I realized it is only when you go overseas that you appreciate what you have at home. In SG, the trains operate rain or shine 24/7, any maintenance work is carried out in the wee hours. In London, most maintenance works are carried out on the weekends, and they have no qualms about shutting down stations or even entire lines.
I had to make a big detour to navigate around the London Underground to get to my accommodation. It was quite a distance to walk, but with the air so fresh and temperatures at 11 degrees C, it was enjoyable just taking in the sights and sound.
I met two Hong Kong undergrads at the reception, Michelle and another guy whose name I cannot (or can't be bothered) to remember. The moment I got my room, I unpacked my stuff and hit the deck immediately. I was almost late for my orientation in school. Now the LSE has hostels all over central London, and my hall, Rosebery Ave, was in the district of Islington, an area well known for the Sadler Wells theatre and nice restaurants and bars.
I was waiting for a bus when I saw this very blur looking Chinese girl, Chen Ye (who is actually Chinese-American from Boston, Massachusetts) who approached me and asked me how to get to LSE. I told her I was going there too and we promptly took the wrong bus together. Thanks to my exceptional urban 'topo' skills, we arrived at LSE just about on time.
Again I was too busy looking for the correct queue that I did not snap a nice picture of the famed LSE logo. But I'll have 3 weeks to do that , no problem. After collecting my LSE student ID, I went for a short tour around the school. Cobbled streets, central location in London, dream school!
I was randomly snapping pictures of the campus when I bumped into Chen Ye and another new found friend, Laura from Barcelona who moved to Madrid six months ago (the things you find out about new friends haha). We were all famished, and wanted lunch badly. We anyhow anyhow walked, and stumbled across the famous Theatreland and Covent Garden!
Lunch was an overpriced pasta for £10 after tips where I counted approximately 20 penne pasta on my plate. Really expensive place. After lunch, we walked around Covent Garden market, bypassed the London Transport Museum, visited St Paul's Church, and finally Laura went back to hall first to find (unsuccessful) for an international adaptor. Good thing SG and London same plug, don't need adaptor.
There was a welcome reception at the hall in the evening, but the food and drinks ran out very fast. In the end, a big group of us new friends went out and explore Islington in search of food. We only had dinner at 10pm, and the sky was still bright!!
Will talk about my first day of school in LSE in the next post. London is awesome! :)
Blardy heavy backpack. I regretted not bringing a trolley bag..
Portugal Street, buildings surrounding it are part of the LSE
Covent Garden on a sunday
Theatreland, next to Covent Garden
Large crowd gathering around a street performer, lots of them in Covent Garden
One of King Arthur's knight
Plastic bottle man
Erm... I dunno what is this haha
St Paul's Church
Not Singapore Flyer la, the London Eye
Beautiful London summer sky
I was awestruck when after taking picture with the London Eye, I turned around and saw this...
Big Ben!!!
The Houses of Parliament
Updates real soon!!! :p
