Living La Vida London: Day 7

My feet ache like they have never ached before in my entire existence. I did so much walking today that I think I don't have to exercise for the rest of the summer. Standing to shower was a chore, and all I wanted on the Tube ride back to my place was to sit down and not get back up for a long, long time. I did get my cord and my plug converter thing back, and I got some navy blue Vans because that's what I was told are the best to wear around town.
BUT, I did also do this today:

Was/am I a very happy camper? Absolutely. 

To be completely honest, I was not expecting to be this happy during and after going on this tour. I was interested in going mainly because a lot of the people I'm friends with here were going; I do love Harry Potter quite a lot, but I was not originally set and stone on doing this. With that attitude, off I went. 

After changing lines on the Tube once, taking a 45 minute train ride out into the suburbs and then taking the beautiful bus above, we finally made it. This thing is out in the boondocks of the city called Leavesden and is truly a sight to behold.

 When you first walk into the tour itself, you walk into the Great Hall, and it really is a grand place. Of course the guide asks who represents each house, and of course I had to be the obnoxious American and hoot and holler for Ravenclaw. At least it made some people laugh. The rest of this post is honestly going to be a bunch of my favorite pictures from the tour.

 

 This one is what my friend Megan and I have dubbed a "Snape Selfie." I just had to do the duck lips. It was only appropriate.

 

 

 

 And then this happened:

It is honestly one of the most gorgeous places I have been to. It was nice to be out of the city and in a more quiet place. It even gets chilly at night over there! 

If you come to London, make the trip out to the Harry Potter Studio Tour. It will make you happy.

Living La Vida London: Day 6

My feet have giant blisters on them and I left my computer cord in my classroom today. Lovely.

Don't get me wrong, today was an alright day, but the fact that I'm in pain and could possibly be out both a computer cord and an adapter sort of puts a damper on things. I'm getting up early tomorrow and heading straight for my classroom just to see if my stuff is still there. I pray that it is.

The blisters on my feet come from wandering around Charing Cross Road in search of book shops and doing a lot more wondering than finding. I did end up finding one, though. I was able to get a copy of The Hobbit that I don't already have, as well as a few other things. While wondering around, I stumbled upon these two things:

 

 The Chipotle is already open, but a Five Guys? I did not see that coming. Good on them, I suppose.

I ended the evening by seeing Spamalot and that was pretty good. They rehash many of the things that happen in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but it's not like Lion King in that if you've seen the movie, you've seen the play. I am not a huge fan of the Lion King musical, but I did enjoy this production.

 The walk home was absolutely dreadful; my feet hurt me so badly that I could not walk correctly on them. I'm not quite sure how the whole walking thing is going to go tomorrow, but I'm really not looking forward to it. Every time I go back to my place, I pass Di Mario, which was the first place my mom and I ate when we came to London about four years ago. I had never been out as late as I was tonight, so I hadn't seen what it looked like at night. Needless to say, I had to take a picture.

My unhappy feet and crazy anxiety-ridden nerves are begging me to go to bed. That's probably a good idea.

Living La Vida London: Day 5

I am currently debating as to whether or not I want to puke, but in the best way possible. I'll get to that later, though.

I really was planning on getting up early today and going to a museum or something, but I was too tired from having to read that blasted story for my class. So I slept in. I did my daily trek to Starbucks and then headed to class where we talked about that blasted story I just mentioned. I really am enjoying my time in the classroom; my professor is so delightful and is a big nerd just like me.

After class, I headed to Westminster Abbey with the same group I went around with a couple of nights ago. There was so much to see and I really did enjoy seeing it again, but I wish we had more time to look at everything and take the audio tour. We instead decided to walk around on our own and take in what we could. I so wanted to be able to recall all the information I learned in my history of England class I took my freshman year of college. Alas, I could only recall a few pieces of information. Although we could not take pictures inside the building, I managed to take a few where they were permitted.

I would also like to briefly mention how incredibly humid it is in London at the moment. It's not the kind of humid I am used to experiencing back home in Texas, it's actually a really swampy type of humidity. I have to end each day with a shower because I feel so sweaty and gross! Not a single person mentioned that it would be like this, so all I have are jeans and dresses that I have to wear leggings with. I planned that one well. I'm not complaining so much as making an observation, but just for future reference: if you come to good old London Town around this time of year, be prepared to sweat. 

All of us who are heading to Paris next weekend had a meeting this evening about the logistics of said trip, and we then got to pick our roommates if we wanted- otherwise, we would have been places with whoever didn't sign up to have a roommate of their choice. I'm rooming with a lady named Carolyn who's here all the way from Alaska! She's been really cool so far, so I think it will all go over nicely. 

The group of us who went to Westminster decided we were all hungry and wanted some food at a good old fashioned sit-down restaurant, so we set out for the hunt. We ended up walking more than necessary, but settled on a small pancake place called "My Old Dutch Pancake House." Guys. Seriously. No words. This place has sweet pancakes and pancakes that have fish and pancakes that have lamb... any kind of pancake you could dream up, you can have. I, of course, had the four cheese pancake with a- wait for it- NUTELLA milkshake. Obviously my life was made for the day.  

