Nice to meet ya, London.

Greetings All!

Ready to Fly....

Fish and Chips at O'Neils

      I made it to London safe and sound. All my flight/customs went smoothly and I arrived at my apartment at about 1pm Wednesday (8am Kentucky time). My roommate and I (Olivia) spent an hour or so unpacking, and then we had Orientation with our 2 professors and the other 30 or so students. Through this Orientation, we traveled through the streets of London to our classrooms and the grocery store, and then we ventured under the streets to the Embankment via the Tube (the London subway). The Embankment was very cool, as it allowed us to see the Thames River and the sky line all lit up. From there however, out professors turned us loose and let us find out own way home. Definitely a learning experience. We found our way back and stumbled upon a lovely Pub. We had a wonderful waitress who thought we were so funny, and too sweet to understand her harsh but loving British sarcasm. There I had my first London meal and the first thing that I had eaten all day: Fish and Chips. Appropriate enough, I thought. Afterwards, we all went back to our apartment building and crashed in attempt to make up for our jet lag. I slept like a rock.

On the boat passing under
the Tower Bridge

      The next day (Thursday), we met back at the embankment and boarded a ferry to Greenwich. Along the way, we saw iconic sites like Big Ben, The Globe Theatre, and London Tower. It started raining too, but so far, thats been the only time we've had rain. It is usually just cloudy... But after the rain stopped and we had make our way down the river we made it to Greenwich! I must say, it was much more my style than the hustling, bustling City of London. There, we climbed aboard Cutty Sark (a ship used by the East Indian Trading Company), ate at another pub (I ordered a cheeseburger....), Straddled the Prime Meridian, visited an Art Museum, and went to a different pub for dinner. We stayed in Greenwich until 8 or so, and then walked through a tunnel under the Thames River and got on the tube on the other side. That night, however, we could not retreat to our beds like we would have liked...instead we had to be practical and go grocery shopping. Surprisingly, the grocery was very similar to like a Save-A-Lot and was very easy to navigate....Plus a lot more Indian food and alcohol. I got some breakfast food, some chocolate, and rice. Balanced diet, right? Eventually, we made our way home and in honor of Valentines Day, I got to Skype my boy and my folks :) It made for a quite a good ending day to a wonderful day.

The view from the Royal Observatory

The Royal Naval Academy (recognize this from any movies?)

Just a classic looking street.

      Today (Friday) began reality. Or at least, as close as you can get to reality when living in London. Classes. We met at our classrooms (which are about a 25 minute walk away) at 9am. Today was a kind of Orientation Day for all our classes, so we were there until about 4. In the middle, however, we had a decent sized break for lunch. A few of us found a street vendor selling Curry (which was wonderful!). We took it back to the park by our classroom and just sat on a bench, watching the people, and eating our curry. I'm not gonna lie...we felt pretty cool. Then my friend Mary and I wandered around looking for a phone store. After asking people at a shopping mall, the post office, and a sidewalk vendor, we finally found it and both got pay-as-you-go phones so that we can keep in contact with people in the UK while we are here. Then, back to class. I really think I am going to like all my classes though... A British Theatre class, British WW2 History, British Politics, and a Philosophy class. After class, we ventured to the British Museum for about an hour. I could probably spend several days going through it's endless rooms. In London, all of the museums are free, so luckily I can go back whenever I want! Then, our tummies began to grumble and we hit up another pub (detecting a pattern?). I had always heard that pubs weren't worth eating at because the food wasn't good. Perhaps we have just been lucky, but I haven't had anything bad yet. Wait scratch that. The carrots are gross. Bleh.

Now it is 8:30pm and I am in for the night. It might be kinda lame to sit in my room and watch a movie on my first Friday night in London, but hey, I need to catch up on my sleep! While writing this, however, I have been able to reflect back over my last few days and compile of list of things that I have learned in my first three days....

1. Everyone here is attractive. It doesn't matter age, race, gender.
2. A lot of people smoke.
3. People are generally quieter.
4. Pistachios are not salted.
5. People walk fast.
6. Machines are ironically quite slow.
7. Drivers are very aggressive.
8. "Cheers" can be used for both "Thank you" and "You're Welcome"
9. The tube system is not all that difficult.
10. Water fountains are not a thing.

I am sure that I will be learning more and more everyday, but for now, I am having fun just exploring! I'll try to post fairly regularly and keep everyone up to date.

Love from London,
Deanna