I'll sleep when I'm dead!

• Ms.whiting's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from London

Trip Start Sep 02, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Dec 16, 2008 Next
Entry

  London, United Kingdom
Monday, September 17, 2007

Wow! What a busy and hectic couple of weeks it has been. I'm sorry I have not updated until now! There has just been so much going on that I havn't had time to sit down and do a proper posting. Where do I even start? I've seen so much in the past 2 weeks it's hard to even wrap my brain around it. I still don't think it's quite dawned on me that I'm actually in London and will be for a while. I feel completely settled in my flat though. I love my roomates! Another girl moved in with us last week due to some housing conflicts she was having so that brings the grand total of us up to 8! It's actually kind of nice having so many roomates because there's always someone to hang out with or go do something with. It does make for a very cramped fridge though!

Last week I actually had to start having responsibilities. Booo! :-( I started class on Monday. It's a Shakespeare class and I think it will be good. We are reading some good plays and the class is mostly just discussion based with minimal work so I'm okay with that! Then on Tuesday I had my interview at the school. It wasn't really an interview, more of just a "hi, you're here, okay here's the school, be here tomrrow at 8". So my first official day of work was on Wed. It was their first day of term as well so it was a little hectic but I really like the teacher I'm going to be working with. We have very similar personalities and all of the teachers there have been beyond nice. I'm working with what would be a 1st grade class in the U.S. The boys are adooooorable.

St. Paul's

They are so polite and look like little gentlemen in their vests and ties! And I love the way they say "Ms. Whiting". I'm hoping to start doing some teaching or take on some more responsibilities next week.

We did a ton of great things this week. Last saturday we went on a walking tour which was very informative and interesting. I learned a lot of neat history tidbits like where "plague pits" are in the city and how the Globe theater came to be on the other side of the river. Then on Sunday we went on a bus tour which was neat because we got to see the rest of the city without having to walk so far! We also ended up outside of Buckingham Palace which was exciting. During the week we went and saw The Lion King. It was amazing! I absolutely loved the music. It's much more "African" sounding in the musical version and they have some really wonderful new songs that they made just for the musical.

This weekend we did some more exploring. On Saturday we walked down to Covent Garden which is a great little area with a bunch of outdoor cafes and shops. I found a Disney Store! I literally started running when I saw it! Unforutnately I couldn't really look because we were in a time crunch but I will def. be going back! After Covent Garden we walked down to the river where there was this huge outdoor festival called the Thames River Festival. It's a huge end-of-summer celebration. It reminds me of the art shows and stuff back home but much bigger! There were all kinds of vendors set up with crafts, jewelry, art, and lots of food! We hung out around there for a while until it was time to go to the London Eye! It was the absolute perfect day to go because there wasn't a cloud in the sky so we had a spectacular view of the city.

Buckingham Palace

Unfortunately a lot of my pictures didn't come out that well because it was too sunny! I started to get a little clausterphobic in the pod thing so I was thankful when it was over, but I'm glad I did it. Saturday night we went to this restaurant/bar that plays American sports and I *unfortunately* watched the Michigan Notre Dame game. Don't care to dwell on that too much, but I was still thankful that I was in England watching college football!

Yesterday we went to Camden Market which was great. It's kind of like a big outdoor flea market but much cooler and no rednecks! Haha I saw a lot of cool stuff but restrained myself and only bought a necklace for 4 pounds. After the market we went back down to the Thames to see the grand finale of the festival. There was a huge fireworks display that honestly put the nightly Magic Kingdom ones to shame! I was shocked. I can't tell you how amazing it was to stand on the bridge and watch fireworks go off over the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral. The river at night is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen! I couldn't take any pictures because the flash has stopped working on my camera after a very unfortunate and freakish run-in it had with someone's pint one night!

All in all it has been an absolutely amazing 2 weeks. I feel so lucky to even be here, let alone to be here for 3 more months! I feel like I'm not going to want to come home! Everything is going to seem so boring after being here. I want everyone to come here so then I don't have to miss anyone but still get to be in London!!! :-)

This weekend we are going to Cambridge which I'm very excited about. Hopefully we will start taking some trips out of the country here soon. I'm off to try and snag some john mayer tickets so wish me luck! I miss and love everyone <3

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Me + Jenna	1/2 of the Bedford Place roomies	Rollins Girls!	Lion King
Hakuna Matata!	Travel to Orlando!	Picadilly Circus	Russell Square
Russell	Bedford Place	Street Performer	Disney Store!!!!
Covent Garden	Parliament + Big Ben	The River	Lazy girls
The ominous Eye!	Sunshine	Ready for the Eye!	Thames Festival
??? Who knows.	The City	London Eye	Hanging out with Ben again
Gorgeous.	Eye Pod	Lots of people!	There are bridges everywhere here!
Lovin' life.

Slideshow Print this entry Share London hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry