Well I have officially made it to London! After quite the adventure in the US, I have made it safe and sound. So when I was accepted into the program, I decided I would fly standby and save some money. Looks like everyone else had the same idea. Every flight was oversold, and in some cases oversold by 10 or more. My mom and I flew to Chicago to get me on a different flight which two girls were on from my program. Missed that one and missed the next two American flights.
We overnighted in Chicago and ended up buying me a ticket out of Chicago the next day. Sounds great, right? Nope, it was cheaper to go out of Minneapolis. So we flew home Wednesday morning and then I was back at the airport five hours later to fly to London through Chicago. Anyways, it all worked out and I am here.
After arriving and getting all my bags and finding my taxi driver, I made it to school about 45 minutes late for orientation. I quickly snuck in the back of orientation to listen to what I had missed. We talked about riding the tube, safety, school, and other things. I found Megan (my roommate) and we headed off to get lunch. Bissa (my good friend from UST) and I went to this place thinking it looked good. Wasn't good & overpriced. We got Starbucks and headed back to school to go on our city-tour. However, it wasn't on a double-decker red bus.
Day one was long and I was ready for bed! We met my family and they showed me around and showed me my room. Our room is huge and is on the third floor, away from the rest of the family which is nice. We have a student from Spain and Japan also living with us! Full house to say the least. I finally got in bed and slept ok.
Day two, we had our Business 200 orientation, which is a program that all UST business students have to do. To graduate, you need to complete 40 hours, non paid community service. I got placed at a primary school here in London and will start on Wednesday. I am super excited! After orientation, we got cheap cell phones so we can all text each other for free. Some went exploring but Megan, Bailey, and I went on the tube and went to the grocery store and headed home for a nap. We went to O'Neills (a pub) for dinner.
Yesterday, we went to Hampton Court Palace where King Henry the 8th lived. It was so cool to finally see the inside of an old palace. Our tour guide was a hoot, she was super funny and kept us all engaged. After our day trip, Bissa and I returned to school and found a mall. Did I just say mall? Yes, we finally found one! We went through some stores and landed at Starbucks to check e-mail and Facebook. We got home took a nap and yep you guessed went back to O'Neills. O'Neills is the central meeting point for everyone! It was a good day.
Today, we went on a scavenger hunt to find different landmarks and to really learn public transportation. My group was Gianna, Morgan, and Kendra. We went to Kensington Palace (tried to find William, Kate, and baby George), no luck. We also went to Victoria and Albert Museum, Harrod's, and tried to go to Olympic Village, but it was too far! It was a fun day to explore and get to know the city. When we got home, we chatted with our host parents and have just relaxed as we have been going non-stop for the past couple of days!
Off to bed, tomorrow is to find our service site and do some reading for Monday's class!
xoxo
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