Getting to Know You

Today, the students of the Notre Dame London Program were brought back to the reality that our time here is, after all, for study abroad. After our opening weekend of lounging, pubbing, and jet-lagging our way around London, this morning, we had to actually go to class. While this was a rude awakening for some/all of us - people who went out on a Sunday last night, I'm looking at you - it was really a great step in our journey out of tourist mode.

For me, the biggest perk of the first day of class was the accompanying advent of Sarah Doin' Stuff By Herself in the Big Cit-ay. Most of my time in London so far has consisted of following along blindly and cluelessly through the city in (conspicuously, non-native-ly) large groups, snapping the occasional picture and remembering exactly nothing about how to get from point A to point B. While this break from my usual routine of doing everything by my slow-walking self has been great for my calves, it's been completely worthless in my attempts to familiarize myself with anything. Today, then, I decided it was time to venture out on my own**. A good 45 minutes before my first class started (I have, after all, gotten lost in Logansport, Indiana, on multiple occasions), I set out on the trek from our dorm building, which is here:

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to our classroom building, which is here: 

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And I made it there without dying, having my belongings forcibly stolen from me, or even having to turn around because I'd gone the wrong way!...at least not more than like, three times. So, yay me! Doin' stuff by myself in the big cit-ay! I even came back a different way and still didn't die. 

This is how I represent excitement, because my life is a never-ending stream of pop culture references

Upon arriving successfully at the ND classroom building (which, by the way, is across the street from the Canadian Embassy and which, if rumor is to believed, we bought after out-bidding on it against the French government, casually), it was time for class. In my first class of the day, Philosophy of Religion, I was perplexed to discover that the only philo class I will ever take in England is taught by a cargo-shorts-wearing, Wilford-Brimley-mustache-having American, whereas the only philo class I have ever taken and will ever take in the United States was taught by a bow-tie-wearing, Queen's-English-accent-brandishing Englishman. Philosophize that, people. Shortly after this class, in the middle of a lecture on the London-y-est thing possible, Sherlock Holmes, the fire alarm went off. This would normally be little more than a funny little anecdote for the first day of school, but we, the students of the London Program, have already spent a good three hours of our lives since arriving here just learning about fire safety. I mean, honestly, the frequency and depth of these fire safety meetings reached the point of comedy about two burn-time-demo videos ago. And yet today, as if to spite us for laughing at the meetings, off goes the fire alarm. I sincerely hope this does not become an everyday thing, primarily because (as I learned the hard way today walking home) it rains a lot in London. 

Not what I looked like 

More like what I looked like

Overall, though, I must say today was a pretty good first day of class. I'm finally starting to get to know London, and the frequency with which I narrowly avoid being hit by buses is decreasing with each passing hour. Keep coming back to check out the new blog - I still hope to soon have something more exciting to write about than peanut butter and fire drills!

**: And oh yeah. "How many songs from musicals with the words 'On My Own' in their titles does this girl know?", you may ask yourself. Is it two, the number of songs from musicals with the words "On My Own" in their titles that I've already linked my blog to? Maybe. Is it secretly many more than that, and you'll just have to wait and see to find out? Also maybe. (Hint: it's 2.) Stay tuned.