Hey again!

So Friday was our first day without a scheduled orientation activity so some sleeping in was in order. The first few days I was waking up a lot (and needing lots of water because of the dry dorm rooms!) but I've definitely adjusted and gotten comfortable sleeping in. I tried out the Nido (pronounced NEEdo, not NIdo, they get very upset about that) gym, which seemed like it haseverything I need so no need to pay the 40 extra pounds to tube over and use the fancy school gym. I'm definitely getting lots of walking in during my city explorations. Since it was Friday we checked out Yate's and Tiger Tiger in Picadilly Circus and had a great time. I was with some friends from New York and as we were leaving they played "New York, New York" so we left with smiles on our faces. Our late night tradition has turned into getting schwarmas, doners, and french fries, YUM.

On Saturday I met up with my GSE group and went to St. Pauls. My friends in other programs are getting jealous that our program has so much planned out for us. We're all already brainstorming a long weekend in France (Ryan Air has really cheap flights-like 15 pounds!) and some sort of trip for spring break. We had an adorable librarian-like lady take us around St. Pauls-she was so excited about it and really interesting! We saw where St. Pauls was hit in the blitz, learned about Sir Christopher Wren, and where Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington were buried. I am absolutely in LOVE with the wood carvings and glittering mosaics. And I marveled at how Anglican priests dress strangely like Neo from the second two Matrix movies :) We also grabbed a few post cards and had some delicious turkey, brie, and cranberry sandwiches before trekking up the 267 stairs to the whispering gallery and then the base of the dome for some amazing photo angles.

Afterwards, Jaime, Ryan, Alex, and I tourist-ed it up at the London Bridge & London Tomb experience. Pretty cheesy, but fun. And yes, I clung to my friends for dear life when actors jumped out at us in the London Tomb.

Even better was when we wandered down the Thames and stumbled upon an open air farmers market. It was HUGE and everything looked and smelled amazing. We tried tons of samples and grabbed some authentic fish n' chips. I love that there's always something going on everywhere you go in this city. It's definitely one big playground!

Monday Danielle, Sheena, "the boys" and I went to the famed Oxford Street for some shopping. I had to check out Topshop because many people who had visited before reccomended it. It was overwhelming! Just the accessories section was massive. I ended up holding back and getting one top and tights. We window shopped around and got some tasty crepes for lunch. I'll miss LG farmers market crepes though!

Jaime found a pub called The Golden Lion that had live country music on Sunday nights and it was excellent! It was also cool because it was definitely a neighborhood place with a lot of relaxed, actually British people. It really started snowing on our way there though! Afterwards, it was Superbowl time! We went to International Students House to see it. It's somewhat like Nido, except that it also has short stay rooms available. We met lots of people our age from around the globe-America, Iraq, Argentina. I found some fellow Steelers fans and I was beyond excited to see them win. The next day I was definitely checking up Facebook to see riot pictures. Pittsburgh definitely went crazy as expected. We really liked it there so we'll definitely be back for their event nights.

Yesterday I woke up to find out from my roommate that our first day of classes were cancelled. Most tube lines and busses were also closed so we spent pretty much the whole day at Nido. We watched Pride and Prejudice (sorry mom!) in a floor lounge and then tried to watch V for Vendetta in the comfy bean bag lounge but the RA couldn't get it to work :( They require that you sign out remotes to use a lounge here. We also had to be inducted into the gym to be able to use it without sneaking in haha.

Today was my first day of class and it was all really good. I found my classes pretty easily. Art in London will be great, since we will be visiting museums as a part of the curriculum. I definitely had to hold myself back from talking about the works on the slides forever! And printmaking seemed pretty awesome. Our "tutors" as they call the professors have had lots of experience with printmaking (since 1969 and 1972) and were really entertaining. They'll provide everything but the paper but we will have to carry all our work to and from the studio since they're low on storage space. Can't wait to have ink permanantly under my fingernails!

Now we're off to check out Rocket, the London Met student lounge for the International Student welcome party. Should be fun but some people have early classes so it'll be an early night. I have no classes on Wednesday and Friday, yay! Having class from 10:30-12:30 and then 2-5 will make up for that fact. Tuesday will be the worst since I have to switch campuses. Monday and Thursday I have one class each. Anyways, hope everyone is doing well at home! Lots of love and kisses <3