First Day of Class

So today was my first day of class at Goldsmiths.  I had my Studio practice.  It was a pretty interesting class.  Today we broke up into groups to work on this video design project.  What we have to do is create a short-film to show the idea of a phobia, my group picked claustrophobia.  It seems like a cool project, though I have to say I do miss Arcadia.  I am sort of disappointed with my experience so far, it wasnt really what I had expected.  I just hope things start to get better.  I think tomorrow I may talk with someone about switching out of one class.  There is this course that seems really interesting, its called ArtWorlds, and basically for the course you travel to different museums in and around London.  I just hope they let me switch.  As for the class I had today I am still on the fence over whether or not I want to switch out of it.  I dont know why I been feeling so homesick lately.  Its very odd since I normally never get homesick when Im at school, or when I had traveled in the past. I just hope I grow past it soon.  I dont know what it is but I havnt been feeling like myself since getting into the country.  Im still excited to do some traveling, but I keep thinking to myself wow I am here for six months.  Its sort of a trapped feeling that I have to try to get over I guess.  I am just really glad that I do have a lot of my close friends in London with me, I think things would be a lot worst if it wasn't for them.

First Impressions of Goldsmiths

I just got the internet working in my room at Goldsmiths...finally.  Last night was the first night I spent here.  The heat wasnt working in my room and I didnt have hot water, but I went to the office this morning and put in a maintance request for it-it looks like now I have hot water, and the heat works alittle better (its still alittle cold in here), but I think they'll come back to fix it.  The school itself is in a really cool area, I like it alot-there are beautiful views of the city, it reminds me a lot like Williamsburg in Brooklyn.  Today I also had my academic meeting, start classes on Monday.   I thought there would be more design majors studying here, but it looks like its just me and Mike, who I know from Arcadia.  The program itself seems really intense and kinda overwhelming.  I wasnt really expecting it to be this intense, but I think thats a good thing-i can use the challange.  It also seems a lot broader-to include all
 elements of design like fashion, textile, furniture, product, packaging as well as typography and the typical design stuff that I am used to doing.   I also found out today that Goldsmiths has a Track team, and from what it sounds like I may be able to participate in it-there is a club and sports meeting on Tuesday-so I think I am going to look into that possibly.  I did sign up for 3 trips, I got the Wales, and Manchester trips, and today I just signed up for the Amsterdam trip that Goldsmiths offers-the only thing I was concerned about is that I have classes everyday of the week, and I have one Friday morning-but I guess worst case scenario I can miss them if I must-I mean I am only going to be in Europe once-so I dont want to miss out on an opportunity because I have class.

Moneywise I feel like I been spending a lot but I think thats just because I spent close to 450 pounds for the trips (179, 160, 90)-which I always had plan on doing.  Overall I spent about 70 pounds, but that was because I spent about 20 pounds for my phone, 20 pounds for stuff for my room and the rest on Food (which we have been eating out a lot, but I think after this week it will be less).   I only got to see Kristina once, and havnt been much into central London, so I think tomorrow I want to try to meet up with her and try to see more of the city itself.  Im glad I finally got the internet to work-though im not used to not having wireless connection. 

Day 1

Finally I made it!  My first day in the UK was kinda interesting.  I got to the hotel around 11 and was among about 5 others.  Everyone seemed pretty cool.  I met a couple of people from my program, and we decided to walk around the area near the hotel after we got there because they told us we couldnt check in until after 2.

The area the hotel is in is called Islington I think.  Its kinda interesting.  A few blocks up from the hotel there is a street with a lot of stores and shops.  We decided we wanted phones so we walked to a Carphone Warehouse, which sells really cheap phones, and prepaid phoneplans.  I got this super cheap phone called a Alacatel, it was only 3 pounds and with the plan I got which was Virgin, it included unlimited texting and 120 minutes and was 20 pounds to top up.  Right after I got the phone I saw a Barclays next to the place and decided to take out some money just to make sure I can.  After we all got phones we decided to get some food.  We went to this place called The Arc.  The atomosphere of the restaurant was kinda cool, but the food was terrible.  Luckily I only decided to split nachos with someone, and it only cost 2.50 pounds, so it wasnt a big lost.

After we walked around we got back to the hotel and moved our stuff into the room.  I also saw Sarika, which was exciting and went to hang out with her and a few other girls for a bit, they wanted to get phones so we went to find the place I went to before.  We kinda got lost and began walking in circles so we decided to just go back to the hotel because it was time for our first orientation meeting.  Everyone was really tired, and the meeting was extrememly dull but very informative.  I found out that I got the two trips that I signed up for so I will be doing the Adventure Weekend in Wales and the Manchester Weekend in England-so I am very excited about that.

