Day 2: Bus tour of London and Betrayal

Today was our first day of class here in London and to start our day off, we took a bus tour with Ingrid our tour guide. We were told that class started at 9:30 so my roommate, Sara, and I set an alarm for 9 to make sure we had plenty of time to get ready. Sara was having problems charging her laptop which was also charging her phone so we were unable to set an alarm, so we settled for the next best thing and went pounding on the doors of our classmates next door so they they could make sure we were awake. Well this morning it turns out we didn't even need the alarm because I woke up at 6 and Sara woke up an hour later (it's really hard to sleep in because the light comes up really early).

Anyway, Ingrid took us to some really cool places in London and showed us around a bit. I took as many pictures as I could while on the bus but I figured that i'd be able to take better ones later on during my trip when I'm walking around and touring the places individually. One of the really cool things she took us to do was to go watch part of the Changing of the Guard. She knew just the right place to take us and we got a really good spot because the procession passed right in front of us and I was able to get some great video.
She showed us some really great things here in London, like the most expensive flats in the world, Harrods, great places to shop along with great attractions to look into doing. She had a lot of great knowledge and i'm really glad that we have her for another tour next week.

Set of Betrayal

After our tour we were let our to go wonder around on our own until the the performance of Betrayal. One of the things we wanted to do was go get wristbands for the Harry Potter Premiere tomorrow but there were so many people there ( I swear like 8,000) and we weren't allowed to skip class to get them so it looks like we may be sneaking in to the premiere tomorrow lol. But on the bright side I do already have my ticket to watch the movie in 3D on July 14th! After we dealt with that Sara and I decided that we wanted to eat so we found this nice little pub just off of Oxford street. I had a steak pie with mashed potatoes which was really good. Sara and I also ordered a pitcher of Primm which was Oh so Delicious! After lunch we met up with Alison our professor and decided to so some shopping on Oxford street. Most of the stores were having 50% sales, so trying to navigate within every store was hectic, especially Primark which was where Sara and I lost Alison and just decided to go our back to our dorms for a bit.

Steet Musicians

By the time we got back to our dorm we only had about an hour before we needed to head back out to go watch our show so we basically just dropped some stuff off and they headed back out. When we met up with the group, Laura handed me my ticket for the show tonight, as well as my Oyster card which allows me to ride the tube and buses around Central London for free while I'm here. We headed over to the Comedy theatre to watch the show. We're not allowed to take pictures during the play so I tried to take one of the set before the show started but it didn't come out as well as I would have liked. After the show Sara and I decided to head back to the dorm and eat some food that we had picked up for the store because eating out in London is a little expensive. On our way back we stopped at this awesome souvenir shop and looked around and we made a plan to come back at the end our trip to buy stuff from there because there was just so much that we wanted. While heading back we saw some street musicians which was really nice.  That's about all for today I think, I'll make sure to post again tomorrow because it's gonna be an awesome day! Oh yeah I added some pictures to the photo album located on the right hand side. Check it out. More  to come

London I have arrived!!!

So I have almost been in London for a full 24 hours and I am really enjoying it. The people are really friendly and helpful and the buildings and architecture are amazing! The only negative is that I didn't bring a hoodie and it gets kinda cool at night especially if it's raining and I found out first hand yesterday. But before I get into that I'll go back and talk about my arrival

So after my family dropped me off at the airport I headed through TSA and kinda nervous that for some strange reason I was going to be detained, but no worries they let me pass. I just wish I could say the same for some poor older man who had to be taken to the back because he failed to let TSA know before he walked through the metal detector that he had had a hip replacement and that was why it was going off and not because he had some type of BOMB( ha ha had to say it now cause I couldn't say it there). Anyway after that I headed to my gate to wait 2 hours until my flight took off. Once everyone had arrived we all started to hang out and were actually dreading going on the plane because we had heard that we were sharing the plane with 36 middle school girls. Once we got on it flight it wasn't so bad. The girls told us that they were a soccer team from RoundRock who were actually heading to Germany to see the world cup ( I was kinda Jealous not gonna lie). Our flight ended up taking off at 9 rather than the 8:30 departure time that we had. The flight was actually really quiet and I tried to sleep as much as a could but i'm sure I only got about an hour's sleep at most. I was kinda surprised that they fed us two meals on the plane. First we ate Chicken curry with white rice and I also got a glass of white wine (which I didn't care too much for) and for Breakfast they gave us a muffin and yogurt. 



