Only two days down, but it feels as though a month has flown
by.
After spending all day on a plane,
I arrived in London at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday morning. And the only word that
could be used to describe making it through Thursday would be: the grind. After
enduring the extreme jet lag and hours of orientation, most kids were down for
the count by 6:30 p.m. It is even surprising to me that I was able to make it
past that wall and enjoy the rest of the night, even though it seems like a
complete blur at this point. Although Thursday was such a hard day to get
through, several highlights of the day included:
Moving into our new flat, in which I have 5 roommates. My
room lucked out for some reason and ended up getting the biggest room with so
much space we don’t even know what to do with. But hey, I’m not complaining.
Grocery shopping. Due to the high prices of well…everything
in London, we are all trying to be thrifty and make our own food for most
meals. The trouble with this is attempting to master the different grocery
stores in London. Unlike the US, there isn’t one large grocery store that
supplies all your needs. You have to go to different stores for different
items. One of which being tuber ware to store food, which no one has still been
able to find anywhere.
Walking around London for the first time. Our flat is
located in Waterloo, which for those who don’t know is about a five to ten
minute walk from the London Eye/Big Ben. Between our flat and where we take
classes, we are pretty much located in the center of London.
Picking up the newest in phone technological innovations.
LOL.
Finishing the night at a local hotspot called O’Neills,
which is a three-story joint with a variety of musical options included a live
band on the third floor, which we rallied to and danced to all night.
After
getting minimal amount of sleep, we all had to wake up Friday to start our
first day of classes. While I am here, I am taking two classes: London as Arts
Capital and British Moral Philosophy. While the philosophy will be a more
challenging class, the fine arts class seems exciting with a visit to a
different museum almost every class. Even after our first class, our assignment
was to experience the National Gallery (located right next to school) for the
first time. Word to the wise though: Photos are not allowed, something I was
promptly scolded for after attempting to get this picture.
After
enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather we’ve been having and having a lovely lunch in
Trafalgar Square, I had my second class, and then Lauren and I took to
exploring some of the city. Highlights of Friday included:
Getting lost. After walking for ten minutes longer than we
were supposed to be, we realized we were actually moving in the opposite
direction of where we needed to go, but hey, it was gonna happen at some point.
Seeing Buckingham Palace and waving hello to our favorite
lady, the Queenie.
Making fun of the guards. Unfortunately, we have yet to make
one of them laugh (a goal of mine for the trip).
Mastering the subway system for the first time. We only went
from one stop to the next, but hey we did it on our own.
Ending the night by going to a Hole in the Wall (which is
the actual name of a literal hole in the wall type joint) and then once again
dancing the night away at the interesting establishment called Zoo Bar. (I
still don’t understand the Zoo reference, as I did not see any zoo references
anywhere.) Side note, London is also just as gorgeous at night.
We don’t have
anything planned until a little later this morning, so Lauren, Meg, and I went
to a big food market called Borough Market about a mile from our flats and
enjoyed a great breakfast of tomato, mascarpone, and pesto quiches. YUM.
So far
everyone in the group is getting along really well, and we are all fully
enjoying the experience that has been given to us. With a full weekend of
activities and trip planning ahead, I honestly have accepted the fact that
sleep will be hard to come by while here. Well thats it for now, but I will keep updating as much as possible.
Cheers,
Elyse
No comments:
Post a Comment