[September 13] London: First Day of Classes, Shopping, Bar, & Clubbing

*I ADDED MORE TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST IN CASE YOU ALREADY READ THE FIRST PART BEFORE*

Monday was my first day of school in London! My new friend Laura and I left for the IES Centre (where our classes are) 2 HOURS EARLY. Yeah we were a little anxious about taking the tube by ourselves and getting there on time...!

First, we stopped at Ben's Cookies which is right by the South Kensington tube station, the station we use to most easily get to classes. There are so many of DeLiCiOuS fresh cookies there. I was boring and got a dark chocolate chip cookie... and I couldn't even eat half of it because it was so rich (but I finished it happily right before typing this)! Good thing I walked A LOT today...

Anyways, the Piccadily tube line was delayed! What will we do! We took a different line! And then oops we had to take it back the other way! And then got on another line! And then we arrived! And we high-fived each other!

It took awhile BUT we even had time to buy school supplies and get to class in plenty of time. There are 10 people in my class today and half of them were very, very late. GOOD THING we left 2 hours early. There is really no reason not to because you can sit in the centre or nearby in a park or cafe and do homework in the meantime... Which I do indeed plan on doing...

Anyway! Here are the five classes I am taking here in London:

• Literature: The Bloomsbury Era
• History: From Aphra Behn to the Blitz: 300 Years of Women's Social History
• History: The History of London
• Literature/Women's Studies: British Women Novelists of the 19th Century
• Literature: Shakespeare the Dramatist

AHEM AHEM O HAI LONDON BTW I AM VERY EXCITED FOR EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE CLASSES KTHXBAI.

-Sincerely,

Alyssa the Nerd

Each class takes place once a week for 2 1/2 hours. I only have class 3 days a week, can you believe it? 4 day weekends...! I'm going to need them.

After class, I went around to a few bookstores looking for some of the books I'll need. No purchases were made, I'm just scoping out prices and selections for now. Today I only had the Bloomsbury Era class and our first assignment is to read "The Waste Land". I do not understand that poem but I'm going to try extra hard to this time around...

Afterwards, I went shopping by myself. I looked at some souvenir stuff but most of it is pretty tacky and I don't plan on buying any of it (besides postcards)... I went into Dorothy Perkins, a really cute clothing shop I have never seen or heard of before. It's a lot like H&M I guess. I bought a dress and a top there. Walked back to the tube and took it BY MYSELF! I'm such a BIG GIRL! lol.

Didn't get lost. Feet hurt. Whew.

Later that night, there was a social planned and whoever wanted to headed out to a bar for drinks, and afterward we went to a club that I think is called TigerTiger.

At the bar:

Me and my roommate, aren't we so ADORBS??? I am soooo lucky I got a great roommate YET AGAIN. I have AMAZING luck with roommates; Thank You infinite powers aboveeeeee!

I won't tell you how many drinks I did or didn't have, but either way it would probably surprise you. Take it as you will.

It was a nice bar with 'cheap' drinks.

Later at the club, TigerTiger:

As I'm not yet 21, I've never been to a bar or club in the States, so all of this was a completely new experience for me. They didn't check ID for drinks in the bar, which I'm pretty sure they would in the states, however I really wouldn't know! I ordered some beer. Nothing fancy. While I really enjoy sweet things, I also really enjoy bitter things like beer and strong tea. So unlike a lot of people I've talked to, I actually enjoy the taste of beer.

After everyone was loaded up at the bar, we walked to a club that our student assistants got us VIP passes to. It felt pretty cool cutting a bunch of people in line, ha, ha... it seemed like a club full of people my age and most people were dressed up a bit. Especially the girls.

It was a bizarre experience.

First of all, I loved it. I LOVE dancing, and I dance pretty much the same with or without alcohol involved (just ask some of my friends at home). I loved the remixed popular music, which is very new for me... in high school and my freshman year of college, I thought most of it was pretty lame and I shunned it. But for some reason during this past year, I've gotten into Lady Gaga, Britney, and Beyonce. This music is trite, formulaic, and mindless, but at the same time genius. (That brings up my fascination with Lady Gaga but that's a whole other blog post). Moving on.

I loved the crowd and the lights and I just had fun. I probably seemed like the typical party girl, going with the crowd and 'livin it up'. Or something.

But something the 'typical' party girl might not do is sit by herself and observe (minding her purse and surroundings and safety the whole time I must add!). I hate to sound pretentious, as if I am 'above it all' or anything. Because like I said, I was very much a part of what I also observed.

People obviously tend to gather in groups/circles. Some people are very confident in dancing and enjoying themselves, some people are very uncomfortable in this situation but put themselves into it nonetheless. You can really see it if you look for it—rigidness, crossed arms, looking around a lot, not making eye contact... and there are also a lot of people there trying to get lucky. You can just tell!

It's strange because you might think TigerTiger is the LAST place you might feel peace inside. But sitting at that table alone (and yes I had longggg been completely sober at that point so these feelings were NOT alcohol-induced), taking a break from dance dance dancing, I felt completely comfortable with myself and I felt at peace. "Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt." It was a really fantastic feeling, and I would never have thought I would feel it in a club in London. I think that is the real test.

It's easy to feel peaceful in nature where it's quiet and beautiful and serene. To feel peace in a place that is filled to the brim with people being ridiculous, music so loud your ears ring for the rest of the night, in a place thousands of miles from home, is a really thrilling feeling.