Where am I? Oh, thats right LONDON! Holla!!!

Alright, so FINALLY an update!!! Sorry about that, but Ive been busy. Oh, and I may have a lot of spelling errors and punctuation mistakes because the computer I am using is NOT easy to type on. Anyway! Back to my adventures: So the drive up to Minneapolis was uneventful, and then we got to the airport and I met up with Sam, Lindsay, Rachel, Andy, Bob, and Steve. On our way onto the plane we met 2 connections from SMU. One of the police guys asked us if we had brought him donuts from Blaedows (a locally famous bakery in Winona, for those who are not informed) and then a couple 2 rows behind us saw my sweatshirt and were like, “Yeah, Saint Marys!!!” it was hella cute. Very nice ppl on the plane J Rachel and I sat next to an older man named Dennis from Duluth, who was super cute and talked to us about our lives. Sam sat next to a freeper from Minnesota, originally somewhere in Europe Im guessing, named Ivan….Not cool. But, it was fine J Lindsay sat next to some older British guy who was pretty nice, however very infatuated with Zac Efron…We didn’t ask questions.

Finally, after I aged 2 years (not really, but it was a flonggg trip) and a pretty uncomfortable flight , we arrived in London and boy did we make a scene!!! All of us had a ton of baggage and in London they thought it would be a good idea to put up little baracades in front of the doors to the Underground (Tube stop aka subway train). So we pretty much had to pitch our FEAVY Minks (heavy) luggage over these baracades, which made us look ridiculous!!! Then, we had to head down escalators, which for Rachel was a huge problem apparently lol….She decided to put one on and then reach back for her other bag, but of course she was moving so she had to keep running up and down to get her bags…SOO funny, but we looked positively ridiculous. Once we got down to the Tube we got on the right train and headed toward Baron’s Court, our tube stop. It was a pretty long tube trip (about 40 minutes), but they were really nice, but very quiet.

Our neighborhood is super cute and very picturesque. It is in the West end of London, which according to one of our tutors (teachers), Chris Bond (hahaha see the irony! There ya go ma!!), it is one of the nicest and safest places to live in the City. There are really cute bakerys, cafes, little pubs, and little convenience stores around, as well as many beautiful little schools and parks.

The walk to our flat with our luggage was horrendous though! Oh man minkz, my hands hurt soooo bad!!!! But, it was fine. Our flats are about 4 or 5 blocks away from the Tube stop, so it isnt too bad. The flats themselves are cute on the outside, all brick with a little black gate you have to walk through to get to the door, surrounded by green bushes. The flats inside however, are pretty janky aka ghetto. They aren’t too bad, just kinda thrown together and pretty old. Our beds are not the best, but they do their jobs. I am sharing a 3 person room with Krista and Rachel and Lindsay and Sam share a room. We have a kitchen, bathroom (separated between a room with a toilet and a room with a shower and sink), and a living room (with a VERY small tv with only 4 channels, a small table with 3 mismatched poverty chairs, and a couch).

Once we got there and situated, Gary met us and we got our keys and food stipend for the week (50 pounds). He then introduced us to our landlord/maintenance guy, Mike, who doesn’t speak English very well. We get our flats cleaned once a week, so that’s very nice. Gary then took us on a little tour of our neighborhood. He showed us where our classroom space was (a very modern, business building, with free internet, and security passes to get in, all very hitech! HOLLA!), which is literally at the end of our street. He also showed us little cafes, an internet café, and a grocery store. We live right by a little community that has 3 schools in it, tennis courts, and a big park, with a small and cute pub nestled in between housing complexes. It is always filled with little kids, their parents, and dogs! We love sitting on the benches there and eating lunch or doing homework. It will be really nice to have there J. That night we went into central London and went to Picadilly Circus and Leicester Square and saw the train station (Charring Cross) which we will take to get to our other classroom space located way on the other side of London at Rose Bruford College. Picadilly Circus was mobbed by people, but lit up and very pretty. We stopped at an italian restaurant and had dinner. I forgot that in Europe you have to pay for water (fannoying lol, makes you love america…) and that there are all of these restaurants that are small and close together, but with various levels to them. We ate in the basement and I ordered sausage pizza, which wasn’t very good because their idea of sausage doesn’t exactly go along with ours. At this point of the evening we were all sooo tired. We all wanted to go to bed like 3 hours ago, but Gary kept us walking around so that our sleep schedules would be fairly normal. For a surprise he took us on the tube to the stop entitle, “Westminster.” We all walked up the steps and were greeted with the site of beautiful Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament right, smack dab in front of us! It was famazing to say the least! I couldn’t believe that I was at the base of Big Ben looking up athe massive structure, lit up in all of his gloriousness! Needless to say, I took pictures lol. The Millenium Bridge (the one that was blown up in HP6 the movie) was to our rights and we could see the Thames. It was awesome!!! Finally, after seeing that, Gary took us back to our flats where we unpacked and fell asleep. It had been a long 2 days lol.