Saturday, Sunday, and Monday

On Saturday morning at 10 am I arrived at London Gatwick having slept well on the plane & feeling quite fresh! I worried that my bags could be lost in the shuffling between countries but I was relieved to be the first passenger to exit and retrieve all of my baggage. (Some students in our group were not as fortunate.) I proceeded to an adjacent terminal where I met up with a whole slew of people whom I will be sharing experiences with for the next three weeks. There are around 27 students in my program from AZ, AR, CA, KS, MO, NJ, NY, OK, TX, VA and beyond. There are other international study abroad students at Westminster, too, who are in our classes. (One girl in my class is from the Netherlands and she always drinks 7-Up from these tiny cans that are about 1/3 of the size of our Coke cans. It’s so weird.)

Sunday and Monday were interesting days. We were all so tired yet too excited to make ourselves slow down. We had ISA orientation at a park on High Holborne, near the London School of Economics (this is where Stu goes). Our resident director told us all kinds of random info. The coolest is that the average Londoner is photographed 300 times per day. It’s part of their high tech security system called CCTV. There are cameras and video surveillance on street posts, buildings, in the tubes, you name it.

Sunday night we explored. We found a tree house-like pub near Leister Square, which Ryan Liebrandt so sweetly directed me to. Of all the 6 million people in London, I happened to bump into him on the tube escalator. Too bad it was his last night and my first. Miss you buddy!

School. The University of Westminster is located on Oxford Street, a renowned shopping Mecca. Just to get to our building we pass NikeTown (sad to see they won’t be carrying Mike’s new shoe), H&M and TopShop. Burberry, Oasis, and Zara Home (Mead & Rachel should be glad that I’m eager to check this one out) are one block down. The streets and sidewalks are always packed with people so you really have to pay attention to where you’re going. I’ve discovered that I really don’t like to be whacked when I’m walking; I’ll be discovering low-key neighborhoods tomorrow.

It's getting late & I'm feeling sick so I suppose I'll finish the rest of the week's details later. Tomorrow Leanne and I will be going to several markets in SOHO!
I cannot believe that I have been in London for one week already! It has flown by!