Getting to London

After a ten hour flight, a layover in Amsterdam, another flight to Heathrow, a train and taxi, I made it to the London Centre. Pulling up (on the left side of the street...still getting used to that!) was such a relief. Jet lag is real. I feel so disoriented after such a long day of traveling and now being in another part of the world. It's strange being here where everything is unfamiliar and foreign. Driving down the street in the cab didn't feel real. None of this does, actually. I can't believe I've actually arrived in London!

We checked in with our Professors and found our rooms in our new home for the next four months. I'm staying with 7 girls in a room on the first floor and I love it! It's like camping...only we're staying for a long time and we're in Europe. I was the first one to the centre from my room. I chose a top bunk bed for some reason. Here it is! The best part about getting here was the package from Josiah that was waiting for me in the library, that was a good welcome.

After getting settled in we went exploring around town a bit and just kept moving so we could stay awake until it was nighttime here. I found a red telephone booth (not too hard to find though). We made it through dinner and a short meeting and then could finally sleep. So...that was yesterday. Today me and 3 other girls went running across the street, right by Kensington Palace and around the frozen pond-it was sunny and there was snow on the ground. There were a lot of people in the park walking their dogs...but none of them were on leashes (the dogs, not the people...) which kind of made me nervous...wouldn't want to get attacked by a little scotty.

After our run, we went to Portobello Road. There are so many cute little shops and we saw a stand with crepes that looked soooo good.

I'm definitely going back for one of those.

Alyssa, Sarah and Margaret got waffles with Nutella ... mmm! In the kitchen here we'll always have Nutella in the cupboard...that won't take too much getting used to. There are a ton of restaurants here I want try. We saw about 3 Persian cuisine restaurants...what IS Persian cuisine anyway? I guess I'll have to find out.

We decided to go on one of the assigned "London walks" today so we took the tube to the financial district. We saw St. Paul's cathedral, St. Michael's, the monument for the Great Fire of London, and walked across the London Bridge. And I saw a lady with one of the plastic bonnets that covers your hair from the rain and I thought of how much more fashionable they'd be if Jenisa could doodle on them. It was absolutely freezing and I didn't have gloves...Not a good combination. I finally finished unpacking everything today and had some leftover soup from dinner last night.

This is more from my first two days in my home for this semester.

Standing outside of 27 Palace Court

Most of dorm one; our first family picture.

A mini cooper with the Union Jack on the roof...nothing could be more British than this.

During our walk we found a little church, and a man passing by told about how Charles Dickens would come here and go to the pub down the street to write his stories.

I just thought this was funny...it was the first time I'd seen a glass of wine sitting on top of a cross walk.

I don't know why I took a picture with this...I guess I was just excited that it was the site of a "first".

It was really tricky trying to get the Monument in the background..I managed to get most of it I guess. There's the Monument to the Great Fire of 1666 behind me, designed by Christopher Wren.