Now I know you can't really tell from this picture, but this pancake was the mother of all pancakes size-wise. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the pancake might have been about a foot and a quarter in circumference. Yes, I did finish it, but only to say that I did it. It was delicious, but I'm not in a sort of food coma until further notice. If you're ever in London, hit this place up. You will not regret it.





Now I'm settling down to hopefully make some headway on my next reading assignment.

Living La Vida London: Day 4

Today I woke up, got ready, walked over to the Tube station, got my Oyster pass (finally), walked back to my dorm room, and headed to class. Afterward I went with my friend Stephanie to Top Shop and T.K. Maxx just to look around. Being the lover of shopping that I am, I decided to take advantage of the fact that I don't have a Top Shop anywhere near me and got two relatively inexpensive things. Now I have some awesome stuff from London. Honestly, I would get most of my clothes from Top Shop if I lived here in London. That place is wonderful.

Stephanie and I then decided that we were hungry and in need of some good old McDonalds cheeseburgers, so we stood by a Starbucks in order to get some Wi-fi and found the nearest one. Unfortunately, the soda machines were out and our only options for drinks were water or orange juice... oh well! I can't really complain much, seeing as they serve delicious American fast food there. I can honestly say that I would rather have McDonalds than any traditional English food any day of the week. I'm starting to realize just how good it is to be American and have all these wonderfully unhealthy food options at my disposal.

Afterward we headed back to our dorm rooms and decided that it would probably be best if we both turned in for the evening and did our massive work loads from our classes today. I have to read about sixty pages of Old English text. I bet everyone who reads this is just seething with jealous rage.

I was ready to do just that when I decided that I needed to go out and get a couple of things from the store. It was on my walk there that I realized I hadn't taken any pictures today. So I pulled my camera out and this is what I captured:

  It was then that I realized just how beautiful Kensington (not to mention London) is. I had been so busy being worried about being okay with my surrounding the first few days that I completely forgot how lovely it is to slow down and revel in the beauty around you. Taking walks is one of my favorite things to do, so it's a wonder that I never really decided to slow down and stroll to my destination instead of adopting the Londoner speed-walking pace of things. I began to wonder if the people who live here ever really stop to think about how beautiful this city really is and how lucky they are to be a part of it all.

 Much to my dismay, I had some allergy issues for the first couple of days here because it is allergy season and all of the flowers are blooming. Yes, all of the flowers are blooming, but I love it. You can smell the flowers in almost every part of Kensington and most of the flowers are roses. Yesterday morning a sweet little old English lady literally stopped and smelled a beautiful white rose. I didn't really think about that experience until I noticed just how many rose bushes I was surrounded by. I want to grow old and be that sort of a person no matter where I live.

 I simply cannot get over how lucky I am to be living in this part of London for almost a month! It might be a bit posh for my taste, but at least it's close to some of the most gorgeous parts of London. I do so enjoy walking to class every day at noon and being able to enjoy both nature and the architecture that I am surrounded by.
I did notice something rather funny today: the pub that is just down the street from where I live was once a school for nuns. They really do make every bit of space count here, and at least they took the time to make a plaque commemorating what originally stood there.

And this happens to be the view that I have to fortune of looking at every time I venture down the six flights of stairs to the lobby of my dorm. I really do love London.

I think the most difficult decision I will have to make this entire time here is whether or not I want to spend a day up in Liverpool without my brother Garrett there with me. It's every die-hard Beatles fan's dream to make the journey to Liverpool in order to see where it all began. I feel like that trip might have to be saved for the next time I come back to London because the next time I come, I'm bringing at least one other member of my family.

So now I will begin reading that Old English text. 

Prayers are encouraged and much appreciated.

Living La Vida London: Day 3

I woke up today around 7 a.m. because I was itching to try out my new supposed knowledge of the city. I got dressed and headed toward the Tube station to get an Oyster card like a real Londoner. As I stepped up to the self-serve machine to do so, I quickly found that my card was not being accepted. Instead of running the risk of my card being taken from me or something like that, I simply bought a day pass and texted my parents about the mishap. Don't worry, I got everything sorted out (thanks to my parents) and I'm getting an Oyster card tomorrow from one of the attendants instead of at one of the kiosks.

After this little ordeal, I went over to Starbucks and got a muffin and a Vanilla Cream frappucino. Wouldn't you know it? The frappucino was exactly what I needed at that moment. So this morning I was extremely grateful for Starbucks. I took my breakfast back to my room and ate it there. While I was eating, I saw the fattest pigeon I have ever seen in my entire life sitting on a chimney flue across from my building.

The picture does not do it justice. This thing was enormous!

I basically spent the rest of my morning lounging around until I finally decided to go to the building my class would be in to read. Fortunately, there is this small area outside for eating and chatting between classes or just because. I sat out there and read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies until the time for class had finally arrived.

My class is small- only about eleven people- and my professor is a huge nerd... I love it. The class will be challenging, but I think I will be able to pull through and get a decent score. I just have to figure out how I'm going to do touristy things as well as school things.

