Arrival and First Thoughts

So I'm here in London and I've decided to keep a blog for everyone interested to read, but mostly for myself. Because it's primarily for my own sake, excuse me in advance if it seems sloppy, poorly written, or unorganized, and sometimes even Jack Handy-ish. It's going to be mostly just a collection of my thoughts on the differences, similarities, and other random things in London (as well as anywhere else I may go), and also just a routine journal of what I've done and where I've been. I will try to update frequently, so check back periodically if you'd like to know what I'm up to!
I'll also try to post pictures every once in awhile, but for those capable, facebook will be the place to go for that.

I'm living in Kensington, right next to Hyde Park and near High Street, Cromwell, and Gloucester, for those of you who may happen to know the area. It's ridiculously nice, and a 2 bedroom flat next to one of the dorms just sold for 1.4 million pounds (2.8 million pounds), which should give you an idea of the poshness. There's lots of BMWs, Mercedes, Ferraris, Porches, etc around. Kensington Palace is nearby, although I haven't spotted it yet, which is where Princess Di used to live, and I guess is now technically the residence of Camilla. If the area is good enough for a princess, clearly, it's good enough for me.
The only issue is that things aren't necessarily close. The nearest ATM and pharmacy (CVS type) are about a 10 minute walk, and the grocery store is near to 20 (but ridiculously cheap, so fairly worth it). The nearest tube stop is about 11 minutes, and the stops are so much further apart than in Boston. The Tube map is gigantic, with about 10 different lines going every which way. It's really easy to follow though, which is nice, although expensive. In general, it's about 1000000x better than the T and better than Philly's subway, too. It's very clean, effecient, comfortable, etc. I would say worth the money, but being a college student, I'm not so sure of that.
We had a bunch of orientation things these past few days which I didn't find all that helpful. They were somewhat interesting, but I think most of what I learn about this city will be through my own exploring. Jon and I did a neat thing last night where we just picked a random tube stop and got off and explored. I picked Covent Gardens and discovered a really neat area with lots of little shops, pubs, a piazza, and stumbled across the famous "Strand" where I saw the Savoy and a bunch of other neat stuff. And then got splashed thoroughly by one of London's famous big red buses. Neither of us saw it coming. It was kind of gross, but mostly funny. Maybe the driver could tell we were tourists.
I've also been all up and down Oxford street (looking for a place to top up my mobile and buy a computer cord after a Newark airport fiasco) with Emma, which was fun-- clearly the shopping centre of London. I've also been to Picadilly Circus, which somewhat pales in comparison to New York's Time Square, but it's still neat to see. We did a boat toar as part of orientation up (or down?) the Thames to Greenwich castle, which was really pretty, and it was surprisingly sunny, so it was generally enjoyable. I couldn't hear the tour guide over all the BU chatter, so I missed a bit, but it was still a nice thing. We embarked right next to Big Ben and the parlaiment house, and it was cool to go along the river and see it. I did not take many pictures on that trip because we were indoors and I figured you can see hundreds of pictures like that everywhere, if I'm not in them, they're no fun.
Steve and I stopped by the Natural Museum of History yesterday, which is a few blocks away from where I live and is absolutely beautiful. It's free, so we didn't get everything done, but we'll go back. The Victoria & Albert museum is right across the street and also free (most museums here are, which is a serious one up on America), so I will check that out soon, as well.
I'm right across the street from Imperial College (which is kind of like an MIT school) and we join their clubs and organizations, so I'm going to get on that soon (model UN, etc) and hopefully meet some bona fide British people. Most of you will laugh at me about this, but I also joined a London Goth Meetup Group, which is an internet based group that organizes random outings. I figured it was a good way to meet people and not be going to clubs, etc by myself. I don't know how it will pan out, but it's worth trying something new. Hopefully they aren't all uber-crazy goths, because I clearly am not.
The BU kids like to go out in large groups and just be with each other, which is something I want to avoid. I'd like to make some British friends while I'm here, and all I've heard is that that takes some hard work, so I've got to get started ASAP!