After the meeting we wanted to get some food.  Luckily the area we are in is full of pubs so we decided to go to this really cool pub and get authentic British food.  It was a pretty good deal 7.95 pounds (12 dollars) for a drink and fish and chips.  I decided to order a Guinness from the tap. It was the first time I ever drank Guinness, and I didnt realize that it was black.  It was very stout but I managed to drink it all.  The fish and chips were delicious.  It was kinda odd because they gave us plain white bread and butter with the fish and chips, it almost seemed like two slices of wonder bread, but maybe its a British thing.  The actual fish and chips was very different from the way it is served in the states because it was an actual entire filet of a fish covered in beerbatter, rather then pieces, but nonetheless it was still amazing.

After dinner we went to run a few more errands and then went back to the hotel, everyone kinda went back to their rooms but I wanted to meet with Kristina and Lara so I texted them and they came down to the hotel.  They seemed like they are really loving their new flats, though I heard some interesting stories from them about some experiences they already had here.  Kristina decided to take me to Big Ben (St Stephens Tower) and Westminster Abbey because I told her that my first day was kinda bland.  We took the tube which reminded me a lot of the NYC subways, but only cleaner.  After we got the Westmninster we went to take pictures.  It was kinda rainy but very amazing to see all these landmarks lit up among the night sky.  I saw Big Ben, the London Eye, the Parliment Building, Victoria Tower and Westminster Abbey all within a matter of minutes.  It was very British and I took a good number of pictures, and they came out pretty well considering it was at night.  I cant wait to go back there and actually see these places for real.

Anticipation

So there is just about a week left until my big journey.  It seems surreal to think that in just 7 days I will be relocating continents, flying from JFK to Heathrow.  This past semester seemed to fly by, and now its hear, and I will literally be "flying by" in a few days.  So this will be my first blog post.  I made it a point for me to create a blog for while I'm abroad-to allow friends and family to keep track of my whereabouts, make sure I'm alive :) and above all for myself to reflect upon my experiences while overseas.   In this first post I am going to include some lists of things that I plan to do while abroad.  At the end of my experience I will reflect back on the lists and see how many I actually got to.

Things I want to do

:In London

1. Eat Authentic fish and chips by the seaport.
2. Take a Harry Potter tour-and visit as many sites from the movies/books as possible.
3. Visit the Prime Meridian.
4. Go to the Childhood Museum.
5. Go to the Tate Modern, and see the Ai Weiwei exhibit.
6. See a show on the West End.
7. Attend a big time movie premiere.
8. Attend the ROYAL WEDDING, or try to see something from it.
9. Eat at an Indian Restaurant.
10. Visit the huge Hindi Temple.
11. Photograph a Victorian Cemetery (Abbney Park, or Highgate).
12. Take a picture in front of Big Ben (Saint Stephens Tower).
13. Go on the London Eye.
14. Visit the London Zoo.
15. Tour Westminster Abbey.
16. Tour of Tower of London.
17. Visit St. Pauls.
18. Shop at the Camden Markets.
19. Visit the Portobello Road marketplace.
20. Actually send a postcard to someone.
21. Hampstead Heath picnic.
22. The Changing of the Guards.
23. Attend a Fashion Show.
24. Get lost on the Tube.
25. Go to "Church".

: In England/UK

1. Cotswolds
2. Oxford-Christ Church
3. Dover-White Cliffs
4. Ancient Forest of Dean
5. Wye Valley
6. Brighton Pier
7. Yorkshire
8. Manchester
9. Liverpool
10. Ride an old Steam engine train (Hogwarts style)
11. Prembrokeshire Coast-Wales
12. Lake District-Scotland 
13. See a "Football" game.
14. Go for a run somewhere in the countryside.
15. See the sunrise somewhere pretty. 

:In Europe

1. Visit Italy-Venice, Florence, Rome and Naples
2. Paris, France
3. South of France-Nice (Cannes Film Festival)
4. Istanbul, Turkey-Travel to the Asian side
5. Prague, Czech Republic
6. Granada, Spain (Morrocco?)
7. Iceland-See the Aurora Borealis 
8. Amsterdam-Do something crazy & Windmills.
9. Copenhagen, Denmark
10. Ireland on St. Patricks Day.