The Bare Necessities

I haven't talked much about actually living an everyday life in London. As much fun and games as this trip has to offer I am also living here and of course have regular chores and cleaning to maintain.

Cooking is definitely more difficult. I have a gas stove which is much harder to cook on than an electric stove. I am slowly figuring out how it works. I managed to make apple crisp yesterday (I needed a little taste of fall) and my roommates and I cooked a real dinner last night that was delicious. Food is also slightly more expensive here. Prices might seem similar but when you change the British pound to American dollars you are spending more. Luckily my roommates and I are splitting the cost of food and cooking together saving us all some money. We also found a pound land really close to our building which is very similar to a dollar store but everything is actually a pound. We can get some of our easy cooked food and snacky stuff there. Markets are also very helpful for fresh fruits and vegetables at a reasonable price. I am so happy we are finally cooking real food and not just living off of canned soup.

Next is laundry. I have one laundry mat near my dorm. The prices are outrageous! It costs 4.65 pounds to put your laundry through the wash. That is about $7.50 just to wash my clothes and the an extra pound to dry them. That is a crazy price and I have decided that I have better things to spend my money on. I am now hand washing my clothes in the bath tub. We have cleaning people that clean our bathrooms every Tuesday. Lucky for me I don't have classes leaving me time that day to use the clean tub to wash clothes. Of course I have to give my jeans and things a good washing a few times while I am here but for the most part it will be going back old school and hand washing everything.

We have a cleaning crew that cleans our flat. The only place they don't clean is our room but I am perfectly okay with that. The only thing weird about this is they have weird rules about what we can and can not leave out. We could potentially get charged if we do not leave things in a certain way. Personally I feel like if you are going to provide us with a cleaning service don't charge me for leaving some dishes out to dry. If that's the case I can clean my own flat. My flatmates and I have done well so far keeping our area clean enough so I am sure we will be fine. I just thought that was kind of weird.

I started classes today. I had The Global Markets and The Role of a Manager. I like both classes so far. They do not seem to be to difficult and the course work should not be to strenuous. I have two more classes tomorrow so we will see how those go. It is weird having to take the tube to class. I am use to a 5 minute walk to class but now I have a half hour tube ride just to get to campus. My building is currently under construction making it so much more confusing to get around. Hopefully that will be done soon.

I have now planned five trips traveling to different countries. I leave for Ireland tomorrow and the I also have Scotland, Italy, and Porto booked. I am planning on heading to Plymouth, England to visit Kenny and we might head into France for a few days. I still am hoping to go to Germany and Prague but we will see how much money I have left. I also need to remember I have school work to do too. But I am usually on top of things and as long as I make deadlines for myself I don't think I will have to much of a problem. I have a crazy travel bug right now and will probably sleep for all of January with my next 2.5 month schedule but hey I'm only here for three months. I have to live out my dream while I can!

I will not have internet for the next few days seeing as I will be staying in a hostel but I will fill everyone in on my trip to Blarney and Cork, Ireland once I return.

Cheers,
Allie