Thursday, October 9, 2008

Foggy London Town?

Its been two weeks since arriving in London for the exchange term at London Business School. During that time we started classes, I found a flat in a gorgeous part of town, bought a bike to ride 20 mins each way to school and started learning some proper English. For instance, over here mail is called post, pants are called trousers as pants refer to underpants, and sweaters are called jumpers. If you want to fire someone, you sack them. If you are laid off, you are made redundant. If something has taken a long time, its taken ages. If you have a lot of something, you have loads. When you have good luck or good things happen to you, you say, "happy days."

Above is a photo taken by Felix of our initial arrival to London Business School. LBS is an old school on beautiful grounds. The location is just across the street from Regent’s Park and the area is surrounded by mansions. They say LBS is more diverse than IESE with 60 backgrounds represented but I would argue that the classes are much less diverse. LBS has around 1,000 students in total whereas IESE has closer to 400 students with over 50 backgrounds. Many of the LBS students are British or American. Its also harder to meet people at LBS as people are not as friendly as IESE. The professors are excellent and the guest speakers far surpass what we get at IESE. CEOs of huge firms drop by regularly as their offices are located somewhere in London. Things are also much more organized in London as compared with Spain. Which is to be expected but I’ve also heard that many people who come to LBS from the States do not think things are very efficient. After arriving from Spain, I would argue that things are unbelievably efficient but maybe that also has to do with my ability to ask questions and understand answers here whereas in Spain I’m typically in a state of communication confusion.

Below is a photo of Felix and I standing on the great lawn in front of the school.
Because I only have class Monday-Wednesday, I spent about a week sleeping at my friend Nani’s place while looking for a great place to live. Thanks again Nani! The new flat is in a suburb-feeling area of town called Hampstead Heath. Close to everything but outside of the crazy and crowded city center, Hampstead Heath is filled with Yuppies, dogs, babies, bikes and nice shops and restaurants. There is also a huge natural area which my flat borders. The Heath, as its known, is what London looked like before it was developed. Similar to the Squaw Peak area in Phoenix, The Heath sits in the middle of this area and has ponds, old growth trees, grassy areas, views over the city, and trails for walking and biking. Below is a photo of some Londonites enjoying a sunny day in the grassy hill area of the Heath which overlooks the city.
I live with two Irish people, Padraic and Maurie who are in their 20s. They are both extremely nice and friendly. Almost every time we speak I ask them to explain the significance of words or things. For instance, last night Padraic came home with a steak pie. It looked like a regular pie but apparently it was filled with steak, gravy, and other items. He then explained that pies are a regular meal here. Half a pie is below.
The photo makes the pie look a lot less edible than it does in person. But before you go thinking that the Brits have disgusting eating habits, I would like to draw your attention to an amazing display of Americana: https://webmail.london.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_V-2NKUlzns You probably missed this event in the Olympics but I’m sure it will be right after the floor exercises in 2012.

Below are some photos of my flat.

The red brick building was built in the late 1800s or early 1900s and has a nice garden out front with roses, benches and trees. My room has a super comf bed and plenty of space for the 50 pounds of stuff the airline allowed me to bring.

The flat was redone recently and has a large kitchen which overlooks the front yard and is where I check my email and enjoy coffee and tea every day.
The living room has a couch bed, overlooks part of the Heath and doubles as a private room for any guests who might come to town. Hint hint.Our flat is located two floors above the book store you see below. The restaurant to the left has some fantastic indian food and behind the tree on the right is the cafe where I sometimes grab a coffee to go and a muffin.

Finally, below is a typical lane on the outside of the Heath. This gives you an idea of what the trees look like within the Heath but of course, there is also plenty of overgrowth everywhere.

Overall, the first two weeks here have been better than expected. There have been a few very cold days and its rained for part of three days but I've been told this is some of the best weather they've had in months. Mostly its been sunny but a little chilly. Would I live here? Not sure yet, if it was always like it is now, I would have no problem but the real test will be Nov & Dec when its freezing and rainy. Luckily I have already figured out how to cope with the loads of crap weather: I will simply wear my jumper, trousers and long pants, eat a meat pie, wash it down with afternoon tea and hope for the upcoming happy days.

2 comments:

christine said...

whattaplace jared, i need see london!

megalomaniac in pursuit of happyness said...

Hi Jared
Thanks..your blog makes for informative reading.I m based out of East Africa and in the process of applying to IESE. I find a certain degree of resonance with your career interests and mine. Would appreciate any opportunity to send you an email with some of my queries for better clarity...my email id is ShwethRai@gmail.com..Thanks