...and that's Wednesday!

Another day in lovely London... today was pretty uneventful actually, but not in a bad way at all. I woke up and went to yoga class at the local YMCA (the first one in the world, actually), which was a great start to the day. Sarah and I had lunch at the flat together, then went to our 2pm class, The Politics of Global Media. This class is taught by Shawn Powers, a young USC professor who specializes in public diplomacy and media. The class seems really interesting so far. There's only five students in it, which should make for some great conversations and debates.

After class, a few of us went to the computer lab to print out our boarding passes for our trip to Dublin, Ireland this weekend! Sarah interned there over the summer and planned a music festival which we will be attending on Saturday and Sunday. We leave Thursday night and return early Monday morning, in time for the Notting Hill Carnival and my afternoon class. I'm so excited for my first trip! I've heard that Ireland is absolutely gorgeous, so I can't wait to see it for myself. Hopefully the weather will be good to us! It rained a bit here today, which I didn't mind at all. :) I don't think I'll be bringing my laptop to Dublin, so it might be a while before I post again. Have a great weekend and I'll be sure to update and post pictures soon.

<3

Getting Acquainted

Hello again loves!

Today was another wonderful day in beautiful London. It began with an early class, Rhetoric of London, which is a basic intro to London class taught by Phillip Drummond, a native Brit. We talked briefly about what the class is going to be about, then took a mini walk to a building that had a model of London inside. It was fantastic! It had every building in London, and many that haven't even been built yet. I found my flat, Regent's Park, and even the site of the 2012 Olympic Games.

After class, Sarah and I went to lunch at a nearby Indian restaurant. There is a ton of great Indian food here, which comes from when India used to be part of England's Empire, so they basically took a lot of their culture (food, tea, etc.). Which is great for me, because I love all of those things! Lunch was delicious, although very spicy. I had actual tears in my eyes by the end... I guess that's a sign of good Indian?

After lunch was our weekly tour, part of our rhetoric class, and this week's tour was of the City of London. The City, as they call it here, is where London started. It used to be the only London, until it expanded, and now hardly anyone lives there at all. It's mostly financial business stuff, but there's also St. Paul's Cathedral, which was absolutely stunning. The tour was really great, but very long, so by the end we were all wiped out. I headed back to my flat for a rest, then made some dinner from the groceries I got at Waitrose (aka Whole Foods of London). After dinner, I walked over to Russell Square Garden at the end of my block. It was a nice cool night, so I sat for a while and read under the trees. It was so nice to have nothing to think or worry about for a while, and to just enjoy the lovely London evening.

That was Tuesday! I'm hoping for more fun adventures tomorrow, in between class and yoga. Talk to you soon!

<3

London, baby!

Hello to all of you who are reading this! I'm not normally a big "blogger," but it was getting tedious telling everyone individually what I'm doing over here, so I figured it might be easier for everyone to read about it in one place. I'll try to keep these posts short and sweet, just the good stuff :)

So far, everything here in London is going absolutely wonderfully! I've only been here a short five days, but I already feel right at home in the city. I'm living in Bloomsbury, which is pretty central and a very nice neighborhood. The British Museum is just a block away, and my street is bordered on both sides by little square gardens. Beautiful! The building where I'll take my classes is just down the street, about ten minutes from my flat. My flat is small, but cozy, and I'm trying to live by the motto of "live simply" (our Akita theme this year) and make do with what I have. My room has a giant window looking out on the street, which lets in wonderful sunlight and makes me very happy.

The past few days have been filled with tours of the city, walks around the neighborhood with groups and on my own, yoga classes and runs through Regent's Park, eating at all kinds of different restaurants, and generally being thrilled to be in such an incredible place. Classes began today, and I can already tell this is going to be a great semester.

That's all I have for now. I'll try to post every couple of days or so, but no promises - I have an awful lot of world to see...

<3

"Moon River, wider than a mile,
I'm crossing you in style some day.
Oh, dream maker, you heart breaker,
wherever you're going I'm going your way.
Two drifters off to see the world.
There's such a lot of world to see.
We're after the same rainbow's end,
waiting 'round the bend,
my huckleberry friend,
Moon River and me."