Waking Up In London

Week One

I’ve had an amazing first week in London!                                                

On Sunday night, Olivia, Danielle, Melina, Kaitlin, and I had dinner with our host families. They made us chicken with roasted potatoes and some veggies. It was so good. Then we went out to Muswell Hill to meet our friend Brian to celebrate finally making it to England. We got lost for a little over and hour and we didn’t have phones to help us communicate but it all worked out in the end. It was a good night! 

We had orientation on Monday morning followed by a coach tour of the city of London. It was a lot of fun and we got to see pretty amazing sites. I took a lot of pictures but then jet lag kicked in and I had to take a little nap.  

Tuesday through Thursday were just filled with starting my classes and wondering around the city. I’ve gotten pretty good at being able to navigate my way around on the tube! My roommates and I did a little bit of shopping and we went out to eat a few times. We all got phones with UK numbers this week too. It was weird going from using an iPhone to using a tiny pay-as-you go phone. I wonder how long it will take me to memorize my new number!

On Friday, Danielle, Kaitlin, Megan, Oliva, and I went to the city of Bath in England. We went on a tour of the Roman Bath House. It was so beautiful!   I had a great time. We meet a couple of other people doing the study abroad program for California. We ended up meeting up with one of them at Bar Rumba, a club just a few tube stops away. It was a fun but expensive night! We ended up getting home at 4 am!!

Saturday morning, we got up early and met our professor to go see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. It was cold, wet, and rainy so we didn’t stay long. I came back home, took a nap for a couple hours and decided to go out again. Us girls went back up to Muswell Hill for the night and went to a couple of places before we called it a night, again, at 4 am!

It was Chinese New Year today, so Olivia, Danielle, Melina, and I went to China Town to have some Chinese food. We ventured into Camden to go shopping for a little bit and came back home. Now I’m just about ready to go make some dinner, take a bath, read, and go to bed earlier than the last couple of nights.

I love and miss you all!! Studying abroad is definitely one of the best decisions that I have ever made! London, though rainy, is so beautiful! I will continue to post more pictures throughout the week and then a big update every Sunday!

Also, don’t forget to sign your name when you comment/ask questions! I need to know who you are!!

Love you!

Anonymous asked: Hey J - are you having fun in London? Thinking about you every minute. Love Grandma

Hi Grandma! I love London!! It is amazing! I’ve been having so much fun! I love you too and I miss you!

I made it!!

I arrived in London at about 5:30 UK time this morning, which was 11:30 pm back in Iowa. We took a bus to our Homestays, where my roommates, Oliva, Danielle, and I finally got to meet our host family. We got settled in, had a cup of tea, and a tour of the house (which looks a little like Hugh Grant’s home in the movie Notting Hill) before us three decided to venture into the city. We had a small bite to eat and then met up with two other girls in our program to take the Tube to see our school, University of London. It’s a huge, beautiful school and so close to cute shops and restaurants. We then went to a restaurant and had our first legal drink! After some window shopping, we navigated our way back home on the Tube. At that point, I had been awake for almost 27 hours! I fell asleep pretty fast and just now woke up! We are having dinner tonight with our family to get to know them better and then out to see what London is like at night! More to come soon!