Busy Day

It's been a busy day... we hit a couple pubs last night with a few other new friends from the program - woohoo! We were back by eleven (when most pubs close here), showered up, set our alarm for 6:45 (we had to be ready to go at 8), and called it a night.
We woke to Lisa frantically saying "shit! We overslept! It's 8:05 right now!!"... so we hopped out of bed, hit our heads on the too-close bunk beds and started the day. :-)
Luckily we weren't the only ones who had problems getting out of bed - there were a couple others, so we made it to our meeting at the school (following an RA because we still get a little lost trying to find the school) just in time.

The day was mainly school "orientation." The disorganization of the program so far has been a little disappointing - but it's hard to complain when we're in London - especially in one of the richest boroughs! They explained our British Life and Culture class first - we have to write short weekly papers about ideas and themes of what we visit - but the class grade is entirely attendance and the papers, so again - not much to complain about there. From there we had a walking tour of campus - it was a stereotypical rainy London day, and the people from International Enrichment seem to find it necessary to take the most round-about ways to get from point A to point B, so it was interesting - luckily I was wearing my rain boots with my matching polka dot umbrella :-). After the tour we had a short fifteen minute version of our classes. A couple of them might be more work than I thought (8-10 page research papers - and we ALL know how much I LOVE writing papers!)... but it will be worth it.. right? :-) After that we had a break for lunch - there's a couple pubs on campus, so we found one for lunch and got panini sandwiches for 2.5 pounds - yay!! After that we met one more time as a large group to listen to some info on traveling to other countries. Sounds like the four of us will be in Wales the last weekend in January - we found an awesome deal were we can go stay in a house - with a max. of 30 people - get homecooked food - and go surfing, rock climbing, mountain biking, etc... it's gonna be a ton of fun..we're also looking at Paris for my birthday (!!!!)...we'll see... anywho, after our last meeting we did some more grocery shopping for things we forgot yesterday, and we're back in the flat now - sipping wine and getting ready to make spaghetti for dinner.. The pub crawl is REALLY happening tonight, so we're excited for that too!

And I think that brings us pretty much up-to-date.. I'm trying to post a video of our flat, but our internet keeps cutting out before it uploads completely - I'll keep trying though!!!

Love you all,
Gen

Changing of the Guard video

The changing of the guard!

More pictures

Sarah, JT, me, and Lisa in front of St. Paul's Cathedral.
London Tower.
The London Eye.
Big Ben through the bus window.
Amanda Felt (another MSU Scholar's House resident!), Lisa, Sarah, me, and JT in front of Buckingham Palace during the changing of the guard.
The changing of the guard.

Piccadilly Circus with JT and Sarah.

Pictures, etc.

So my computer's being frustrating... the internet keeps cutting out... here are a few pictures.. more to come later.. hopefully :-).On the trip back to the flats from the airport.
Me, Lisa and Sarah in flight.
Our interesting Indian food on the flight.. JT said the yellow "stuff" tasted like "a nursing home".... I'll vouch for that. :-)

Love, Gen

For Yesterday

So today was a loooooooong day. I’ve officially been up for over 24 hours… I’m exhausted, full of foreign food, and still not fully comprehending the fact that I’m really in another COUNTRY.

To recap the events so far, I met up with Sarah and JT in Chicago… Lisa’s flight was delayed out of Memphis, but she caught up with us shortly after we checked in for the London flight. Security for the international flight was horrible – the lines were MILES long. But, being with the girls and JT made it more bearable, and before long we were on the plane.

We flew Air India (and yeah, everyone gives me the look you’re probably experiencing right now)… not sure why we flew Air INDIA to London, but it got us there safely without too much hassle (other than the questionable Indian food they served). Sleeping on the plane was next to impossible with a screaming baby a few rows ahead and nerves and excitement running high between all of us. So, we entertained ourselves with video games and sudoku and until we found ourselves in the London-Heathrow airport. After going through the passport check and getting our luggage (which thankfully arrived with us!) we were put on a coach bus that took us to our flats.

The three of us live on the fourth floor of the apartment building (no elevator, by the way – just winding stairs) with a girl from St. Louis University named Brittany. We haven’t had much time to get to know her, but we haven’t scared her off yet :-). We have one of the smallest rooms – two sets of bunk beds a foot apart, along with a tiny shower, a toilet in a separate room, a 5 foot square kitchen and a (bonus!) small balcony… it’s not much (especially for privacy), but it’s home for now.

After about an hour to unpack and explore (we unpacked in a furry) we were taken on a walking tour to the public library we have access too, a round about way to campus, and an eventual ending at a local pub for lunch. The whole thing was slightly disorganized – okay, a lot – we arrived at the pub (starving, mind you) at 1:30 for “fish and chips” and were finally served around 3 (at least our table was)… at 4 (when at least half of the 80+ people group was asleep at the tables – literally) we finally headed back to the school for a rundown on rules and safety from one of the local “bobbies” or cops. The planned pub crawl for tonight was postponed to tomorrow as the first thing on everyone’s mind right now is SLEEP.

Which brings me to now – our internet isn’t currently working (I’m typing this in Word so I can hopefully post it tomorrow).. and we’re exhausted.

London as a city is BEAUTIFUL… I already love it. We’re off tomorrow morning for a bus tour with the afternoon to roam as we please. For now? Sleeeeeep……zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Love you all and I’ll contact you when I can,

Gen

I'm HERE.

I'm HERE, I'm TIRED, and I'll post more later! Gotta unpack in the hour of time I have left..
....should...have....slept....on....plane.....

Love, Gen

22 Hours!

Well, I'm 22 hours from take off in Chicago - pretty incredible really. We've been planning this trip for so long it's hard to believe that it's actually happening! I don't think it's really going to sink in until we land and I won't be able to turn my cell phone back on :-). Haha.

Most of all, I'm excited to see my girls (and JT) again. It's hard to leave everyone else behind, but don't worry - I'll be back in April.....
.......or so you hope. :-)...

Keep in touch - I miss you all already.... kinda. =)
I'll keep typing if you keep reading...

Love, Gen