London Calling

Hello old friend.

I have been debating writing a blog post for few days now because I fear I am only going to disappoint everyone, or more accurately, bore everyone. There are no pictures to hide behind and no fun experiences to relate. All I have are tales of bureaucratic frustration, first day jitters, and well, nothing exciting..... So if you're reading this and it puts you to sleep, no hard feelings.

I have been in London for almost three weeks now. I almost didn't make it. OK, that's being slightly over dramatic BUT the visa experience was definitely stressful. Let me back up a bit to July when I came back home to Texas from Spain. My plans for the summer involved eating a lot, swimming, playing with Zoe, AND getting my visa. Essentially, it was the only productive item on my summer agenda. Now, at the risk of sounding pretentious, I consider myself somewhat of a pro when it comes to visas. This visa is my 5th work/study visa for Europe, definitely not my first rodeo. For those of you who have never gone through the process, let me sum it up for you:

1) Get a letter from school/company basically saying that you're expected and they're sponsoring you
2) Complete application for which all the steps are online (normally)
3) Submit application by driving to the nearest consulate or mail it in (depends on the country)
4) Wait

That's it! Now every country is slightly different, like England added in a bio-metric appointment that was required, but more or less the process is straight forward and easy. It just takes time. And important note, if the consulate has a time frame on its website of how quickly visas are processed, it is probably pretty accurate. England's website said 15 working days. So, knowing all of this, I contacted my school in July to start the process......I won't go into all the details, mainly because if you spoke to me at all this summer you already know them all. I apologize to everyone who was subjected to a "why can't people do their jobs?" rant. Long story short, my school was extremely late getting me the required information and I submitted my application about a week before my flight. Now, in retrospect, I know I would have been fine if I had missed the introductory week and even the first week of school, but another frustrating thing about the whole situation was that no one from London was communicating to me. It was like all my emails disappeared into a bureaucratic black hole...Anyways, fast forward morning of my flight and I am tracking with earnest the package that contains my passport and visa. Yes, the visa gods (or really, the UK consulate workers) performed a miracle and I received my passport 6 hours before my flight. Hallelujah! So that's how my semester started, slightly frazzled and a bit uncertain about the people I was about to be dealing with for the next year. It helped immensely that I was apologized to profusely during my first week. Side note: I am ecstatic that this is my last visa for at least a year.

So that brings me to my actual time in London thus far. I am extremely lucky because throughout the whole visa stress because I was not worried about finding an apartment. Nadia and Ronja (with whom I stayed last January) so graciously offered for me to stay with them until I found a place for myself. So here I still am, staying in their penthouse. I don't joke, it is a pretty amazing space for London. Light, airy, and when the weather is nice, you can climb out the window to the rooftop and soak up some sun. Yes! The weather has been nice! And no, I will not be mooching off the kindness of my friends for much longer. In a week I will be moving to a place closer to my school and it will be nice to finally unpack my suitcases. And it will be nice to be able to walk to school. The tube is pretty brutal in the mornings, everyone is so cranky. I have, however, discovered podcasts. I'm obsessed with "This American Life" and "Serial." I never understood the point of podcasts until now; a good one makes a commute actually enjoyable! Several times this week I've made myself walk slower on the way to class just so I can keep listening. If anyone has recommendations of other favorites, let me know!

Classes so far have been good. Mainly I am loving the fact that I am not the only student. Have I mentioned that I have absolutely no idea about any of my grades from Spain? That was such a frustrating semester. Anyways, my classmates here are great. There seems to be a wide range of experiences and backgrounds to learn from. Everybody has something unique to offer to the group. The class structure is a bit strange though. They're set up in "modules" which means that each class takes place over one week from 9:30 AM - 5 PM. Basically a whole semester of classes gets crammed into one week. We get coursework that has to be finished within 6 weeks of the course, and there are exams, but after the week of classes that's it. Of course we get breaks but still, it takes a lot of stamina (and coffee) to stay focused on one subject for so long. The classes are pretty interesting though and I am excited for all the courses. I think I am going to learn a lot this year. I am, however, nervous about writing a dissertation. Right now I have some vague ideas but nothing concrete. I've been thinking about a topic all summer as well....it's daunting!

Speaking of stamina, I'm done with this post. I really don't have much more to offer. I haven't done any sight seeing since I arrived because I've been more focused with finding an apartment, opening a bank account, etc. Very mundane. In fact, coming to London feels so different from when I went to Norway and Spain, everything just feels so easy here. I have lived in England before, I already know how to get around, I have friends, there is no language barrier....I often forget I am living in a different country! More surprisingly, I have absolutely no trips planned for the future because I am perfectly content staying in London. Who is this person?! I actually have a week off coming up next week, maybe I can take a quick train ride to Belgium, or fly up to Scotland....If for nothing else, I need some better material for my next blog post. This one is far too boring. I promise to work on it.