London: Tube Travelling and Dr. O'Boyle

Hey everyone!
My second day drew to a close successfully, although I started off the day on a bad note: oversleeping. Six of us had planned to meet in the lobby at 9am to take the tube to our classroom building for orientation. I woke up at 8:58. Luckily, I had already packed my bag the night before, and I didn't smell *that* bad, so I just threw on some clothes, grabbed my bag, and opened the flat door to see my girlfriend waiting patiently.

We allotted extra time to get to the London Centre (as our classroom building is called) by tube because we wanted to make sure we had time to navigate and arrived on time. The tube seemed efficient and safe, but not clean. We all have tube debit cards called Oyster cards, which make paying for the tube a breeze, even though a round trip from the Landward to the Centre is £3. As it happened, we had no incidents and arrived early, although we are all still getting used to traveling in London. We stopped for breakfast at a small cafe on the opposite side of the block from the London Centre. I had a "Toast and Bacon" Breakfast, which ended up being a greasy yet quite pleasing breakfast-ham sandwich. I was impressed that due to the thermal bag in which it was put, the sandwich was still quite warm when I started eating it.

My first orientation session was chaired by Dr. Cornelius O'Boyle. At first he came off very friendly, asking us what we had done the night before, what drinking games are played, what bars/pubs to go to each night, etc. Everyone was laughing and having a good time. Then, after about 20 minutes of this, he stopped and said that if that's all we wanted to get out of our London experience, we might as well go back home. If we treated the London program like an extension of the Notre Dame bubble, then that's exactly what it would become for us.

I'm glad he said this to everyone. I was one of the few who didn't end up at the Duke of York pub just down the street the night before. I definitely want to experience more of London than just a pub down the street in which there are already forty ND students. That being said, I think Dr. O'Boyle's message was not that we shouldn't go to the Duke of York pub, or make sure we don't see any other group of ND students when seeing the London sights, but that we should have our priorities straight and make sure we take advantage of being in such a diverse and interesting city. We should find what interests us, what makes us tick, in the city of London. I'm excited for the opportunity to do so.

Arriving in London

Hello all! I’ve arrived safely in London along with the rest of the Notre Dame London Fall 2007 crew. There are about 130 students here total, mostly juniors in college.

I didn’t sleep much on the overnight flight, which arrived at approximately 6:30am London time (~2:30 am Central US Time). We then sat through a long customs line, in which I made a rather stupid move and attempted to take flash photography while in line for Customs, in a room with “NO PHOTOGRAPHY” signs prominently displayed. For this I was swiftly accosted and watched as I deleted all pictures taken in the room.

After clearing Customs, various members of the London Program staff were in the airport to greet and direct us. It was about 8:30am by the time we got onto our bus to head from Heathrow to our flats. After a preliminary meet-the-roomie session, we then walked the two miles to our classroom building for the start of orientation and class registration.

I haven’t gotten to sleep yet on the recommendation of our Rectress, who stated it was best if we wait until it is dark out to sleep as it will ease our jet-lag transitions. Tomorrow we get up early for more orientation.

We’re finally in London, getting settled and transitioning. I’m starting this blog to keep track of my travels and adventures while in Europe. I plan to post pictures, descriptions, maps, and videos of our experiences in London and our travels across Europe. Enjoy!