An American Gal In London

So I would like to begin this blog with an update from my last blog...

The man who I mentioned from my last blog who was staying with us is actually from Lyon! Paige and I were downstairs where we could only get internet in Paris, and Kelley was upstairs reading, and she happened to talk with him. Well, a little bit, he doesn't know much English. BUT the important thing is that when Kelley say us come in she was like "Well our new roommate is really nice! He's from this little place called Lyon" and my face just lit up!

For those who don't remember- Lyon was the city where I spent 3 weeks when I was ten years old. So obviously it has a really special meaning to it. He was only in town for the night, since he was there for a Nine Inch Nails concert, and so he was gone for it by the time that I had made it back upstairs, so I didn't get the chance to talk to him. Plus, he apparently spoke very limited English, so it would have been a challenge anyways to try to communicate. But, who knows! Maybe he was Frederic who was my peer host! Or maybe he could possibly know the family who I spent the time with. Last I heard they have moved down to Cannes, so it's probably doubtful, but once again- who knows. I only now wish that when he had come in that I had actually spoken to him and maybe talked a little of Lyon.

Lesson learned: the strange man sleeping in the same room as you could actually be a friend of a friend! Hope that makes you feel a little bit better dad....

The Chunel to London today was pretty fun. I ended up not being in the same carriage as Kelley and Paige, which made it a tad bit difficult with my luggage, but I had a lot of nice people help me out. It was really difficult trying to find out hostel, it was actually in Greenwich instead of London, which is a nice place, but just happens to always be cut off of maps. Not like the busses and layout of the city really helps...

So today we were the ultimate tourists. We first went on a double decker tour bus and got to see all of the sites. Unfortunately, we were moving so fast that it was kind of hard to really get photos of everything. Our ticket for the bus also included a free pass on a river tour, so we got to do that too. So we got up close views of the London Eye Ferris wheel, the London Tower, and all of that jazz on the River Thames.

Tomorrow we're planning on going out to Hampton Court, and I'm really excited about that too! I don't really know what to expect, so it should be fun. After the court we're either going to be doing our self-made Harry Potter tour, or going to the British Museum and Library. Either one, I'm sure it'll still end up being a great day.

Our hostel just so happens to be attached to a pub downstairs, with cheap food and such. We all got ourself a Foster Ale (which was the special for students tonight) and then I got a BLT. All of about 7 pounds, so that's not bad at all! And even though it seems like it would be loud, being above a pub and everything, it already seems a lot quieter than our one in Paris, which many of the young patrons were busy enjoying the social scene of the city while we were trying to sleep.

I'm already liking the Tube a LOT better than Paris' metro. It's nice that everything it much more connected, so there's a lot less changes to get somewhere. Like I mentioned earlier, the buses have really been the problem. In general they're just super confusing, and on top of that they're doing construction on the pipes in the city, so there's been a lot of new traffic patters and directions which are not marked on our maps. So confusing!

But in general, I basically forgot how much I love this country. It's just, I don't know, amazing. Although I would like to make a comment that I have not spent a day in England without it raining.... But,  I'm just so excited to be spending so long here, I only wish I could spend longer actually. It'll be different once I get from London to Oxford, I know, but I know it'll still be lots of fun.

Anyways, I'm going to finish my Foster and watch some more Cricket, trying to pick up the sport is going to find itself to be quite difficult.

Love y'all lots annnnnnnnd

Keep Followin'!

P.S. The photo was just taken at the bar with Paige, me, and our Fosters. I'm trying to upload more on Shutterfly, but it says that it'll take more than 8 hours to upload just Paris without Versailles or London. So we'll see about this...