We Will Rock You

We all went and saw the Queen musical We Will Rock You. It was pretty bad. The singing was amazing but the story was awful.

I guess others in our group happened to walk by Will Smith's movie premiere and saw him! I didn't go the same way as them.

The adventure east of the city

Tuesday night, I went with a girl from Madison out to Tower Bridge. Her boyfriend goes to school here for the year so we went to go to his dorm. The area is beautiful. We took the tube to the Tower of London and then crossed the bridge. His dorm is just a short walk from the river. He has a collection of roommates: one from Belgium, Germany, and the US. They took us out to this swanky pub and it was a lot of fun. What made it even more exciting was that it was just two of us traveling instead of the 35 it usually is in our group. Being in a group of 35 Americans in the city is no fun, let me tell you.

My First Day Out

Tuesday was spent sitting in a room for orientation, but we got to explore in the afternoon. They took us to Covent Gardens and to St Paul's Church, the "Actor's Church." They have memorials to famous actors, directors and playwrights. The only one I knew was Charlie Chaplin. The Church was also the place where the first victim of the plague was buried.

We then went to Trafalgar Square and went into the National Portrait Gallery for high tea. They served us sandwiches, cakes, and biscuits and had a panoramic view of the city. It was beautiful! I am so surprised how much I loved the tea! I have tried so many times at home to like tea but never did. I have had a few cups everyday since. The key is the milk.

The Peter Pan Window and Mary Poppin's Roof

My flat is in a very wealthy posh area of London and is a great location. It is close to so many good places and the tube station is only a 10 minute walk away. I haven't been able to do much exploring of the area yet, but I will in the next few days.

So I get to the building and have to carry my ridiculously heavy bags up the front steps only to go in and find out that I am in the top floor loft. There is only 3 floors but I am a weakling. And, I tripped so many times on the steps as they narrowed around curves. So it took me 3 trips to get everything up to my door. Then I open it, and SURPRISE! My bedroom is in the loft, another flight of stairs. I can still feel the upper body work out I got from that day.

I am in a double room all by myself! I got so lucky. So there is just an extra bed chilling on the other side of my room. I have a window that opens out to the roof. It reminds me of Peter Pan! I get a view of the street and the other rooftops and can just picture Mary Poppin's dancing on them.

Pictures will be up shortly.

The building is pretty nice. There is a basement flat where about 6 boys live. Then there is a flat on each floor with two on my floor. Our GA (like our RA) lives next to me. He seems really nice so far. His role not like a dorm room RA though. He just gets to live here it seems in exchange for keeping an eye on the building and us.

My flat has a double room, 1.5 baths, a kitchen and a living room with two single rooms upstairs. My flatmates seem alright so far.

I Made It!

Getting to London was not the easiest thing in the world. After getting to the airport and discovering that my flight with Virgin Atlantic was canceled, I managed to get on a British Airlines flight 2.5 hours later. I have to say, terminal 5 at O'hare is awful. Then, I decided not to be smart and watch the awesome movies they had. I spent the night engrossed in chick flicks like Officer and a Gentleman and Nights in Rodanthe. Because of that, I slept for an hour and a half. Go me!

Because my airline was changed, I landed in the wrong terminal and had to figure out my way from terminal 5 to terminal 3 to meet the bus. I get my bags and struggle to figure out my way. I bet watching me trying to navigate Heathrow with two bags and two carry ons would have been hilarious. I end up having to take a train to get to the terminal and then walk up this ridiculous ramp with all my bags. I believe I lost about 10 pounds in that hour from all the exercise and because of how much I was sweating. After being in Wisconsin, 50 degrees was a sauna.

I found about 15 other Arcadia students. We loaded onto a bus and drove about 40 minutes until we got into the city and were dropped off at our flats.