Getting down to Business

The last two weeks have been a crazy whirlwind. I don’t even know where to begin!

Sporadic thoughts:

·         I lost my passport. Then, two weeks later, I found it at the bank I’ve been consistently calling about it for 2 weeks.

·         My to-do list is huge, but today I was finally able to register with NHS. Hello free health care, checkups, procedures, and student prescriptions (read student as “free”).

·         I realized last night how to text anyone with an iphone in America (90% of my friends), for basically free.

I am now in the third week of my course, and we are beginning to work on getting our clinical placements. I know that I will be working with children, but that’s all I know. My course is fabulous so far! My classes are a good mix of lecture and movement. I think that my favorite class this term will be Movement Analysis. The first day of this class involved a fiery Brazilian instructor directing the class on different ways to move, as we made our way through the studio space. “Move loudly! Why are you speeding up? Move loudly and slowly. Good! Now move as if you had airplane trails coming out of your hands…your hips…your feet. What patterns are they making?” This went on for about an hour, and she never ran out of movement commands. My homework tonight is to read an academic article and come up with a movement response to it.

I also love the people here. My course has about 20 people, of which I am by far the youngest. About half are international students, from Greece, Cyprus, Mexico, Canada, Latvia, Thailand, etc. I am the only American. Everyone is so supportive and interesting and wonderful. Also, my flat mates are a lot of fun. We spend a lot of time together, eating in the kitchen, going to the Hobgolbin (the pub up the block), and exploring the city. On Saturday, we went into Camden Town, ate sushi, met Darth Vader, walked around the market and bought posters for my barren walls.

Then, we went for dinner with my friend from Michigan, who is working on her MA at the London School of Economics. Afterward, we walked around the beautiful Tower Bridge.

My mom was also in town last week, with her friend, Jan. They pretty much did their own London sightseeing trip, while I was in classes. On the days I did see them, we collected a necessities for my flat (like a duvet and sheets), wandered around Harrods, and went to a few pubs.