Night at the Theater

The theater is the building with the yellow lighting. (this picture is from a 360 of Piccadilly Circus last week)

Currently halftime during the Vikings/Saints game. I've got 2 streams going in case one goes down.
After class I took Mutian to Chinatown and we ended up having dinner. I tried some Dim Sum which is more or less a series of appetizers instead of a normal sized meal.
We finished dinner around 7:50 and had a 3-4 minute walk to the theater for the 8:00 showing. We saw The 39 Steps which was quite funny and I found it impressive how only 4 actors were able to play all the different characters in the play. After the play we just walked around central London and found a place for Mutian to have a cup of coffee then went back to Manson Place.
The second half has started, I hope the blocked extra point doesn't come back to haunt us.

Classes Begin

The Royal Albert Hall.

Classes started on Monday this week. The first class went pretty well, it was more or less getting to know the professor and going through the syllabus. Rez and I hunted down the best place to exchange the rest of my US cash Monday evening and wandered around forever looking for somewhere to eat. We finally went into a pizza place and split a large pepperoni. There was also a tube strike on Monday and Tuesday so travel became a bit tricky and slower.

Mutian arrived on Monday night and I met his mother who I believe is doing research at Cambridge. We didn't have class on Tuesday so Rez and I originally planned to re-walk the tour I took then go to museums but I ended up taking Mutian to the foundation house so he could get the quick version of orientation and pick up some essential items like his ID and oyster card. He came with Rez and me on the walking tour to the Royal Albert Hall, the Albert Memorial, Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace. In the gardens we spent a long time by a pond taking pictures of swans and playing with pigeons.

The Albert Memorial.

After the we finished the walking tour bit Mutian said he wanted to do some shopping so we went to Oxford Street. I ended up getting a grey sweater (one that goes well over a collar shirt) for just £5. After that we went to Tesco since both Mutian and I needed groceries. I found quite a few good deals and have enough food to last quite a while. Rez found the best deal of the day, it was a 3kg (~6.6lbs) bag of fusilli pasta for just  £2. After getting back to the flat we were all starving and cooked dinner. Rez and I had some of the pasta with a sauce and chicken.

Today I had my ethics course in the morning and Rez came over with a yummy lunch that she cooked. There was a welcome reception at Imperial College in the evening. Not many CSBSJU students went so I ended up meeting a few students from other schools. 

Tomorrow I have my Islam and the West class and I'm going to see a play called "The 39 Steps" in the evening. Then I'll be streaming the Vikings game at night.

Rez, Mutian and a swan in Kensington Gardens.

Orientation & Oxford Street

Manson Place - My flat is in one of the buildings with the scaffolding out front.

Friday was fairly uneventful, just general orientation from 9:45am-1pm and internship orientation from 2:30pm-4pm. In the evening I took a trip to Leicester Square intending to walk to Piccadilly Circus and Chinatown but I went the wrong direction and ended up going as far as Goodge Street before turning back. I found my way to Piccadilly Circus and Chinatown. I got a crunchy bacon bun for 90p and took some pictures then made my way home. I did spend nearly a hour exploring the area around the Goodge Street Station and looking for somewhere to have dinner. The door to flat 17 is quite fickle and I wasn't able to undo the lock (some girls even got locked INSIDE the flat because the lock is so bad) so I just took a walk in the South Kensington area. I got into the flat later thanks to a resident life supervisor.

St. Paul's Cathedral

On Saturday we had a walking tour of the South Kensington area in the morning that lasted about 2.5 hours. It was really fun and the places we were shown were gorgeous. I really regret not bringing my camera. I'm planning on taking Rez on that route with my camera so I can take pictures of all the beautiful buildings and monuments. In the afternoon we had a bus tour of the city and saw most of the major historical and important buildings and other landmarks. But since we just saw them from the bus for a few moments I'm hoping Rez will want to show me all the places properly.

Rez insisted I take a picture of the Oxford Street sign.

After the tours finished I met with Rez to go to dinner and do some shopping. She took me to Oxford Street and I found a cheap belt (£2.50) that I was in sore need of, some flip flops for £1, and a second bath towel (£4) all at a store called Primark. I was surprised at how big all of the stores were when they looked so small from the street. Most had several different floors or were very deep or even went below street level. We went to all kinds of clothing stores looking for some shoes for Rez and finally found some at a sporting goods store. I had a good laugh when I found a Timberwolves jersey that read Garnett on the back. We also spent a good deal of time at an electronics (mostly CDs/DVDs/Video Games) store called HMV.

Rez under the Marble Arch.

Rez dragged me into a tea shop called Whittard of Chelsea because she said they always have samples. I've never liked any tea as far back as I remember but I found the sample of their 'Dreamtime' tea to be so good that I bought a can of it. Rez bought a can too and we took advantage of a 3 for 2 deal and bought some tea for my mom as well. We remembered seeing some giant mugs in the sporting goods store for only 69p so we had to go back and get them (The sporting goods store is underground so my phone lost reception and dropped the call, so in case you were wondering I didn't hang up on you mom). We didn't make it to Taro, the Japanese restaurant we had dinner at, until nearly 9pm. We both had the Chicken Curry Udon which was very delicious. After dinner I walked Rez to her bus stop and once she was on it I headed back to the tube station and came home.

Moving In

We moved into our flats today. Rez came to get me from Arami's house around 10am and stayed with me through most of the moving in and registration process. The picture above is the 4 person room I'm staying in with AJ, William, and Steven. Not too much to say about the room or moving in, it was a pretty smooth process. Though for the Istanbul trip that I'll be taking for my theology class I had to pay £480 so a huge chunk of my budget disappeared today. The debit came in handy for paying that since I didn't have that kind of cash on me and my credit card limit doesn't go that high.
After I was pretty well moved in, Rez and I went to see Toy Story 3 in 3D. She had a buy one get one free ticket voucher so we saved £10.50. After the movie we went to China Town and got pork buns. She showed me a neat little bakery that is pretty inexpensive and has all kinds of yummy things. I want to go back there sometime soon for a baked roll/bun that has bacon inside.
We said our goodbyes around 7pm so she could go home and I could go to a meeting for all the CSBSJU students about the rules for the building. My roommates went out drinking after the meeting (they must find it exciting since they're all probably 19-20) and I stayed in the flat to finish unpacking, set up my internet and get started on this blog.