Brief recap of the past week! (Part 1)

So I realize I'm not being as "on top" of this blog as I had originally planned, but here's an update of everything that happened within the past week.

Last Wednesday was the first day of classes for me at the Ithaca College London Centre! This semester, I am enrolled in 3 classes as well as in a 3-credit internship at public relations agency, River Communications. Wednesday morning, I began with British Pop at 10:30. The professor was very engaging and quite knowledgeable in regards to the influences that American blues, jazz and early rock and roll had on Beatlemania and British rock music. Apparently, we must keep a weekly journal and attend gigs and concerts throughout the semester (that doesn't seem like too much to handle at all!)

My second class of the day was Sports Marketing. As many of you know, I am not so knowledgeable about the world of sports, however, I was quite intrigued as to what this class had in store. While my professor's credentials were impressive (she was apparently the UK's top female polo player at one point and a big time sports lawyer), she wasn't organized or professional and answered her mobile phone several times during class! Let's just say, I was less than impressed. However, we will be attending London's premier Super Bowl party this sunday at the club O2, so that will be a blast I'm sure!

On Thursday, I sat in my first "Drama and the London Theatre" class where we read dramatic works and go see one play a week! The professor for this class seems fabulous and very knowledgeable, and I'm seeing Spring Awakening on Wednesday (as in 2 days!). I have yet to obtain a copy of the work, but that is my goal for tomorrow. Thursday night, I met up with the fabulous Miss Kathy Laluk and my dear dear friend John, as well as one of John's fabulous British friends, Laura and we made a somewhat-enhanced appearance at art-exhibition/bar/low-key club, Shunt. Basically, the venue consisted of a series of underground caves converted into art galleries, where people could enjoy their drinks, while looking at art. And around midnight it turned into a dance party. Following our visit to Shunt, we made our way back to Camden Town, the trendy neighborhood where John and Laura reside and helped ourselves to delicious Turkish fast food. Kathy and I then ventured through the rain, back to my flat in Euston Square around 3 in the morning. It was all kinds of wonderful!

Friday night, Randi and I solidified our plans for our weekend excursion to Venice for Carnivale, and booked our flight to Milan, train tickets from Milan to Venice, and hostel in Venice. It was so rewarding to know that we had successfully booked our first international excursion on our own that we treated ourselves to some fabulous (and spicy!) Singaporean/Malaysian food at this great little place in Bayswater! Following our dinner, Randi, Kara, Brittany, Sarah and myself got all "pimped out" and went to London's most vibrant gay dance club, Heaven, where we ended up meeting kids from UMass Amherst who knew a girl I went to high school with! Small world for sure! I was also super excited that my flat-mates, Julie and Kevin ended up meeting up with us at the club! After a crazy night of dancing, we successfully navigated the night bus system back to our respective flats!

- This entry is probably long enough, so wait for the continuation!

London Nightlife!

As it is nearing the end of my first week in London (and also because this is me we're referring to!), I went out on the town with some dear friends! Friday night, Randi, Brittany, Kara, Sarah and I hopped on the Tube to Leicester Square, the home to London's vast and lively nightclub scene. We checked out a club, Metra, that seemed to be an interesting juxtaposition of glamarous and ghetto. While the cover charge and drink prices were outrageously high, the music was great, some of my friends met British boys and exchanged numbers, and I made my first two British friends, an attractive, fun, and rather obliterated couple, Katrina and Mustafi. I guess we're getting together later this week and probably checking out some other places so it'll definitely be action-packed to be sure!

The real hassle though with the nightlife scene in London is that where the clubs will stay open until 4 AM, the Tube (subway) closes at midnight! That leaves two solutions to the transportation dillemma: cabs and the Nightbus. We attempted to figure out the Nightbus back to our hotel last night, as you can use your Tube pass on the bus. However, the bus stops were poorly marked, and when we approached bus drivers to ask where our bus line was located, we received very confusing and conflicting instructions as to where it was! So, what should have taken a half hour on the Tube took us two hours by bus between finding the correct stop and waiting for the right bus to pick us up. However, this is part of the charm of figuring out transportation in foreign country, and seeing many Londoners still well-awake at 4 AM was quite fun!

Tonight we were approached by this club recruiter who gave us a deal at this three-level club called Oxygen. The cover charge and drink prices were A LOT more reasonable than Metra, and the music was even a bit better. After some good fun, we took a cab back to our hotel in lovely Bayswater, and settled in for a long day of moving into the flat!

Cheers!
Chris

Arrival in London!

Well I arrived in London safe and sound after a bit of an extended travel period! The original flight from Boston to London was cancelled but the airline put a few of us on an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin and then to London, and we only ended up arriving a few hours later. While I am currently fighting jet-lag (it's currently 3:37 AM and I can't sleep!), I have had a great first few days in the city. I found a flat in the Euston Square area close to the University of London and the Theatre District that is on a quiet street but within a block of the nearest tube stop (thus being very convenient!) Now that I have a flat (I can move in Saturday) it will be time to do some serious site-seeing and going out on the town later tonight, if I don't crash first!

Cheers!
Chris