Week 1 & 2: Moving and Orientation
September 22-October 5, 2025
Hello from London!
After weeks of waiting, classes are finally about to start! The last 2 weeks of moving and orientation have been flying by. My parents and I left Houston on September 22nd with a grand total of 5 bags. There were 4 for me, 1 for my dad, and my mom just had her carry-on. Dad asked multiple times where her other bag was only for Mom to gleefully remind him she was carrying everything on. It made me laugh every time.
The cab ride into the city with all 5 checked bags, 3 backpacks, and a carry on.
The 9 hour flight included a baby who, of course, would not stop crying for long periods of time and a small yelling match that broke out a few rows behind us where the flight attendants had to get involved. I’m not completely sure what the argument was about but the yelling woke everyone up from their less-than-comfortable sleeping. Other than that, the flight was fine.
We landed in Heathrow at around 7 am and had the day ahead of us. We dropped off the bags at the hotel and endeavored to stay awake and keep moving for as long as possible. We made it to a cute bookstore called Daunt Books in Marylebone and scoped out a charming embroidering and bed linen store called Cologne & Cotton which was right next door. After that, we collectively decided that the only way to get through the rest of the day was to take a nap. Apparently, flying 9 hours with a crying baby on board does take a toll. We proceeded to nap the rest of the day and only crawl out of the hotel for dinner at a little Italian place down the street.
Daunt Books (on the left) had so many great books. This floor was arranged by country of interest. The upstairs by genre. Super cute! And the people working there gave excellent recommendations!
The rest of the week was all about moving. We got up early and went all day long. For every store we went to, it felt like 2 more stores were added to the list to go to next. But, we made progress slowly but surely. We spent far too much time in the John Lewis (a UK department store) and had to practically beg to get a set of 3/4 size sheets. You may be asking: Sam, what the hell are 3/4 size sheets? Great question! Many of the sales reps also asked me this even though it is a UK-specific size! It is apparently the size between a single and a double. And it was almost impossible to find anywhere. We eventually had to just order it online at the store and pick it up the following day. While it is nice to not have twin bed, the strange size has its own challenges.
We also braved the Ikea at Oxford Circus…alongside every student in London, it seemed. After navigating the endless maze of Swedish furniture for over an hour, we could finally see the check out section. The light at the end of the tunnel! We just needed to get through lamps and then check out with all the things in our cart—all the last things I needed for my dorm. But, suddenly, the fire alarm starts blaring. Employees start ushering us out. We have to abandon our cart. We are herded up 3 flights of stairs out of the bowels of this Ikea and onto the packed street outside. Despite waiting 20 minutes, the IKEA is still not clear to enter and we end up bailing. None of us had the strength to go all the way back through IKEA again and decide I can just order it all online instead (This became a different issue the following week as the order kept cancelling and took an additionally 5 days to arrive with my plates, bowls, skillet, and shelves for my tiny bathroom. It just arrived yesterday finally!).
After a few more small stops, we finally drop everything at the dorm and get it all moved in. It took 4 days of shopping and driving back and forth from Oxford Circus to Kentish Town (30 min in the cab!) before my room was finally in live-able shape! Does the room have prison cell energy? Yes. But, I’m hoping I can fix that in time. I’m thinking that a rug and some art will go a long way. Once shopping for my room was done, we could finally have a little fun!
We did some “fun shopping” down Regents Street for clothes. Dad had a good haul and I found some cute new clothes to take with me. Mom scored a new purse, too. Per Dad’s request, we visited the Sherlock Holmes museum on Baker Street. It was shockingly small! The museum is a 3 story apartment, essentially. The 1st floor is meant to look like Sherlock’s flat with the loud wallpaper and antique furniture. Truthfully, I’m not sure which Sherlock Holmes story or media it’s supposed to most resemble. Regardless, it has all the antique chemistry equipment, the violin, even the bullet holes in the wall. The 2nd floor was more antiques and vintage copies of the books through the ages. The top floor housed busts for each actor that has played Sherlock on the screen. Mom did point out they were missing a few, including the actor from Elementary. But Benedict Cumberbatch was included and his bust even had the signature blackberry phone and blue scarf. Mom and I finished our walkthrough in under 20 minutes while Dad took his time.
After the museum, we had to detour back to the phone store because my phone decided it did not want to receive any messages at all! After some drama to resolve it, we booked it back to the West End to watch The Devil Wears Prada musical. It was a super fun show and felt very classic musical theatre. It definitely has me looking forward to the new movie coming out! Also, I ran into a friend from college sitting just 2 rows ahead of us. We hadn’t talked since graduation and we just briefly caught up during intermission. Crazy odds! Ironically, something similar happened when I first moved to DC. My first concert in the city I ran into 2 friends from high school and 1 girl from college in the line to get in, all of whom I had not spoken to in a minimum of 3 years!
Then, it was Sunday! I gave my parents a hug that morning and while they headed back to the airport, I headed to my dorm! Week 1 in London complete! If I go back to any of the high shopping streets this month, it will be way too soon.
The inside of the theatre (far left) was decorated like a runway, with red carpet, dresses, and of course, big RUNWAY signs.
The following week was orientation! It started bright and early on Monday with enrollment. This whole week has been lectures and advice sessions from 9-3 each day with the exception of Wednesday which was the “Fresher’s Fair”, where all the societies table and you can sign up for clubs. I signed up for the email list of probably too many so we’ll have to see what sticks. The list of what I signed up for is as follows:
Equine Club
Emergency Medicine Society
Surgery Society
Anatomy Society
Zoological Society
Judo Club
Volleyball Club
SAVMA (the student American Veterinary Medicine Association (AVMA) society)
Study Club
Sub-Aqua club (the marine veterinary medicine and scuba diving club)
And honestly maybe a few more. There were a lot of clubs.
The week was mostly lectures on how to succeed in vet school, use all of our online resources, etc. I’ve gotten to meet lots of my classmates. There’s only about 70-90 people in the GAB (Graduate Accelerated 4 year Program) and everyone seems very nice.
After orientation, there were several Student Union events downtown. Most of them were parties at the clubs in Soho ( I went to the first one and felt like I could cross that off the list. The club scene is not really for me). I went out a few times with friends in my program for drinks at a nearby pub and then we all went out for the society pub crawl on Saturday. We went to 7 pubs in the Camden area where different societies had activities to win points (drinking games or silly challenges). I think the people with the most points would win some prize but the prize was never told so who knows!
I did get recruited for the soccer (football) team after I mentioned I was a goalie in high school. I had mentioned it to a girl I had met in line for the bar who happened to be on the team. Within 5 minutes of her and I walking different directions with our drinks, the captain and the coach had found me and were trying to recruit me to join! They have “Give it a Go” day this coming week so I may head out to the Hawkshead campus to play a bit and see if I’ll actually join.
In all, is been a busy 2 weeks! I’ve spent most of today (Sunday, Oct. 5) just getting organized and ready for the busy week and semester ahead. Everyone during orientation kept saying how intense GAB year was so it’s a little intimidating. But, regardless, I’m so happy to be here and can’t wait to actually get started! I’ll keep you updated on how the week goes hopefully next weekend!
Until then!
Love,
Sam
P.S. I’m working on taking photos with me in it. Maybe next week!