Thursday 9/7
The theme of the last day of Fulbright orientation was “rep your uni,” so Catja wore her trademark cobalt blue pants she made during Covid lockdown and her baby blue Conn Coll shirt. It was a hit, and Catja made even more friends who loved her blue monochromatic look. She listened to a panel of girlbosses who were leading forces in their respective fields, including journalism, arts reporting/journalism, and veterinary science. It was really inspiring to hear them talk about the state of their fields and the sociopolitical state of the UK.
After saying goodbye to the Royal Veterinary College, she and the group ventured over to the British Museum and saw as much as they could in just an hour. Then, stomachs rumbling since they didn’t get our tea and biscuit break, they walked to Nonna Selena for delicious pizza and pasta. She had a 2 hour break before the Fulbright farewell pub quiz, so she bought a handheld sewing machine for £6 for Flying Tiger and attempted to find a plant store but accidentally walked a mile in the wrong direction.
Sweaty and achy, she made her way to the pub, which had no AC or fans. She and her fellow dance research bestie fanned themselves with Calvin and Hobbes books. Catja gets irrationally competitive and overly confident when it comes to pub quizzes, so she recruited people with knowledge in different areas and hyped them all up. Her team included a literature professor who had never won a pub quiz, so she was even more motivated. An hour later with several pints of cider and furious scribbling of answers, her team WON in a dramatic tiebreaker question: How many letters are in the Welsh town with the longest name? The answer: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (58 - her team guessed 36). They won another round of drinks, which they celebrated with glee before ending the night with dinner at a Greek restaurant.
In a crazy turn of events, Zoe actually left the house today and made her way into the city for a little solo adventure. She started the day by arriving at the Imperial War Museum an hour before it opened, so she ventured down to the river to grab a coffee and enjoy the view of Big Ben. Zoe then headed back to the Museum where she spent a couple of hours exploring.
Starving, Zoe walked to Tesco for her very first meal deal and decided to walk up to UCL from Waterloo to eat lunch. Little did she know that the walk would be over 40 minutes and require bobbing through lots of crowded tourist areas. Very sweaty and tired, Zoe made it to UCL for lunch before picking up her residence permit.
With residence permit in hand (aka she is officially a British resident yay!), Zoe headed back home to make dinner. Since our fridge doesn’t really fridge and the fried rice from earlier in the week was frozen solid, she settled on eggs, which was not quite the meal she hoped for after walking almost 10 miles.
Friday 9
After sleeping in a bit after our exhausting Thursdays, we ate some breakfast before Ashley, Catja’s flatmate from studying abroad, arrived for a visit! We treated her to a sweltering jaunt to Ikea and Tesco Extra, a mile walk that felt so much longer with the beating sun melting them. We melted into the couch when we got back, trying to recover before Ashley and Catja ventured to their old home in Waterloo. They grabbed meal deals from their old Tesco by the station (Catja found her favorite mulled wine!!), fangirled over every building and sidewalk that reminded them of the good old days of 2021, and then returned to Stamford Street Apartments to see if they could bump into old friends. Shockingly, they did! They reunited with their favorite receptionist and caught up on lost time.
After sprinting to grab a free bench by the Thames and eating meal deals while philosophizing about life and love, Catja and Ashley slowly crossed their beloved Waterloo Bridge, an underrated bridge built predominantly by women in the early 20th century that lights up at night. They walked around KCL’s Strand Campus, now beautifully renovated, and remembered the many study sessions they had on the rooftop terrace of Bush House. They also stopped by Somerset House to see the "Black Venus" art exhibition, a fascinating look at the portrayal of Black women throughout the history of visual culture.
They meandered to Covent Garden and beelined for their beloved London Transport Museum gift shop, where Catja finally bought the Tube map she always wanted for her wall. Instead of a regular poster, she got a 1000 piece puzzle that she and Zoe could work on when she got home later in the evening. They also saw an American street performer from Hawaii juggle an axe, a sword, and a potato on a 10 foot tall unicycle...
Saturday 9/9
As we clearly did not get enough walking during the week, we decided to do even more on the weekend. We packed our lunches and headed over to Hampstead Heath, a popular park for swimming and dog walking. Catja and Zoe took a stroll through the park to marvel at the views of the city in the distance and settled down under a tree for lunch.
As we ate and chatted, we watched all the dogs run around us, including a little golden fluff ball (unknown breed) named Gary who was playing with a weiner dog called Sasha. A fourteen-year-old Basset Hound watched from her stroller a couple of feet away.
After making our way back home, we cooked dinner and started our puzzle of the London Tube map. We have been living off of frozen food since our fridge is only moderately cool, so Zoe chefed up a delicious meal of chicken tenders and fries that needed to be pan-fried and reseasoned in order to taste of anything.
Even after a long, busy, jam-packed first few days of London life, we are daring to do as much as we can every day and get to know our new city!
You should do a total miles walked - either for the day, week, or entire trip. Could be crazy to see how much you guys walk in total! Miss you guys!