Food
So, grocery shopping here is somewhat difficult. Especially buying meat, the cuts were so weird, and I was worried that I would end up buying some random organ of some animal I'm not used to eating, so I really just stuck to the basics. From what I've had so far, the food isn't that bad. I'm not here to indulge in the gastronomical fineries though, so what they have cheaply at Sainsbury's is good enough for me.
There's far less selection in general, and the grocery stores have their own brand of everything (Which is always the cheapest and therefore all I buy). There's plenty of fastfood stuff around, most popularly are KFC and Pizza Hut, which you don't really even see much of in the US (at least in the North East). I would say the grocery stores in general are fairly unamerican, but the food out and about in the city is comparable. Pub food is pub food and there's Indian places everywhere. The only thing that's really missing is that it's fairly difficult to find diet pepsi. I'll live, but it's rough getting started without any caffeine, and I do not like Coke, so it's no substitute.

An odd thing I noticed almost immediately here is that the Britons cannot shut up about Diana. She died more than 10 years ago, and she's in the tabloids (not just in them, but on the front page) almost every day. They say they love her, but they trash her constantly. I don't really understand why-- I assume it has something to do with deep seated feelings towards the monarchy and British history, etc etc, but it just seems really awful to me. I feel sorry for her sons, they shouldn't have to be dealing with that. The most recent tabloid heading was that apparently her mother called her a whore. So petty.

Also, most of the commercials over here for things we have over in the US are pretty much exactly the same, and usually have the same dialogue, only they're redone with English accents. American voices are not something you generally hear on the television (although they do often play American TV), unlike in the US where British accents mean posh, or just the Geico gecko.

I've almost gotten used to them driving on the wrong side of the road, but I do have to think about it every time I get to an intersection. I never realized how automatic it was to look left until I got here; I guess when I get home I'll be looking right for awhile afterwards. Drivers here don't have much patient for pedestrians, even the British ones. They aren't bad (there are just a lot less cars around in general, actually), but they do drive quickly and hurry you along even if you got into the road first.
Speaking of the lack of cars, the UK in general is about 100x better at anything environmental than us. They conserve far more, they recycle more, and London is enacting a low emissions zone over the city within the month. Leaving a small environmental impact is a big selling point for products here. It's kind of refreshing. Hopefully the US will catch up at some point. Even the toilets have two flushing buttons, one for number 1, and one for number 2. It's a great idea and probably wastes so much less water. America should really work on this.
People don't smoke nearly as much as everyone was saying, or I remembered them doing. Maybe times have changed and people have become more health conscious, maybe it's just the area. It could also be that the smoking ban has sort of changed people's habits. More on this as I notice more.

As I write this, people are standing outside my room talking about going out, etc. Bu kids seem more interested in the night life than in actual London. I guess that's to be expected, especially of these people, but it's unfortunate.

One thing I will never get used to over here is the sirens on the police cars or ambulances. They are that classic low-high wail that they've had in Europe for as long as they've had sirens. It always slightly jars me due to the amount of WW2 movies I've seen before coming to Europe throughout my life. Whenever I hear it (well, not every time), I immediately think Gestapo and am reminded of that moment in the Anne Frank movie when she's up in attic and they hear the sirens and they stop right outside the house. I know it's weird, but it's just one of those things.

The most annoying thing about life here, well, thus far, is the coins. There are so many of them (a 5 pound coin??), and they are filling up and weighing down my wallet. I don't like using them because I can't tell which is which yet and feel stupid when i'm checking out from wherever and I have to rifle through and look at every one. I know it's more blind-friendly, but as a seeing person, I much prefer bills.

I also notice far more kids around here than in other cities. Maybe more people just live here in general than commute, or again, it could be the area (nannies). Mostly little kids that ride around next to their parents on little scooters, but instead of doing the work and pushing, the parent is usually pulling them along as they walk. I've noticed this enough to make it an official observation. Interesting... maybe this is something that also happens in the US, but I just don't notice kids as much.

I think those are all my first observations and thoughts. I'm sure I forgot a whole lot, but I'll be back to write more, especially if anyone has any questions.
Thanks for reading!
-Kate