Week Uno

Ok, so I have officially finished my first school week in London (yea for 4 day school weeks!!). I've been to all 5 classes and they were interesting experiences. My first was theater class on Monday. We spent an hour in class (in which my teacher pulled out her bottle of gin & tonic cuz she can't get through class without a drink lol) and then after a quick dinner back at the flat 6 of us girls went in search of the theater for our first play. We got completely lost and just made it to the theater in time right before they closed the door. The play "Arcadia" was very interesting and lovely to see on stage.

On Tuesday, I had film class. We are currently reading and watching "Atonement" which I'm not gonna lie, is kinda boring!!! But for that class outing we went on a walking tour of "London as a film set." This tour was awesome and we got to see all the locations movies have shot in. I have no idea if that image adding worked, but the picture of me in front of the big building is the Bank they used as Gringotts in Harry Potter 1 (no comments on my dorky reading habits please. i was very excited about this pic).

On Wednesday, I had History class. My history class is a 2 person class in which my roommate and I are the only 2 students. Our teacher is very cool and only made us spend 45 minutes (instead of the 2.5 hours) at the British Museum (which is less then a 5 minute walk from my flat. I know how cool is that. I live less then 5 minutes from one of the oldest museums in the world!!) After class on Wed. a couple of friends and I went up to Camden Town and had tons of fun at the outdoor market. There are so many vendors and I fell in love with this outdoor flea market kind of place. I managed to not really buy much (only a couple of things lol). We also went into this really crazy Rave store. They had all these out of these world outfits for hardcore rave go-ers. We were out of place (no visible tattoos and/or piercings lol). The picture of me on the motorcycle is from Camden Town.

Today I had 2 classes: Culture by Design and Communications. Culture by Design was this morning and it was tons of fun. Our teacher is a JMU graduate who was born and raised in VA and did the London Study Abroad program. He loved London so much that after he graduated he decided to move here. AWESOME!!! He was mad cool and very chill. We went to Camden Town (which was cool. always up for another visit) on a safari. I then had 30 minutes for lunch and then off to my last class. Ok not gonna lie about this class, but I was not a fan. Pretty sure I am dropping it and adding the British Media and Society class instead. Though our outing for that class was interesting. We went down to Brixton (think Baltimore, and not the good parts either lol. more like the rough parts). Though its a rough area it was cool to see some other culture besides the touristy areas and the hipster area (Camden Town anyone?). We went down there to go see an art display at a gallery... but guess what??? The artist had to change his plans so he took his artwork up and left at 3 instead of staying until 5 like he was supposed to. So we got to look at empty walls and the gallery owner gave us drinks on the house for the inconvenience!!!!

This first week has just flown by. I've done so much yet not enough. I've been to the grocery store like 3 times (I'm not very good at it. and I drink A LOT of apple juice. Ah how I miss the days when mommy did the grocery shopping lol). I've been cooking for myself and throwing together my favorite meals (lucky I'm a simple girl at heart). I swear out I've been eating a lot but it doesn't seem like it. Every time I put food in my mouth, I then have to walk 20 miles somewhere so I burn through the food in my body very quickly. I swear after every outing I am always hungry. I also live in the top flat of my house, which means I have a natural stair master. I cannot wait for a nice home cooked meal without stairs and myself as the chef (be prepared mommy).

I've also hit up the party scene in London. Last Saturday a bunch of us went out to Piccadilly Square and went clubbing. It was tons of fun, the music was great, and we met lots of nice English people.

I've added some photos of me around the city and hanging with some of my new fav peeps. I believe there's one of me in front of The Globe, one of the night the girls and I went clubbing, me in front of Big Ben and Parliament, Nora and I annoying the British guard, one of my mini group all stuck in a phone booth, a pic of Madison House, and me standing in front of my future home (aka Buckingham Palace lol).

Well that's it for this post. I got to get to bed because tomorrow I must get up early to go to the Tower of London and Westminster. We are touring the whole weekend so I'll write about it hopefully Sunday (if I don't pass out from exhaustion)

Lots of Love,

KP