Fourth First Day and the Weekend

     I'm a few days behind on here. Okay, so Friday I had another class at the business school. Lucky for me, I had lecture in the same theater I did before, so I didn't get too lost. Seeing as I was 30 minutes early though, I decided to hang out in the library for a bit. Later that night my roommate and I decided to go out for sushi and they just so happened to have cocktails there so of course we had to try them out. Not too bad actually.

     Saturday I got to see Mindy and Aaron! It was fun to walk around Portobello Market with them and show them around. I was so happy that my mom sent over a few things from home! Especially the Spongebob macaroni and cheese! I haven't found any mac and cheese here. Being the baby that I am my roommate and I decided to make it for dinner...along with pizza. Healthy right? Then that night all my roommates and I played cards and hung out. Plans for today include homework and Harry Potter so I best be going! Harry Potter awaits!

business school library

business school library

friday night cocktails

mindy!

healthy meal

spongebob mac and cheese

casual saturday night

Third First Day

     I had my Art and Society class today. I LOVED it. First we had a lecture for an hour and then after that we went to the British Museum to see the horse exhibit. It was right up my alley! After walking about 15 minutes to get there they broke us up into groups. Before going into the horse exhibit we went through the enlightenment room which was really cool. My teacher said that is what a traditional British museum used to be like.

     Of course, the horse exhibit didn't allow you to take photographs. I got to see war horse armor all the way up to the modern day Queen's horse dressage wear. It was really cool! After the horse exhibit we went to the Africa exhibit which was really cool too. I'll have to go back when I have more time and just wander around. Someone in my class did the entire museum! It took just under 5 hours. I want to do it! One rainy Saturday I'll have to make my way over there again.

     Trying to get home was another story. Good thing I had a GPS on my phone or else I would have had no idea where I was going! But I made it back just in time to have the flat to myself for a bit! I made some soup for lunch which was nice since it's getting a bit chilly out now then a few of my roommates and I decided to go for gelato. We found a really good place really close to us on Portobello Road! But when we were sitting outside eating it started to pour... So we waited a few minutes then high-tailed it over to the grocery store before heading home. Not a bad day!

british museum

british museum

hercules in the enlightenment room

horse exhibit

horse exhibit goodies for ATRC

tree of life

africa exhibit

amazing gelato

a little bit of home

Second First Day

     I had two classes today. First I had seminar for a class I didn't have the lecture for yet. I was nervous at first but it was fine because we just did introductions and the outline of what the course is going to be like. I actually made two friends that live in London! One of them has a name I can't pronounce and the other one... I just don't remember her name... Oh well. I'll see them next week. Since my seminar ended early I had an hour before my next class, so I wandered around the maze of a building again trying to find the cafe. I got lost twice.
     Once I found it I left with enough time to try and find my next class room. I must have looked like a lost scared puppy because one of the friends I made came up to me and was like, "Are you lost?" Great right? Whatever, I found my way to my classrooms only to then find out the my teacher isn't the nicest person in the world. She told us that she knows there are a lot of international students but our final group project paper is still due January 7th. Problem, I come home December 15th. She then proceeded to say that she highly recommends us staying in London to finish the project because it will be hard to work over the internet, especially when everyone is in different time zones. Well clearly I'm not staying until January 7th:
1) I already have my plane ticket home
2) All my friends are flying home on December 15th
3) I'm not spending Christmas and New Years by myself
4) My life just does not revolve around her class!

Need I say more?

The other thing that happened tonight... my roommate and I made our dinner that we got for two... It's actually pretty cool... You get a side, a main dish, a dessert and a bottle of wine for £10. Not too bad. Anyway, we made our dinner and it was like hmm this tastes a little funky but we kept eating it anyway, then we made the cream puff and it was sour! I was like, "does this taste weird to you?" and sarah was like "yes!" and I was like "DON'T SWALLOW!"So hopefully we don't die from rank cream puffs tonight!

Day Off

     Since I didn't have class today and neither did my roommate we spend the day wandering around Baker Street. First we went to the Marylebone campus to find the library to print stuff. That was a big fail. The entire building is under construction so everything is a giant maze. I'm oh so happy that I have two classes there tomorrow... After trying to find the library, we came to discover that there was no where to print, so back through the maze we went to find the computer lab. Low and behold there was a computer lab, but we had to pay to print things. So we went to find a machine to top up our student id cards and the machine was broken. So there you go. I also had to get a few books for my classes and right now, the bookstore is in a trailer. Yes, a trailer. Fantastic right? After that we tried to find a pharmacy and Chipotle and wound up walking in a giant circle which we didn't have to do. Actually it was worth it because we passed a Beatles store! I'll have to go back and wander around. Then we walked around a big touristy store which was kind of cool! We saw some interesting things there...

hardcore sequin british dress

sherlock holmes statue

beatles store

sherlock holmes museum

   

First Day

     Well today was the first day of class. Of course it was down pouring, and I left during rush hour so everyone in the tube packed in like sardines. Once I got to my building I looked like a wet rat and I couldn't find my lecture theater. I actually asked a few people (shocking right?) and everyone seemed to be confused as to where we needed to go. Anyway, after having a confusing conversation with people who had very strong british accents, I found where I needed to go. As of now I really like my professor. My only complaint though is that in these big lecture theaters they just have chairs. No little desk accessories so everyone was leaning on their backpacks to have something to write on. My professor let us out an hour early which was really nice. After class I ran a few errands. Not too thrilling!

