Happy October!

Happy October! I blog very sporadically and I feel bad, but I'm pretty busy (fortunately).

This weekend we're going to see Stonehenge, which apparently you can't get very close to it at all but still, how could I come to London and not see Stonehenge.

Next weekend three of my friends are visiting from Ireland (two from Belfast and one from Cork). It'll be awesome to show them around London, it's too bad they can't stay longer because there is so much to do here.

Three weekends from now I'll be journeying to Spain with my friend (who is here studying with me) and we'll meet my mother in Barcelona. We'll be in Barcelona for a few days and then we'll head to Madrid. Hopefully getting out of this stuffy London air will do me some good, I've been trying to kick a miserable cough for over two weeks now. Being in this city is not doing a thing for my asthma.

The first weekend in November we're going to Cork to visit our friend who is studying abroad in Ireland.

The second weekend in November we're thinking either Krakow, Poland or Munich, Germany. I'd also like to get to Flanders, Belgium, and that might be the best weekend for that trip.

The third weekend in November we're headed to Norway. I'm really excited to try and test of the little Norwegian I know, and hopefully get to the Viking Museum and maybe see the Oslo Fjords (we'll be in Oslo).

The following Monday Hillary gets on a plane and comes to London (she won't arrive until Tuesday morning) to visit, which is very exciting. I'll show her around London for a few days (though I'll be in class until Thursday) and then on Thursday my friend's family is coming and we're all going to Paris for the weekend. Hillary and I will come back early so that I can get her on her flight home Sunday morning.

By then it will be the first weekend in December and three of my friends and I are going to Disneyland Paris. I absolutely cannot wait for this trip.

After that we only have one free weekend before finals start, which I'm sure we'll be using for studying. Then we have some free time after finals, but we leave for home on the 20th of December (which will be another adventure in and of itself).

So we have a lot planned for the future, hopefully I'll get to see some more musicals (I've already seen Sister Act the Musical and I want to see the Birdcage and Billy Elliot) and get outside London a little bit more with classes or day trips.

Happy October everyone!

Palace Guards Et Cetera

On Saturday we took a trip around London, seeing all of the major tourist and cultura points. We saw Trafalgar Square, which is extraordinary and is almost like a giant common area for London



We then turned around and went into the National Gallery (which is FREE!) and saw some really amazing art, but only some (and we spent about an hour there!) because the place is epicly huge and would require years to see the entire thing. Fortunately, one of my classes is being held at the national gallery every monday so I'll be able to see a great deal of the museum with my class.



We then took the bus to St. Paul's Cathedral, which is (according to some) the greatest cathedral in the world. It's the second largest, behind the Vatican, but I would venture to say that it took my breath away more than the Vatican did (the Vatican was far too crowded). St. Paul's is absolutely beautiful, over 300 feet tall with light peering in from the windows around the dome at the top. You can actually take the stairs up to the very top. You aren't allowed to take pictures inside so I didn't get many...




We went to Buckingham Palace, which wasn't very interesting because I don't particularly enjoy enormous displays of wealth. The palace guards are way cool though. However, there was one kid guarding the palace, and the uniform was way too big for this poor kid. He was so skinny and so adorable, and the big black hat on his head was falling down. So I turned to Alycia (one of my friends from school) and said "Oh God look, his hat is about to fall off his head" and he was trying to shimmy it back onto his head. Then he took the bayonet on his machine gun and lifted it so as to prop his hat up with the bayonet (these guys aren't supposed to move at all, so he did it very delicately and super stealth). It was so hilarious that we burst out laughing.

This wasn't the kid, it was the guard opposite him. I was laughing too hard to get a picture of the other guy.


So far so good! This weekend I think we're going to Bath, which should be interesting, or Scotland or Wales, but we're not really sure yet. We're trying to coordinate a trip to Munich for Oktoberfest, but it's super last minute so we might end up going somewhere else. But it's all still in planning mode, except for Spain in 7ish weeks!

Cheerio!

First Few Days in London! Finally!!

We just got internet in our rooms (it's the second night so it wasnt't a terrible hardship going without it for a night) so I can finally post a blog!

We landed in London around 9:30 yesterday morning (4:30 east coast time). Both of my suitcases arrived on time and in good shape. The two girls I am travelling with, however, were not so fortunate. One of the girls was missing one suitcase and the other, my roommate this semester, was missing both. I leant her some shirts for yesterday and today but I felt so bad for her. The suitcases finally arrived around 11 pm this evening so that's a huge sigh of relief.

We are located in Regent's Park which is this absolutely STUNNING park in the heart of London. It's basically a five minute walk to the tube stop, and then from there you can get anywhere in London or anywhere in Europe really, because the international train station is on a tube stop not far from the closest tube stop to me. I'll post pictures of the park on Sunday hopefully, because it is truly breathtaking.

Tomorrow we're hoping to do a sightseeing tour of London, as the last two days have been spent getting settled in, meeting with our class advisors and doing group activities. This evening we went on the Jack the Ripper Walking Tour all around old London and it was fantastic. There is so much history in this city, so much to see and do and to take in. I feel like I could spend the next four months here and never grow tired of everything I am experiencing.

I'll post again on Sunday about all the weekend activities and later in the week about classes.

Semester Abroad Obligatory First Post

Hello! Welcome to the blogumentary of my semester abroad in London!

Right now I'm still 3325 miles (give or take a few miles) from London, but three days from now I'll be on an airplane, very near my destination.

The goal of this blog is to keep a record of all of the places I visit, the people I meet and the amazing things I'm sure I'll see.

Stay tuned for posts that are sure to be far more exciting than this!