It Begins

Yup, more Portugal, more decoration, still totally irrelevant.

I may not have moved into halls yet, but as of today I have officially made the transition from Future Student to Student. With an ID card and everything to prove it.

For some reason, today was the day allocated for most masters students to register. Though I could have saved myself the train fare (as the website did mention that those moving into halls could wait and register after that) I went up to London anyway, as I didn't entirely trust myself not to have got the wrong end of the stick about that. So I got my first look at LSE.*

Rather inconsiderately, London seemed to have moved about a bit since I was living there a couple of years ago. I could have sworn the curvy bit used to be between Charing Cross and Trafalgar square... Oh well, it's not far down the Strand from Charing Cross, and it was a lovely day. Summer is definitely still here, and there's no doubt about it, a little sunshine can go a long way to making you happy. Even if it does also make you very hot, and you end up drinking three bottles of water.

Arriving at LSE, I walked confidently up to the Peacock Theatre, aided only slightly by the map of the university buildings in the MSc Statistics handbook they sent me some weeks ago. When I got there, however, instead of the lecture theatre in an academic building that I was expecting, I found an actual theatre, advertising the upcoming performance of the Ballets Trockadero De Monte Carlo. Peering through the doors I saw a sign above a counter saying 'Box Office', a lot of posters, and nothing making any reference to LSE. I walked round it looking for a more academic looking entrance, but that was it, so I went in. I wasn't too confounded by it being a proper theatre- after all, UCL had the UCL Bloomsbury, though that was more given to advertising the UCL connection, where as this one seemed to want to emphasise a link with Sadler's Wells- but the lack of indication of where to go to register was worrying me. For want of a better idea, I queued up behind a man ordering tickets for some show or other, to ask the man at the desk if I was in the right place and in any case if he knew which way I should go. The man in front certainly took his time. He had to ring up someone to check whether they were happy with the seats he'd been offered, and I must have been there for several minutes. Still, there was a screen showing excerpts from upcoming productions which were well worth watching, including the Ballets Trockadero, but also a dance piece with people in half white, half black catsuits dancing on a black stage so their black halves were invisible, and when pairs came together in certain ways the two white halves made up a single figure that seemed to be floating, and then there were some monks who did endless backflips. But after a while I did get a little impatient. I thought I might as well just double check on the map that this really was supposed to be part of LSE, while I was waiting. Yes, just as I thought, look, it's shaded in, it's got a letter I which if you refer to the key shows it's the Peacock Theatre, and the entrance is clearly marked just where I came in. I am in the right place, damn it! Then I thought I might as well get out my diary, where I'd noted the details, just to have another look to pass the time since the man still hadn't completed the transaction. Look, what did I tell you, it says right there- oh wait a minute, it says 'Hong Kong Theatre' for this one. Peacock Theatre is for the thing next week. Whoops.

After another quick look at the map I found the Hong Kong Theatre's building, Connaught House, pretty easily; the theatre itself was not quite so obvious- but a sign on the wall said it was on the ground floor and when I got in a little way I saw that apart from the lifts ahead there was only one way to go on the ground floor, through some glass doors. There were a couple of current students sitting by the doors to check that everyone going through had indeed come for the registration. Then some more doors with some notices I didn't bother to read, and right inside the door a long table with two men sitting at it, who again wanted to check I'd come to register, asked to see my offer letter and passport, then sent me to a table at the other end of the room, where I showed both again and was handed a plastic ID card with my photo and student number on it. That was it. I did take a couple more seconds asking 'I thought it said on the website something about getting your LSE computer account and email address at registration?'- the man didn't know anything about that but pointed out on a map where I could go to ask about it. The whole registration can't have taken more than a minute- I probably took longer stuffing everything back in my bag in the corridor afterwards. Not that I thought there'd be that much to it- but I thought there'd maybe be a couple of forms to fill in, and a photo taken for the ID card, as there was at UCL (I would have liked that as the one they used, that I sent with my application as asked, was not great), and above all I thought there'd be queues. Queues and queues and queues that took half an hour from start to finish, during which one could make new friends and meet people, bonding in a shared feeling of 'Why won't they just hurry up?', and possibly exchanging phone numbers or email addresses at the end. I didn't meet anyone. There wasn't time.

I wandered off in the direction of the City. At this point I was thinking I had time to kill, because I'd bought a cheap day return- partly because I thought everything would take long enough that I'd be coming home after the evening peak but also because it's quite a bit cheaper: you see a fairly recent introduction on my line has been that cheap day returns are no longer valid during the evening peak even if you're going beyond Oxford. Very annoying- you now have to decide what time you're likely to want to come back before you've even set out. On the plus side, at least it appears to be cheaper than before if you don't mind avoiding that time. Anyway, I wandered off in the direction of the City, because I thought I had time to kill, and I had a sudden whim to go and see my halls. Of course, I wouldn't be able to go in, but I could go and have a look from the outside, check out the area, and see what it was like walking from LSE.

