It’s hard to believe that it was only three weeks ago that I left the familiarity of my hometown in New Jersey and arrived in London. Last week, I planned visits to a variety of sites around the city and other places; I stumbled across by happy accident. Here’s a recount of my latest adventures!

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Now that I have lived at my accommodation for a couple of weeks and have attended my classes at least half a dozen times, the walk to the Global Institute is practically as familiar as the back of my hand. On the way, I walk down Mabledon Place, which leads onto Marchmont Street, where the bookstore Gay’s The Word can be found. I passed it the previous week during orientation when we went on our walking tour and I knew that I would have to go back to check it out. It turns out that Jan. 17 was the bookstore’s 38th anniversary and I ended up returning the next day to buy the book Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg. Since having finished Konigsberg’s book, I returned to buy new books, A Boy’s Own Story by Edmund White, as well as The Boy I Love and Paper Moon by Marion Husband.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Thursday was a fairly uneventful day, but I did come back at 7:30 p.m. to Erin with a guilty look on her face, telling me that she set off the fire alarm while making chicken.

Friday, January 20, 2017

The plot thickened on Friday when my cousin Ben, who goes to school at the University College London, texted me at 3 p.m. to tell me that there was a rumor about Benedict Cumberbatch filming at UCL for his latest project. Naturally, I had class at 4 p.m. and I couldn’t investigate and he didn’t text me further about it until the following evening: he was in fact filming there, only several miles away from my accommodation!

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Baker Street – 221B Baker Street. So. Unbelievably. Amazing. Since Erin and I are both Sherlock Holmes fans, we decided to go visit the famous street from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories. The apartment of the famous detective and his sidekick was decorated and arranged in the way that it is described in the novels. It was incredible how accurately the BBC adaptation of “Sherlock” portrays the apartment, as well.

Madame Tussauds – After visiting Baker Street and grabbing lunch, we went to Madam Tussauds to see the wax figures. Some of my favorite figures were Benedict Cumberbatch, Patrick Stewart and One Direction. I’ll admit – and Erin will attest it – that I squeaked when I entered the room and saw One Direction in the corner.

Regent’s Park – After we left Madame Tussauds we went for a walk around Regent’s Park to see the area that we were supposed to stay at before Fairfield changed the program. While certainly much prettier than the city, I found myself slightly disconcerted by the quiet, empty streets, and realized that I prefer the hustle and bustle of King's Cross.

Bubbledog’s – For dinner, we decided to go to Bubbledog’s – a restaurant that Erin discovered when looking online for interesting places to eat. There, you order a hot dog and then order either a glass or a bottle of champagne. It’s a strange feeling being legal.

Vue: “La La Land” – After dinner, we weren’t sure what we wanted to do for the rest of the night since it was still early and we didn’t want to go back to The Chapter. Erin was interested in seeing “La La Land,” so we looked up where we could find a cinema and there was one in Angel, which is not far from The Chapter. One quirky aspect of cinemas over here is that they actually assign your seat.

It’s safe to say that there isn’t a dull moment when living in a lively city! Keep a look out for next week’s installment, where I’ll discuss my experiences during my study tour in Cardiff, Wales!