I meant to update sooner, I promise!
I really did mean to update on Thursday... then I went on a walk through Regents Park and booked an impromptu trip to Birmingham. Which is why I was unable to update this all weekend. (Note: English people have got it right with sitting/laying down anywhere in a park where there is sun.)
Where to begin... Class. So after the first week of class at London Met, here are my thoughts. Microeconomics: a challenging class at first glance, but once concepts are broken down it's not so bad. Good professor (Scottish maybe?), fast-paced 2 hour lecture with a 1 hour seminar (discussion). Theatre in London: this is going to be the easiest thing ever, and it's going to be really great. We learn about theatre and go see plays on a weekly basis. The only thing we have to do is write two papers, sweet deal. Business and Information Systems: I'm a geek, and I really like information technology. The professor seems like a really cool guy, the T.A., not so much. And it also seems backwards to have a 1 hour lecture, then a 2 hour seminar. Whatever. I'm taking Spanish also, and I start class on Tuesday because I registered for it last Monday and it didn't show up on my schedule until Wednesday. I checked to see if I could go to the Thursday session because of the scheduling problem, but it was "simply not possible."
Other than school, Katie and I went to the Tate Modern last Tuesday on our day off. We only got through one level of the building during the two hours we spent there. At least it's free (as are pretty much all museums in London), so we can take our time going through exhibits. They have an exhibit called Pop Life going on right now that we're planning on seeing when we have the time. My favorite thing at the Tate was a room whose walls were covered with old Soviet propaganda posters from the Bolshevik Revolution. It was amazing!
Other than going to the Tate, the exciting part of this week was our trip to Birmingham. Birmingham is about three hours north of London in the West Midlands. It was an industrial city that rapidly developed during the 1800's and has more miles of canals than Venice. We left London Friday afternoon and got into Birmingham around 6pm. Greeted by mist and light rain, we found the nearest McDonald's and got dinner, while trying to figure out how to get to our hostel. We called the hostel, who told us we were far away, and should hop on a bus. We said no, walked a few blocks from McDonald's, and found the massive shopping center (The Bullring) and asked for directions. Turns out we were only a ten minutes walk away from the hostel. The walk wasn't bad, but the area was a little sketchy. We got to the hostel around 8pm, and decided to stay in. The inside was really nice, very bright and friendly. They served soup with bread and butter for dinner, and our beds were sooo comfortable.
We walked all around the city on Saturday. We went on a canal cruise, walked around the city center, went to a few churches, and walked all the way up to the Jewelry Quarter (not worth it). It's a nice city, but there's not a lot to see - and, there are so many unhappy-looking people. We went back to the hostel, watched Burn After Reading, and headed out to a bar called The Old Crown, which was built in 1368. It was true to it's age in looks, but the music was terrible, and the crowd there was ... weird. Overall, the bar was not what I thought it would be. We watched Fawlty Towers (funny show) at the hostel before heading to bed. We woke up this morning and didn't know what to do, so we watched Get Smart before heading out (really, we saw everything yesterday). We went to the Bullring to get lunch, then wandered around the city before nearly getting blown over by the wind waiting for our Megabus.
I really did mean to update on Thursday... then I went on a walk through Regents Park and booked an impromptu trip to Birmingham. Which is why I was unable to update this all weekend. (Note: English people have got it right with sitting/laying down anywhere in a park where there is sun.)
Where to begin... Class. So after the first week of class at London Met, here are my thoughts. Microeconomics: a challenging class at first glance, but once concepts are broken down it's not so bad. Good professor (Scottish maybe?), fast-paced 2 hour lecture with a 1 hour seminar (discussion). Theatre in London: this is going to be the easiest thing ever, and it's going to be really great. We learn about theatre and go see plays on a weekly basis. The only thing we have to do is write two papers, sweet deal. Business and Information Systems: I'm a geek, and I really like information technology. The professor seems like a really cool guy, the T.A., not so much. And it also seems backwards to have a 1 hour lecture, then a 2 hour seminar. Whatever. I'm taking Spanish also, and I start class on Tuesday because I registered for it last Monday and it didn't show up on my schedule until Wednesday. I checked to see if I could go to the Thursday session because of the scheduling problem, but it was "simply not possible."
Other than school, Katie and I went to the Tate Modern last Tuesday on our day off. We only got through one level of the building during the two hours we spent there. At least it's free (as are pretty much all museums in London), so we can take our time going through exhibits. They have an exhibit called Pop Life going on right now that we're planning on seeing when we have the time. My favorite thing at the Tate was a room whose walls were covered with old Soviet propaganda posters from the Bolshevik Revolution. It was amazing!
Other than going to the Tate, the exciting part of this week was our trip to Birmingham. Birmingham is about three hours north of London in the West Midlands. It was an industrial city that rapidly developed during the 1800's and has more miles of canals than Venice. We left London Friday afternoon and got into Birmingham around 6pm. Greeted by mist and light rain, we found the nearest McDonald's and got dinner, while trying to figure out how to get to our hostel. We called the hostel, who told us we were far away, and should hop on a bus. We said no, walked a few blocks from McDonald's, and found the massive shopping center (The Bullring) and asked for directions. Turns out we were only a ten minutes walk away from the hostel. The walk wasn't bad, but the area was a little sketchy. We got to the hostel around 8pm, and decided to stay in. The inside was really nice, very bright and friendly. They served soup with bread and butter for dinner, and our beds were sooo comfortable.
We walked all around the city on Saturday. We went on a canal cruise, walked around the city center, went to a few churches, and walked all the way up to the Jewelry Quarter (not worth it). It's a nice city, but there's not a lot to see - and, there are so many unhappy-looking people. We went back to the hostel, watched Burn After Reading, and headed out to a bar called The Old Crown, which was built in 1368. It was true to it's age in looks, but the music was terrible, and the crowd there was ... weird. Overall, the bar was not what I thought it would be. We watched Fawlty Towers (funny show) at the hostel before heading to bed. We woke up this morning and didn't know what to do, so we watched Get Smart before heading out (really, we saw everything yesterday). We went to the Bullring to get lunch, then wandered around the city before nearly getting blown over by the wind waiting for our Megabus.
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