London (1).

Yesterday I promised I would talk about my trip to London... and, obviously, I'm gonna keep my word. I'll try to be brief, though.

It all began on July 9th. We were supposed to arrive at midnight, and, surprisingly, the plane did arrive on time. Students were not allowed to check in until July 10th, meaning: we'd have to spend the whole night at the airport. And that's exactly what we did. Nayra and I spent the whole night there... it was a tough night, especially for Nayra, who couldn't even sleep. I didn't sleep much anyway. I remember waking up at 4am... the sun was already there. I was shocked... but excited at the same time. We had booked a taxi, which was supposed to pick us up at 7am. Everything went fine, so far everything was fine. The driver turned out to be a nice guy, we talked about so many things.

We arrived at the residence at around about 8am. It was then that things got a bit shitty. We were given our keys, but once we saw our rooms... something was missing. There were no utensils at all! Nobody had warned us that there would not be any utensils at first. The receptionist then told us that someone should come to see us and check everything was fine, someone from ISIS School. We were kind of worried so we went there on our own. Moreover, it was a nice walk, and we got to see some places. We finally got to the school and got our utensils. We then were told we had to pay a 20£ deposit, which we would be given back at the end of our stay. We were pissed off, yet we had no choice.

We spent the rest of the day in Greenwich. By the way, NOBODY knows how to pronounce Greenwich. Throughout these weeks, Greenwich has been pronounced in a million ways. The funniest thing is that even native speakers pronounce it differently. Some people would pronounce it as /grenich/, while others would pronounce it as /grinich/ (sorry, I wish I could use the right phonemes, but I don't feel like looking for them atm). Greenwich is such a lovely place. It's not so crowded, there are many interesting places to visit, and you can get anywhere you want just by taking the DLR or the Underground.

Our classes started on Monday. In my humble opinion, the school was kind of meh. I learnt so many things, but the school itself... in a way, we were all expecting something better. We did the placement test on Monday. To my way of thinking, the test was not so accurate, since many of us were placed in the wrong class. I was placed in the B2 class, which I found somewhat weird since B2 was basically the level I had been dealing with at university. Still, the class was not so bad, some people were really fluent. What I didn't like about it was the fact that none of the things we were dealing with were new to me. That is why I decided to move up to C1, since I felt I was wasting my money.

I met many people in London... most of whom were Spanish. I know. It was just hilarious, we all wanted to improve our English... but in a way we couldn't help it. No sooner had we arrived we were already talking to some other Spaniards. Actually, it was really difficult to find an English speaker! Everybody was either Spanish or Italian. There were many Swiss people as well. I met so many friends, I really miss them. Fortunately I've added them all on Facebook so I guess we will be able to stay in touch. I really hope so.

London is one of the loveliest places I've ever visited. You can find all kinds of people no matter where you go. I'm happy to say I was never looked at as if I was a weirdo, people are so open-minded and easygoing.

I could spend a lot of time talking about the places we went to... but I'd like to focus on a particular place: Camden Town. Everybody says it's one of the best places to visit in the whole UK, and that's true. The market has to be the best place, though. You can find nearly everything there. Moreover, you can bargain as much as you want, and it normally works. We even went to visit Amy Winehouse's house (I've never been a fan of hers, but the place was absolutely worth a visit). I recommend going there, it is a nice experience.

Another place worth mentioning is Harrods. Go there. Seriously. Even if you can't afford it. I didn't buy a thing, yet I loved it. The corridors are just awesome, and the music changes drastically depending on the area you're visiting. You can also get some nice souvenirs there, and they are not really expensive. It's not so difficult to get there, all you need to do is take a few trains. That's it. I know I'll go back there someday... with some money to spend.

I think this is a good place to stop but... hold on! This is just the beginning. I'm not done yet. I'll have to write another entry, that's it. Stay tuned!