uceap orientation

Yesterday, we finally got to meet the other UC students who will be studying in Manchester! It's been exciting getting to know all of them. We've attended a couple of (surprisingly) fun meetings at the London Study Centre with our program advisors, Monika and Holly. Both of them have been incredibly helpful, and I can't thank them enough! Because a lot of students flew in that morning, we ended our day early with dinner together at Byron Hamburgers. We were free the rest of the night to go out or go back to the hotel. Stacie and I decided to go back to the hotel to finish watching My Mad Fat Diary and Orphan Black, a few of our favorite British shows.

Today, we had a walking tour of London that took up the majority of our afternoon. I had already seen most of the places we visited on the tour, but it was nice to see everything again and to take some more photos. It was especially interesting to learn about the history of the buildings, streets, and monuments. We had a sweet and funny tour guide who made the whole tour very enjoyable.

Passed by a man painting a lovely picture of Buckingham Palace

At night, we went to watch The Importance of Being Earnest at the Harold Pinter Theatre. I love watching plays, but I had no idea what to expect for this one. Monika described it as being "very British," and indeed it was. It was a bit confusing sometimes because the cast talked really fast, and I didn't understand some of the jokes/British humor (but laughed along with the audience, anyway). But overall, I liked it.

I'm not sure if I was allowed to take pictures of the stage. Shhh.

It's been nice getting to know London. I have to say--I'm going to miss going on the Tube and swiping my oyster card everyday. It was busy and hectic almost everywhere we went, which is definitely something I'm not used to. Especially as a shy person, it was really scary at first. But once I observed the Londoners and their way of life,  I became more confident when I went out and learned to speak up for myself in certain situations. *pats self on back*

Tomorrow, we'll all be going to Manchester! I wonder how different Manchester will be, since it's another large city in England. We'll just have to wait and see...