3rd Day (April 28th)

I WOKE UP and I RAN! Be so so so impressed. Well actually we more walked because Jacque has asthma so we just enjoyed Hyde Park.

Swans in the Park

Yay for "Exercise"

Pretty River

We ate breakfast at 8 and met in the classroom at 9.

We talked for an hour approximately before heading to the National Gallery, where we split into two groups. First we did the London Walks tour of Westminster and Parliament, where we walked down the street from Trafalgar Square to Big Ben and back, with Greg talking in our ear.

Then we switched with the other group and walked through the National Gallery.

"Hello... It's me"

Sassy Roman outside of gallery

We finished up at about 1:30pm and I tagged along with Annie and Bethany to HARROD's!

really? (and this wasn't even the weirdest thing)

Then back for dinner, then back out for more shopping. Not really my scene, but I did buy a cute coat so. It feels like it was a much longer day than this, but I guess it summed up pretty nicely. Until tomorrow!

main shopping street

The "SALE" rack at Gap. I think I know why it isn't a great seller...

Tired after so much shopping

2nd Day (probably the best day of my life so far) (also it was April 27th)

WAS gonna get up and run at 6:30 with the early crew, but didn't do that, ended up getting up 10 minutes before breakfast time (which is nonnegotiable) so I really fast got dressed and headed downstairs.

I ended up adding a scarf and jacket and changing into Tennis Shoes for the final effect ;)

Usually I am not a breakfast person, but I guess the jet lag got to me, because I was HUNGRY! I finished up breakfast and then finished getting ready until 9 o'clock, when we were to meet in the classroom (I'll post a video/virtual tour tomorrow so you get a better feel for it) for a "quick review" before headed to the british museum. That "quick review" ended up being 4 hours of rules and regulations, then history overview, which was a long time to sit and take notes in a chair (no desks). It was rough, but made me excited for the semester! Then we all quick made a sandwich from the serviery (kitchen), and hopped on a bus to the British Museum. While we are here, we have these things called receivers, which basically is a microphone to our earphones, so we look like tacky tourists walking around the museum with Martha talking in our ear.

It was really cool to walk through and learn more about the individual pieces and how they represent the culture, though. We did egypt, assyria, sumer, and greece today and I took 8 pages of notes 0.o My hand was tired by the end trying to write while walking. It was rough, but that is something I can deal with :)

This is the only thing I took a picture of in the Museum. Dead Lions==nice

We were set free to explore for an hour at 4oclock, with the mandate to be back for dinner at 5:30. I opted to ride right back to the center, with the idea that I would get ready for a run before hand THEN eat THEN run. That also didn't happen (that's 0/2 running). I ended up journaling until dinner, which was pea soup! Classy right?

Then a couple of us decided we were going to go walk around Notting Hill. BUT! we then decided we wanted to see portobello road. We thought they were on the way to each other, but they are not. They are in the same direction, but not enough to be two things to do on the same day. So we headed to portobello road and took pictures with all the cute store fronts. We got there too late to do any browsing, but at least this way we didn't bother any real shoppers with our selfie stick pictures (stick creds to @em_nie)

Annie Seylander posing beautifully

SAY-ELFIE :)

Riding with Style

Aesthetic

Tried to get my travel bug with the Portobello Road sign; but it didn't work

Then we adventured our way back to the center and I started in on this whole blog thing :)

First Day! April 26th

So, after arriving at the London Centre at noonish, I went upstairs to my bedroom. There are 12 of us in one room (yikes), and there are 2 toilets and 3 showers for us. We each have an 8 feet tall closet for our clothes (in which mine fit easily) and one bin under our bunk bed. It is understandably crowded, but also we don't have THAT much stuff so it shouldn't be too bad. I tossed my stuff on my bed and headed downstairs where Martha took us on a tour of the area, and we grabbed lunch from a Tesco express. I grabbed a weird sounding sandwich but it ended up being pretty decent!

