I Saw a Lot of Old Stuff This Week

Day 17

Well, I’ve done it, I’ve made it through my first week of classes at King’s. It’s been a long week of figuring out where everything is and how classes are run, but I think I’m finally starting to get the hang of everything here. It’s been unnaturally sunny this week and I think that’s helped me adjust a little faster than I otherwise would have. This week also marks the first time I’ve been truly happy since I got here.

THURSDAY, KING’S COLLEGE Today was the longest day I’ve ever had at King’s. Thursdays are when I’m in the city from 9 to 5 thanks to how my class schedule is set up. My 9 a.m. was my War in the International Order seminar. Our seminar leader and I bonded pretty quickly thanks to our shared love of one town. When she was studying abroad for her postgrad, she studied at none other than UNC. It also turns out that she lived in Carrboro while she was over there and we were able to bond over our love of one of the best little towns in NC. She also helped to better explain how King’s worked. She did a far better job than anyone else I’ve talked to so far that’s for sure.

I then had this weird three-hour break before my next class, so I camped out in a café and watched some Netflix. My second class of the day was my three-hour French class. It went surprisingly well and I actually understood half of what we were doing. It’s also the only class that gives out homework, ungraded of course, but still mandatory. For some reason, I’m actually glad to have some work because I have not known what to do with myself and all this free time I have.

WEDNESDAY, BRITISH MUSEUM Thanks to the weird way in which classes are run here, I don’t have any class on Wednesdays. I’m not complaining that’s for sure. I did figure I should be cultured though, so I set off to the British Museum. There I met up with Sydney, another UNC study abroad student, and we wandered around the world and through time. The collection is truly stunning. The history nerd in me was geeking out being inches away from everything from the Rosetta Stone, Statues from the Parthenon, and mummies.

As we wandered around the vast museum, dipping in and out of different countries and time periods, Sydney and I swapped tales of our study abroad experiences so far. It was nice to hear that there was another person who had absolutely no idea what they were doing 3,000 miles from home. After about an hour of wandering around, we decided there was no way we were going to be able to see everything and decided we’ve been cultured enough for now. I spent the rest of the day relaxing back home and enjoying my mini weekend.

TUESDAY, STRAND CAMPUS This whole commuter student thing I have to do, not a big of it. I live 20 minutes by tube away from campus and usually, that’s not a problem. That is until you have to tackle rush hour. Which is not an hour, it is more like four hours stretching from 7 or 8 to about 10. Guess who has three 9 a.m. classes this semester. Well, yours truly of course. These classes are basically the equivalent of 8 a.m. classes back home because I have to get up around 7 if I want to make it in on time.

Tuesdays are also weird because I only have one class at 9 and then I have the rest of the day off. I finally managed to do some readings this afternoon in my free time but I think I’ll use some of my free time in the future to explore around.

MONDAY, KING’S COLLEGE Today I had the two lectures I was looking forward to the most this semester. Both of them are Political Science courses. One is called the Theory and Practice of Empire and the other War in the International Order. Right off the bat, the titles of the classes interested me and the classes themselves did not disappoint. I think my most interesting professor is going to be the one who teaches my Empire class because he basically told us that we should disagree and attempt to argue against his theories on Empires, which he’s only spent years developing if we want to get a good mark. He also is a pretty cool guy from the vibe he gave off. My class on War in the International order was also good, but heavier on theory than I was expecting.

I’m finally truly excited about the next couple of months. It’s taken a while for me to get to this point, but I’m ready to have a great time. This week was pretty quiet compared to my last couple of days, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all. There are more exciting adventures to come and I can’t wait to find out what the coming weeks have in store. Of course, I have way too much free time over here so if you have any suggestions for Netflix shows or want to drop me a line, feel free. I think I’m going to head back to enjoying my nice lazy weekend now, but I’ll see you next Sunday.