Better Late Than Never…

So sorry it took me so long to update this… Life has been hectic, to say the least. But enjoyable, for sure. I really love it here.

Where did I leave you all off? Oh yeah, way back in orientation week! So we went on a bus tour of London one day, it was really enjoyable! Up until that point, we really hadn’t seen much of London above ground, other than when we were driving in on that charter bus from Heathrow. We pretty much hit all the hot spots, Hyde Park, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Harrod’s, Victoria and Albert Museum, Buckingham Palace, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, and tons of other things I’m leaving out. Unfortunately, its been awhile since I did this, so my memory isn’t very good. Remind me again why I procrastinated so much in writing this?

The next day, we were supposed to be out of our flats at 7 in the morning (seriously…) on the coach outside of our flats for our day trip out of London. So we got up and complained our way onto the bus. Actually, now that I remember, the ride wasn’t so bad! I really couldn’t close my eyes because everything outside the window was just so neat and I really didn’t want to miss anything. So, about 2 hours later, we made it to Salisbury Cathedral. The surrounding town was just adorable, pretty much like every town in England. I wish we had a little more time to explore it all, but that’s ok. The actual cathedral was HUGE. Apparently, it’s the biggest cathedral in all of the United Kingdom. The tower is about 450 ft. high, to put things in perspective. It’s phenomenal from the outside, because it looks like every single inch was carved into different shapes, patterns, and statues. The attention to detail is crazy. And just like every cathedral in Europe, walking in was a little bit overwhelming. There was definitely a lot to see. Unfortunately, we had the same tour guide as we did during the walking tour of Little Venice. Don’t get me wrong, he was a really nice guy, but it was more than a little frustrating the way he rushed us through things. We had absolutely no time to take things in for ourselves; there was only enough time to listen to whatever he had to say. But still, the cathedral was really awesome. Oh, and we saw the Magna Carta. Even after having it explained to me from a Brit, I still don’t really understand its significance to British government. Oh well.

So after Salisbury, we hopped on the bus to Avesbury. Someone asked the tour guide how far away it was, and he said “Eh, about 20 minutes.” So an hour later, we arrived in Avesbury, starving because it was already 1:30 and we had gotten up at 7:00. Avesbury is pretty much a less exciting version of Stonehenge. The reason they decided to take us to Avesbury is because apparently Stonehenge is too crowded and you’re allowed to touch the stones at Avesbury, unlike at Stonehenge. They told us we had exactly an hour at this location, so as soon as we got off the coach, naturally, all of us found our way straight to the café. Honestly, it wasn’t because we didn’t want to the stones, but it was because we were all to dizzy and light-headed from lack-of-food. Typical college kids for you. So after waiting in line forever and having a pretty good casserole-thingy for lunch, we went back to the coach (because it had already been an hour). Luckily, we went over to some stones on our way back, so it wasn’t a total waste of time.

After Avesbury, someone asked the tour guide how long it would take us to Bath, and he said “Eh, about 15 minutes.” So an hour and a half later, we arrive in Bath, ready for some awesome sight-seeing. Bath was AMAZING. Before we were supposed to go into the Roman baths, we had time to go tour the city of Bath for about half an hour. The town is absolutely beautiful. All of the buildings hint at Italy, and it makes you want Gelato really bad. Ok, maybe not for you, but it did for me. Still, it was very cool. And, thank goodness, we had enough to explore a little bit on our own. So me, Jackie, Sam, and Kaitlin went to a fudge shop and bought some fudge. SO GOOD. Then we made our way into the baths, which I’ve actually been in, and most of which I remembered from when I went there with Mom and Dad. Pretty cool! Made for some definite cool pictures. Who knew the Romans took their baths so seriously? On the way home, our coach driver made some seriously bold decisions through the tiny streets of Bath… and it made us all very nervous… but alas, we made it home in one piece 2 short and nap-filled hours later. We all slept well that night.

The next day was Sunday, and it was our free day before starting our internships on Monday and starting classes on Tuesday. Sunday morning, Shea and I got up early and adventured over to Tottenham Court Road to the Dominion Theatre to go to Hillsong for church. It was INCREDIBLE, I loved it so much. It was pretty intense, and a little intimidating, if I’m being honest. But it was still a really great experience. I think I’ll go back sometime while I’m here. After church, the rest of our flatmates met us at a Burger King across the street, and we then proceeded to go shopping over in Covent Garden, which a super trendy and fun place. Me and Sam broke away from the group and went down to Waterloo and went on the London Eye. So much fun and such B-E-A-Utiful views of London!! After that, we went to go check out where the heck our internships were. We found hers easily enough, but trying to find mine was a struggle to say the least. We got pretty lost on the tube and we ended up being underground that day for about two or three hours. Nuts.

