Well, I'm here. Classes start in a few hours. According to all that I know I'm supposed to show up at the Bartlett at 2pm with 2 passport sized photos.

I'm living in UCL student housing, a place called Langton Close to be exact. It's actually better than I was expecting. The building is made up of flats of 6 people, each with their own private room. These 6 rooms open onto a secured hallway with a shared kitchen and two shared bathrooms. I'm on the 5th floor (or 6th, depending on where you're from. Out here the entrance floor is considered zero). And the good thing is that there is a lift. The strange thing about the building is that it is segmented into clusters. Our lift only gives access to three flats per floor, flat D, E, and F for example. If you have a friend that is in flat 5A and you live in flat 5D, then you have to go all the way down to zero and change lifts and go back up again. I guess this helps to keep the main halls quieter since there are less people sharing the same spae. It's a little strange since 4 of the 6 of us are Americans. I was expecting there to be more students from other countries, but everyone I live with is really cool. I'm the only Architecture Major. We're all Graduate Students as well:

Archeology: American
Neuroscience: American
Law (exchange student): American
Architecture: American (me!)
Telecommunications: Malta
Archeology: Japan

I'm also the oldest. I took some time off after graduating from SCI_Arc and worked for 2 years. I'm 26 and as far as I can tell, the next youngest is 22.

My room has a single bed, desk, desk chair, shelf, nightstand, wardrobe, a bulletin board and a sink with a mirror. It also has a window that overlooks a small park. And at night, I can faintly hear Big Ben counting out the hours as they pass; it's about 2 miles from here.

Langton close is about 15min. walk from the Bartlett and the main campus of UCL. Its about 10min from several tube stations, Russell Square (the one that was bombed in 2004), King's Cross, and Holoborn.


My window is on the top the third from the left.


Doorway to our flat #5D


My room


My room


My room


Hallway of our flat. The kitchen is straight ahead. The two bathrooms are to the right.


Our Kitchen


Our Kitchen


Park next to Langton Close

We spent most of the day Thursday in lines, or ques. There was a
'welcome to UCL and by the way, we're the best university in England' talk in the theater for everyone. Then we got to registeter. 2.5 hours in a que! And that was only the international students. After a while we managed to register, get IDs, sign up with the library, the computer depatrment for access to the network, and sign up for health services. It was a long day. The next day of the International Student Orientation I went to a talk about Living in london and going to the best university in England'. It was nice, but they didn't really tell me anything that I didn't already know. Now all there is left to do is open a U.K. bank account since exchanging money for the entire year will be to expensive!


London is a fantastic city. I've never been to a place that is so large yet feels so intimate. When you're walking around, you never feel that you are in a city of 8+ million as you do in New York. I've done a lot of walking over the past few days, exploring and seeing where I end up. The other day I went out to pick up a clock radio and ended up at the Tate Modern. Yesterday I walked all over Knightsbridge, Hyde Park, and Westminster. Needless to say, my legs do not want to cooperate anymore. Here are some highlights of what I have seen so far...





































Cheers!
Es
London
24 Sept 2006