Tourism!

So I've managed to survive the first week! It feels like I've been here for much longer and I'm really enjoying myself :) Yesterday was the first day that we really ventured out to look around the center of London, my friend Hanna hurt her foot so she was out of commission for a bit so we really stuck around campus getting set up last week. But yesterday we ventured out to St. Paul's Cathedral. I'd been there before but it was great to go again. On the way to the Cathedral we came through this little square called Paternoster Square that I really loved. Hopefully before it gets too cold I'll be able to go back there and write or do work.

Me in front of the Paternoster Column, in Paternoster Square

We climbed all the way to the top, which is somewhere over a thousand stairs so it was a bit of a hike. But it was completely worth it, the view from both the stone and golden galleries are absolutely incredible. We also went down to the Crypt and looked around and we could hear the choir practicing through some of the doors so that was pretty neat. Also right before we went into the Cathedral we saw a wedding party on the stairs on one of the sides, so they must've been married about 30 minutes before we arrived. So the three of us then spent a little bit of time thinking about how cool/ expensive that would be.
After St. Paul's we went across the street to this place called Yo! Sushi, it's a little sushi chain where they make little bowls that go on a conveyor belt and you sit at the bar and pick what you want as it passes, and it is priced by the color of the bowl.
Today we wandered around Kensington Park, which was really wonderful. We walked around Kensington Palace and saw the Sunken Garden. We hunted down Peter Pan and then went to the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. It was probably the most incredible and wonderful park I've ever been to, there were people and families everywhere. Everyone had their dog and they were running around chasing squirrels. We even saw one little teeny Chihuahua near the Peter Pan statue named "Marmite" who looked like a little squirrel who kept stopping to try and eat cigarette butts.. for some reason his parents didn't have him on a leash and he kept trailing behind because he was so small, so they had to keep doubling back to get him. Needless to say Marmite got a good talking to, but he was very cute.
Everything is going well! I've sent you all emails to see more of my pictures at snapfish.com, if there is a problem let me know and I'll invite you again! I'm struggling with formatting this with pictures in a way I like so that's probably the best bet to see pictures of what I'm doing!

Jack The Ripper--Days Two and Three

First Night Together!

Julie and Hanna after we found Sainsburys

Me after arriving!

Well, I can't say that things haven't been interesting so far :) My friends made it in safely at around midnight so I finally relaxed a little bit, I was really worried because I didn't know where they were and hadn't heard from them. But it all turned out alright.
Sunday we tried to do some basic shopping for our rooms (fitted sheets, toilet paper, food) pretty essential stuff, and that pretty much took all day. The school gave us directions to this store called "Sainsbury's" which is sort of like a Walmart equivalent... only they don't sell quite as many things, its primarily a grocery store and drug store. However, the directions they gave us pretty much took us on an hour long trip down Mile End Road to nowhere. So finally we stopped at a Starbucks to regroup and then turned around. We then asked a man for directions, first he gave us wrong directions (apparently it's fun to direct American's int he wrong direction) and then gave us the right directions...which looked wrong. He told us to turn down this street that just looked like bad news so we decided it was the wrong street and kept looking... aimlessly. Finally we went back to the bad street and found the store! Only to find that they were completely out of hangers and that our clothes had to remain on the floor until the new shipment arrived.

After that we tracked back to our flat and took a little nap and then we made dinner with our roommates. We cooked pasta and salad in our kitchen and one of our other roommates "made himself a curry"... which I'm still trying to figure out what it means, but it smelled nice. Then we all played poker or the boys played and the girls learned. My flat mates are wonderful, they're all very nice and very funny so living with them should definitely be a really wonderful experience.
After dinner the three of us and our roommate Anita decided to go to this bar event on campus, which was pretty fun if not a very bad idea because we had orientation the next morning...as I do in about 4 hours right now but I cant sleep.
Orientation this morning was somewhat ridiculous. There was really no useful information, because all of the healthcare benefits and student discounts on public transportation only apply to students who are studying for longer than study abroad students...so it was a lot of information that didn't apply to anyone in the room. It was also pretty entertaining because the man in charge of Study Abroad was describing the area, which is fairly interesting and desperately trying to show it in a good light. We are on the East end of London (a mile outside the city) and about 5 blocks away from the "Jack the Ripper" area in Whitechapel. The area is incredibly diverse, in fact I don't think I've ever been anywhere quite like it. It's mostly Bangladeshi and Somalian...and other names I don't remember. We're in Tower Hamlets which is the poorest area of London, and as such it's generally where people come to live first when they move to London to kind of start out and then they move on to nicer neighborhoods. Having said all that... the area looks pretty cool to me, maybe a little grungy but nothing to get upset about. But you could kind of tell that the poor guy was trying to put us on our guard about crime without scaring us, and he just did a really bad job. It's the kind of thing where the bigger the deal you make about it being fairly safe, but still dangerous ... you can tell that things are pretty bad, or at least pretty bad for the standards of the country. Having said that again, I still feel pretty safe and I like the area so yay.
Afterwards we ordered Dominos and went to bed...or at least I attempted to go to bed for like the last 6 hours and now here I am awake, with 3 hours before my alarm goes off. Oh well, I have to work on my sleeping patterns!

Day One, But Definately More Than One Day

Well I made it! Even if it was kind of messy getting to that point. I ended up going through security alone because my friends missed the plane (which has sort of been my mantra for the past 48 hours) so I was feeling kind of alone and sad but then I got to the terminal and two other people from my school-- Dan and Sarah-- were there so that made the trip much easier.
The flight wasn't really bad at all. I watched Zohan again, tried to sleep and wrote something that is probably completely delusional in my travel diary. We made it through customs/ immigration pretty quickly and got our bags pretty quickly. But then we had this HUGE journey through Heathrow which was two train rides and then finally a bus ride (1 1/2 hours) to Queen Mary... all of which I did in heels, because I am a very silly person.
My room is very nice and the people I'm living with also seem very nice. They are all 1st years.. I am an old lady and based on my age I would be a 3rd year or graduating, so theres an interesting age gap situation going on.
I attempted to do a little shopping and took a huge nap which was really nice, and now I'm supposed to go to some event at a bar on campus which I think I'm going to go to for a little and then come back because I'm just kind of dead, but we'll see how it goes. It may be fun, who knows?! Actually I'm sure it will be fun, I'm just going alone so its kind of weird. No one I traveled over with had a cell phone really figured out so I cant really get in touch with anyone, but I'm weirdly not that bothered by it. I'm strangely relaxed with my relative isolation at the moment. Or at least as isolated as you can be on a college campus. Anyhow, tomorrow is another day and the important thing is that I made it here in one piece with all of my things and no confusion :)

So.. its monday

So its Monday... and I leave on Friday!! I am still not packed, but I definitely have all these really cool boxes full of clothes and shoes and stuff. I'm also still in denial that my entire closet can't come with me, I'm not entirely sure why British Air cant accommodate my needs on that one small factor but other than some decisive packing I'm pretty much ready to do this!
I'm waaaaaaayyy nervous and I kind of wish it was Friday now, but also that Friday won't come because I'm absolutely terrified to go, which once I get there I will completely forget about and be completely thrilled by everyone and everything and probably make really annoying noises similar to those made my small yappy dogs... which is pretty normal for me anyway.
That's all I got, more when I get there :)