'Ello!

So I promised family members and a few friends that I would blog about my adventures while I spend my spring semester in London and here it is!

I've been here for over a week now and it has been an adventure in itself. First off, I nearly missed my connection flight to London from Montreal due to an hour plane delay and was yelled at by a woman at the ticket counter because I started crying (and didn't even realize it). Everyone else was super nice and I did end up making the flight. However this meant my luggage didn't and I had to wait until the next evening for Air Canada to deliver my bag. It was not the best experience to have when you are on your first international trip but, c'est la vie.

It definitely hasn't been what I have expected so far. The place I'm living in isn't as nice as it looked in the pictures (however I think that is the deal with most places) but I have an awesome roommate who I get along with and the neighborhood is amazing! We are only a block away from Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, and there are numerous trails to explore when I run (and yes I am running because I am not coming back out of shape and facing the wrath of the Cashes). Furthermore, I have been to a couple of pubs. The food is actually pretty good and the pints are delicious as well. I'm not the biggest drinker around but the fact that it's more of a social thing, I'm more comfortable drinking around people. Pubs around here are decently cheap but most of us mainly go to the student bar at Imperial College. Drinks there range from a pound to two pound fifty. The campus is right across the street and the school is the eighth ranked college in the world and has a partnership with the program I am on. I've met a few interesting people over there already so we'll see what happens in the coming weeks.

Classes have already started this week and mine are only Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednedays. It sounds nice (and it is) but the classes are three hours long and I have back-to-back classes on Tuesday. I don't think I will ever complain about an hour and fifteen minute classes ever again when I'm back at Guilford. Also when my internship starts in March, I kind of lose my Thrusday and Friday free days since we have the internship Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday so I have to make the most of out it while I still can.

As for places to explore, I've been on tours where I've seen the main tourist attractions, like Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, etc. but I did get the chance on my third day here to get out and go see Abbey Road, which I crossed and have photographic evidence of on Facebook. Another place that is great to go is Camden Markets. Everything there is super cheap and has a wide variety of foods such as Moraccan, Indian, Chinese, etc. I am psyched to go back there. Whenever we go out to far away places such as the ones I mentioned we take the Tube, which is so much better than the subway in New York. I freaking love it and would use it all the time if I lived here. Walking around that neighborhood, or in any non Kensington neighborhood, astonishes me how amazing this experience is already and how much more amazing it will be once the weeks start to roll on.

This is what has happened so far and I will try to update this at least once a week with a couple of pictures and a long post about what I have done so far.

Cheers!