The East End

I hate to start off with a complaint, but I just discovered that Hulu does not function outside the U.S. and that causes me great pain. Anywho, on to the main subject of this post, which is the East End of London, where I live.

So I am enrolled at Queen Mary's University of London, so this trip is not just a long vacation, I will actually be doing school work. However, the British university is system is a bit different, in that for each class you have only one lecture per week and one seminar (small group meeting) per week. This means I am technically only in class for 8 hours a week. On the flip side, they say that there is a ton more independent work (reading, researching, etc.), and that there usually aren't that many quizzes or smaller assignments. A lot more is based on final papers and exams. Craziness. Anyway, this means I will have a pretty good amount of free time in which to explore, which is nice considering I live in one of the schnazziest places in the world, the East End.

Now traditionally, the East End has been the poorer, more working class area of London (check out the Pet Shop Boys' "West End Girls" for a musical education on the socio-economic differences between London's geographic regions), and it has often been the entry point for immigrants. Word on the street is that Queen Mary's was founded back in the day for smart but poor East End kids who wouldn't be allowed in to England's more established universities, and it was just down the road from me in Whitechapel where Jack the Ripper was doing his business in the 1800's. Today, the area is still less well-off then other areas of London, and the immigrant population still remains huge. Though the majority of the immigrants around here are from South Asia and the Middle East, there are also a lot from East Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe. You can hear like 5 or 6 different languages every time you walk down the street, and theres people in Middle Eastern dress all over the place. A bit of a surprising thing I've noticed is all the fried chicken places in the area, and around London in general. There are actual KFC's everywhere and also a ton of KFC knock-offs. Copyright laws must be lax over here because I've seen places that look just like a KFC with names like PFC or FFC. Craziness.

This area is also really up and coming apparently. There are a lot of young people around, because of the school and just because its kind of a trendy area. Interspersed in between all the chicken shops are schnazzy little restaurants and shops and what not (yes, you have counted correctly, that is two uses of the word schnazzy in one post). Not exactly my cup of tea, but its a cool area to be in regardless. Additionally, most of the stuff for the 2012 Olympics is going up on this side of town, so thats adding another level of excitement and investment. On the whole, its pretty neat. And preparation H feels good.

Thats it for now, thanks for reading.