WELCOME TO LONDON!

**WARNING: This was written using my computer’s thesaurus’s
extensive collection of words relating to the word “awesome”. **

Hellooooooo from London!!!!!!!!!

I have been here for a week now, and I am absolutely in love with this city! It is VERY similar to Boston, and I swear that there are about five identical buildings

Conversation excerpt from a few days ago:
Me: This place is exactly like Boston!
Friend: Lindsey, Boston is in NEW ENGLAND.
Me: Oh yeah.

Anyways, I live in South Kensington, which is part of the Kensington and Chelsea borough (so I am by proxy a Chelsea Football fan), and I live across the street from the London Natural History museum. The neighborhood in which we live feels like Little France: we are right next to the French Embassy and two French schools (one of which is where Madonna sent her kids to school before the divorce with Guy Ritchie). I’ve also been informed that Orlando Bloom lives in the same neighborhood as us, and YES, I do carry my camera around everywhere…just in case.

Cruise along the Thames: Actually, it is necessary to carry a camera around here because everything is gorgeous. One of the best parts of London is its amazing architecture and the unique blend of historic and modern buildings. We witnessed this first hand on a boat cruise that we took on our first day around the River Thames. Some of the things we saw included the London Eye (a huge ferris wheel on the River), Big Ben, Parliament, the London Aquarium, the Globe Theatre, the Tate Modern Art Museum, and a lot of various pubs and hotels where important things have happened (such as the capture of one of London’s most notoriously terrible politicians who dressed up as a servant woman, but was recognized and captured in a pub).

Lectures and Classes: About three days in, we started a series of lectures, which were designed to teach us Americans about the history and pop culture of London, Britain, and the UK. All of the professors and administrators have been great, and they are all very young and hip. They keep telling us to ask them for recommendations for pubs and clubs around the area. Ironically, we ran into two of our administrators at a club on Thursday, who were wearing clothes from Abercrombie and Fitch and dancing harder than any of their younger counter parts. So far, I have only had one class, which was my Economics class, and I really like the teacher (who told us not to call him Professor). So far, our homework is to read news articles, which I already do regularly, so I still feel like I am on break. It seems like he has some pretty interesting classes lined up for us, and we are going to have to write a final paper about the causes and consequences of the recession in Britain. We also watched a movie about Margaret Thatcher, which was actually very interesting. The other class that I am taking during this half is a sociology class that I am excited for, which starts tomorrow. Basically, I have two classes for the first five weeks that I am here, and then we have a week long break in February. When we return, I start my marketing class and my internship, which is doing marketing and design for the licensing company of DreamWorks and MGM. I have a formal interview with my boss this Friday.
After Class Explorations: Everyday after class, I would go out with a friend or two, and we would explore more of the city. So far, St. Paul’s Cathedral has been one of the most beautiful and breath-taking places I have ever seen in my life. The outside is incredible, but it is the inside that is truly masterful, and YOU CAN’T TAKE PICTURES ON THE INSIDE . Oh well. My friend Sarah and I attended an evening choir service, which, again, was one of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced. After the service, we walked around the City of London, which is known as “the heart of London”. We then walked over the Millennium Bridge, which is unbelievable at night, and that took us to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. The next day, we went decided to take the tube (aka- the London Underground), which is in my opinion even better than the NYC subway much less the T in Boston, to a random stop to walk around. We ended up getting off at St. James’s Park, and we walked over to Buckingham Palace, and no, I did not get to see the Queen. We did, however, see a man leaving the gates of the palace. We got so star struck by this random man that we followed him about a block while quietly brainstorming a very colorful list of this man’s potential identities until we agreed that that he was probably a member of the royal wait-staff. Also, when we were walking down the street, we passed two soldiers who were carrying really big guns like the kinds that I have only seen in the war movies. After that we had lamb burgers, which were REALLY good (sorry to all of my vegetarian friends), and then we found our way back to our flat.

Being sick in London: sucks. We had a great first week, but the combination of not really getting over the jet lag and not sleeping that much and doing a LOT of stuff has basically rendered our entire program sick. It’s pretty pathetic, and I am sure that we will all find it to be very funny once it’s long over, but right now, I would say about 65% of the program if not more is miserable. At least we’re all miserable together though.

Windsor Palace: On Saturday, we went to Windsor Palace, which is the Royal Family's countryside residence in the town of Windsor. We got to go inside of the castle, which is absolutely gorgeous. The part of the castle we visited was very much like a royal museum with China that dated back as far as to the 1200's, original paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, which were 500 years old and in incredible shape, a sword collection, and a doll collection. The other part of the castle is where the royal family lives, but they were not currently at the castle. Interesting fact: You can always tell where the royal family is based on the flag that is flying at either Windsor or Buckingham Palace. If it is the Union Jack (the flag of Great Britain) they are in the other palace, but if it is the royal flag, they are in that palace.We also went into this chapel, which was the burial place for MANY old Kings, Queens and other important people including King Henry the VIII, the only wife of his that he liked (I forgot her name) and their unborn child. We also got to see the changing of the guards outside of this chapel, and I got a picture with one of them and his silly hat.

OK so that’s the end of my first novel so far…haha. I hope that you all are doing well wherever you are, and tell me about what you are up to!

Miss and love you all!
Lindsey