At last, a Londoner.

I think I'm finally feeling like I belong here. Or at least it's finally hit me that I'm here for a while, and I like that thought. This is in large part due to the intense schedule our profs and program directors planned for us these past few days. There is no area of Central London that I do not know! When I last blogged, we were just about to embark on our Neighborhood Walk. I think they should change it to "Neighborhood" Walk or All of London Walk because we walked around our "neighborhood" for FOUR hours. Yeahh. I blame that saunter for the holes already forming in my boots. But despite the tired feet and misleading title, it was a great walk and very informative, even interesting at points! That night we saw the musical Les Miserables and it was as amazing as it is made out to be. The music is, of course, incredible, the story heart-warming and the actors impressive. It was a great experience.

Saturday was the day I had been preparing for for weeks! If you saw me as much as three weeks before I left, you probably caught wind of me talking about this event or saw my nose shoved in a London map or guidebook. This was the day of The Great Tube Rallye!!!!! Essentially, the 22 of us students were divided into 5 groups and we were given a list of things to do and/or find around the city and we were to complete the tasks and make it back to our flats in under 7 hours. Child's play, right? WRONG!
    1. It was FREEZING, naturally.
    2. Some of these tasks were near impossible, or at least confusing enough to frustrate you to no end.
    3. There may have been only 9 major places to go to, but each had several things to find AND navigating the city was more difficult than the straight-lined map made it out to be.
    4. Our ever so kind profs had intentionally placed items on the list that they knew were not there, but we didn't know which. Talk about frustrating!

At the end of the day my team was just happy to make it back to the flat, even if we had skipped a few of the items and made up a few of the others. But good news: we came in a close second and won 5 pounds a piece! So essentially I got paid $8 to exercise for 7 hours. If only someone paid me every time I wanted to go running.

Sunday we went to our first London church and it just happened to be the ole Westminster Abbey. Not too shabby for our first Church of England experience. It was indeed beautiful inside and the service (a Sung Eucharist) was surprisingly moving. It was definitely different than most of what I have experienced, but I found that if you really put in the effort and focused, the worship was very meaningful. The afternoon was about eating and a bit of exploring. Then that night I finally met up with the brother and his girlfriend, Julie, for supper at a gastro pub (meaning they are more of a sit-down restaurant than just bar) and we got to catch up, which was great. Our next plans possibly include oil painting at their house. I'm not exactly an artist, but it should be a funny experiment!

Monday started "classes". That one is appropriately in quotes, because, well, classes aren't exactly real here. We meet once a week and in one we watch a film every time and then write a paper on it and discuss it the next week. Simple! In another it's a simple lecture, reading, and tests. Another is reading and discussing. Another is going to see shows and then discussing those. Don't get me wrong - we're learning plenty, it just seems that the professors are interpreting this experience as much of a vacation as we are! The final class, though, - British History and Culture - is probably the most real class I have taken. In this one I have already taken 9 pages of notes (front and back). The format is that we go on walks around various parts of the city, and later country, and learn about the history and/or culture of that spot. THEN we take just the one exam at the very end, and that alone will determine our course grade. IT'S TERRIFYING. So if you talk to me the week before April 11, you'll know why I sound like a crazy person. I am, however, very intrigued by what we'll be learning in that class and all of the others. No matter how challenging or not, I hope to glean as much as possible from each course.

Every few minutes I am reminded how very blessed I am to be able to be here and participate in this amazing program. We are in a beautiful city with a rich history and we get to LIVE here! Today my friends Kaitlyn, Kristin, and I went for a run through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. It was definitely different from Lion's Park or ACU's track, and breath-taking for sure. Next time I'll bring my real camera. Today's excursion with the phone camera ended in disaster when the phone refused to send the pics to my email : / But next time I'll see Peter Pan and it will be great!

Kaitlyn and I topped off the afternoon with a relaxing stop off at a coffee shop in our neighborhood. And who knows what tonight holds! Hope you are all safe and well. Have a great Wednesday!

Also, tomorrow's my half-birthday, so feel free to send me half cheesecakes, half cards, and half-written checks!

The Adventure Begins!

Welp, Wednesday began the great adventure across the pond and today begins my adventure in blogging!

It was a long drive to Houston to catch our afternoon flight to the Motherland, but we (meaning my travel buddy Kaitlyn and I) made it bearable by watching Les Miserables, counting cows, and stopping off for a snack break at the Nestle Tollhouse cafe...yum!

We finally arrived at the airport and parked in the correct parking garage only to be cut off at the elevators as full ones kept passing us by. Little did we know that the twenty minutes (yes, TWENTY) we stood waiting could have spared us four hours of waiting. But oh well. We finally found a semi-empty elevator and made our way to the bag drop-off. When we arrived we were greeted by a sign similar to this:

Awesome. But never fear, we were soon placed on the next flight out and given food vouchers to ease the pain. I was all over that! So 4 hours later, after a possible Randy Jackson sighting, a lot of people-watching, plenty of snacking, a good half-hour wishing I could be the British 3 yr old redheaded girl sitting next to us in the terminal (who, at three, proved that the English are indeed better at grammar than us: "Mum, shall I go over here or shall I go over there"), and another hour of playing "Spot the Brit" in the Terminal (it's harder than you think when you throw in those blacks and asians!), we finally were able to board, take our tylenol pm, and sleep soundly on the empty rows of seats.

The border control found us harmless and let us pass. Our bags made it through as well. We were worried about where to meet, as we were almost 2 hours past our original meeting time - thanks BA. But because my wonderful brother had lent me a phone at Christmas, I was able to contact our professors and find them waiting for us outside of the baggage claim. We boarded the bus of tired-looking students, who had been waiting hours for us (whoops!), and made our way into London.

We then made it to our flats, unpacked, walked around a bit, grabbed some lunch, had our orientation meeting (my fav!), walked some more, bought some essentials - like a converter that doesn't work, grabbed dinner, and then went exploring and later crashed.

Today we grabbed breakfast from a shop down the road from us and then went grocery shopping with the group. I then was left by said group and was forced to find the way back on my own. Luckily I'm good with landmarks. Also, groceries are heavy! Note to self: next time, bring rolling suitcase. Don't worry, all the locals do it.

I haven't taken many pictures yet, as yesterday we were all kind of in a daze and getting used to the cold (which isn't as biting as I imagined, though it hasn't rained yet). But I do have a few of our room:

Welcome to Suite 113, complete with mail slot!

 When they say "mini" kitchen, they mean it.

 It's a good thing we aren't giants. The beds are a little small, but comfy.

 Bathroom, complete with towel warmers!

I suppose that's all for now. We're going on a Neighborhood Walk with one of our British profs (his name is Dr. Rumblelow - can that be any more British?!) and then we're seeing our first show of many - Les Miserables! Not too shabby for a day in the city. Thanks for reading and I promise to be less boring next time. Cheerio!