Mind the Gap...the beginning

Greetings!

Arrivals and Departures is the theme of this new blog. Having wanted all of my life to live in England, I earned the position of Faculty Member in Residence in London for this summer. This is no easy task... as I have been learning...I will be responsible for 23 students as we visit exciting places and see amazing sites. I also will teach an Organizational Communication in the UK class as well as manage the budget, keep students from having drunken binges or getting lost. I will be here 10 weeks...over 2 months. Scott will be at home (but gets to visit for 1 week.) Samy will be my "assistant" for 5 weeks and hopefully will have some great times.

My plan is to blog about this experience and hopefully it will be both interesting to read and a fun experience had by all. So, join me as I will try to write each week. 

Arrivals and Departures:

Before we took off for our stay in London, I finally had time to pack...on Friday night! Too much going on with school wrapping up for the semester, trying to see my husband in little moments between his 12 hour shifts and trying to cram in as much agility and time with the dogs as possible! 
While packing, I did have a stowaway:

Our trip to the UK began with our driver (sounds so presumptuous) picking us up at the house and taking us to Dulles. There we had no wait, no lines, but a little trouble with security when Samy left a Chapstick in her pocket...which lead to the inevitable "pat down" and then later she was found to be carrying an enormous tube of toothpaste that was confiscated. Having alluded the wrath of the TSA we moved on to our gate and awaited our departure.  To my knowledge, Homeland Security was NOT notified.

Our flight was mostly uneventful. A little bit of turbulence. A LOT of talking from my Indian seat mate...who offered me to the chance to stay at his home if I visited India, and lots of movie watching! Sam and I did not sleep even a wink the entire flight (7 hours 49 minutes). 

We arrived at Heathrow and had no problems at the border with customs except being scolded for taking this picture: 

We then began our harrowing drive to 11 D Bedford Place, Westminster (cabbie madness!). Upon our arrival, we unloaded our monstrously American-sized luggage and dragged all of if it up 4 flights of stairs. 

Bedford Place

Our neighbors

Our Kitchen

Once you get to the top floor--we have more stairs!

3 beds in each room!

The flat is spacious...room for at least 6 people. A nice living room area with a TV that we cannot decipher the secret code to turning on. 

After being up 36 hours we decided exploring the neighborhood was in order, so we spent a little time walking around the neighborhood. We have two parks at each end of our street. Quite the festivities were going on in one on Sunday. 

Bloomsbury Park

Sam in a stinky phone box!

We tried to take a short nap and then went out exploring again and foraged for food. We ate at a sadly expensive Italian restaurant and then came back to the flat to climb all those stairs yet again and retire for the evening.



The next day, I went to the Madison House office to gather the phones, Oyster cards (tube passes) and a hair dryer designed for UK electric outlets and nothing terribly exciting happened. A woman who teaches at JMU is here to teach a 3 week Study Abroad class and she contacted us and us to see a play. Her 20- year- old daughter went along so Sam had someone her age to chat with.  Since we purchased Day tickets, we had back row --only 12 pounds sterling and a standing seat--5 pounds. (Very inexpensive!) We took turns at interval, so Sam and Becca sat first, then we sat for the 2nd act.

The play was at the National Theatre and we walked (4 miles). This was Sam's first time at seeing the Thames and Big Ben (although, did you know, that the bell is named Big Ben...not the clock?--How have I not known this all of my life?) 

We saw The House, a play set in Parliament in 1974 when the Labor party made a shocking takeover and its reign lasted nearly 5 years. The play was funny, staged in a very surreal style and included audience members sitting on stage in the seats next to the members of the House. After leaving the theatre, Sam decided she must have snacks--so we trudged out at 11:30 pm to try to find something open. We finally located a bodega that had every kind of UK candy and cake crap you could want. We bought much candy and came home and snacked. We walked 4.6 miles the first day, and 5.7 the second.

The Thames at night.

This concludes the first two days of our travel abroad.   Hopefully, I can keep a record of my exploits at least once a week if we have something fun or enlightening to share.

Cheers!

Toni