It turned out to be a fair way- supposedly half an hour but I think it was probably more like three quarters, though it was hard to be sure as I stopped off a couple of times on the way- once at a cycle shop for a thing for linking a pump to a bike, since I'd lost mine- the man was very nice: he said he thought they'd had one of those floating around and spent ages looking absolutely everywhere for it but in the end he drew a blank so I just got a new pump- and once at Tesco's for a bottle of water. I generally take a bottle filled from the tap with me wherever I go, to save money and waste, but this time I'd already drunk it all, it was so hot. It was very nice to have chilled water for once.

When I was walking round the half circle at the end of the Strand on my way to registering, I'd been remembering the times I'd been there before- it was on my route when I cycled in my third year from Camberwell: I'd wheel the bike round the curve then head off up Drury Lane, and then when I gave up on cycling as it was such a long way, it was on the bus route. The 68, The Bus That Thinks It's A Snail, would often take quite a while to work round Bush House in the heavy traffic- at least it's an interesting building to look at. Though that wasn't even the slowest part of the route- mind you, it should be remembered that when I started taking it the congestion charge was still a few months away. So I'd been there many times before- but only once on foot. That was when I went with some friends to watch the Queen's Jubilee in the summer after my second year. It looked quite different then, with all the crowds. Now I really appreciated the interesting stonework on the building that was too high up to be seen from a bus, and not where I'd been looking when pushing my bike and concentrating on not bumping into people, and I looked down Kingsway (shortly before my triumphant identification of the Peacock Theatre) and was surprised to see it was lined with trees which I'd somehow missed before and which were very nice. Well, it had been winter most of the time I was taking the bus...

Walking to my halls was also not entirely new territory. To begin with, I was reminded of a stroll I'd decided to make through the City once, one Saturday- I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it's a ghost town at weekends. No shops open, which is a little annoying if you happen to want something, but no people on the streets which is a pleasantly novel feeling for central London. I'd happened upon Dr Johnson's house; I didn't go in, but it was in quite a nice courtyard. I didn't see that this time, but I did discover that on that visit I'd barely penetrated into the City at all. This time I discovered the Bank of England, saw the Millennium Bridge, which I've always meant to go over and someday will, and suddenly saw a great view of St Paul's at the end of a side street which made me wish I had my camera with me. It was quite fun navigating without a map, and such a sense of achievement when I made it to Liverpool St without having taken any wrong turns (though I'll admit to checking a map on a subway at one point- one thing I love about London is that it's impossible to get lost- keep walking and you'll find a bus stop, subway or underground station with a map to help you out (and if it's all Greek to you at least you can generally take a bus or tube to somewhere you recognise)). From there, though, I did start walking the wrong way, and had to go back to Liverpool St to find a map to show me the way to go. It turns out that the road had been gently bending since Threadneedle St started by the Bank of England, so I was approaching from the south where I'd thought I'd been coming from the west. I was also confused by not recognising the entrance to the station as I'd expected to- whilst I'd been walking through unfamiliar territory since the Strand-most edges of the City, I should now have been back with what I knew, since I'd had to come there most years at UCL for one or two of my end of year exams at the Bishopsgate Institute, just one of the many places over London where UCL holds them. After a look at the map I found the way to Bishopsgate, where there was the entrance I was used to, and ahead, the two sticky-up things of the Institute (I think that was its name, anyway- it had the Bishopsgate Great Hall and the Bishopsgate Upper Hall inside). It was quite strange walking towards it on a sunny day that could easily have been in May, without an exam to worry about for the first time. But my turning came before I reached the building itself.

I found the halls; they looked quite nice, very modern interiors as you'd expect seeing as they've only just been built (though you couldn't see much through the windows and door), and the house itself old or old style- I think it may have been converted from something. Not much parking though- I had a scout round with Sunday's move in mind and found only around 4 pay and display spaces with the rest Residents' Permits Only untill 2 on Sundays (if I've understood it right). So it might be quite a scrum- though with only narrow streets rather than a car park, and so many students arriving, it would be even if they were all park-where-you-want. Even at Roehampton, with a fair few car parks, there was nowhere to park when we got there. Fine, of course, for 99% of the year, since I don't expect most students will have cars, and I certainly don't, but deeply annoying for just that one day. (And the one in 9 months time when I have to move out...) Still, I'm sure it'll all work out somehow.

I checked out 'vibrant'** Spitalfields market before coming back- it seemed more like sedate Spitalfields market to me, but I suppose it wasn't a weekend. Nice though. It's right at the T-junction at the end of the short street with my halls in, so no distance at all. It'll be pleasant to browse, and I might get some Christmas presents there, but I must stop myself from getting carried away. There were some food stalls though, selling nice bread, cheese, and vegetables- I'll check out the prices and if they're not too steep I might be shopping there quite a bit.

On the way back I did pass the Bishopsgate Institute. As I passed it I had a fleeting half-conscious feeling that it was an evil place that I wanted to get away from quickly. Oh dear, I seem to have developed an irrational fear. Such is the legacy of exams...

*Since I didn't go to any open days or anything

**For some reason it appears to be the obligatory adjective to use when describing it- any time someone wants to sell the Liverpool St area to you they'll mention that 'nearby is the vibrant Spitalfields market'