Tower of London

    Yesterday's adventures included a trip and tour around the Tower of London. The last time I was here was in 2006 with my family and all I could think about was when we were looking at the crown jewels and my sister was looking looking looking and then smacked her head into the glass...classic Chelsea move. Anyway, we learned all about the story of the ravens and how it is said that when the ravens leave the tower and the queen will fall, so they clip the wings of the birds. We also learned about traitors gate and all the beheadings. Did you know that the Tower is where the king used to live? That is why they still have guards there because it used to be a royal palace before they moved to Buckingham Palace. Pretty cool right? When the tour was over we walked around and went into the other towers. I really liked seeing all the old horse saddlery and the horse's armor. That was really cool!

     Today has been a cold, rainy, miserable day, which I suppose is alright! When I was skyping with my family earlier Zoey made a guest appearance. I miss her so much! My roommates and I are all just relaxing and getting prepared for classes to start tomorrow. I'm excited but nervous at the same time, so we'll see what happens!

tower bridge

traitors gate

the ravens

white tower

where anne boleyn was beheaded

guards

crown jewels

white tower

saddle

guard stand

guard

skyping with zoey!!

   

Boat Trip

     Tonight's activities included a boat trip around the river thames. We thought we missed the boat but wound up being right on time. On the tube to the meeting point my roommate and I wound up talking to some other students from France and Sweden because they were going on the boat too. 

     Although it did get quite cold by the end of the ride, it was totally worth it. We got to see the city all lit up which was amazing!

tower bridge

tower bridge

the eye

clock tower

st. paul's

Schedule

So here's my tentative schedule for the rest of the semester:

9/20 - river boat cruise around the thames
9/21 - london eye and westminster abbey
9/22 - tower of london
9/27 - british museum
10/4 - st. paul's cathedral
10/6 - buckingham palace
10/7 - canterbury and dover
10/10 - rock of ages musical
10/11 - national gallery
10/12-10/14 - paris
10/18 - museum of london
10/20 - brighton
10/21 - cambridge
10/25 tate britain
11/2-11/6 - ireland
11/8 - courtauld gallery
11/9-11/12 - scotland
11/17 - stonehenge and bath
11/18 - stratford and warwick castle
11/22 - royal academy and thanksgiving dinner
11/28 - harry potter studio tour
11/29 - victoria and albert museum
12/1 - windsor castle
12/6 - national gallery and national portrait gallery
12/11 - isa farewell party
12/13 - welcome institute and wallace collection
12/15 - back to the usa!

Platform 9 and 3/4

     Today's adventures included a trip to Kings Cross Station and wandering around Hyde Park. We all slept in this morning which was nice, but did not help with our jet lag. We finally left the flat around 3ish and went straight to Kings Cross. I assumed that we were going to take a few luggage carts down to platforms 9 and 10 and run at the wall with them, little did I know that they had a special little place already set up! Cart and everything! I was totally geeking out. 

    Afterwards we got some sandwiches and headed over to Hyde Park. The tube stop we got off at was a little far from the park so we got to see a lot of South Kensington which is absolutely gorgeous. It was such a great day for wandering the park. After taking a few pictures we stopped and had a picnic on the grass and people watched- well, I guess more dog watched. We were so amazed at how the dogs were so well behaved! None of them were on leases. Then we had really annoying pigeons stalking us for crumbs. I will definitely have to go back to the park because I didn't even get half the pictures I wanted to! I could probably spend a few hours just wandering around and taking photographs.  

     Yesterday we had orientation for Westminster. It was so long and painfully boring. But one of the speakers showed us a video, which I posted below. I've had it stuck in my head all day. Last night we went to a pub. Still haven't quite learned pub etiquette so again we stuck out like a bunch of tourists. As one of my roommates said it, "We might as well have been holding the statue of liberties!" I think we almost have it down.....

     

Kings Cross Station

team GB

Hyde Park

Hyde Park

Hyde Park

finally a horse!

part of the Eye

  21 Pilots "Can't Help Falling in Love"

"There was a student who was crossing the street and got hit by a bus... It was fatal"

     Today we had our ISA orientation. Of all the information they tried to shove into our brains which is the one that stuck? "There was a student who was crossing the street and got hit by a bus... It was fatal". Now imagine that being said by a serious looking woman with a Bulgarian accent. Intimidating? Yes. Besides that, it was all information about London.
     We had about an hour and a half after the ISA orientation before we had to be back to start the double decker tour of London. We went to Primark which is just a big department store with really cheap stuff. There were SO many people packed into that store it was crazy. I'm talking Black Friday crazy.
     Seeing everything from up high on the bus was really cool. There was a tour guide on the bottom level of the bus but of course I sat around people that talked the whole time and couldn't hear a word he said, which was a big bummer because I would have liked to know what I was passing besides the big landmarks! Oh well, just another excuse to go back.
     One of the coolest things I saw today was the war museum that had a poster about the blitz. On the side of the building it had a sign that said "air raid bunker this way". That was really cool to see and just a reminder of what London was like during the second world war. When we passed St. Paul's Cathedral it had the same effect of wondering what it must have been like to live in fear seeing as the cathedral was the main target during the blitz.
     We also passed where they used to film Diagon Alley and Gringott's Bank from Harry Potter, the London bridge, fashion week, Trafalgar Square... I'm probably missing things.
     Anyway, when the tour was over, the bus dropped us off in some random spot and they let us go. We had dinner then headed back to the flat. First fish and chips of the trip! I don't even like fish, but I had to get it at least once. We are all exhausted so everyone is just spread out and watching Downton Abbey. Everyone at home must be jealous because it doesn't start in the US for a few more months!

fish n' chips

clock tower

view of westminster from the waterloo bridge

tower bridge

view of st. paul's from the waterloo bridge 

tower of london

war museum

tower bridge

westminster abbey