Her Majesty, the Queen

So today was our second day in England.  We woke up and ate a quick breakfast before meeting the group to catch a taxi that we took to the train station, and from there took a train into London.  Drinking here is apparently not really a big deal, we sat next to a man on the train that downed two beers before we even arrived to London.  That would never happen in the states.  Once in London we took the tube (aka the subway) everywhere we needed to go.

Our first stop was Maria's apartment, and we had a little orientation there. She had little snacks and some Little-Debbie type cakes with a candle in one for Justin's birthday. After that, she took us to a pub for lunch where we met the students from the group attending King's College London.  At the pubs, you have to order your drinks and meal from the bar, pay there, then they'll bring it to your table. Plus, you have to remember to ask for tap water, because if you just ask for water they'll give you a bottle and charge you about 3 pounds.

After lunch we headed off to Buckingham Palace.  It was a fairly long walk, so we were able to see quite a bit.  We saw Big Ben; interesting fact, Big Ben is not the name of the tower, it's the name of the bell inside the tower.  The tower is actually St. Stevens Tower.  Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside of the palace, but it was gorgeous. We went to dinner and took the train back.  Our train, however, was delayed by about half an hour because of a fatality at one of the stations.  We finally returned and took a taxi back to the dorms.

Every one of the dorms has a bar downstairs, and literally every student was drinking and out and loud.  If we were back at home, that would never be allowed.  Apparently my corridor has become the place to be, it was so so loud and I kid you not, every single person from my hall was in it.  Since I've been in London all day, I was the only one they hadn't met yet, so they chanted for me until I opened the door to say hello.  It was crazy, they were all chanting for me and cheering my name and telling me I'm a legend now.  It was pretty crazy.

Needless to say, some things might take a little getting used to, but everyone seems to think it's pretty cool that we're from America.


UPDATE: You can view pics of the first 3 days on my facebook; click here

-Barbara

First Day on the Ground

Well we made it safe and sound, an uneventful plane ride really.  Other than Barbara thinking she lost her phone, we found it eventually though.  Heathrow is pretty poorly set-up, we had to take a tram to get to the other terminals.  We took the coach to the University, apparently it was about an hour and a half drive, but it didn't seem quite that long.

The rooms are...small.  My bed is just barely long enough for me, it also sits at least a foot from any wall.  I'm not sure if it can be moved, we didn't have very long to set-up.  We had just enough time to change our clothes before heading into Reading for lunch...on a double-decker bus.  We ate at a little restaurant called "Sweeney & Todd" that our ISA liaison, Maria, took us to.  The waitresses had, let's just call it, a laid back attitude.  As we left, two of them were sitting at a table drinking wine.

Everyone in our group also got a pre-paid cell phone.  Now our family and loved ones can call us for free (well, for us anyway).  We took taxis back to the University and the jet lag (or just pure lack of sleep) was catching up to everyone really quick.

We're off to London in the morning, hope all is well back home.

-Justin

The Beginning

We're leaving today! We fly out from GR and have a layover in Detroit before flying straight through to London. We'll miss you all :(