London day 2: Live and Learn

4:45 GMT

Today was started to the tune of banging on our front door. We had overslept the time we were supposed to assemble with the rest of our group to walk to CWC (City of Westminster College).

I was relying on my roommate's alarm on his phone and the fact that I usually rise with haste, especially on a holiday or trip. Life lesson number 1, never assume and that someone elses alarm or your past body clock will work.

However, we didn't awake on time and by the time I got outside our group was gone and all that was left was me and my two roomates and the GA (graduate assistant), who is partly chaperoning our term here in London.

So, he did his best to finding CWC, only to realize once we got there the college had totally moved to a new building. Something we were told but I assumed he remembered. Lesson 2, do not assume that a person of authority, such as a GA, will have any idea what he is doing either.

Once we got there we journeyed to the sixth floor and sat in on the Anglo-American Agency representative who gave us tips on living and everything else while being in London. We heard a guy named Rob, talk about cheap trips we could take, including a 3 day trip to Dublin, Ireland for St. Patrick's day weekend. We also took a tour of the building and then we met Lyndon Sly, the English coordinator for our trip at CWC.

Lyndon Sly is a professor at CWC and he has been working with Ball State's London Centre for 4 semesters now. Sly told us about his expectations, and gave us a 'timetable' (schedule) of our classes.

At lunch time, Sly split us up into 5 groups and gave us two tasks each. The group tasks were as follows:

Group A
- Find out what a Geezer is, and bring back a currant bun (not the roll with raisins in it).
Group B
- Who is 'Old Bill'? Bring back a Sarny.
Group C
- What will not go south of the River (Thames)? What is 'shrapnel'?
Group D
- How do you get an A.S.B.O.? What is a 'banger'?
Group E (us)
- What is man flu? What are 'plasters,' bring back some?

So, if any of you in the huge numbers that read this blog want to guess at any of this please leave a comment below. I will have the answers later. Until then, Cheers!

The picture above is of the sandwich shop I ate at today. We walked in and weren't really sure what to order. We asked the young man, I believe a Moroccan, what he liked to get. He didn't understand at first but he finally said that the 'salted beef' was what he liked and was eating before we walked in. Me and one of my roomates tried it and it was very good. It was a corned beef mixed with pickles covered with a white creamy sauce. I ate it on a ciabatta bread sandwich, with a salad of lettuce, tomato's and olives with a balsamic dressing on it. It was all good and I even ate one of the olives. It was priced ok, about 3 pounds for the sandwich and salad.