Observations

1. England should be called Fezland or at least Fordland. There are Fiestas and Focuses everywhere!!! It's no wonder when you see the size of the Dagenham factory - put a few suburbs together and your getting close. It is huge!!!!

2. The English drive like they all have death wishes, that or they have serious thrill issues. Case in point, our bright red double decker bus got hit by a car on Monday. The driver tried to change lanes into the bus, without his indicator, and then tried to blame the bus driver.

Pedestrians are crazy too, rarely do they look both ways when crossing a road and no one has time to wait for the little green man to tell them it's safe to cross. They like to live on the edge and cross whenever they see a gap between the cars them deem long enough for them to run through.

3. The amount of rubbish along the highways and in the streets is amazing. I never appreciated how clean Brisbane is until now.

4. You can't walk 5 minutes without seeing a starbucks.

5. The English constantly talk about the weather, like it's surprising that it's cold and rainy...?? It's only fitting then that the weather readers get really in to presenting the weather; it takes them about 15 minutes to do.

6. Everything at the supermarket is wrapped in plastic - even the fruit and veg.

7. I'll never get used to seeing the grog isle at the supermarket.

8. There doesn't seem to be a 'walk on the left' rule here.

9. Their traffic lights are upside down. And they use the orange light to tell you when the light is about to turn green, not red.

10. There is just as much rubbish reality tv here as there is at home. 'Desperate Scousewives'...need I say more??

...the beauty in our London skies

Ok so in my last post I think I left off at Somerset House, which was lovely. The mulled wine was definitely a new experience and not one I think I could repeat very often, unless in small doses. Since the event is sponsored by Tiffany's all the hot drinks are served in Tiffany's cups. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of them buuut I have heard that the Tiffany's hot chocolate is rather amazing so a return trip is definitely in order.

From Somerset House we walked up to Convent Garden which has definitely been one of the my favourite places so far. To compare, it is kind of like two massive Brisbane arcades running parallel to each other. They open up on to a huge court yard which has, yet another, massive Christmas tree. The decorations inside are my favourite though.

After Covent Garden we headed to China Town for dinner before heading to the Embankment to begin the three hour wait for the fireworks which looked something like this...

The fireworks were absolutely amazing and a very fitting end to a very long and jam-packed day. My next post will cover New Years Day and Monday. Hopefully I'll manage to catch up with my posting some time soon.

Will you let me romanticize...

So the last few days have been rather busy. Saturday was one long and busy day. We headed in to town for the day for lots of sight-seeing.

I spent quite a while wandering aimlessly through the National Gallery, which thankfully is free. The building is amazing, and inside is equally so. I confess I lost my way more than once; there a just so many rooms. The paintings are exquisite, but that goes without saying really. The rooms are divided up by century and it was really interesting to see the difference in style between time periods. The 14th century work was often much more vibrant in colour but far less realistic in terms of dimension and proportion. The figures are almost cartoon like.

From the gallery we did lots of walking. Honestly, we've seen so much I can't remember what order everything came in. We did manage to fluke seeing the dismounting parade of the Queen's Horse Guard on Whitehall which was pretty cool. We initially thought it might have been the changing of the guard but I looked it up and that only happens in the morning. Still, it was pretty good timing. Unfortunately my photos aren't very good as there was a substantial crowd by the time we got there.

From there we continued up Whitehall and looped around, past Big Ben, and then back down along the Embankment. It was about 4 o'clock by this time and they were already closing off roads and bridges for the New Years fireworks. There were hundreds of people already lined up along the Embankment with blankets and chairs.

We walked all the way back down to Somerset House (somewhere I've wanted to go for a long time) to see the courtyard where an ice rink is set up. There is also a beautiful christmas tree (one of MANY around London) and a Tiffany's pop up shop. We left the ice skating to the experienced, opting instead for mulled wine and some sideline spectating.

I think this post has been long enough so I'll be back tomorrow with some more photos and details of the rest of the day. 

*ps. Dad, dorry I haven't edited these yet - I know most of them are crooked. I will get round to it, I promise.

London Calling

Hello all!!

I was hoping that my first official post in the UK would be a little more in depth than this is likely to be but I have to admit that the tiredness is creeping up on me. The fact that it is pitch black by 4:30 is messing with my head more than the jet lag, I think. It is very weird.

Ok so when I arrived yesterday it was about 7 degrees - nowhere near as cold as I was anticipating. Sarah said that winter has been really mild this year so far. I just hope it stays that way for a while, to ease me into it haha

We hit up a local shopping centre today so that I could get a few essentials. I think I have my winter coat sorted which is good because tomorrow we are heading into town for a look around before dinner and fireworks-viewing  on the embankment. So my next post will undoubtedly rather photo heavy. I haven't taken many photos yet but rest assured I will.

These photos were taken out the plane window on my second flight yesterday (from Dubai to Heathrow). I wish I could remember where we were when I snapped the mountains - all I can tell you is that it was a few hours after Kuwait but before Munich. A bit vague but it's the best I can do.

  

To benefit those that don't know, you can subscribe to email updates. You'll get an email whenever I write a post. There's also a comment button at the end of each post. I'll be back in a few days with an update. Hope all is well at home!

Update

As of yesterday I have amended my accommodation application (I'm much happier with my preferences this time) and found out that my British passport does indeed state that I am a British Citizen which means I don't require a visa. So that's one less thing to stress about. Last week I got my subjects finalised and I've just sent of my final study plan.

The next big step is booking a flight which will make this all very real!

Update

First thing Saturday morning I received an email letting me know I have been accepted to the University of Manchester. That pretty much made my weekend. Once the excitement wore off though, I realised just how much I need to do between now and when I leave.

My first priority was organising accommodation and since I decided on the easy option of staying in the resident halls (UK version of college) that meant sifting through dozens of hall options spread across three different campuses.

In the end I opted for a self-catered room at the City campus. Hopefully I will also get an ensuite because I am in no rush to experience a shared bathroom. The halls in the City aren't much to look at, especially considering some of the Fallowfield Park campus halls, which look like something out of a Austen novel. At least they are walking distance from the uni and some parts of the city which means less money spent on public transport.

My next step is sorting out what visa I need for the duration of my study and flights to London. I have a British passport which will hopefully make things easier in terms of visas but it is a potentially drawn-out process so I need to get cracking.

Over the hills and far away...

So, I'm currently in the process of applying to the University of Manchester for semester one next year. My plan was to use this blog as a way to keep friends and family up to date why I'm away. I figured I may as well start getting into the habit of posting regularly now because January really is only just around the corner.

So, I thought I'd start with a progress update. At this point I am one document away from submitting my application online. I have both my Australian and British passports so I'm not going to be restricted by the limitations of student visas in terms of how long I can be in the country either side of the semester. The next big decision I have to make is accommodation. I need to make sure I get my application in as soon as possible since the university doesn't guarantee accommodation for semester-long exchange students.

That's really all I have for now. I'll be back when I have another update. I think I might also use this space to formulate a 'must-see' travel list, which could honestly turn into quite an extensive list.