What day is it?

So I live in London. As of now I still feel more like a tourist than a resident, and I’m kind of okay with never becoming just one or the other. Today was a great start at mixing the two…we started this morning a little bit less jetlagged but I was (am) still pretty out of it. I couldn’t get out of my bunk bed until 20 minutes until our meeting time. We got on a tour bus and headed off for a morning of sightseeing. It’s now 12:35am (6:35pm Missouri time) and looking back I cannot believe how much ground we’ve covered today. I want to add pictures—and I will as soon as I can figure it out—to chronicle everything just because there’s no way I can remember it all. The cutest British woman name Diana was our tour guide and she was just like Mary Poppins! I was about to say that she had an umbrella and everything but I realized how silly that sounds…only the dense Americans like me don’t have an umbrella handy at all times! Maybe I should have brought the ‘authentic’ Mary Poppins umbrella that my mom and I bought on Broadway over spring break…don’t laugh, we were on some kind of Broadway high.

Anyway, the bus tour was a great first-look at the famous sights of London…we saw St. Paul’s cathedral, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey (including demonstration at Parliament Square), Buckingham Palace, No. 10 Downing Street (where Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his family live), the River Thames, and so much more. The bus dropped us off at Piccadilly Circus so we could explore a bit on our own. We grabbed a quick lunch then started wandering! It was great. We walked through China Town and ended up at Trafalgar Square. I’m still not quite used to the rain…one minute it’s sunny and beautiful and then a split second later it’s a heavy drizzle. And sometimes it’s sunny and raining! Oh, London.

Most of the museums are free so we went into the National Gallery just for an hour or so and got a great little taste of the incredible art London has to offer. Van Gogh, Monet, Manet…all in 1 hour! We—my five flat mates and some of the guys on the trip—checked into seeing some shows and it seems like they’re going to be fairly cheap. Billy Elliot is a popular one according the suggestions I’ve gotten via Facebook, so I’m going to make sure I see that one if possible.

After Trafalgar we headed toward Parliament Square and walked past Gordon Brown’s residence again…and before we could cross the road we were stopped by the guards and because he happened to be leaving! So I saw him…I think. Star sighting number 1, check. Once we got to Parliament Adrienne and I took a picture to send to our Poli-Sci professor (yes, the one I have a little crush on). We hoped that maybe he would love it and boost our grade, which might have happened because I was very pleasantly surprised when I checked my grade a few hours ago! Lucky day for us.

After the walking tour we went underground for our first adventure on the Tube! We all got Oyster cards and I think I’ll have the system mastered pretty quickly. On the way home we stopped at Primark…it reminded me of an H&M times 10. People everywhere and great bargains! I got a duvet cover for the questionable comforter that was provided in the flat. I’ll feel much better about sleeping in a clean bed tonight. We also went to Sainsbury’s (the grocery store) and I realized again that I have absolutely no idea how to shop for food. My roommate was probably the only reason I survived last semester—without our teamwork Wal-Mart trips I would have been wondering around feeling out of place just like I did today…and not even because I’m in a foreign country! So I had Ritz crackers for dinner and relaxed for a bit. Then a few of us went out for a little walk around and found a great little pub right around the corner of Hogarth. The strawberry beer I had was just like candy and I have a feeling I’ll be back there quick a few times before summer is over. : )  I love the culture and energy and history of this place (the pub and the city)…

Ok, so I’m going to bed. We’ve got orientation all morning tomorrow and I’m really tired. Loving it here. I got to Skype for the first time tonight and I think that will alleviate any homesickness I might have had. I was practically in the KOMU newsroom via video chat…which proves my theory that no matter how many miles away I get that place will somehow have a hold on me.

Pictures coming soon…

emily