The First Week

Day 6: A More Official Tour of London

After another late morning of sleep, we got ready for our official tour of London with a licensed guide. Since I hadn’t done any real sight-seeing as of yet, I was especially excited for this trip, even though we knew we wouldn’t really have time to stay anywhere for long. From our flat we hopped on the tube and traveled to Westminster. Our first stop, of course, was the Abbey, which houses the tombs of figures such as Charles Dickens and Darwin.

Right “next door” we got a glimpse of Big Ben and the Parliament building. Some day in the not too distant future, I hope to make it there some Wednesday at noon, when the Prime Minister has question time.

It will be absolutely fascinating to see the way their government works, especially after taking Comparative Government last year at good old NDA! We continued to walk past the old Scotland Yard building and the London Eye before reaching Trafalgar Square where Napoleon’s forces were defeated. When we have more time, I'll be sure to get more pictures!

As we walked towards the bus stop to ride through Fleet Street, we passed lots of great theaters! I discovered that Criminal Minds star Mandy Patinkin is doing a London concert series, found the England’s National Opera House (which is featuring La Boheme) and saw the theaters for Avenue Q, Oliver, and Hamlet, currently starring David Tennant!

After another “theater dork” moment, we boarded our first red double-decker bus (top level of course) to ride down Fleet Street, home of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber. On this street are the places of the original barber and pie shops (now occupied by a Starbucks and McDonalds) as well as the building that was used as Gringots Wizard Bank in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Again, a huuuuuggeeeeee dork moment for me. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any good pictures from the bus, but I have the feeling I’ll be back there several times! We got off the bus minutes later at Saint Paul’s Cathedral, which is absolutely gorgeous. Images of Mary Poppins immediately popped into my mind as we approached the steps to take pictures. We'll put this stop high on our agenda for a return visit.

After walking around the perimeter of the church and about halfway across the Millennium Bridge, we heading back to South Kensington for the rest of the day. Dinner out was at Nando’s, our local “don’t get lost” landmark. A showing of the DVD Made of Honor on Krista’s laptop rounded off another great day. (Our flats do come equipped with televisions, but about all we can get is the BBC!)

Day 4 (Thursday): Pub Night and a Show

Today was a wonderful day. I slept in until noon, so it already is feeling like home here! Andrew and I went exploring in Piccadilly, and decided to check out the half price ticket booths for the West End shows. The theater dork in me definitely loves this city! Since we went day of, good seats were kind of limited, but we got great seats to see Chicago for only 24 pounds! Needless to say, I was incredibly excited. Andrew got to see a whole different side of me!

We walked around the city for another two hours, to find the theater we were going to go to later that night, and I am in love with it, it’s like a mini New York, but with British people! Soon it was time to head back to the flat and get ready for pub night with EUSA and the rest of the group. Tonight we went to the Prince Regent Pub, which could easily be the nicest one in our neighborhood.

After staying an hour for food and drinks, Andrew and I left to get ready for the theater. My sense of direction turned out to be excellent (if I do say so myself). I got us to the Cambridge Theater quickly and took our seats for the show: my first West End production. The two and a half hours flew by. The show was amazing, and as with many shows in New York, I was astounded by the level of talent here. Sure, it wasn’t one of my favorite shows in the world, but it was impressive nonetheless. I can’t wait to see some of my all time favorite shows while I’m here, like Phantom and Les Miz! Definitely a productive and enjoyable day across the pond!

Day 3 (Wednesday): First Class

This morning we woke up to get ready for class at 9:00. Not too bad considering I had all 8:30 classes last semester, and this time around it only takes me about five minutes to walk to the EUSA building. This morning we had Business Dynamics II for four hours with Professor Richard Tudway. Although we were all kind of nervous about having the same class in the same room with the same teacher for four hours, it went by surprisingly fast.

I absolutely adore being taught by British people, and I’m sure they could make even the most boring subjects seem like the most fascinating things in the world to talk about. From what I’ve heard so far, it seems like our class schedule and work is going to be pretty intense, but it will be nice to get into a routine here. Hopefully, I’ll be able to start walking in Hyde Park, which is gorgeous. I need to try to get up early while I’m here. I don’t want to miss a minute of this experience. The night was rather uneventful; I stayed in, talked to my parents, and played some scrabble before going to bed. It’s going to be a good semester!

Day 2 (Tuesday): Orientation and Scavenger Hunt

This morning we woke up and headed over to the EUSA office for our first full day orientation. After learning more about London, our neighborhood in South Kensington, and the do’s and don’ts of interning, we were given a scavenger hunt list that was designed to take us all over London. Before heading out for our day of adventuring, my team: Krista, Andrew, Jen, and I, headed back to the flat to figure out the clues and plan our route. Since we were told that we wouldn’t be able to find everything on the list in the four hours we were given, we chose to find the destinations with the highest point values.

The hunt was made up of different clues pointing us to some of the lesser known attractions of London, like the statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Garden. My favorite part of the day, by far, was our walk around Piccadilly Circus, the Times Square of London.

We saw tons of theaters, doing productions of all my favorite shows, and plenty of stores and sights to visit later. The final clue led us back to South Kensington to a pub for dinner, where we calculated our results.

In the end, my team pictured below lost by one point, but the knowledge we gained was invaluable. Not only did we get some great exercise, we got lots of practice using the Tube, and found some good landmarks that will help us get around the city. After spending some time with my fellow GCPers at the pub and in the flat, I skyped with my parents before ending my second day in London.