Markets, Worship, and Train Stations

The Market at Covent Garden

    Here in London, things are starting to fall into a routine. We know where all the closest grocery stores are, we have our regular waitress at our regular pub, and we are starting to explore past the few streets that surround our apartment. Saturday, we all slept fairly late. How late? Thats not really important... We decided to take a subway to Covent Garden, which I honestly knew very little about. When we got there, It was a bustling hub of shopping, markets, and street performers. My favorite part was probably the market. They had lots of handmade jewelry, art, and spunky clothes. Oh! and a very cute candy shop :) I bought a water bottle there and the guy charged me "a pound and a smile." I thought that was cute!

     Sunday was one of my favorite days since I have been here. Imagine a full size, epic music hall. Now fill it up with people from all over the world. Now imagine all of those people lifting their hands and singing worship music. It was such an awesome experience. It was at Hillsong Church, a global church that began in Australia. I guess because London already has so many buildings, its hard to find a place to build a new one. Therefore, lots of the buildings have to be repurposed. Because theatres are closed on Sundays, they become great places to hold church. While we were there, we found out that the worship band was going to be recording some of their songs for an album that night, and they wanted a live audience. Well we were all over that, and so we came back that night and it was an awesome service. There was a line all the way around the block to get in. A line to get into church! How cool?? Check it out here: Hillsong Worship

My Panini!

     After church I went to this little panini shop with some friends and quizzed myself on all the British coins. I am really trying to get them down... its quite embarrassing to be paying for something and to have to pull coins out of your wallet individually and read them because you don't know what they are. Also...speaking of embarrassing.... In London, you can buy these things called Oyster cards. They basically hold money on them for you to use for public transportation. Instead of having to buy a ticket for every tube ride, or get out the change every time you take the bus, you just swipe your Oyster card and it is deducted from your balance. You can add more money at any local convince store. Super easy, super useful. Also, the place that we are leaving is fairly high security, and we have a card that swipes us into the building, the kitchens, the gym, the rooms, etc. Anyways, we had to take the bus to get to church. So, like always, I got out my card to swipe onto the bus. So here I was, standing at the very front swiping away. But the machine kept flashing red and beeping at me. So I tried again and again, and finally the driver got annoyed and just started driving, so now I'm swiping away on a moving bus, in front of lots of people and still getting beeped out. Finally, I decided to just pay for it so I started digging for change (mind you, I don't know what any of the coins mean), but it was really loud and I couldn't figure out how much the driver was telling me to pay, so I kept giving her the wrong amount. FINALLY, I gave her what she needed, and made it to my seat. By this time, I was embarrassed, frazzled, and concerned that my card had somehow messed up. Then it dawned on me...I was trying to get on this bus with my apartment card, not my Oyster card. See? Embarrassing.

       Today was our first day of normal classes. But by lunch we were done, and by that point I was free to go to Pret A Manger (their version of Starbucks) to grab a sandwhich with some friends, and then we explored the ends and outs of St. Pancras Train Station, going through a bookstore and a stationary store. Also, there is this clothes store that my friend Krissy and I found that we are in love with, yet unfortunately it is far out of our price range. For now we will be admiring from afar... Olivia and I just got back from grocery shopping to get our things for the coming week, plus these fun reusable bags that have peacocks on them! We have joined a cooking group with seven or so other people. We will each take turns cooking so that 1) we all can avoid eating out every night, and 2) we can avoid having to cook every night of the week. This way, we take turns cooking for everyone! Our first night to cook is Wednesday, so we got the ingredients for a mexican recipe.

And now, for what I am sure you all have anxiously awaited.... (drumroll please)... New things that I've learned!

CTPOD
(classic tourist photo of the day!)

1.) If you look hard enough, you can find tickets to a show at the National Theatre for 15 pounds! Olivia and I got what our professor called "a steal!" Woot woot!
2.) You are expected to bag your own groceries at the store.
3.) I really really like Digestive Biscuits. (Aren't actually biscuits, or good for your digestive system. In reality, they are like graham crackers dipped in chocolate and they eat them with tea)
4.) Big Ben is actually not all that big. More like Average Ben.                                                                

Something that I still have yet to learn...
1.) How to control the temperature on the shower. Hopefully I'll figure it out soon, haha.

Love from London,
Deanna