface for coming here was to try their famous margaritas. Our party was quite large and service was slow. After not getting served for an hour, Rowley, the guy next to me, and I solved our own problem by getting our margaritas at the bar. When we returned to our seats our pre-ordered drinks finally arrived, so it was quite a hilarious spectacle to have 4 huge frozen margaritas lined up. Needless to say, it was a great icebreaker.
Monday was the first day of lectures. I arrived to my Macroeconomics class to find 900 students! I was shocked. My largest class to date was 45 students in CHEM 101. The lecturer had a microphone and was being taped, there were 3 projection screens showing the slides, and a completely different feel to the classes at Knox. Interestingly, the videotaped lectures all go on Moodle, so if 9AM Monday and Wednesday isn’t your cup of tea you can just watch them in bed. So interesting!
I went to a MATHS refresher course at 1, Managerial Accounting at 2, and Environmental Economics at 4. These lectures weren’t as big, and I sat closer to the front each time to ignore the sleeping/laughing/skyping folks I was around in the morning. That night it was Battle of the Halls at the Purple Turtle. Residents from each hall competed in dance-offs and drinking games (crazy how LSE condones this!). Passfield came in third as most sociable.
Tuesday I explored Oxford street and saw the great shops. I rented a bike to get down there. It's so cool. There are docking stations all over the place. Your first 30 minutes are free, so one you have an access pass (£1 for 24 hours) you can use them as you wish. I finally got a foam mattress topper, so my awful mattress is now amazing to sleep on. I stopped for fresh homemade tomato soup at Onion in High Holborn. It's just what I needed! Tuesday evening was LSE's volunteering fair. I looked around and signed up with ReachOut London. It's a mentoring group that works with 8-12 year olds from disadvantaged backgrounds. 2 hours a week I'll head to an elementary school and first help with homework, but then lead them in activities that promote character development, like cooperation and leadership. I'm really excited!! I get reimbursed for all travel costs, and training is tomorrow.
Wednesday was day 2 of my marco lecture. This time it was much better as I sat near the front. I understand the gist of what's going on. Then was day 2 of netball trials and later Zoo bar. All of the AU (athletics' union) goes to a private room at this bar each Wednesday. It's in the heart of Leicester Square, which is the heart of London. It's a pretty fabulous area.
This morning I am doing laundry (finally) and getting ready for a lecture at 2 and consulting fair at 6:30. I have an appointment with a career's adviser in 40 minutes so I'm gonna run.
Sorry it's taken me a week to update. Perhaps that's the schedule I'll be on? Either way.
I miss my family and friends a lot. I've been sick these past few days, and being sick away from home is the worst because you have to take care of yourself. I have a cough that is getting worse. Any suggestions? I'm taking robitussin at night and in the morning. It's just covering the symptoms but not curing anything.
Hope you're all doing well!!
Cheers
Hannah
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