First Impressions of the UK

As you may have guessed, I made it to London! The flight was not as bad as I expected. It got off to a rough start because I was sitting in the bulkhead and had nowhere to put my two hugmongous carry on bags (not to mention my 49.6 pound bag that I had already checked...), but it got better after that. I slept a lot, and watched several epsiodes of Glee, Finding Nemo, and other random movies that I have never heard of. I made friends with the Indian guy sitting next to me sitting next to me because the flight attendant couldn't understand his accent, and I had to translate for him the entire flight.

Upon arrival, I had to hustle from the arrival section of terminal 1 to terminal 3 so I could meet up with the rest of the Syracuse group and go to my flat! (Yes, they call apartments flats here). Our place is AWESOME. Such a complete 180 difference from my set up in Madrid last year. I have an awesome roommate named Amanda, who is from Pennsylvania and is a Broadcast Studies major at Syracuse University. In the other room is Mike (whom we lovingly call "Mikey Mike") who is a student at New Haven. Each room has it's own bathroom, own closet, and we have a huge common area for us to hang out in (pictures to come later, I am too lazy right now). We are conveniently located very close to the Faraday House, which is where we have our classes/Syracuse offices, and are a short walk away from countless restaurants/pubs/tube stations/everything crucial about living in London, which makes everything so much easier to adjust to.

The first day was relatively uneventful, full of orientation activities/unpacking/running errands around London to get adjusted. But of course, in typical Allison fashion I decided to go out and do something fun this weekend, wasting no second. My friend Peter, who befriended my friend/sorority little sis Lauren in Granada this past fall, invited me to go on "holiday" with him and his friends this weekend in Polzeath, a beach town in Cornwall. It was so much fun, words cannot describe. We stayed in tents at a camping site, and had a typical campout like we do in America at night, and during the day we explored the various Cornish towns in the area. All the while, I was being teased about being American, and tried all kinds of British foods and candies (what was nice about doing this with British people was that I learned what to avoid quite quickly). From pastys, to crunchies candies, to cream tea, I had a bit of everything. In this way I felt like this was more of an orientation than the orientation we received from Syracuse. I was an idiot and forgot to bring my camera, but here are a few pictures of that Peter took on his phone while we were there:



[View from the top of the hill at Port Isaac, where we spent Saturday early afternoon. There was a music festival going on here, and we grabbed some lunch]



[The beach at Polzeath, just a short walk away from our camping site on Saturday evening]



[Came across this while on a hike Sunday morning. Incredible]



[The beach at the end of our hike on Sunday, where we stayed until we drove back home]

These pictures don't even begin to do this place enough justice - if you're motivated, I highly recommend googling Cornwall and just seeing all the amazing stuff you come up with!

It's funny, because often when I was on the beach it felt like I was in California, until I looked up and literally saw the stereotypical English countryside backing up to those cliffs. It was truly incredible. Also, on the way there we drove past Stonehenge, like it was no big deal. My eyes literally popped out of my head, while the rest of the car acted extremely nonchalant. I mean, it's only one of the oldest standing structures in the world. Whatever...

I can't believe I've only been here for 3 days, because it feels like I've already been here for a lifetime. I have definitely fallen in love with this place, and am greatly looking forward to the next 10 weeks here :)

PS. If you are dying to get ahold of me, I have a British cell number now! It is pretty cheap for me to call/text people, but if you want to contact me make sure you check with your plan first so you don't get screwed over with high international charges. If you want the number, send me a message and I'll send it on to you!

PSS. Same goes for packages. I have my official address, but don't particularly want to post it online. Holla if you want to send me some stuff from the US!

Q: What exactly are you doing in London this summer?

A: Being awesome. Just kidding, but really.

As many of you know, I was a super nerd and graduated from UC San Diego in three years, and just took a year off to figure out what exactly I am going to do for the rest of my life. Among several conditions my parents gave me, one of them was "you have to do something productive this summer". Didn't matter what it was or where it was, as long as it was working towards my future goals (aka something to do with Public Policy, since I am starting a Master's Program in that field this fall at the George Washington University).

Naturally, with all this free time not being a student, I had a LOT of time to look for something really awesome and different to do. I didn't really want to go to Washington DC, since I will be living there for the next couple of years. The best thing I found was a program through Syracuse University, which takes political science students to London over the summer and sets them up with internships in the Parliament. Pretty awesome if you ask me. To make the deal sweeter, Syracuse asked me to be a Teacher's Assistant for one of the undergraduate classes they are having there this summer, so I'm actually getting PAID for this gig (gasp!).

The downside? For all of you, I will be embarking on this adventure tomorrow, and will not be back until August 6th so I will be missing out on all graduations/summer shenanigans. The upside? For me, I'm going to walk away with a kickass resume, and have ten-ish weeks to live and frolick around the UK and Western Europe.

Due to popular demand from last year's blog, I have decided to create this blog to keep you all up to date on my life this summer. Unlike my residencia in Madrid last year, my apartment this year has limited internet usage per week... so no impromptu Skype calls/video chatting/extensive Facebook :( so this will act as a way for me to let you all know what's going on with me at the same time!

In the meantime, feel free to blow up my phone with calls/texts tonight so I feel loved before I take off tomorrow :)