Wednesday 22 December 2010

Sunset over Waterloo Bridge

  This is a nearly empty blog. Why? Well, for one, I could say my ambition to detail every aspect of my experience as a foreign Erasmus student living and working in London in written word was too ambitious. It seemed almost insulting to sit down and write about trivial, every day things - but it is the sum of such nigh-instantaneous minutia that comprises my experience.

  Should I have written about the friends I made, now nearly all back to their respective homelands, only to return when I am no longer here? What would I write about? Fran's delicate concern for others? Mathieu's constant egging for new Portuguese curse words? Sabrina's incisive sarcasm? But they're much more than that. How to distill every little moment into simple words?

  Maybe I should have written about the city. It's mish-mash of ancient and ultra-modern architecture, tangible attitude of "work hard, play hard" and its well-deserved place as paragon of what a cultural crossroad is like? But London's more than that - and less than that. Without its people, it is but a collection of roads and buildings.

  Perhaps, then, I should have written about the people of London. The curse-spouting moms with their baby trolleys, the charity worker that spots you with a smile as you try to evade them, the businesswoman trying to ride a bycicle through the Strand in high-heels, the jolly drunkards that strike up a conversation with you over cocumber sandwiches in London Bridge's train station? Words alone cannot convey it. I cannot share this with you. Perhaps I can share the seeming of it, the barest concept, and that seems unsatisfactory.

  This blog's emptiness is perhaps the greatest testament to the fractal immensity of my scarce four months in this city and how involving it is. I would not say I am a different man. That would be a mistake. Instead I should say that I leave London feeling more like myself than ever before.

  I arrived with nothing and I leave with everything.

Saturday 30 October 2010

Safety

One thing I've noticed is that there is a very important element in going to live somewhere new: safety. It is something primal to human beings, I believe: having a place to call 'home', where they can be safe, relax, stop worrying. It is more than just a room or even a whole house though: it's something intangible, a collection of small elements, the sum of which is greater than its parts.

For example, I just came from a bout of grocery shopping about an hour ago and as soon as I put the food in the cupboards and the fridge, I felt this sense of accomplishment and reassurance unlike anything I had ever felt before. I have food. Should I feel hungry, I can eat. I need not worry about going hungry anymore.

It is basic, simple, and yet primal. Something that touches the very pit of our being.

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Rain and Cheeseburgers

After a nice spell of sunny, clear skies, today I experienced the mercurial nature of London's weather. From sunny to rainy in about ten seconds flat.
Confronted with the sudden drizzle, I decided to take refuge in a nearby McDonalds restaurant and grab me one of the specials called the Deli of the Day. It's only £1,99 and it's quite worth the price. So good, in fact, that they removed the advertisement for it but continue to sell the item anyway.
So I get to the cashier, which must have been one of those above-the-normal-cash-register-grunts people because she was wearing a white shirt. The exchange went something like this:

Me: "Hi, I'll have the daily deli please."
She: "The what?"
Me: "There's a deli sandwich which varies every day and it's £1.99?"
She: "That's the Deli of the Day. Daily Deli doesn't mean anything."

Bitch, I've been there something like two other times and every time I order a daily deli, they know exactly what I mean. Have you ever heard of adjectivating nouns? OH WAIT YOU'RE MAKING A CAREER AT MCD, I GUESS YOU HAVEN'T!

Anyway, I needed to vent. End of rant.

Tuesday 5 October 2010

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Maria João informed me that my blog's name was a huge cliche because of a book or a song or whatever with the same name. Google proved her right. So here's a new title (and URL) for the blog.

Monday 4 October 2010

Loving London

I love London. It is a fact. But the more I see of it, the more I realise that I don't love London for its physical attributes. I care nothing for the Buckingham Palace or Big Ben. Trafalgar Square was a disappointment, a pit stop for some delicious lemon cheesecake from Pret A Manger.
What I love about London is its people. It is the whole world in one place. All kinds of cultures, nationalities, available to you, every second, day or night. I love going to a nightclub and having some lamb donner on the way back. I love sitting on the tube for 20 minutes and hear all sorts of languages except English. I love taking a walk off the beaten path and finding tiny treasures. I love going to google maps, search for the most niche thing I can think of and watch as match after match pop up, none more than 30 minutes away.

So when you come to London, skip the cliché shit. Don't waste your days taking the same old tired pictures of the same old tired places everyone has seen before. Go and enjoy the actual London.

Sunday 3 October 2010

Science Museum

The Science Museum was much, much better than the Natural History Museum. Mainly because ROCKETS!

Seen here: rockets!
There is a lot to see in the Science Museum. Fortunately, the admission is free, so you don't have to take it all in in just one day. From the history and future of energy to the progression of modern technology, the Science Museum has something for everyone.

Sunday 26 September 2010

Natural History Museum

Today I visited the Natural History Museum. From the outside it looks amazing but the inside is rather disappointing. The exhibitions present, although creative and amazingly well-done, are disappointing if you've completed 5th grade. A very cool place to take the kids to but if you're looking for an actual museum where you can learn something new, look somewhere else.

Friday 24 September 2010

King's College - Strand Campus and Maughan Library

Here are some pictures of KCL's Strand Campus and the Maughan Library. Enjoy!

Strand Campus Strand Building Hallway

Strand Campus King's Building Hallway

Strand Campus Cafeteria

Maughan Library

Dubstep - It's crazy!

  By complete happenstance, I was invited to go to a club called East Village for the launch of Dubstep Vol. 3, an album of (obviously) dubstep music. It was pretty much the first time I was exposed to it in an actual dancing environment, as opposed to simply listening to it in the comfort of my own home, and I have to say that it is a genre that inspires you to dance in all sorts of crazy ways.

