Day Two Adventures

So far I really love London. It is just such an interesting and beautiful place. There are so many intricate little side streets to get lost on and parks to relax in. The whole city is so easy to get around, and the weather is perfect. It’s exactly the kind of cool, semi-cloudy weather I love.

I slept quite well last night. It was a bit noisy since my room looks out on the main road, but I was so tired I could have slept through anything. Between 4:00-7:00 a.m. all was silent. It was so nice. I woke up around 5:00 a.m. to find the sun already completely up and I felt well rested. I didn’t need to get up until 10:00 so I went back to sleep for a few hours. I finally rolled out of bed around 9:00, went upstairs to shower, then I wandered down the street to find a café for breakfast and a coffee. My roomie and I ended up finding the Goodage tube station, which I think is the closest even though everyone else seems to like Euston.

After grabbing a grande chai latte I headed back to Byng to meet up with everyone for the scavenger hunt. Dr. Harf divided us into 10 groups. We basically had a list of really random things that we needed to go find and take pictures of. The whole concept was to get us out and about and exploring the city. There were 3 people in my group, myself included. We stopped at Euston so the girls could buy an oyster card, I topped mine off, and then we headed down to South Kensington. The oyster cards are great. It costs £3 to buy a card and then you just put how ever much money you want on it as you go. It is so easy to use and very easy to top off. The best part is, is the most they will charge you on it per day is £5.30 which is the cost of an all day pass. So even if you’re doing a lot of traveling around in one day, it will never cost you more than a full day ticket.

We ended up doing a lot more roaming around of our own rather than looking for things on the list for the scavenger hunt. I think we got to see more interesting places that way. We popped into the V&A and then passed the Natural History Museum, strolled through Kensington Garden where we looked at the Peter Pan statue. Then we walked past Royal Albert Hall and stopped at a small café for lunch. After that we got on the tube and headed to St. James’s Park. We walked through the park, went by Buckingham Palace, walked down the Mall, passed Parliament and Big Ben and then we got to Trafalgar Square.

Trafalgar Sqaure was PACKED! There were so many people. I guess today they were having a Jewish celebration of sorts which turned into a rather controversial scene. Everyone was yelling and waving flags. The whole thing turned into an anti-Israel pro-Palestine event. People were waving Palestinian flags and handing out fliers about how we are killing Palestine and Israel needs to perish. In short, it was a rather scary scene and we left as quickly as possible.

After all that, we headed back to Byng to freshen up before meeting with the rest of the group at a pub called Night and Day. It is a very nice place and they have excellent food. It was very clean and well kept and just down the road from the building we have classes in. I ordered a chicken, mozzarella, and pesto baguette for £4.50 with a glass of ice cold water which tasted amazing.

Between lugging all my bags here, walking for 5 hours today, and going up and down the 70+ stairs to get to and from my room I have definitely been getting a good workout.

Right now a small group of us walked back to Byng to shower and take a short nap. I think later this evening we will go to a pub to watch a game of football. I really like Kensington. Everything was so beautiful and interesting around there. I think I’ll really enjoy living there in the fall. Later in the trip after I’ve gotten a feel for how classes are going, I would like to go back to Kensington and poke around a bit more and find exactly where I’ll be.

I just got back from Blackfriar Pub. I absolutely LOVE it. It is my favourite place so far. It is exactly the kind of place I’ve been hoping to find. It is right at the top of the tube station and it is a really cool looking building. The atmosphere inside is so warm and cozy and I just got a sense of peace. It is the perfect place to curl up in the corner and read a book or write a paper. I REALLY love it.

Tomorrow morning a bunch of us are going to go to this place near the school for breakfast. One of the girls that is here came on the trip last year so she knows a lot of cool places to go. We have orientation from 9:30-7:00 tomorrow. It’s going to be a long day. We have two walkikng tours we have to go on and then a bunch of mandatory meetings. I just got the internet on my computer tonight, hence the late posts. We weren’t supposed to get the passcode until tomorrow but one of the girls that lives here told us what it was. So, that means I will definitely be able to post daily :)