Orientation Shenanigans

Hey all you wonderful people I miss dearly :)

This is the first time in the past three days I've had any kind of time to myself when I didn't have to sleep or call someone or do something for school. And I need to right an account of it all, before I forget it, so even though I should be napping before a night out (eating? drinking? I don't know, I just show up where I'm told...) I'm going to write as quickly as possible, so don't mind the mistakes please!

So, the day before Orientation, I made my first friend. My lock had jammed, which apparently "happens" when Ramsey Hall turns on their heater (So why don't you fix it...? The persistent question with all things UK thus far). After splaying out in my doorway, to the amusement of several passerbys, I finally went downstairs to the reception office, where I waited another 10 minutes for the guy to finish checking everyone else in before he (the one dude on duty) could open my door. As I waited, this girl was very shyly standing next to the line, although she didn't seem to be part of it. Since we were all talking, I asked her what she was studying and we just got to talking. Turns out she actually didn't need to wait in line but had just come downstairs in the hopes of meeting someone. Her name is Virginia and she is Italian, studying Linguistics at UCL for the fall semester. So we got dinner together and then chatted for a bit after. She's very sweet, and very studious, and in the time I've spent with her (I do nearly everything with her) I've realized she is a complete sweetheart, if a little shy around new comers. We make a good team though, she, meeting many foreign students, and I meeting more American students (which are technically foreign here too, thanks for pointing it out, but honestly, I can't fix that mental hiccup no matter how much I try). Soon, we're supposed to meet up with a group of Germans, Italians, Spanish, and French people for some dinner.

So, I am not alone! Yay! She doesn't really seem intent on going out too much though, so now begins my search for some party people. I need a night out soon to de-stress! Last night was the first time I ventured to a pub, and it was very chill, drank a Corona (ok, not very English, give me a break, it's only the first week!) and just talked to people outside. I also had my first experience getting remarkably lost with two guys I had just met ("Ivanna, I'm on my way, I'm just lost with these two guys I just met. No, I swear, I don't think they're going to rape me!"). My calves have been hurting since then, but I did manage walk the other way down Tottenham Ct, which I hadn't quite done before.

Since my last update, I've also moved into Astor College, coincidently on the busiest academic day for orientation, but UCL people don't really seem too interested in the well-being of their students. Or commodity. Did I mention that Astor is yet to be finished being refurbished, so I woke up at 7 am this morning to two construction men right outside my 7th floor window? Imagine the vertigo when I momentarily had a crazy, paranoid feeling my room alone (which is the room on the uppermost corner of the 7th floor, all the way down the hall) was going to topple 7 stories down on to some poor, unsuspecting Londoner. Or, with the amount of us here, could've easily been an affiliate student I suppose.

Orientation was no less comforting than the housing situation. I waited in line 3 hours, complete nauseous from a cheap egg sandwich I had just eaten for lunch, and unable to move from my spot in line until it was all complete. I then threw up immediately after (as lady-like as possible--it is London, after all, polite vomiting is the only way to go in public University bathrooms), and was then asked 5 minutes later to take my UCL ID picture.

No, you can't see it.

Registering courses with the department took place the next day, first with the English department and then only today with the European Cultural Studies department (which, since my enrollment, has merged with all the language departments into one, large umbrella department). I may start keeping a quote book to keep track of all the ridiculous things I'm being told about UCL now. For example, the English department informs you of your tutor's name and your seminar assignments not online, not through email, not through personal mailboxes, but through a noticeboard. One noticeboard. Coincidently, also where you choose those seminars. So, if English were more pre-Med, someone could theoretically just cross your name off. Yay, English at UCL! Also, you must be sure to see what you need to before 6 pm any weekday, because you won't have access to it again until the next business day. Maybe I'm spoiled (Ok, yes, Yale is a spoiling place), but this seems slightly archaic in 2011. Someone buy them computers please?

Anyway, I really should change considering I don't know what bus I'm taking (or where I'm going...) but I am meeting someone in 10 minutes to head over (to the dinner? pub? pot luck? badly communicated...)

I miss you all terribly, love from London,

adri

P.S. The showers only turn on for 11 seconds at a time. I've counted. Then you need to press a button again. And again. And again. Certainly conserves water--does nothing for my stress relief.