Adventures and Cooking and Laundry...Oh My!

I decided to be completely and totally honest in this blog about what has been going on since I've been here for close to three weeks. A lot of it is just ridiculousness while the rest is relatively cool. I mostly didn't want to post it because I didn't want my mum (and now that I think about it, my dad too) to worry about me because I'm surviving.

There have been numerous complaints about the program so far from the people I've traveled with and I agree with them most of the time. However, I decided to adopt a more optimistic view about the troubles I encounter because I knew there would be numerous ones. So my philosophy is you take the good with the bad. While our accomodations might not be what we thought they would be and money is a big issue here when we go out, I'm in one of the greatest cities in the world and I'm going to make the most of it.

So I will start off with how we feed ourselves around here. Cooking! I was told last summer by my Grandmother to start learning how to cook and of course my mother agreed with her. By then I knew how to make scrambled eggs and grilled cheese (which I made out of a wok instead of a pan but that is a different story). In school I didn't have to worry much about meals because I had the dining hall and the grill to fall back on, not to mention you don't have much in the way of appliances in dormitories. However, here we are given a stipend of 100 pounds and, believe it or not, it does go a long way. The second week into the semester, my roommate and I decided to buy groceries together and cook together that way it would be easier to spend money. So far we've cooked pasta (by yours truly) plus one failure of garlic bread (again by yours truly), and London style enchiladas (courtesy of Leticia)


Leticia cooking her first meal!
 

Due to being on a budget, it's hard to get everything we need to be healthy but we are doing pretty well. We have vegetables, pasta, water, cereal, milk, and a couple of snacks. However we are running low on supplies so, thankfully, we get our stipends tomorrow (they are handed out every two weeks) and we are heading for some shops that have cheap deals tomorrow, so fingers crossed at finding some goodies!

Another big issue here is: laundry! Unlike Guilford who charges us $30 for free laundry, we have to actually use coins here. Since I've lived in an apartment building for most of my life, I was used to coin operated washing machines and dryers. The difference though is my washer at home is $1.25 to wash and about the same to dry depending on how long you need the dryer to go. Here it's twice that much. The machines in Metrogate where I live, are around four pounds to wash and a pound fifty to dry. Not too bad, but it's hard to make sure you have enough change for the machines and the coins here are a whole different story which I will get to another time. The gist though, is everything below five pounds is dealt out in coins. It's a bit ridiculous and I've heard people have a bad experience with the laundry service here. Therefore it took two weeks for me to finally do my laundry but I instead went to a local place that had really good reviews and the people there were very sweet.

It was four pounds to wash and two pounds to dry which seems pointless compared to what I just mentioned about Metrogate. The catch is they give you coins if you have none, they provide soap if you need it, and they even offer to do your wash for you! I only had to pay eight pounds for two washers and got two pounds back in change to pay for the dryer. Furthermore students get a 10 percent discount so, score! It's nice to have clean clothes and I know where I'll be doing my laundry for the rest of my trip. Not to mention it is pretty cool to get to interact with a few locals so it's a win-win scenario in my eyes. Also I hope I didn't just give my mum a heart attack with this story (sorry!).

Finally I will tell you about what else has been going on aside from my small domestic life at Metrogate. I went back to Camden and had some delicious Chinese food for three pounds and even saw a live beatboxer in front of the tube station (I took a video and it should be up within the next day or two). Also I decided that is where I'm going souvenir shopping for people when my program comes to end.

I mentioned in the last post that I've seen all the tourist attractions but this past weekend I finally got the chance to get up close and personal with a few of them such as Big Ben, which greeted me and my friends when we exited Westminster tube station. By the way, Big Ben is not the clock tower, it's the bell that signals the hour. See I'm learning things!

 



Big Ben is connected to the Houses of Parliament and Parliament is very close to Westminster Abbey, the church where Will and Cate were married. Of course, that had to be my next stop for the day. Just a side note, they hold mass there and three of my Guilford companions attended the service last Sunday. I wanted to go but I couldn't get up early enough for it. C'est la vie.

 

 

 

 

It was a very cold day that day and we walked around Trafalgar Square which was a bit of a trek from Westminster and since we had gotten there around 2:30 in the afternoon, we had an hour and a half of daylight, or at least overcast, before it got dark. Still it didn't stop us from heading over to charming Buckingham Palace.

 

It was bloody freezing by then!
 

Unfortunately we were very late and didn't get to see the changing of the guard, but perhaps on a (hopefully) warmer day we get the chance because that just seems too freaking awesome to miss. For dinner we stopped at a pretty good pub near Covant Garden which is right off of Trafalgar and it was so warm! It was nice to defrost after being cold for nearly two hours.

 

One more thing I have done so far, and pictures will go up on Facebook soon for it, was my Shakespeare class took an excursion to see the Globe Theater. Seriously, I was geeking out when I saw it but I kept it all to myself because Brits tend to be reserved with everything and I would have just felt silly for doing a happy dance (even though I really wanted to). The Globe is on the River Thames, though it wasn't orginially, and you get a good view of the Millenium Bridge to the left which was lit up with blue lights and filled with runners and walkers. You also had St. Paul's Cathedral lit up across the way which was absolutely gorgeous.

 

I will conclude here for now but I will tell you what I have coming up. This weekend I get to go to Stonehenge and Bath (unfortunately it's forecasted to snow but oh well), as well as a play called The 39 Steps the night before, and a tour of Parliament on Monday where you can actually sit in on a meeting (definitely taking advantage of that!). So keep looking out for more pictures, news, and shenanigans that are sure to pop up.

 

Cheers!