Its nearing the two month mark of my time here in London, and I know, I haven't written about it enough. The whole experience has been a new sort of growing up, and I get caught taking it all in and forget to make time to blog about it. But I'm up now and I have killer cramps that won't let me sleep so come, story time
I love uni.
The teaching here is different, in the way that university is meant to be different. You have so much more responsibility over your own learning. There are no compulsory lectures, teacher don't get to know you on a personal one-on-one basis, nobody is reminding you what to do when and definitely nobody is going to tell you what should be more important. You get to decide your priorities, and you have the choice to try your best, or well, not try at all. See I knew this, but I didn't know it, you know? I didn't know what it means for skipping classes not to be a luxury and just, a choice. I never not had friends or teachers who would remind me that I have this to do and that to complete. I don't have to care if I don't want to quite frankly, and this predicament has made me do one thing :
care very deeply.
Which is good. This is not to say that I am hunched over my desk scoring 98/100 on all my assignments, but it does mean that I'm finally genuinely caring. Finally genuinely interested, curios and intrigued. I don't think this is exclusive to UCL, but being in uni has made me fall in love with learning. I admit, I've been sort of blessed with learning but I never really loved it. But now, I do.
I walk to and back from school everyday, except you know if its raining and didn't bring an umbrella, or my toes are bleeding, or I'm really really really late. Its not a short walk to be honest..... takes me around 20 minutes if I'm rushing, 40 minutes at a relaxed pace. I have 9 ams everyday (I KNOW RIGHT) so I wake up at around 6.45. On average, I end at about 3 pm, but some days are earlier and some days are later. The walk to school is really nice, I pass a canal so its like pretty. Theres a road I cross everyday that I feel like I might die at (lol) because its so busy and if you're a second too late you might just get run over. I have to sprint a little and it always manages to wake me up for my 9 am lectures. Its gucci baby.
I also am taking up pole dancing (!!!). I've always wanted to try and since my uni offers it for quite cheap, I did try and I've fallen in love. My plan is that with all my walking and my pole 2 times a week, I come home with killer abs and a hot bod. Also it's good for me and all that, so yeah thats good too. I'm both healthier and more unhealthy here. I exercise so much more just by virtue of all the walking I do and since I cook my meals, I control what goes into my body. But on the other hand, a 3L bottle of coke is so cheap, and I always seem to have one on my desk so.......
Its all about balance right?
I've made friends here! Like good friends. Good enough for me to crash in their rooms for a nap between classes because my room is so far away. I will tell you more about my new friends in another post. And also about pole dancing and all that jazz.
Living alone is actually quite nice. I thoroughly enjoy it, and I now have come to a point where I don't feel awkward being alone with myself. I think thats a huge milestone, and I'm proud of me for getting there. You gotta be cool with chilling with yourself yknw?
So other than some complications opening up a bank account, and having period cramps in winter, I'm really starting to like it here. Feeling a lot less like a foreigner, and feeling a lot more like a part of this busy metropolis. I think if London was a color, it would be like silver, and I'm totally into silver.
Also its so much colder than it should be right now! People say it only got this cold in January past years. CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL GUYS, HELP.
Hope everyone is doing okay. If you're not, please make yourself some hot chocolate.
Love from London,
Mira
