Bits and Bobs

I'll write a more comprehensive blog post later, but here are a few "bits and bobs," as the English would say, from my first few days in London.

My corner of our little attic room 

My roommate and home stay family are lovely. Patricia, my mum, is really nice as is Finlay, her husband. They've got 4 kids, 2 of whom are at home frequently (the other 2 are at university). Alice is 10 and Michael is 15. They're funny kids and we talk a lot and watch Top Gear together.

I take back everything bad I ever said about the Tube. It's the best piece of machinery ever made and all towns should have one. The Tube plus an Oyster card equals absolute freedom and access to the whole city. Having said that, the opposite is true right now. There's a strike for two days this week and two next week and I'm told it will be commuter hell. I have to make my way into central London early in the morning, so I think I'll be able to consider myself a real Londoner if I can make it.

AHA London Centre

The AHA London Centre, where we attend classes (or where we will, once they start), it also lovely.
Perfectly centrally located and built in something like 1750, it's a really cool, old building. It's a bit shabby, but that just adds to its charm.

Today was our last day or orientation, and our site director Susie took us for lunch at a street market (I got curry-delicious), then for a quick tour of the surrounding area, capping it off with a visit to the Chesire Cheese Pub, an amazing old pub where you have to duck down several flights of really narrow, low-ceilinged stairs to get to the bottom. She even bought us the first round.

It's early days (and we'll see how I feel after living through the Tube strike), but I already love London. I'm really excited to explore it more in depth over my next couple of months here.

My roommate Jordanne and I with the iconic London symbol: the phone box.