It's 11:18 here in London (5:18 back home) and I'm settling in for the evening. Finally finished unpacking everything about 20 minutes ago. Check out our housing... cramped to say the least, but I think we'll manage.
I've officially been in Europe for a little over 11 hours! So let's start there. Our delayed plane finally landed at London-Heathrow around 12:30 this afternoon. Two other girls in my program were also on my flight, so by the time we gathered all three of our checked baggage it was almost 2 p.m. (2p.m. is also the time we were supposed to be at our housing by... at the latest.) Well, we rolled in around 3 p.m., after managing to nearly take the wrong train to Paddington Station and then taking a taxi to Chelsea, where we're staying.
The flight itself was good. It was about 8.5 hours. I thought I'd get good sleep since it was an over night flight, but that didn't happen. Instead I watched How to Train Your Dragon and Forgetting Sarah Marshall AND I played some centipede and soduko and free cell... I think I managed to get about an hour of shut eye the entire flight. I think I was just antsy... that and I had a bit of a headache. So now, we're finally at housing and settling in. First things first, say hi to everyone here. There are 11 students total and then we went to the grocery store to pick up some lunch stuff and snacks. It's pretty nasty hot outside during the day. No air conditioning too, so it's like an oven inside. For instance... I'm sweating just sitting here... May be TMI, but it's 100% truth 'cuz the windows don't open very wide so there's very little air circulation.
By about 5:30 we decided to shower and go out for dinner. Man what a difference a cool shower does... so we jump on a bus and get off randomly a few stops down and then get on the tube... Not really sure where we were tonight but we definitely walked around a lot. The guys were looking for a good place to watch the futbol game and the girls just wanted to explore the city a little bit. At one point, I think we ended up in a Bollywood film... It was an interesting experience. Haha, wish I could explain what actually happened, but we're not every sure. I also wish I could explain what some of my pictures are, but I'm not sure where we were so I can't do that either. We did end up checking out one bar and grill that hung the flags of all the World Cup contenders... and for some reason they hung a Texas flag... so apparently, not only is Texas is a country now, but it also had a team in the World Cup's 32... interesting...
A couple of us ate at a nice little Italian place with poor service (but we think it's 'cuz we're American, everyone seemed to be receiving great service). Then we ventured back to a bar that the rest of the group was watching the Uruguay vs. Germany game (Congrats on your 3rd place victory, Germany). Game ended so we decided to head home. It was only about 10 o'clock, but several of us haven't slept since we left the States. Alyssa, Natalie, and I weren't the only ones to have encountered flight delays and sleepless transatlantic flights.
Now we're back at IES housing, a lot of people are a sleep already, I had to actually unpack. Earlier all I did was throw everything on my bed searching for what I needed to shower. But now I'm completely unpacked and ready for a London bus tour tomorrow afternoon. I just hope I wake up on time since I don't have an alarm clock yet. Long story short: My phone doesn't work here, which I was going to use as an alarm, but no service = no clock = no alarm. Oh well. Tomorrow I'm going to go try to find a super cheap Europe friendly cell phone and an alarm clock. Wish me luck. I just heard a vuvuzela outside... just thought I'd share... Just 'cuz England's out of the World Cup doesn't mean they're leaving the spirit behind apparently...
Anyway, that about sums up my day. =]
Pictures to come later
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