we're here, we're here!

Hi Friends! Here is blog #2! I am finally in London, safe and sound. The flight over was a little bumpy over the Atlantic Ocean, so I had my freak out moment, but other than that everything went really smoothly and I was able to meet Emily and Elizabeth in Atlanta. Once we got to London, we went through customs, got our luggage, exchanged our money and bought a train ticket to Paddington Station. As soon as we tried to board our first train, Liz’s handle to her suitcase came right off as she tried to lug it on the train.  Fortunately we were able to grab the suitcase in time, but it was a bit worrisome since we had to jump off this train and cross over to another paddock to board another train quickly! Once we got to Paddington Station we grabbed a taxi and arrived in front of Regent’s College.  We were told to go around back and take a left because we didn’t have our swipe cards yet.  As we started walking down the street of course there were like 3 lefts so which one should we take? After talking and lugging our suitcases down the wrong 2 lefts (of course...), we finally got to the right one and found our hall! Students welcomed us with open arms and we met Jonathan who lives in our dorm 24/7 and is absolutely wonderful! As we were checking in, to our surprise we ended up with a 3-person room! That was great news and we were all so excited!

So, some guys carried up our luggage for us and we went to our room.  We wanted to go to bed, butttt of course that was a bad idea. So we decided to try out the “refectory” which is the cafeteria.  We grabbed some salads, found a seat and relaxed until we had to go to a welcome meeting. All the students were falling asleep as the people in charge explained the social life and the do's/dont's here at Regents.  It was nice to see all of the study abroad students together and we begin to recognize some familiar faces.  Once this meeting was over, we came back to the room to unpack, went to a hall meeting and then went to the student's bar! This bar is located in our school and has burgers, and all the alcohol your heart could desire.  The bar began to fill up quickly but we were brave and sat down with some unfamiliar faces.  We met three girls that go to Univ. of South Carolina, boys from all over (mainly east US) and a guy from Hong Kong. This guy was a legit magician. He did a ton of really neat card tricks and then he took my watch, set a time, I took it in my left hand- switched it to my right, and the guy next to me guessed a time.  The time he set, was the time the guy had guessed.  It was absolutely insane, I guess you had to be there to believe this... but it was lots of fun!

We left the bar around 10:30 and made plans to see the girls tonight after dinner.  I came back and showered and went to bed.  It was extremely exhausting but a great first day.

Today we woke up around 830 and had a full schedule beginning at 930.  We were all starving so we went to the “refectory” to grab some bagels before the information session began.  Still exhausted, we listened to a 3-hour talk about the IT department, police and safety, bookstore, library, ways to get involved, etc.  It was long and boring, but very helpful in learning more about the school. Once this was over, Emily had to go to a meeting for a class, so Liz and I took the opportunity to take an hour nap before lunch at 1! (you know us, we had to get our daily nap in).  After lunch we got our meal cards fixed (they weren’t working) and bought tickets for the big boat party tomorrow night! We are supposed to "dress to impress" meaning formal, but it should be fun, so we are very excited! The boat leaves the dock at 8 and travels around showing us sights like big ben! There is a bar and a DJ and it doesn't come back until after 1 in the morning. So it should be a good time, and a good chance for everyone to mingle.

We also met our advisor today and talked about our schedules and her role in our semester.  It was supposed to last about two hours but luckily we were happy with our schedules and were only there for about an hour.  So…we took the opportunity to start exploring! If you walk out the back gate of Regents, you run into Baker’s Street and Marylabone which are two big streets with shopping, a tesco (mini-mart) and phones! So the girls and I went ahead and bought our cool Samsung E-10-80 phones, which took us all back to the good ole’ middle school days because it's T-9. We are struggling remembering how to use this haha.  I can literally call and text, so basically you have to be super up-to-date technology wise… NOT!

After we got our phones we walked through a neighborhood, went to a pharmacy to buy some shower stuff and went to a Sherlock Holmes museum! Very cool souvenirs, mysteries, books and stuff like that. It was a good neat. 

So that’s what I’ve been up to. Our grounds are absolutely gorgeous and back up to a park that is always busy (but not a place to be at night).  Our dorm building has old wooden stairs and red carpet- so it’s an old church-y feeling, but it’s nice.  Inside the room we have a fire place, mirror, 3 single beds, and 3 dressers and desks. Our room is bigger than the dorms at Transy, but…the bathrooms not so much. They are very nice with tile and beautiful faucets and such, however there are 2 showers & 2 toilets (we have 2 on our floor but the halls have at least 50 girls if not more so hopefully we'll figure out everyone's schedules- or maybe they'll take the european style and not have much hygiene, b/c you know the Tamers & I definitely won't).  I’ll try to post some pictures soon though, we took a few today but I have to figure out how to post them on this blog. I’ll update you again soon!

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

 ---Ralph Waldo Emerson

Y.O.L.O -- Court