So Monday was my first day at my internship, which is at Peace One Day, a non-profit organization created to increase knowledge of the International Day of Peace on September 21st. Because it was my first day, I definitely felt like a real dork in my dress pants and nice top, because everyone in the office (most of which are between 24 and 26) was wearing cute outfits and jeans. But still, my supervisor is very nice, and everyone working there is really cool, even if they were super stressed. Understandable, because Peace Day was less than 2 weeks away at this point. Anyway, some of the girls at the office took me out for lunch and I got to know them a little bit. They’re all so sweet, it was a lot of fun. I didn’t do too much, mainly because I didn’t really know my way around the office yet. I went home feeling pretty unaccomplished. I guess that’s just how first days go…

Next day was my first day at Anglo-American, which is where I have class every Tuesday and Thursday. I have a feeling I’ll be taking the Bakerloo line on the Tube down to Oxford St. and then Taking the Central Line down to Holborn MANY times while I’m here… My first class is British Theatre, where we go and see a bunch of plays all over London. The class was pretty uneventful, and it looks like my teacher won’t be doing a lot of actual “teaching”. But the good news is all the sweet plays we get to see!! Anyway, my British History class is officially named “British History—from Hitler to the Beatles”… the name was enough to have me sold. The actual class is amazing, our professor is this guy named Sean, who is absolutely hilarious. Class felt like a one-man show, because it was so entertaining. And I honestly didn’t realize how different history is from a British perspective!! Silly Americans, using our propaganda and putting our spin on things… Well, anyway, the class is great.

So the next day was my second day of work, and I definitely felt an improvement. Everyone is so nice here, and even though the environment is pretty stressed out all the time, especially because Peace Day was coming up. It’s easy to feel comfortable here. After work, I headed home, and we met our local buddies, Louis and Jeremy, outside the Organic Store down the street, and they took us on a pub crawl around the area. It was great! We started at the Windsor Castle, which was the one we went to the week before. Because of the huge soccer game that night, it was SO crowded. I had a Strongbow cider here, and of course, it was delicious. We then moved onto the Warwick Castle, which was a few streets over. This place is great, they have this specialty called a “snakebite,” which is Strongbow cider with black currant flavoring. It’s sooooo good!! Definitely my favorite. I liked this pub more than the last because it has the feeling of an old-timey British pub, and there are always friendly people there. The last pub we went to was over by the canals… Hence it’s name, the “Canal Café.” Here, we were told that they serve this strawberry beer, which sounds disgusting. Actually, it’s not so bad. I was really relieved to taste more strawberry than beer. I really loved this place, it’s more updated than most pubs. And upstairs, theres a comedy club, which I can’t wait to go to one night! Also, the food is amazing. I only had fries, but they were delicious. After this pub, we were beat, so we headed home.

The next day I had history class again, after when I got home, I got an AWESOME surprise!! Nicole Hebert came to visit me! Yay! So she and Alex came in and we went to eat, and later that night me, Sam, and Jackie took them over to the Canal Café for fries and a drink. The next morning, we woke up and were relieved because it was FRIDAY! No work, and no class! So we headed over to Buckingham Palace and took a tour of the Coach Rooms. It was absolutely beautiful!! Of course, all of the rooms were very ornate, there were lots of paintings, statues, and gold, of course. A really cool part was this one room that had a few of the Queen’s more famous gowns, which were super-intense. If I were a Queen, I would totally dress like that. So after our short stint as royalty, we headed over to Piccadilly Circus so Nicole and Alex could enjoy the Time Square of London. A little later, we headed over to South Kensington and saw the Science Museum, mainly because it was free entrance, and Alex wanted to see all the nerdy things they had displayed there. Nicole and I were definitely pleasantly surprised, because there were a lot of cool things displayed, especially about space. Most people don’t know this about me, but I secretly want to be an astronaut. So I thought it was pretty cool. THE best part, by far, was this film we paid five pounds to see (Alex, if you’re watching this, you still owe me this money back, in my opinion, for making us watch this, haha). It was 2 minutes long, our chairs moved around awkwardly, and we got sprayed in the face with water. Oh well. Then we went up to the top floor, which was dedicated to “the future”…. It was pretty lame. Let me put this into perspective, it was pretty much a glorified balcony with weird lighting… and there was a bench in the middle, and GET THIS—a bum was sleeping on it. Maybe the museum should re-think this whole free-entrance thing. We went into the basement to see the “stuff” exhibit, and we saw how a toilet worked, complete with fake poop… Yeah, I thought it was a little insane myself. But hey, the place was free, so I can’t really say I felt ripped off. Afterwards, we went to an all-you-can-eat Chinese restaurant for dinner. Can we have a moment of silence for how wonderful this was??? ……………………………….. Thank you.

So we woke up on Saturday and Sam and I met up with Nicole and Alex at the Tower of London, which was SO much fun. There’s a lot to see, like the Henry VIII exhibit. This dude was FAT. We could tell, because they showed his armor as he got older, so you could actually track him getting fatter with age, haha. There was also, of course, the crown jewels, which were incredible. But cameras weren’t allowed, boo. There was a monument where Anne Boleyn and other famous people were executed. Kind of gruesome, I know… But then there were also the ravens of the Tower of London. These things were FAT. They must get it from Henry the VIII. But yeah, they clip their wings, so I guess they can’t get very much exercise, other than hopping around along the ground, poor things. It’s kind of funny why they clip their wings—apparently, there’s this legend that if the ravens of the Tower of London fly outside the walls, the White Tower, the inner tower, would crumble, and the Lions in Trafalgar Square would come to life and start eating people. Needless to say, I don’t blame them for clipping those crow wings. Wouldn’t want to get eaten by a lion, gosh. But yeah, those ravens have a better life expectancy than us, a regular raven has a life expectancy of 12 years, and these ravens live up to about 44. Yeah, no kidding. So outside of the Tower of London, I bought a sweet painting of London, and I’ve officially started a collection.

I’m sorry I haven’t added a blog post in FOREVER, I’ll keep trying to catch up!! Please don’t give up on me J I’ll continue to post here! Love you guys, hope you’re having a good week!

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!