Thoresby

After a good night’s sleep at the Lime Tree, I woke up just in time to have some tea (so British!) and toast before check out. I ran a few errands and then hopped in a taxi and headed to my new home for the summer. Thoresby house is an international residence for students studying abroad with Arcadia’s College of Global Studies. It’s located in the borough of Islington, about half an hour north of central London.

Unfortunately, my taxi driver wasn’t sureexactly how to get here, so we took a bit of a round about route. We passed Buckingham Palace just as the Changing of the Guard ceremony was ending and the mall was absolutely packed with people. As we waited impatiently for them to clear the streets, a bus in front of us stopped next to the Royal Mews (the Queen’s Cavalry stables) and all the horse guards filed on board. They were dressed in their uniforms, complete with knee-high boots and shiny plate armor. As they boarded they all had to remove their hats because they have tall spikes on the top with giant tassels on the end and they couldn’t fit through the bus door. It was pretty cool to see, but the taxi driver was no help in figuring out where they were being bused off to.

The Life Guards, a branch of the Queen's cavalry.

When we finally arrived at Thoresby house the taxi driver promptly kicked me out and sped off. I think he was irritated at having to drive so far away during peak times, but oh well. I hauled my suitcase up the steps and was greeted by Nelson, our Resident Life Assistant for the summer. He graciously welcomed me and helped my get my bags up to my new digs. Unfortunately, there is no lift, so after three flights of stairs I was really grateful Nelson was there to help. Thoresby house has a big central staircase and the rooms are arranged in a square around it. Each floor has a shared lounge and kitchen, as well as bathrooms and showers and the rest of the square is made up of single and double occupancy rooms. They’re pretty basic dorm style. I share with Sophie and we each have a bed, a wardrobe, a desk with some shelves and a fridge. Nothing fancy, but for the next few months it’s home!

Thoresby house.

After settling in we took a trip to the local version of Target and a grocery store to get some supplies for the first few days. Argos, a.k.a. British Target, is a catalog store. Apparently since they are so limited on space in the city they have these types of stores all over. Basically, rather than having rows and rows of shelves with products lined up on them, they have several rows of tables with giant, thick catalogs for customers to look through. When you find the item you want and the color, you write a code down on a list and take it to the cashier. They enter your items and check the stock and then you pay for your items. Approximately eight minutes later your items are pulled from the warehouse, bagged and handed to you, simple as that. Cool concept, though very strange at first. Sophie and I decided on orange sheets for our bed because in the catalog they were described as "burnt orange." How fitting! Hook 'em! :)

cheers,
kate.