Daily Details: July 19

After hauling our luggage to the Metro from the train station, we arrived in South Kensington. It was easy to see by the shopping surrounding us that this is a high-end area of London. On the street nearest to our flat is a Lamborghini store, for crying out loud! We had to wait a bit on the curb in front of Manson Place for our flats to be prepared and then were given a little welcome meeting by the Residence Life manager. It was interesting to see someone else give these meetings since I’ve been doing it for so long. Even here in England the rules are so similar. Our RL, James, said that Manson Place, because it is so old, has a few quirks like creaky floors and doors that close loudly. After the meeting, it was exciting to finally get into our flats. They are beyond filthy—they don’t look like they’ve been cleaned one little bit because there’s crap all over the floor and the bathroom is maybe the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. But, I’ll be calling this home for the next 2.5 weeks, so I’m adjusting. Suffice it to say, I just don’t walk around barefoot!

Each room comes equipped with a wardrobe for us to put our belongings into. I was so excited at the prospect of not having to live out of a suitcase that I immediately started unpacking. I pulled out the bottom drawer, placed a relatively lightweight bag in it, and all the sudden I became aware of the fact that the whole wardrobe was tipping over onto me! I guess I didn’t register it that well because my roommates related the story this way: “We heard your voice go, ‘guys?’ and then looked over and saw the wardrobe falling over you and other people were screaming your name. All we saw was your little legs, motionless underneath the wardrobe. You looked like the wicked witch! All we could imagine was a giant gash in your head and we just ran over to haul the wardrobe off of you. It was terrifying! We couldn’t believe you weren’t screaming or anything!” Ha ha! I’m not sure why I wasn’t either, but I was fortunate that the wardrobe doors were open because as it fell on me, I just kind of fit inside the little space. I wasn’t hurt one bit and it makes for a good laugh every time I think about it! I’m guessing tipping wardrobes aren’t one of the quirks James was talking about, but they might want to address that.

After the wardrobe incident I was wide awake and ready to go grocery shopping with the rest of our apartment. We went to store called Sainsbury’s, and I quite enjoyed being able to shop for real food and plan meals with my roommates. Let me tell you though, there are some WEIRD foods in England!
The last event of the day was going on a walking tour of England with the whole group to give us an opportunity to get our bearings. I feel like I saw all of London in those few hours! We saw Leicester Square, the Times Square of London where all the movie premiers are held. We also saw a glimpse of Buckingham Palace (we’re going there for real our last day here), Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, London Town Hall, the Gherkin Building, Millennium Bridge, the London Eye, and a whole heap of other cool things. It will be neat to explore all of them in the next coming weeks!