When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.

I came to London about a year and a half ago. I hadn't planned on coming to London as I had registered to do a master's program at a university in my home town, Toronto. On a complete whim, I decided to accept my offer at the LSE and next thing you know, I had booked a one-way flight to London. When I first arrived in London, my flatmates and I hadn't managed to find a flat yet, so we were bouncing around hotels and hostels, still living in limbo when we attended the orientation session at the LSE.

  "You alright, love?" was one of the first things, and probably one of the most memorable, that I was asked as I was wandering around Victoria station, trying to figure out if Chalk Farm was an actual farm, and how I would transport myself there. I can remember using my first pay phone in London - the large 50p coins I was pulling out of my pocket barely lasted me more than 30 seconds of a call! Finally, I was able to reunite with my flatmates in Chalk Farm. My flatmate and I did a little exploring on the second night.

Our first destination was Oxford Circus - I had honestly thought that I would find a building full of dancing animals here.

Oxford Circus tube station

 
Instead, we were confronted with double decker buses and signs on the road telling us where to look when we crossed the street. Fascinating! I had never seen this in Toronto. In Toronto, crossing the road seemed to be a much simpler task. As we wandered the streets, the sights seemed to be strangely familiar. City roads, bright lights - seemed like it was just another stroll down Queen Street in Toronto.

 That night, we escaped to a pub down the street to access the free WiFi, nonchalantly selecting potential courses for our program while the pub folks were busy drinking and watching a football match. We eventually moved into our new flat and settled in, putting together our Ikea furniture. Our first dinner in the flat was a simple meal of food items that required very little effort cooking - and one could not forget the soy sauce, of course!

Our first dinner in the flat

 

Our second tourist attempt was exploring the Southbank area near the London Eye. I had never seen that many people in one place in my life! Being the tourists that we were, I made sure to keep all of my belongings close to me and was constantly checking to see that my purse hadn't been ransacked. We found many street performers, and this one particular little girl who was especially excited about the gigantic bubbles that the street performers were blowing.

All in all, London seemed to be a very beautiful and exciting place, and I could not wait to settle in and really live here.

The London Eye and the Thames River