A Microcosm of the Entire World

Hello everyone and welcome from London! I have arrived safely and just finished up orientation weekend. Classes start tomorrow, but I'm quite excited about them, but I'll leave that for below. Sooo much has happened since we arrived, through random explorations, tours, and meetings, so I'll try to give you the whole scope of these past few days without writing a really lengthy, dense post:

Upon arriving to the airport terminal, I was greeted by a large contingent of other ND London students and we chilled in the terminal for a few hours. The flight went well, with only minor delays before liftoff and a pretty good pasta meal. Unfortunately, I didn't get much sleep, a common event among most of the other kids, so after the first day I had been "awake" for around 30 hours. Arrival and customs aside, the weather was slightly cool (probably around the 60s, which is perfect given that I'm wearing long pants everyday b/c Europeans consider shorts "beach wear") and we boarded a bus for our first trip through London. My first impression was amazement at the size of the city and style of all the buildings. When you're in the city, most of the buildings are 3-5 stories high and the streets / pavements ("sidewalks") are much smaller, giving you the impression that you're in a labyrinth. The buildings have a mix of modern to historic architecture, but you definitely get the feeling that this city has been around for quite a while. I've yet to try some different routes through the city, but within central London anywhere you go the walk is interesting (and usually filled with businesses packed tight).

Here's some fun things we learned. London is the most diverse city in the world, as decided by number of discreet, identifiable language communities. New York is second with 300, but they stopped counting in London at 600...hence, you do get the feeling while walking the streets that London is a microcosm of the entire world. It's very interesting because you see varities of people of African, Caribbean, Indian, Asian, and European descent, scattering the scene like pieces in a huge cultural mosaic. Our neighborhood near the Landward (our flats) has a large Persian influence, so there is a fair degree of Arabic script, a plethora of Middle Eastern restaurants (some with hookah bars), and many vegetable / fruit stalls. Look for more stories later about various different food excursions, like trying curry (which is the most eaten food in London, although it applies to a whole class of foods...the most eaten specific dish is still "fish and chips")

As for why I'm excited for classes tomorrow, it's because I found out what books we are reading (and will hopefully study). For _Playing Shakespeare_, we're reading "Othello", "The Merchant of Venice", and "Titus Andronicus". For _Seeing Britain on Screen_, we're reading "A Clockwork Orange", "From Russia with Love", "Pride and Prejudice", another I don't recognize ("The Remains of the Day"). Woot!

I think I'll cut this one off here, and give you a completely separate post for the various excursions I've been on so far, because they'll take a bit of space.