Loving London

Even though we were only in London for two days, it felt like so much more. Now that I've left, I'll see what I can remember from the two longest days ever!

When we first arrived in London and were waiting for the rest of the group's flights to arrive, a few of us decided to go to the hotel bar to take advantage of now being of legal age to drink. Amanda, who is now my roommate in Prague, and I each attempted to order a rum and coke. Instead we each ended up with a bottle of coke and a cup of some sort of nonalcoholic sugary/lemony/key lime pie flavored juice. Others tried ordering an Irish coffee, and in response the bartender asked what kind of orange juice they wanted in it. We all decided that either our "bartender" was actually a maid in disguise, or we really needed to learn how this whole drink ordering thing works in Europe.

Afterwards I had my first pub experience in London and I ordered my first foreign meal: posh chicken kiev. It was a breaded chicken stuffed with garlic and cheese, and it was pretty good! Afterwards a few people went to Camden Market, but I was so exhausted from the flight so I stayed behind to take a nap at the hotel. Later, the group had a quick orientation meeting led by Maike, an AIFS staff member who is continuing onto Prague with us and she is so sweet and helpful so far! We had the rest of the day free, and I got dinner with some girls from the group and later that night we went to a four or five story club called O'Neils in Chinatown which was really fun, but way more crowded than I expected!

The second day, AIFS had arranged a fantastic bus tour of London. Our tour guide was extremely entertaining and very knowledgable. It was amazing to see how much history there is in London. It seems like every block has a story. We were able to go inside Saint Paul Cathedral, which was so beautiful but unfortunately photographs aren't allowed. The bus also stopped at Buckingham Palace just in time for us to see the changing of the guards!

Big Ben

Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace

After the tour a group of us went to take pictures at the crossing on Abbey Road, like on the Beatles album cover. After about 20 pictures to ensure that we captured the poses perfectly (and not awkwardly, which is very difficult to do) and running back and forth to avoid getting hit by cars, we finally got some good pictures!

Amanda, Emily, Alex and I at Abbey Road

 Next we went to Harrod's for tea! So finding Harrod's was such a stressful experience. The tour guide that morning told us the Tube stop to get off on, but since some Tube lines were down, we had a very hard time finding how to even get to the right Tube station. We had to ask about 5 different passing bus drivers, and none of them had even heard of Harrod's or the stop we were trying to get to. Finally we got onto a random bus and I swear it was fate. There was an American couple next to all of us on the bus, and they said they were from Texas. Turns out the husband was in the first graduating class of Plano West and had graduated from Rice University (anyone reading this should know, but if not: I went to Plano West and my sister Lesley is a freshman at Rice now), and his wife went to UT! They gave us directions to Harrod's, and we were so glad that we went through with all of the stress that it took to get there. It was definitely worth it!

Tea Room at Harrod's

Rosie, Natalie, me, and Carl at Harrod's

Lauduree, where we got great macarroons at Harrods

On the plane from London, we were with a bunch of students also studying in Prague through CEA, another affiliate program. It was pretty interesting to meet them, because their group had a very different dynamic. While most of us on the AIFS trip don't know anyone at all, most of the CEA trip already knew each other from camp, high school, etc.

Everyone in my group seems really great so far! I've started to get close with a lot of people and I can't wait for what the rest of the semester has in store!