London Program Orientation Weekend, or Pre-Semester Vacation

When we last left our heroes, the group flight had just boarded buses to the flats from the airport in London.


The flats themselves are fairly simple. My flat, which I share with four other guys, consists of a small kitchen/dining/living room, an oddly angled hallway to the door, a bathroom, two doubles, and a single. By the time that I arrived, two of my flat mates had already claimed the double with an extra, partial bathroom and two others had tentatively agreed to room together, leaving the single for me. I’ve heard some warnings about living in the singles in the flats, but having a room where I can close a door for relative quiet seems to allow me a good mixture of privacy and social opportunities, so far.


My only real complaint about the flat has to do with the bathroom, and my issue is non traditional. The top of the doorframe falls to full inch below the top of my head, and dangerous split between the top of my head and my eyes. I regularly graze my head on the way through the door, and I have banged my head significantly on at least one occasion. At the end of the semester, I hope to discourage the rectors from placing tall people in this flat in the future.


After a short break to drop our bags in our flats, students began making our way across town to the Notre Dame London Center. I believe that a few groups left with the rectors, but I did not make it to the courtyard between our two buildings of flats in time to follow this guided walk, so I joined another group of students leaving shortly after. Although I forgot to bring my map, a couple of better prepared students had their sets of directions, and our small group – although jet lagged and in a city with unfamiliar traffic customs – arrived at the London Center without any problems.


The London Center is a phenomenal building. In it’s first incarnation, the building served as a London Gentlemen’s Club for graduates of Cambridge and Oxford Universities. After the club moved to another location, the building changed hands between a variety of business and educational organizations before Notre Dame acquired the building in the late 1990’s. Upon taking possession of the building, Notre Dame organized an extensive renovation that restored many aspects of the building to the form that they took when the building served as a club, taking care to allow for such details as marble fireplaces in classrooms, a grand staircase, and intricate designs on the interior and exterior moldings. When standing in Trafalgar Square, the London Center – with its blue and gold monogram flag on the roof – literally looks like a Notre Dame embassy.


At the London Center, we assembled in the building’s small auditorium for two and a half hours of talks on key policies for the program and in the flats. Not surprisingly, staying awake proved quite challenging for those of us experiencing jet lag, although the rectors used enough energy during their presentation that we were much more alert after they spoke than before. We also picked up our rental textbooks, cell phones, and public transportation cards before leaving the London Center for the day.


On the trip back to the flats, I joined a different group of people. We walked up to Piccadilly Circus and found shops to convert some currency and to purchase electronic adapters. From there, we returned to the provided directions to the flats for the remainder of our journey, stopping for Thai food on the way. Back at the flats, I unpacked the few dry clothes that I had and promptly fell asleep (remember, chronologically, the last time that I really slept was at the beginning of my previous post).


Friday morning featured more orientation at the London Center, this time in greater detail and with regard to more specific aspects of the program, such as the building’s library and the program’s travel policies, to name a few. In the afternoon, we had time for a short lunch at a sandwich shop around the corner from the building before an hour of additional presentations, after which one of the rectors led us back to the flats by a much faster and more direct route than the one listed on the provided directions. He also showed us the closest large grocery store (think small grocery store in the United States, for a size comparison), named Sainsbury’s, where prices are much better than at convenience markets.


On Friday night, a few of us went looking for a pub for dinner, hoping to find hearty, meat, potato, and vegetable type dishes. By the time that we ventured out, though, all of the pubs seemed too full to really serve dinner, so we stopped at an Indian restaurant, which served rich, saucy dishes that at least fulfilled our desire for a hearty meal. Later in the evening, I also ventured to a pub just down the street from the flats, The City Pride, and socialized with a number of students from the program while also trying Guinness on tap for the first time, an important experience. Although I think I prefer a lighter beer, I certainly found it smoother on tap than when poured from a can or a bottle. When I finally returned from the pub – I stayed a while to watch some students sing karaoke – I began the much needed laundry adventure that precipitated my last post. Yes, I did laundry on a Friday night in London, but I feel justified because I only did so after going out for most of the evening.


Saturday brought the most enjoyable day yet. I began the day walking across town to the London Center and throughout the surrounding neighborhood in the early afternoon as an assignment for our required class, Global London, which requires seven self-guided walking tours of the city throughout the semester. Highlights of the tour include the St. James Palace constructed by Henry VIII and Fortnum & Mason, and upscale department store that predates the United States. After a short stop at the London Center to check email and to rest, the group returned to the flats.


In the evening, I made a trip up to Sainsbury’s with Tim Kao to buy groceries for dinner, and then cooked spaghetti with meat sauce for Cat Samson, Michelle Letorneau, Kyla Wargol, Hal Melia, Lauren Morehouse, Tim, and myself. We did very well for ourselves, splitting the cost of the meal and spending significantly less money than we had the previous two nights. I really like staying in to cook; we need to do that a lot this semester.


The highlight of the evening, though, came after dinner, when the seven of us, as well as a few others, walked across town to see Les Misérables at the Queen’s Theatre. We arrived just early enough yet close enough to show time to purchase rush, standing room tickets for only ten pounds per ticket. Although an overhang obstructed the view sporadically throughout the show, the location of the tickets nevertheless afforded an excellent view of the performance. Having never seen the show before, I found it absolutely enthralling. From the operatic nature of the singing, to the well used turntable set, and the carefully constructed plot, I enjoyed every part of the show, which more than lived up to my expectations.


Rather than bore you with any more useless rehashing of my first few days, I will end this post on the high note of my fantastically fun, yet frugal, Saturday night.


I promise that there will be pictures…eventually.


Until then,


Joel