War Protest that's been going on for a few years



When we finally arrived in London we had to go through customs which once again I was afraid I would be detained for some reason, but I wasn't. We grabbed our luggage and headed to meet the rest of our group who had left earlier than us. We met with Laura our CIS guide at the airport and waited for our bus to come pick us up. There was a slight miscommunication between the bus driver and Laura and we ended up having to wait like another 2 hours for the bus. Once our bus arrived our driver was kind enough to take us the scenic route to our dorm rooms and showed us a little bit of central London, which was absolutely amazing.  I was even able to see a peaceful war protest going on which was kinda cool. Once we got to our dorm we had about two hours to relax before we headed out to dinner. My roommate and I decided to lay down for a bit and oops we almost missed our group because we couldn't hear our alarm. Once all of the group was downstairs we head off to take the tube to Covent gardens for dinner. The tube was quite and experience. People are constantly getting off and getting on and let's just say you become really close with your neighbors since you're packed on like sardines. Once we arrived we headed to dinner and while there it started to rain. I was a genius and didn't take my backpack which had both my umbrella and poncho in it so I of course got wet. After dinner we were given the rest of the evening to ourselves. Some of us wanted to go tour the area so we headed around and found the local store not too far from our dorms as well as the movie theater and of course I had to buy my Harry Potter tickets. I'm really excited for that since i get to see it in 3D! Yay! Afterwards we went looking for a pub but to no avail since most of them were 21 and up and I was the only one who was able to go it. So we headed back to room and called it a night.

And i'm off!!!

After a very short four hour drive from Corpus to Houston I made it to the airport and am now currently waiting to start boarding. Everyone seems very excited about the trip and we can't wait to start exploring London and see what it has to offer. I was really nervous about leaving this morning but my nerves have now gone and now it's all excitement. I thought i'd take the time and do a quick post before I'm without internet for a couple of hours. Earlier when my parents dropped me off I decided to leave my phone with them so that I wouldn't have to worry about the little unneccessary charges. We'll see how that goes!I can hardly go a day without using my phone so it'll be interesting to see how I do for a whole month. Oh have to go, they are starting to let people board the plane. I'll post when I land and after i'm all settled in to my new living area.

XoXo

5 Days and Counting!

Hello everyone,

Sorry it's taken me so long to update my blog. Things here at home have been really crazy trying to get things done before I leave for my trip. Since my last post I’ve added a new section to the right that has my bucket list of things I'd like to do while in London. I debated with myself on whether or not I wanted to go to other countries outside of London on my free weekends but finally decided that London has so much to offer and that if I wanted to be able to see the majority of it, that I wouldn't have time to go anywhere else since our course load is pretty full.

Speaking of Course work, I received both of my syllabi's earlier this week and started feeling a little overwhelmed more so with the Shakespeare and the Renaissance class than with the Theatrical Styles class. While there I'll see 15 plays, a movie premiere, participate in 2 different workshops, numerous tours (including one of a crypt where the Burbages are buried), Group led chapter discussions, a Group Project and two individual projects. While it seems like a lot I’m hoping that it won't be as overwhelming as I first imagined. I'm just glad that I'll be getting lots of exposure to all things theater. But Since I’m still here in the states all of that will have to wait a couple of days.

I feel like I still have so much to do before I leave. I need to start packing because I work all weekend and don't think I’ll have time to do it when I get home. I still need to go get an adapter/power converter so that I can use my laptop overseas as well as getting other necessary things for the trip, so I guess that means I have a SHOPPING trip in my future, more like tomorrow or early Friday morning (yay!). I'll be missing a lot of birthdays while I’m gone so I’d like to be able spend some time with those wonderful people before I leave as well. Needless to say I feel like there are not enough hours in the day to do what I need to do before I leave. I guess it's time for me to get off and try and finish some of those things, so until next time. 


XoXo

Hello and Welcome!

Hello everyone and thank you for taking the time to check out my blog.


Although I haven't officially left for London just yet I thought I'd take the time to play around with all the features that way while I'm there I'll already have it down to a T. While there I plan to update my blog whenever possible since I know a lot of my friends and family want to know what I'm doing there. I've put a couple of helpful things on the sidebar that I thought might be useful including a tentative itinerary and contact info. Remember that if trying to contact me London is 6 hours ahead of Texas time. As I take new pictures I'll also add them to the side as well as to my Facebook page. I think that's all for now. Once again thanks for stopping by and until next time!

XoXo