weekend update!

January 21^st:

            Today we got up around 10 and traveled to the Oxford district.  As we were walking we got lost (no surprise) and ran into the US embassy.  It was actually a good thing that we found it so that if we have any problems, we know where to go.  After we took some pictures here, we were in this amazing circle of buildings with a memorial in the middle.  This place had a statue of President Roosevelt and had a nice memorial dedicated to a group that passed away.  We were really blessed to have run into such a beautiful area.  After we left here, we realized we were close to Hyde Park. So we went ahead and walked to the park and walked around inside.  The park is a little over 3.5 miles so obviously we didn’t walk the entire thing; but it was gorgeous and a nice area to visit. 

            After about 20 minutes of pictures and exploring, we left the park and headed to a restaurant called Pret.  This is like the US version of Panera bread and they are all over the place.  We bought a brie, tomato and basil baguette that was absolutely delicious! After resting here for a little bit and hiding from the brief rain shower, we headed towards our original destination—oxford street! The street was full of both American and British shopping so we just explored for a while.  After the shopping we decided to hit up one more “hotspot” and headed towards the British museum.  On the way we ran into the cutest store with lots of owl stuff! The tamers bought something for Nora and then we headed towards the museum.  I’m not kidding you- this is the biggest museum I’ve ever been to. I could have spent all day looking at the incredible artifacts from Egypt, Greece and North America.  Since we only had an hour or two, we chose the rooms that fascinated us meaning…Egyptian mummies, artifacts, jewelry, life after death (for em) and the North American section including a section on the modernization of pills [pictures to come].  It was a great time but at this point we had walked over 7 miles and were absolutely exhausted, so we decided to head back. 

            Obviously we didn’t want to walk the 3 miles back home so we decided to purchase an Oyster card!  This card will allow you to take the tube at a cheaper rate than if you were to buy individual tickets each time.  So we experienced our first tube ride and headed towards home.  Once we reached our stop we hopped out and began to search for a place to eat dinner.  We decided on “The Globe” and sat down to order drinks…much needed after a long day.  We ordered a bottle of Monte Verde Chardonnay wine and just relaxed. 30 minutes later we ordered food and it was delicious!! I had something called “hunter’s chicken” and it was two chicken breasts with mozzarella cheese, bacon and bbq sauce—it’s been the best meal I’ve had so far.

            So after that we headed back to our dorm to shower and get ready for the big boat party! We had charter buses take us to the Thames River where we had a double decker boat with a bar.  We circled around the river a couple of times looking at the gorgeous views, dancing and drinking with our new classmates.  Big Ben and other bridges near by were all lit up and absolutely gorgeous! It was a great time and we met a lot of new people.  But this ride ended our day and we headed back to Regent’s and went to sleep around 2am.  It was a great third night!

           

January 22^nd:

            Today was another great adventure! We woke up around 12pm and ate lunch with some new friends.  Then at 1, we went on a tour with some other classmates to Camden.  This part of London is so unique! There were a lot of markets and cute little stores that you could shop in and easily barter with the owners.  We only had an hour and a half there with the tour, so we decided we definitely want to go back and shop around some more, especially since it’s an easy 20 minute walk.  Emily, Liz & I are slowly getting used to walking everywhere! There are a lot of towns really close and if you can’t walk, you can easily jump on the tube and ride the train.  We have walked at least 20 miles around the city and haven’t come close to seeing everything, so it’s been a great adventure so far.

            We took the scenic route back from Camden, which was along a canal and through a park.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  Luckily we had Jonathon with us who showed us around and told us about some great nightlife (since the tamers turn 21 Tuesday we needed a good place!)  He knows so much about London and absolutely loves it here and loves his job.  We told him he has to come out with us one day and be our tour guide since he’s so knowledgeable and enthusiastic!

Once we got back to campus we headed to the IT room to print our timetables (aka schedules) because class starts tomorrow!  Some girls and I looked around to find our classes before we headed to dinner in the Refectory.  After we ate, we ran upstairs to change before heading out to the bars for the Patriot’s football game.  After some “futbol” game was over we had them change the channel to reallll football and the Europeans weren’t too happy.  They said football wasn’t a sport because the guys wore helmets haha.  But anyways…Liz and I ordered another bottle of wine and met a few more people from our school, including….CHI OMEGAS! So that was super exciting and nice to meet some more people before school starts tomorrow.

            So for now we are back in our room and getting everything ready for our first day.  It’s been a great weekend and first start to our semester in London.  We are all so happy to be here and already making plans for future trips abroad.  Hope that brings you up to date with what’s going on here; i’m heading to bed so I’ll talk to you soon!