Most importantly, I am not living in London! I am living in Camden, a small city north of London that has basically been appropriated by London. It's like a Philadelphia- Trenton situation, but significantly more up and coming of a neighborhood. Apparently this area used to be fairly sketchy, but is currently on the rise. I haven't seen or heard any problems, and everyone in my building has assured us that it is totally safe, just a little bit funkier than most of London. That sounds like a win to me! The Camden Town Hall is actually two blocks away. More pictures of my area to follow.
Also, Leffe is a Belgian beer, not a German one as I said yesterday. Sorry about that one Dad! But here are two pictures just for you, since you told me how good Belgian beer is.
Oh look! It's a glass of Leffe beer! Your favourite!
Whoops! Where'd it go??
Sorry. That was far too easy. I'll buy you a pint when you're here, Dad. They don't have continental beers everywhere it seems, but they are a lot of places.
So yesterday we started out with lunch at ULU, the University of London Union. Basically it is a huge student center complete with gym, clubs, sports teams, a concert venue, bars, restaurants and a store. As NYU London students, we were given an associate membership, which means that we can't do everything that ULU has to offer, but we can do a lot of things. NYU London gave us a very nice free lunch there yesterday with lots of yummy vegetarian options, for which I was very greatful. Then we had the longest, but possibly most informational orientation ever. It was 2 1/2 hours long... which is a little ridiculous. You know it's bad when the funniest part of your information session is the policeman you brought in to talk about safety. Then again, he was a funny English policeman (think Hot Fuzz with me for a second).
After orientation, we met this awesome English woman in the building where it was held. It was one of the University of London buildings, with a really cool Asian art gallery I hope to visit in a few days. She just started talking to us when she found out that we were students from New York. Apparently her son is thinking about doing his masters at NYU! Very friendly, and pretty funny. She told us about some club at U London who gives out free Indian food lunches every weekday in front of that building. You just leave like 10p and take some lunch! I will absolutely be doing that one often...
However, the highlight of my day was probably the Pub Quiz at ULU! I went with my friends Allison and Jackie, and made a lot of new wonderful friends as well! We had a team of I think ten people, and had to answer all of these questions about British culture, history, food, sports and things. Then, we got a free dinner. Everything was fried, but it was mostly things like shrimp and jalepeno poppers, so still not too unhealthy. Plus, it was supposed to be pub food. I've been noticing that pub food means fried. Then, they announced the winners. WE WON! We got 59/ 71 correct! We won this bag full of all kinds of tacky little London souveniers. I took some London button pins, a pen and a little snowglobe- appropriate, since now it actually snows in London. There was also a set of little wooden London toys, and a box of chocolate covered biscuits, which we all split:
With the same group, we all went out to a pub called Skinner's Arms. It was a classy pub, and most of the clientele looked much older. However, it was quiet and not too crowded, and I liked the historical decor. I might go back.
I leave you with the best advertisement I have ever seen, found on the steps of the ULU building. Danny, this is just for you after the great email you sent me about how to work out your thighs, after I complained that my thighs were fat. (Instead of just complaining with me, he assured me that I was very skinny, for which I thanked him but denied it, so he sent me this long email full of great excercises that targeted that area. Most of which used stairs).
camden is in london you weirdo x
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