"Please let me into your country"

I arrived in London on Tuesday morning. Immediately I braved the immigration line. The wait itself was bad enough and finally getting seen by an immigration officer was even worse. Upon entering my name into the system he was notified that I had been denied a visa (a precaution I took because I was told it was recommended but not required to enter the country). The officer asked for all of my paperwork, which he confiscated along with my passport and told me to wait. So i waited, and waited, and after each minute that passed without gaining entry into the country my anxiety increased. Every possible worse-case scenario was running though my head, most of which involved my life turning into "The Terminal," or worse, having to return to the US. After a half an hour the officer returned with another, even more intimidating officer, who berated me with questions. Luckily I was able to convince them that I was not a threat to the country or her majesty, and they reluctantly stamped my passport and let me pass. I grabbed my bags, hailed a taxi, and got the hell out of Heathrow.



One 75 pound cab fare later I was at my dorm, Ramsay Hall. I have described my dorm as "prison-like," not only for the three consecutive locked doors that require a swipe card to gain access, but also for the dark hallways, and scratchy linens. But by far my favorite part of the building is the co-ed bathrooms and shower...this is going to be interesting. My room itself is not bad, aside from being next to the showers. I have space and have added my own homey touches, so its comfortable. So far people in my building have been friendly enough, I have been spending most of my time with people from the dorm two blocks away from mine. Both dorms are only a five minute walk from campus, and the neighborhood seems nice and safe so far.

As for UCL, I have just completed my three days of orientation. There are a lot of international students, somewhere in the 500 to 1000 range. The regular students have just started moving in, so I have been exposed to a lot more American than British students so far, but hopefully that will change when classes start next week. The UCL campus is really nice, and its pretty big so I haven't had the opportunity yet to do any proper exploring/getting lost. Everyone who works here keeps saying how proud they are that its one of the best schools in the world. I translate that into there will be a lot of studying in my near future. But overall, I really like it here, and once everything is settled, I think I am going to thoroughly enjoy my time here.