London is, in a word, overwhelming (in the best way possible). I’m surrounded by history everywhere I go, and what is apparently an infinite number of sights, museums, plays, restaurants, pubs, and shops to see and experience. Although London is probably the city most similar to American cities in the U.K. and Europe, I’m continually amazed as I walk around by how incredibly old so many of these buildings are, and how beautiful the architecture is. When I walk around the city, I’m not buried in my phone as I often am back home, but my head is up and taking in everything around me, using my phone to take as many pictures as it can hold. I’ve been feeling this pressure in my first week here to get out and see as much of the city as possible, to not waste a second of the day (which was more anxiety-inducing than expected!) but now that I’ve been here for one week and feeling less of this pressure after exploring some of the major areas and even done a few walking tours of major attractions (Trafalger Square, Covent Garden, Buckingham Palace, St. James Palace and Park, Parliament Square—where you can see Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey, to name a few).
I also love the neighborhood I’m living in, on Queen Mary’s Mile End campus, which is part of London’s East End. I’ve been telling friends and family back home that the East End is to London as Brooklyn is to New York. The East End was a really bad part of town for the latter half of the 20th century, having been the area of London that suffered the most damage during the attacks on the city during World War II. Although there continue to be a decent number of low-income residents, the area has recently begun to transform, and is now known as “Hipster Central,” particularly areas close to campus like Shoreditch and Canary Wharf. There are a ton of cool pubs, restaurants, and markets, in addition to a decent amount of green space (Mile End Park is quite large, and right across the street from campus). In addition to the great night life, I can get pretty much everything I need from the various grocery stores, convenience stores, and pharmacies that line Mile End Road, which runs right across campus. We’re also a tube stop away from Stratford, where there’s a gigantic mall that has everything you could possibly ever need or want, in addition to being the sight of the Olympic Park for the 2012 London Games (I’m still hoping to get out and explore that at some point).
As far as orientation goes, we had two sessions this past Thursday and Friday mornings (the two days following our arrival). In these three-hour sessions, the study abroad staff at Queen Mary provided tips for navigating the city (places to go, public transit, what’s near campus, etc.), the various services that Queen Mary provides (such as health services, housing help, advice and counseling, and tutoring), and an introduction to what we can expect the campus culture to be like. Representatives from the Student Union also spoke about the various societies and teams we can join and their upcoming events (the Union is huge here—in addition to all the societies, they run a bunch of campus facilities, including the gym). They also had faculty members from various departments come and speak about registration, what we can expect from the modules (classes) in their department, and what modules still have good availability (which I found extremely helpful, as someone who still had three courses to register for). They also had various orientation events that we study abroad students could sign up, and I chose to do a walking tour of the East End, which I really enjoyed—I met some other study abroad students while learning about our neighborhood, its history, and all the cool places we can go just a short distance from campus.
I’ll close with what is by far the highlight of my week (and will definitely be in the Top 10 moments from this whole semester): I saw a brilliant play, Amadeus by Peter Shaffer, at the National Theatre, and afterwards, ran into Lin Manuel Miranda (genius creator of Hamilton, and someone who inspires me as a theatre artist daily) in the lobby! I’ve attached the selfie we took with this post, along with other pictures from my adventures thus far. Exciting things are happening here, London truly is magical.
