One Week So Soon?

I've officially been in London for one week and it makes my fingers tired just thinking about how much writing it would require for me to recount the whirlwind of the past seven days. Whirlwind is such a cheap descriptor for this kind of experience, but it's also the most accurate.

Classes started on Wednesday following a brief but immersive orientation which required a mini (but equally competitive and just as high-stakes) Amazing Race scavenger hunt around the city, in which I suffered a minor trauma on the platform for the Central tube line at Westminster station but was touched by the concern of my fellow Underground mates when they helped me collect my scattered belongings after wiping out in a panicked dash through the closing door of the train. Not nearly as graceful as it sounds, but if I imagine it as an outtake from an adrenaline fueled action film that follows a high-stakes chase through the subterranean landscape of London, I feel less like a clumsy tourist and more like an extra from a Bourne film, which is a step up.

Day one involved touring through London at rapid speed; seeing the sights without allotting them the proper reflection they deserve. Which only means I'll have to go back and revisit them. Since then, I've delved into the Parthenon exhibit at the British museum with my Art and Architecture in London class, spent a morning running along the Thames and weaving through Chinatown and Trafalgar Square, and past Big Ben and Parliament on my journey, cozied up in one of many pubs in Leicester Square, journeyed to Muswell Hill and through a foggy wood to the charming household of my petite but fiery theater professor, and boarded about six different buses only to ride about a kilometer down the road, realize I'm going the wrong direction, get off, turn around, and reboard from the correct location.

The beauty of this program (programme?) is that we're all thrown into London life so quickly, that it's nearly impossible to feel homesick, or to think about what's going on at St. Lawrence and whatnot. And it's amazing how one adapts to a new environment so quickly. When I get frustrated, I'm frustrated for about a second until my brain resolves the problem and moves on. There's no time to stop in the middle of the sidewalk while everyone else moves around you. You take a deep breathe and move with them.

And then you detour for a pub.

Things I Love:
1. The massive, open markets.
2. Indian food everywhere, By the end of this trip, curry will be running through my veins.
3. Camden Town. Makes me want to put on my Dr. Martens, develop a spiritual affinity for the Sex Pistols, stop showering, wear strictly leather, and drink milk straight from the bottle. Then I'll only be one facial piercing away from punk rock stardom.
3. Free museums!
4. All the daily papers, from the Evening Standard to the Guardian, there's never an excuse not to be reading something. A great way to de-stress while on the tube.
5. Lots of parks and nature reserves.

Things That Are Less Great:
1. It turns out that, when London was first becoming a thing, no one guy sat down and said "Hey, it would be great if we utilized our organizational skills and made this city easily navigable for posterity and maybe not have one street with seven different names or eighty streets with the same name." London is a bit disorganized in that respect. It's sometimes hard to tell where one street begins and another ends, or which street is which, etc, even with the help of Google maps (or my new love, Citymapper). Luckily, public transportation is great and super easy to navigate.
2. Pickpocketing paranoia. One hand in my pocket, and the other protectively clamped in a death grip around my backpack/purse.
3. Lack of filtered coffee. It's all Americano. Although, the surplus of tea is a nice change for my body, probably, which is usually buzzing with caffeine.
4. Tube sweats. What happens when you layer up for the rain and wind, and then enter the Underground sauna at rush hour.

Also, I found where I'm going to live today. It's called Wapping. I ventured to this riverside retreat and saw the Women: New Portraits by Annie Liebovitz exhibit (which launched in London and is only going to 9 other cities around the globe) at a renovated hydraulic power station. Very chic, and very empowering to be surrounded by amazing women of all shapes, sizes, colors, backgrounds, and careers in the greatest city in the world.