Day 3

Today was definitely another great one! Everyone met at 9 a.m. to travel to school orientation via the city bus system (AKA the big, red, double-decker buses! :])



That was so much fun and another opportunity I never could have imagined having a year ago. Orientation for school went really well and I'm VERY excited about the classes I will be taking - Journalism for Fashion and Trend Forecasting. I know I'm going to love every minute of school here. It doesn't even seem like anything could be unlikeable here, even school. Both of my classes are Tuesday/Thursday and both are four and a half hours long. I know, that seems a little intense, but there are a few breaks in there including a 45-minute one for lunch. Plus, I'm very thankful to have Monday, Wednesday and Friday completely free EVERY week!

After orientation finished we were lead on a tour of London's West End by Tony Skitt, the cultural activities director at AIU who has been very helpful and a lot of fun the last couple of days. It's much easier to get acclimated to a new place and culture when you have some one as energetic and excited as Tony to show you everything. The west end of the city includes the entertainment district and many of the great shopping locations. Among many things, I was able to see the single oldest thing within London, which is an Egyptian statue called Sekhmet which sits above the front doorway of a shop called Sotheby's.



The statue dates back almost 3,000 years, which actually means it was there a whole thousand years before London was even founded! The amount of history here is hard to wrap my mind around. If I'd forgotten this place was nothing like America in terms of history, I clearly remembered at that moment. We also saw Oxford Street, the busiest street in all of Europe (Tony referred to it as the "5th Avenue" of London.) Close to that location was a tea shop called Fortnum and Mason. The thing that makes this place special is that it is the tea of choice for the queen of England herself. Yes, Queen Elizabeth gets all of her tea from Fornum and Mason, and the best part is that a small bag of tea there is only about 5 pounds (around $7.50).





We also visited Leicester Square, which is basically the center of the theatre and entertainment district. It's were you go to buy cheap theatre tickets or see the stars walk the red carpet at a movie premier. If you know how much I love theatre and Broadway, you don't even have to guess how excited I was to be there!

After we split from the tour group, Allie, Lauren and I had ice cream at a little cafe in Covent Garden called Piazza. I got the coffee flavored kind obviously, and I can say without doubt that it was some of the best ice cream I've ever had. I don't know if that was because it really was good ice cream or because I've been deprived of my daily morning coffee the last couple days. At any rate, it was delicious. After that, we hit the shops to find rainboots and water-resistant jackets for tomorrows trip to Greenwich. It's supposed to rain, but we're still hoping it won't. (By the way, British people refer to rainboots as "wellies." If you go in a store and ask if they have rainboots, they will look at you like you're crazy. I'm speaking from experience here people. Besides, I think wellies is much more fun to say anyway :]) After we figured out what to call them, I found some at a little shoe boutique called Destiny. Then we went to the three-story H&M where I found a jacket. Bring on the rain! I'm prepared for anything!!