Adventures on the Tube

Waking up this morning was a little difficult to say the least. Enjoying life in a foreign country is tiring, apparently. We had to be up and ready to go at 9:30 this morning outside of our flats for a walking tour of Little Venice and the surrounding area. First of all, our tour guide was this adorable elderly Irish man who used his huge umbrella to point out everything. It was so neat! We walked alongside the canals throughout Little Venice and ended up in Regent’s Park, which I am convinced is the place where Roger and Anita met in 101 Dalmations. It was really pretty, because there were a ton of ponds, all of which you could rent a boat in. One of the ponds had bumper boats, which definitely caught my eye. One thing that definitely ticked me off was that the dang 2-hour tour wasn’t in a circle. It ended in Regent’s Park, which was a good 45-minute walk away from the flats, and I didn’t think to bring my Tube pass. And neither did a good number of other people. Lame. So I spent 5 pounds on a day pass for Zones 1 and 2 and used that all day.

Sidenote, one of my flatmates, Jackie, ALMOST didn’t make it out in time for our stop once today on the tube. I cannot possibly explain in words the looks of horror on both our faces and her own face. God must have been paying attention, because somehow, the doors opened back up, and she was able to jump off and join us. Close one…

So our flat had some awesome bonding today, which was such a blast! We all went out for dinner over near the Piccadilly Circus Tube stop. This place was incredible. It’s pretty much the Times Square of London. We walked out of the tube, and my jaw just dropped. Of course there were tons of people, and bright advertisements all around, but what shocked me was that the buildings were all Victorian and beautiful. I felt like they were the CGI in the background of some movie, except it was all somehow real. Incredible.

We then proceeded to walk all around the area looking for a place to eat dinner. There were TONS of places, but unfortunately, they were all so dang expensive. It was good, though, because we ventured into all these little nooks and crannies of London that most tourists would never see. We saw where lots of shows are playing and we randomly found ourselves in the middle of Chinatown. There were some definite funny moments there; we saw Asians with facemasks on, which was funny. Eventually, we found this hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant called Rosodesere, which was absolutely delicious! I had this pasta which would have been equivalent to Elon’s bowtie ballet in Octagon. But it wasn’t even comparable—it was REAL Italian. So we ventured over to the Holborn tube stop and made our way back to Warwick Avenue to come back home. And that’s the end of another day in Little Venice. Tomorrow, coach tour all over London! Look forward to some sweet pictures!!

Fanny Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means…

Cheerio, mates!

So, I made it to London! I didn’t think I’d ever get here, but I am! The trip over wasn’t too bad, everything I could complain about was pretty much expected. I was afraid that on the flight from Atlanta to Newark I would be freaking out the whole time, but I pretty much just slept the entire time. I guess it was a good idea to only sleep 4 hours the night before…

So I got to Newark and Continental Airlines had this room reserved for us, since it was a group flight over to London. So I was about the 5th person there out of the 30 of us, and I ended up waiting a little over 4 hours for our flight. I thought it would be really fun getting to know everyone and talking and stuff, but it was SO boring. So some lady finally came and kicked us out around 9:15, and we boarded our plane not long after. I was sitting in a window seat next to two other people from our trip, who were both really nice. The best part about the flight? The individual touch screens on the back of the seats in front of us. Seriously, these things were AWESOME. We had the choice of 40 movies and 60 t.v. shows for us to watch. So, naturally, I watched 3 episodes of Friends and 2 eisodes of the Office. After a while, I started getting REALLY sleepy, so I tried to sleep. Surprise, surprise, it didn’t really happen. But only 6 hours and 2 swollen feet later, we finally landed in England. SWEET.

So we walked off the plane and followed this crazy hallway that was supposed to take us to customs, and I definitely felt like I was either in a hospital or the Shining because it went ON and ON. I was looking for those creepy twins at the end of the hallway, but they never showed up. We finally found customs, and apparently so did about a million other people, which meant we stood in line for about 2 hours waiting to actually be let into the country. The customs lady I talked to really grilled me about our program, which made me ridiculously nervous. For a really scary moment, I thought I’d have to turn around and fly home, but then I realized how stupid that would be…

This bus took us to our flats, which means we got to see the beautiful city as we drove in. Everything is so neat!! All the houses are so old and adorable, and all the buildings in the city are so beautiful. It’s like I’m living in a city made of art that’s really pretty to look at, except you live in it. Weird, I know.

After unpacking, we went for a walk around our neighborhood, which is called Little Venice. It’s really beautiful, and all of our neighbors are SUPER rich. We have this one neighbor who is, and I quote, “one can short of a 6-pack…” But we went to this little French restaurant for lunch, and it was really great. It was our first moment of culture shock, though, because we realized that we had NO idea how to tip, or if it was polite to ask for the check, or if it was alright to even split the check! (apparently it isn’t…) Anywho, then we got some groceries, and went back home.

On a side note, I bought my first alcoholic beverage yesterday, and it was a bottle of wine. I felt really cool and I was really excited to be carded when I got to the register, and the guy didn’t even ask for it. Oh well.

Last night me and my flatmates tried to watch a movie, but we couldn’t keep our eyes open. Needless to say, I was in bed by 8:30. I love using Jet Lag as an excuse for extra sleep!
This morning, we had to be in Bloomsbury at Anglo-American at 10:30, which is where we have our classes. To be safe, we left an hour ahead of time. We bought our temporary Tube passes. Let me just say, the most gratifying thing about the London Underground is taking your Oyster card and waving it in front of the machine to make the gates come up. I feel like a magician every time I do it. Speaking of magicians, we’re going to platform 9 ¾ in King’s Cross at some point! As Harry Potter would say, “wicked!”

So at Anglo-American, we learned all kinds of useful information in our orientation session. For example, it’s impolite to be loud in London. Honestly, I’ve never noticed how incredibly loud Americans are until I’ve been here. I don’t know how the English do it! They must have really good hearing. So then we had a lunch break, and because we were a little homesick, we went to Subway for lunch. I know, typical Americans. I am so excited about this week! I know we’re gonna have some really big adventures in store.

Tonight, we decided we wanted to experience some “real” London nightlife. So, we went to a local pub called the Windsor Castle. We felt like such American dorks walking around, when we were outside, we awkwardly asked the people gathered around, “is this a pub?” We are dumb. So we walked in, and I had my very first pint. Ugh, beer is so gross, but I’ve found out that their cider is really good! I expected everyone to leave us alone and roll their eyes at the “stupid Americans”, but they were all really friendly! We met these two guys named Jeremy and Louis, who were both great guys who promised to give us the “rundown” of the nightlife in Little Venice. Then we met this guy who had an awesome Kermit the frog impression. This dude had jokes. It was a really good night, and it was awesome that we already made friends with locals by the second night. I’m hoping that for the rest of my time here I can soak up as much of the British lifestyle as I can. Yay, London!

That’s it for now, love you all, Cheerio!