Fresher's Week: It Is... An Experience

I have just realized that it has been nearly two weeks since my last update.  Give me a week of events, and I guess time just gets away from me!  *smacks wrist* bad blogger...

So on to Fresher's Week.  It is, quite simply, a week after the regular move-in dates in which no classes are held.  Rather, since schools here do not do online enrollments, they do in-person enrollment during that week (often requiring standing in four-hour lines), combined with various social events.  Of course, these social events generally are themed parties at the pubs on campus, with drink prices greatly reduced.  So essentially, if you want to participate in many of the social events during the week, you need to go clubbing.  This is not me.  I suppose it is fortunate, then, that all three of my roommates are.  They hosted get togethers in the flat before going out at around 10:30 in the evening.  So even though I am not a clubber and do not like staying out late, I still got a lot of the social activity, without the wild drunken partying. 

There were a few other social events, too.  Each dorm area had a BBQ meet-and-greet, and the offices for international and study abroad students hosted a couple other events.  On Monday, they hosted a three-hour walking tour of central London, around Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, as well as some of St. James's Park. Afterwards, all but four of us from the tours left to go to another event at Madame Tussaud's.  So the four of us, two girls from New Jersey and a girl from Bulgaria, decided that we would instead walk back to Westminster Abbey and go see the inside.  It's rather strange seeing monuments or stones in the ground, and realizing that these are people's actual graves.  I could hardly bring myself to even walk through some of the areas where there were many of them, with no other stones between.  It is a beautiful place to visit.  "Fun" would not quite be the right terminology for it, but it is a place that is well worth visiting.

On Wednesday, the Study Abroad students (and only Study Abroad students) were taken on a trip to Brighton, and old seaside resort town once favored by George IV.  For most of the day, we were given the leeway to do as we pleased: chill on the beach (which was pebbles, not sand), wander across the Pier, brows through the Lanes marketplace, whatever we felt like doing.  In between free times, we were given a guided tour of the Royal Pavilion.  It is the former home of George IV, which began as a four-room house, and was expanded and built up over years to become a huge home (probably small given that it was the home of a British Royal), with an Indian facade outside, and a Chinese theme inside.  Of course, no one who helped build it had ever been to China, so as our tour guide has said that other Chinese tourists have told her, it's more like China Disney than genuine China.  I figure, for people who had never seen the country, that's about as good as we can really expect.

Once home, however, I had an unwelcome yet familiar visitor: pain.  I seriously overdid it on the walking that day.  I was extremely bummed, and not just for the obvious reason that I was hurting enough to use my stick just to walk around the flat.  It was also because I had been doing so well since arriving, walking more in one go than I ever would have dreamed of trying in California due to the heat and constant sun.  In a way, I had been able to almost forget that I have lupus for a time.  I had been feeling that I could do anything, that no amount of walking would be too far here due to the coolness and milder weather.  I got a very sharp (no pun intended) reminder that day, that while I may be able to do more than I used to, I still have lupus.  I am still a Spoonie.  I cannot do it all, indeed often cannot do what "normals" do.  As much as I wish it would, and as much as it has helped, a continent and climate change cannot 100% cure me.  A fact that I need to remember.  I certainly hope I've learned it well.  Pacing is a process not easy to learn!

Due to my "life lesson" on Wednesday, Thursday was spent chilling out and recovering; then on Friday, it was back up to C's house for the weekend.  It's just under two hours on the train to get there, but at least we get to see each other on the weekends.  It's a heck of a lot better than being eight time zones and 6,000 miles apart :)

So that's about my impression of Fresher's Week: Some good purposes, some fun social events, and a lot of partying.  In fact, not two hours ago, I heard one of my roommates with a friend, leave his room and head out of the flat and down the path, happily and clearly drunkenly singing their way to wherever they were going.