Orientation Week

It's about time!  This week is "Week 0", or "Fresher's Week".  All orientation events are occurring around the University of London's schools, which are scattered around the the Bloomsbury area here in West London.  Everyone, approximately 90,000 students, has been scrambling to attend all of the different welcome sessions of his or her uni and of the whole system.  This includes me!  Yesterday was the first day of orientation.  My course only had to attend the School's welcome session in the morning and be back to the hall for registration at 2pm.  This consisted of turning in one's registration form and other necessary documents, as well as get a photograph for the coveted student ID.  More events, like the course lunch time meeting, occurred today and will take place for the rest of the week. 

Unlike in the US where registration for your school occurs on one day or over the internet, it apparently takes about a week here; only one or two required events take place throughout the day.  For instance, my course met for the first time together as a course today to have a lunchtime meeting.  We discussed our course handbook, the "bible" for the year.  It outlines the logistics of the course: important dates of the year, examination procedures, class descriptions, etc.  Everything seems a bit overwhelming right now, but will surely be manageable once the classes begin next week.  It's like meeting new people and making new friends.  At first, you are nervous and hope that at least one person likes you.  However, the majority of people are extremely nice and are eager to make friends because they are in the same situation.  It may help that all of the social events are located at the pub (a UK thing?).

Although the long orientation week isn't stressful, I'd just assume start classes.  London is a great city and there is so much to do, but I need school.  Five months have passed since I've sat in a classroom and have had the typical student obligations of studying, sitting exams and LEARNING!!!!  Some things apparently never change.  I am still such a nerd.  I am still stressing over which courses I should take and what my schedule is going to look like (it's going to be extremely hard in the upcoming terms where there is the possibility of only choosing ONE class out of the 5ish that are available per module slot).  I am still thinking about taking on extracurricular work [to be a course representative (!!!?????)].  I have only to wait until Monday when all everything is finalised to start becoming more comfortable with my life in London as a student!