Speaking of which, after class a large group of us went down to try and find some book shops in London but ended up not finding any and getting very lost. So we decided to go to the welcome party our program was having at the Royal College of London. Well, things got pretty crazy about an hour into the celebration, so a bunch of us decided that we wanted to go and see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey at night. 

 We got in not too long ago and are making plans to go back and go across the Tower Bridge.

Living La Vida London: Day 2

I couldn't figure out my alarm on the phone I'm using over here, but I luckily didn't have to be anywhere until 10 a.m. I completely crashed yesterday after I wrote my post... I was/still am exhausted. I suppose that's jet lag for you. But today got better; I met some people after orientation who also came alone but managed to make friends more proficiently than I did. I went on a walking tour of the area and figured out how to get from where I live to key points around the area. That being said, I think I'm going to be using the Tube a lot because it's much easier for me to navigate from point A to point B without having to hassle with pulling out a map of the city and search for my location only to be confused by the plethora of streets that are definitely not set up like a grid (God bless New York City and Utah.)

After the walking tour of the area I'm living in, I went to this small sandwich shop with some of my new friends and got an egg and mayonnaise baguette. It tasted better than it sounds. We then all piled on a private coach and took a tour of London, which was nice because I got to sit and look instead of wonder and worry about how I was going to get back to Atlantic House where I'm living.

Outside of Buckingham Palace.

St. Paul's Cathedral... Apparently on Sunday they have the bells play very loudly for an obscene amount of time. I was more annoyed than in awe after about the first five minutes of this.

This is a new building in London called "The Shard," which was built by a man with the last name Piano. It's apparently going to be a resort hotel/luxury apartment complex. It's actually quite spectacular.

These are some children playing in the water outside of a restaurant. I love English children and am excited to be able to see many more of them while I'm here.

This is London's city hall building- ti overlooks the River Thames and the Tower Bridge. I think it would be pretty cool to go to work in that building every day. 

The Tower Bridge.

And here are some tourists. I think that some of the things people want to take pictures with are pretty funny. There are probably going to be more where this came from.

As soon as the tour was finished, I went up to my room, finally met my roommate, and then crashed. I woke up a little over an hour ago so my sleeping schedule has gotten off already. This is precisely why I brought sleeping pills.

My class starts at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow and I was fortunate enough to meet some of the people from the program who will be in my class, so I won't feel completely alone. I think the whole "feeling alone and overwhelmed" thing is something that I will definitely get a better handle on over here. I'm still scared that I won't be able to find my way back to my dorm room and that I'll have too much course work to do for me to go and do touristy things, but I think I'll be able to figure it all out and not be so scared of not having complete control over everything.

We shall see.

Living La Vida London: Day 1

I flew out of the Dallas-Ft. Worth International airport yesterday at approximately 6:45 p.m. and was honestly more scared to leave than anything else. Everything hit me all at once:
I won't see my family for almost a month.
I won't get to spend Independence Day with my family.
I won't get to go to the Independence Day celebration my hometown hosts every weekend before the 4th of July.
I'm in a strange country across the Atlantic Ocean, thousands of miles away from anyone I know.

I'm alone here.

Needless to say, I'm scared to death right now. Landing in the Heathrow Airport was not exciting, but terrifying because I have nobody here with me. I guess this is why I need to do things like this: I need to grow up... or something.

The flight was alright and I was able to sleep at least a little bit. The girl I sat next to was flying to Ireland and was not a very experienced flyer. I suppose the fact that I am a seasoned professional flyer should have eased my mind a bit, but no such luck. I will say that the dinner that was served was actually very good- not like other meals I've had the misfortune of consuming on a plane ride.

After coming to the Kensington area of London and finding my room, I slept... against the advice of the staff here. I honestly tried to fight it off, but I decided to give in and sleep. The good thing is that I'm still very tired from all that has happened today and get exhausted at the thought of all that is to come.

My Dormroom 

The view from my window.

Unfortunately for me, I have not made any friends yet. This is something I am worried will not happen. What's worse is that I'm supposed to have a roommate and she isn't here. I'm pretty awkward to begin with, so adding the possibility of a person I've never met before wandering into my room tonight and sharing said room with me for three weeks also causes me great anxiety. It's all just a lot for me at the moment.

I tried to ease my mind by taking a walk around this part of town on my own, but I got lost. Of course.
I probably wandered around lost for about an hour before I finally found my way back to my dorm. I wasn't worried about getting lost, I was more worried about the blister forming on the back of my left ankle because I decided to wear athletic socks with my combat boots. In other words: I made a bad choice. Those who know me were likely expecting me to have some tale of getting lost in London because I get lost everywhere else I go. I have a good sense of direction, but the issue is that I only know the general direction of things and have a difficult time remembering exactly where I am and how to get where I need to go. This is also why the Tube frightens me. There are so many stops and I don't want to get lost on the Tube. I really just need someone here with me so that I don't have to get lost all by myself.

Things will probably get better, but as of right now, I'm a nervous wreck.