  The club itself was packed but the drinks were cheap and the ambiance was great. If you like dubstep and a good night out, check out East Village on Great Eastern Street. Keep an eye out for special events they may hold, which allow you to get a free ticket if you text them!

Monday 20 September 2010

Strange Recipes #1 - Smoked Cheese and Cherry Tomato Omolette



If you feel too lazy to cook but too hungry for cereal, here's a quick, delicious, healthy and comforting recipe that should hit just the spot!

You will need:
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 slice of smoked cheese
  • 1 cherry tomato
  • 1 nugget of margarine/butter or a bit of cooking oil.
Mode of Preparation:

  1. Take the eggs and whisk them until they become foamy.
  2. Start heating the pan.
  3. Dice the cheese slice into small bits.
  4. Cut the cherry tomato into fourths, remove the seeds and dice it.
  5. Drop a nugget of butter/margarine into the frying pan and dissolve it or pour some cooking oil into the frying pan.
  6. Mix drop the cheese and the tomato into the bowl where you've whisked the eggs and make sure to mix it good.
  7. Drop the mix into the pan. Once the underside is solid, fold it in two. Then when the whole thing seems even more solid, flip it over. Once done, it should look like this.

Let it cool just a bit because the cheese inside tends to be hotter than the egg crust, and then enjoy!

Yummy!

Sunday 19 September 2010

Leicester Square

 Today I visited Leicester Square. It's a lovely place, to be sure! It has large sections that are pedestrian-only so you can walk around, see all the lovely restaurants and cinemas and plays around and, if you're a bit of a geek like me, there's also a comic book shop called Orbital Comics. Take the tube station's Exit 3, look to your right and you'll see it. Just don't you buy the Promethea books - those are mine! Heheh.





 So if you want to grab dinner and a show, Leicester Square's the place! There are also ice cream parlors, a couple of parks where you can sit and relax for a while or maybe enjoy some good old fast-food!

Saturday 18 September 2010

Beware (?) The Fauna - Part Two

If you see a fox (as I just did) don't be afraid. They're common and more afraid of you than you can possibly be of them.

I mean, come on, they're so cuuuuuuute!

Thursday 16 September 2010

Transportation in London

Public transportation in London has a lovely feature: the oyster card. A simple, unassuming white and blue card, it allows you to top it with whatever amount of money you wish so that you can pay for any kind of transportation, be it the tube, bus or train. The money charged when paying the fees with the oyster card is also much less than that of buying a ticket, so it's a win-win situation for you. Also, it lets you put passes in it, so it's a train/tube/bus pass, all in one!

The unassuming oyster card hides many perks!

You can purchase it at any station, but there are also shops that sell and top off the oyster card. If you need help finding one, check out one of the many bus stops. Places that sell and top off oyster cards are usually marked down on the bus stop maps.

Beware the Fauna

Behold: the fearsome sciurus carolinensis!

Wednesday 15 September 2010

Easy Maps!

So you're in London now. Congratulations! You are in one of the world's largest metropolises. If you were like me and pretty much just stormed in with little notion of what your surroundings are like, here are a few tips on how to find your way around.

1) Google Maps.

Kneel down and build a shrine because Google Maps is your new deity of choice. Insert your address and what you're looking for (argos, post office, supermarket, etc) and it will not only tell you the nearest options, it will also, if asked, plot a course for you, either on foot or by car.

2) Cheap GPS
If you're like me and you have neither a printer nor a fancy cellphone with a built-in GPS, and don't feel like spending a ton of money on mobile phone internet access, a good and cheap way of finding your way around is thus:

You will need:
a) laptop with internet connection
b) bluetooth (either by USB dongle [heh, dongle] or inbuilt)
c) cellphone with bluetooth

So here's what you do. You printscreen the google maps page with your course plotted out and paste it onto MS Paint. You then cut out the map bit where your course is outlined and paste it on a new document, saving it as an image file. You then do the same with the written instructions (you know, turn right at x street, take the second exit on x crescent's roundabout, etc). You should end up with two files that look like this:


You then transfer these files onto your cellphone via bluetooth. You can either use the software that came with the dongle (such as BlueSoleil) or, if you have Windows 7 at least, you can use the in-built bluetooth access to connect the two devices.

If your cellphone allows you to view images, then it will most likely allow you to zoom in. I mention this because although the map was fine, I had to zoom in on the instructions to make sure I was going the right way.




Thus equipped, you are ready to boldly go where many have gone before, but you have no idea how to get to.

Day Two - Quest for Crockery

Today was dedicated to purchasing things - the little essentials you never seem to lack at home. Plates, sheets, forks, kitchen paper, food. I had to walk 3.6 miles to Braxton's Argos store, but I got there alright and quickly got the hang of how to order things. I also found a lovely little Portuguese restaurant/bar near it where I had a pastel de nata. And here I thought it would be months before I bit into one again!

I still need to buy a few more things, but I should soon be all set.

I own dishes. It's a strange new feeling.

Day One

Welcome to my brand new blog, the one in which I'll document my Erasmus journey.

So, it is technically day two but this will still be about the day of my arrival. Day Zero, perhaps? Anyway, my flight was delayed three hours and I ended up getting here (lovely Liberty Fields, check it out!) way too late to do some last minute shopping. So, feeling somewhat isolated and hungry, I unpacked, booted my laptop up, set up the internet access, and tried to feel less crushingly lonesome.

How do you make the unfamiliar more welcoming? You make it yours!


It worked. I chatted with some of my friends, configured this new blog and now I'm feeling ready for bed. I have an early start tomorrow, after all.

I like being here. I look forward to meeting new people, exploring London, attending classes, having a few laughs. But part of me misses home already. The comfort of the familiar. But I don't listen to that part of me. I keep my chin up and I face whatever comes my way.

I'm a stranger in a strange land, and these are my tales.