I miss Penn InTouch

Wednesday was the UCL equivalent of Penn's ISO -- information sessions where they tell you how great the university is, how to study successfully at the school as international students, and then a reception under a tent with fancy passed hors d'oeuvres. The difference here? They wanted to get us nice and liquored up. The wait staff walked around with bottles of red and white wine -- this is before dinner, mind you -- and we all made lots of new friends. Somehow I have managed to hang out with only Penn people so far (only the international kids have arrived). How convenient.

I've gone to my first real British pubs the past couple of nights - they're practically on every corner so it's not hard to find somewhere to go. It's weird to be able to go into a place and order a beer and not have to worry about getting carded! The pubs are packed after 5 pm or so here, but they don't stay open very late. It seems like everyone comes straight here after work, and many of them stand outside in clusters of four or five people with their drinks. You can't smoke in most of these places which is SO nice (especially compared to some of the other cities we went to). The pub is definitely where the action is, and it seems like most people don't even eat when they're there.

Thursday was the so-called registration day for our classes, or "modules" as they're called here. It is the most archaic and roundabout method you could imagine. In fact, I don't think I could even come up with this on my own. First, you go to a meeting with your primary department. They supposedly give you an introduction to the academic system at UCL (Bartlett did a crummy job of that....), and you talk about registering. We had requested classes via email a few weeks ago, but the administrator doesn't have my correct courses on record. She didn't even have a timetable to give us, even though they insisted that when signing up for courses in additional departments, we should make sure those classes don't conflict. How are we supposed to do that when we don't even know the times of our classes? We rushed over to the art history department after the Bartlett meeting, and I wound up first on the waiting list for London Architecture (Sami signed me up) so hopefully someone will drop by next week. It was literally a list on the wall with 18 slots and 10 waiting list slots. First come, first served, and that's that. If you couldn't find the room or didn't know of the class, you're out of luck. There's no way to search or sign up online - it's literally in person on a sheet of paper. We don't even know if we get the class until next week! The term starts on Monday the 22nd, but we learned that classes don't even begin until the 29th. Crazy!! At Penn we'd be having our first set of midterms by then! The history department was a bit more civil - but again, we fill out a sheet of paper which we turn in to the department, then they let us know if that is accepted by early next week, and then we have to officially enroll in the course. It seems like a lot of unnecessary steps and paperwork to me.

Today we were finally able to "enroll" in the school and get our UCL ID cards. Most importantly, we got a username and password and could hook up the internet in our room. We have to PAY for wired internet in our dorms!

We've been eating mostly sandwiches and pizza, so Sami and I decided to venture on to Oxford Street to find some practical things (pots and pans, dishes, etc). We also needed clothing hangers. Oxford Street got better with each step. First we saw some great cheap clothing stores (mostly for women). Then came lots of shoe stores, probably 4 H&Ms, a TopShop, Selfridges, John Lewis, and Primark -- all amazing department stores. The department stores here literally have everything - clothing and handbags to pillows and frying pans. And they ALL have beautiful grocery stores downstairs with a ton of take-out food. We bought a few cheap plates at Marks and Spencer, convinced the cashier to give us some hangers for free, and went on to John Lewis. Think the Bloomingdales in Manhattan, and then some. Finally we were tipped off that the real bargains could be found at Primark -- four tube stops away from where we originally started walking. So not very close. But Primark was heaven. It was like an H&M and a Walmart mixed together. So cheap and trendy, and SO many people around. They had a decent home section so we found some bargains.... and at the end of the day had so many heavy bags that we could barely fit on the bus and make our way home. On the way home from the bus we stopped 3 times to rest. Basically we were a complete giddy spectacle that would have been quite a show for any passers-by (and probably was).

Tonight I had my first fish-and-chips of the trip, only to be followed by some bangers and mash tomorrow, hopefully. It actually tastes pretty good if you can get over how greasy it is. Afterwards a few of us took a long walk down through Covent Garden (lots of theater and restaurants), SOHO (SOverygayHO), Picadilly Circus, Leicester Square, and Trafalgar Square -- one big loop ending right back at home. I'm falling asleep as I'm writing this (so hopefully that doesn't mean you're falling asleep as you're reading it too) so I need to catch up on rest and sleep in tomorrow. Portobello Road in the afternoon!