London

23 hours of flight time, four inflight movies, two Bloody Marys, and five questionably edible economy class meals is what it takes to get from Middle Earth to the Old Smoke.  Me being excited about getting off the plane as we land on the Heathrow runway is probably an understatement. Not only was my back sore, but I was beginning to think that my seat had permanently contorted the shape of my backside.  

I quickly make my way through customs and out of the airport. As I walked around like a headless chicken looking for anything that marginally resembled a shuttle or taxi, I had my first opportunity to soak in the atmosphere.  It was a particularly overcast day, and it gave me the same grim feeling as I would get watching an episode of EastEnders.

Depending on your destination, expect to pay over sixty quid for a ride from Heathrow airport in a black cab/taxi. The more economical choice is paying around twenty five pounds for a shuttle with other passengers. Of course, for all you introverts and haters of people in general, this might not be an attractive option.

I make my way to the hotel in Paddington.  I was planning on staying here for two days before moving into my studio room at GradPad Wood Lane Studios. Paddington being quite close to South Kensington would allow me to orient myself with the surrounding area and the Imperial campus itself. On arrival, they tell me that I have been upgraded to a ‘nicer’ room, free of charge. At this point, I was feeling quite special about myself, so I didn’t question it at all.  What they didn’t mention though, was that this ‘nicer’ room was in Barbican, on the other side of the city.

With these initial hiccups aside though, my first impressions of Imperial College were great. Being an international student and arriving in London for the first time, I was practically a living manifestation of the ‘Forever Alone’ meme. Fortunately, Imperial provided a great international student orientation week, allowing students (many attending university for the first time) to assimilate themselves into student life, and to meet other wide-eyed freshers.
From these initial orientation lectures though, I can provide a word of warning for all you aspiring Casanovas out there.

Don’t go to Engineering school.

The stereotype of there being more males than females actually holds true. Ratio of three to one. I might even be being generous with that figure. However, us lucky men in MSc International Health Management don’t have this problem. In fact, in comparison to our deprived brethren in the neighbouring building, it could be mistaken that we are running an illegal polygamist sect.

Everything I wrote above was a trial for one of the Imperial College blogs, and depending on how things go, I may be writing a lot more of these, whether you like it or not. Regardless, it’s already been a few weeks since I arrived in this brilliant place called London and the experiences so far has been nothing short of amazing, so I may continue to keep writing anyway.

Darren, or whatever my previous alias was.