First Day Adventures

Well, I know I have already written today but I had to share some of the whirl wind London that I have been through today. First of all, today I learned that taking a left out of my flats leads me straight into the shanties of London that I do not necessarily want to be in. However, searching for a lunch place, we found a nice quiet and cool place to eat in a local eatery. Kinsey, Natalie, and I sat down and had a helping of Shepherds Pie, well Natalie had some spicy curry, but over all the experience was great. On our excursion we also found the biggest grocery store chain in London and the pound store (equivalent to the dollar store). After that we returned to our flats for a flat orientation with our lovely landlord who was full of don'ts and very little do's. Funny story, we have a neighbor whose last name is Jennings, and she basically calls in complaints every night about the college students next door! GREAT!!! He said just ignore her and she will survive.

As we finished our meeting a group of us decided to go and get our monthly tube pass. Upon getting to the counter, neither my debit or credit card were read. YIKES!! Yet, a phone call to dad back in the United States set it straight and I was able to draw money from the ATM only a few minutes later. Basically, I am glad to have a dad who is a banker. After all the tube pass drama we decided it would be a great idea to get on the tube at 5pm in London and just ride and pick a stop to get off at. First of all, 5pm in London on the tube is worse than rush hour traffic in the US. However, we decided to get off at the Pickadilly Circus stop. When we came up to ground level from the tube we were astonished to see the New York of London. Given our previous experience with shanty town London earlier, our hopes for our semester were lifted greatly. We walked around for awhile and then headed back "home" on the tube.

Now it is 9pm and I have not slept since 10:30 am on Tuesday morning because I got no sleep on the plane. Therefore, I bid you all a goodnight and look forward to telling of my future fun times in London.