1/30/12

Finally a full day to enjoy! I must say I am so proud of myself and my roomies, while we are still recovering from our dreaded jetlag we managed to wake up in time to not be too terribly late to our first meeting/tour of the day. The day started with a meeting at 9:30 where we met Fabio, our building manager. Fabio was just fantastic and such a sweet guy. He was also kind enough to give us a mini tour of our surrounding streets so that we don't get too lost when we decide to explore for ourselves and find some cute little stores so we can have souvenirs to bring back home for our peps. This was also a wonderful time for me to bond further with my girlies and take some cute pictures...

Hannah!!

Jenna!!

 

 

 

After this fun little tour we had our first class with Andrew, one of our Professors while we are here in London. He has the coolest British accent I have ever heard! I am never going to be bored in his class!! After our intro to the course we had the chance to tour a bit of the city... and holy crap, best day of my life!!!

In order to start our tour we needed to take the tube (subway) over to another part of the city. That was quite an adventure. Since the majority of us in this program has never been on the tube we kind of didn't know where to go or what to do, so when it comes to that the logical thing to do is to follow the Professor who lives in the area, yea apparently not such a good idea. Haha, Andrew is amazing and I have nothing bad to say about him, but I can't help but judge his sense of direction after he got us all on the wrong train and in the opposite direction of where we were suppose to go. Regardless of this mishap I rather enjoyed my first trip on the tube...

All smiles

...even tho we ended up in the wrong end of town...

Ooops.

Everyone else seemed to still be having a good time as well...

Finally after all of the trouble of our first tube ride we made it to our destination, wherein I went crazy taking pictures, such as...

NO JOKE!!! This pigeon tried to attack me!!

So yes I was able to take an amazing amount of pictures at this time, but at the same time you all must keep in mind I had to take notes as well as Andrew...

This cool guy right here.

Told us a bunch of the history of each of these places that we oogled at so admiringly. I know that a lot of you don't know how many people I am here with, because me being who I am didn't even fully know until I got here. Sooo I took this outing opportunity to take some pictures of the group all together to show y'all...

My group at angle A

My group at angle B

And so we continued on for a very long time looking at some of the coolest stuff I have ever seen before, those buildings and landmarks which I have seen so much in movies, on tv, and in pictures, and finally I was able to see with my own eyes...

I cannot even begin to describe my excitement after the tour that I took today. I saw the London Bridge (at which point I couldn't help but sing to myself the catchy tune of 'London bridge is falling down... ect'), the London Eye, the Globe fricken Theatre!!! But nothing, and I mean nothing compares to the joy that I felt in my heart, in my soul than when I finally came to the point when I was able to look into the distance and see...

And we got closer....

and closer...

Until finally....

At this point I'm pretty sure my heart stopped and I died for at least a few minutes, cause baby, I was in Heaven!! Big Ben!!! I repeat... BIG BEN!!! The picture that has been the background of my computer for months and months and I was by it, I saw it with my own two eyes. I was so close to it I could have spit on it (I would like to emphasize the fact that I would NEVER do this, I am simply stating this to make a point). I am now happy and content with my entire life.

At this point I didn't think like could get any better for me. It had been a long day and I was so sore but I am in one of the most amazing cities in the world, life couldn't improve anymore... or could it?

After this long day Jenna, Hannah, and I were all devastatingly hungry and we had yet another event we had to cross off our bucket lists, and so we went out to the local tavern for some fish and chips...

Which if you ever come here, I highly recommend!! As long as you stay away from...

Disclaimer: Will induce vomiting

This nastiness. Yea its kind of ketchup with molasses and vinegar. Luckily I ordered a nice drink to get the taste of whatever this concoction is is out of my mouth.

Light Ale

And the dinner was only made more perfect through an amazingly beautiful French waiter, who I had no idea what he was saying or what I was ordering, but I just kept smiling and hoping he would come back to the table and talk some more... Ladies and gentlemen... I think I am in love....

The most beautiful man in London

His name is Damien, and we will have a summer wedding.

People tell me this trip is only going to get better, but I don't know how.

Stay tuned...

1/27/12
   After waiting my entire life the day finally came for me to leave my country and go explore the world!! The plane didn't look too large to me before we boarded, and let me tell you all it did not look much larger when I boarded. 8 hours on my first flight, from Chicago to Copenhagen and that was enough for me to make my decision never to board another flight again!!

1/28/12
   Alas, it was not much longer after I landed that I had to board yet another plane in Copenhagen. This one, while being 6 hours shorter than the first, was so much worse than the previous flight. The airport in Copenhagen was beautiful...

it was so clean and neat, my only regret is that I did not take a picture of the awesome fountains that they had on the main floor. I would have but I did not know how far away our gate was for our next flight and I did not want to be late. And so after an hour and a half of waiting at this lovely airport my amazing companions (Hannah and Jenna) and I made way to take our seats on the plane... or so we thought... Hannah and I were stopped before boarding, us being in a foreign country were completely terrified that we were going to be detained for whatever they thought we did, luckily all they needed to tell us was that we needed to switch seats with some family on the plane. Personally I feel they could have let us know we DIDN'T need to freak out.

Finally, we made it to London!! I apologize but I did not have a chance to take pictures at the airport once I landed, but I assure you I had a good reason. Jenna, Hannah, and I were help up in immigration for 2 HOURS! I thought the plane was bad, oh lordy, was I in pain (and quite a crab) after standing there surrounded by people in the longest line I have ever seen. I thought the lines at Six Flags was bad, ha, you ain't seen nothing yet!!

The wait was well rewarded, however, when after immigration, and our confusingly easy pass through customs, and our search to find a taxi (which is another story altogether!) we finally had a ride to our beautiful, but devastatingly cold, flat and were able to do what we had been waiting for since we started our journey, eat and sleep!!

My bed, I have the bottom bunk

Peace from London darlings!

My wardrobe

We have a wonderful view of the block but we have to keep the windows closed so we don't freeze!

The Loo

Our teeny tiny shower

Kitchen where I will be cooking many a meal

Tiny fridge shared by the four of us

My nephew gave me a gift before I left, and so my angry bird will be traveling everywhere with me!

1/29/12

   Well I wish I could tell you more about my first day in London, I should be ashamed and yet I am not to say I slept until two in the afternoon. About 13 hours that was, but for anyone who has never traveled before let me tell you, Jet Lag is a bitch!! Soooo, I lounged for a couple more hours before finally crawling out of bed and getting ready for my first big meeting and dinner of course for the night. At dinner we were served some great varities of sandwiches, cheeses, and drinks.

It was my second night in London, what do you think I'm going to drink? Of course I had to have a pint!! Besides the delicious drinks, oh and the food of course, I finally got to meet all of the people in the program who I will be traveling with and get my class schedule for my duration here. The orientation class and tour is tomorrow, and we already have plans to go to the theater!! It is not possible to express how excited I am, just know I have been jumping for joy since it has set in that I am in London Baby!!