London Calling (May 13, 2013)

We went to AIFS orientation this morning. AIFS is an amazingly well structured program – the best I’ve ever traveled with. Orientation consisted of laws and cultural differences – American’s are typically louder than Europeans, open containers and general drunkenness is not tolerated, and traffic flows on the other side of the street than we’re used to. It was helpful but I think it was more structured for students staying longer than 20 days. After orientation, we had a couple hours off for lunch and my group ate Indian food by our flats. I had the lamb korma and I will never need anything else for the rest of my life. It was that good.

After lunch we went to Kensington Palace for afternoon tea. Surrounding Kensington Palace are acres of park grounds and gardens. We didn’t actually go inside Kensington Palace. Instead, we went to the Orangery – a greenhouse which was used in the past to grow citrus trees (hence the name) but has now been renovated into a teahouse for tourists. The majority of the tables were set for four people each. I sat at a table with Marek, Ben, and Adam. Each person had a fork, a knife, a napkin, a plate, a tea spoon, a tea cup and saucer. We drank English breakfast tea. The reading for the day discussed a debate among tea drinkers: whether it was correct/proper to put the tea in first (TIF) or the milk in first (MIF). I tried both ways but I think I like it better to put the tea in first. That way I can control how much the milk dilutes the natural taste of the tea. The sugar made the biggest difference, though. We were also treated to teatime snacks: finger sandwiches, scones, and desserts. I tried cucumber sandwiches for the first time and they were pretty good. While I tried everything, I liked the desserts the best. The food was served in a three tiered serviette. The sandwiches were on the bottom, scones in the middle, and the desserts were on the top. All of the china we used was really beautiful and really expensive. If the weather were nicer I would’ve liked to take my tea outside.

Once everyone was done with their tea, we explored the grounds together. Professor Lutze led us to the famous Peter Pan statue so we could take pictures. By this time Stan and I were getting antsy about sticking with the group since we were supposed to have the rest of the afternoon off. After looking at the map, I noticed the Museum of Natural History was close by so Kevin, Stan and I went off on our own. By the time we found the museum, though, it was closed. The plan at that point was to go back to the flats and change out of our nice teatime clothes but Kevin had forgotten his Oyster card so we wouldn’t take the Tube or a bus to get back. Luckily South Kensington isn’t that far from our flats. The problem was navigating our way home. We walked until we found an Irish pub called O’Neil’s and had dinner. I ate a hamburger on soda bread and it was pretty good. After we ate and set out on our trek again, we got lost. Kevin, our navigator, had no freaking idea where he was leading us. Turns out we missed our turn back to Earl’s Court at the very same pub we ate dinner. We back tracked and eventually made it home. I went straight to bed because we leave for the continent tomorrow and I needed rest.