Then we walked back to the center to join the group at 2:30, with our Oyster Cards and our attitudes ready to roll. We did a little bit of introducing and when the last group arrived, we hopped on the tube and headed to St Paul's cathedral for Evensong/FHE.

We were kind of late, so we missed a lot of the singing, but the devotional/speech part was really interesting about St Mellitus, patron Saint of London. He talked about how he denied the Sacrament to the sons of a church member because they were unbaptized and about how it was important to be full members of the church to partake in the sacred ordinances, and it was just interesting how similar that was to our church and the Sacrament and the Temple! Spiritual thought for the day! Also I may or may not have sung Feed the Birds at these pigeons on the steps of St Paul's... :)

Then we hopped on a RED DOUBLE DECKER BUS (still can't get over that) and went to Pizza Hut for all you can eat pizza, which was definitely a hit with the Jet lagged, travel weary, college kids.

Us on the Bus

Then it was back home and pretty quickly to bed, because we were all tired out.

Coming to London (April 25th)

My flight left at 1:50pm so I got to say goodbye in the morning to my family. My dad dropped me off at the airport, and while we were there, we happened to run into my aunt Julie, who works there. I was trying to delay the solo part of my adventure, but eventually my dad shoved me into the TSA precheck line (thanks dad) and off I went.

It was a really short line in security so I had an hour and a half until they even started boarding my plane. I went to McDonalds (quality dining right there folks),

and then went to my gate to wait it out. I ended up sitting and striking up a conversation (yeah, I know it's crazy, but I did it. I extroverted.) with a fellow member of my program named Jacque (Jack-Key). We chatted until we boarded but were on different next flights and she had to book it so I didn't see her again until London. They ended up gate-checking my luggage, which was nice because I didn't have to lug it anywhere. My first flight was into JFK.

somewhere farm-y

It was 4 or 5 hours long and I spent the whole time reading and started and finished a book. Flying over NYC was actually really cool because I recognized Time Square and Central Park from above. I looked for the Statue of Liberty but it was getting pretty dark.  We landed at 8:30 local time, and I took a shuttle to the other terminal where my next flight was taking off from. I decided to follow my dad's advice and not eat (as it was nighttime UK) so breakfast could seem more like breakfast, but to distract myself from that I started another book, and forgot to take Melatonin for my redeye flight. In addition when I got onto the flight, the man next to me had stolen my window seat and I was too timid to ask for it back. He was also an elderly black man who didn't speak English well, so I didn't really want to deal with trying to get my seat back.  So aisle seat it was. -.- I didn't sleep well, but I doubt I would have slept well regardless. I did end up sleeping through BOTH meals (dinner-which I planned not to eat and Breakfast which I was planning on), but I got myself awake and situated before the plane landed so I was rip-ready-roaring for London. I got off the plane, through passport and control and customs and found my baggage.

As I was headed for the tube I found Jacque again! Apparently they had lost/left her luggage back at JFK! And she was supposed to meet up with another girl coming at a time close to hers, but couldn't get in contact with her because her email and phone didn't like that she was in a different country. The girl didn't answer my calls either so we decided to just go on with the assumption she had already left. We took the tube and found our way down to the LONDON CENTRE. (At about noon) Peeps, I'm in heaven.

Sorry it is kind of long, but that basically concludes my travels to London.

London Living

So I decided to post on here so everyone can see my day by day journey and I don't have to blow up anyone's snapchat or instagram feed. :)

Just a general information share:

My study abroad program is 7 weeks (I'll be back June 14th)
My teachers are Martha and Greg Peacock and Cecelia Peek.
Yes I am excited. :)
My two classes are World Civ 1 and World Civ 2 both with art history emphasis, so over the course of the program I should basically know anything about world history.
I am one of 40 students (8 boys, 32 girls), only two of which I knew before hand and only because I went to high school with them.
Yes I packed all my clothes for 7 weeks in a carry on. (My mother is an amazing real life tetris master)

Yeah, that about covers it. Hopefully I'll get to posting once every two days or so, but all bets are off in London :)

Can you tell I'm excited?