I had orientation today at 10AM. It is going to be weird adjusting to these morning schedules (my classes are at 9:30AM) because I've been so used to sleeping in this summer. I think the jet lag is an advantage here because I've been crashing earlier than I do. When I woke up this morning I didn't feel as dead as I would have last week.
Orientation was pretty boring, just your standard stuff. The highlight was definitely when the policeman spoke to all of us. Unlike most safety talks that you usually get from them, this guy was hysterical. He was cracking jokes every fives seconds while also telling us not to get into trouble. He was so dry and ridiculous, it was great! I wish he had just briefed us on everything, it would have been less boring.
After orientation, I went on a brief walking tour of the surrounding area. Then I got lunch with a couple girls from my floor and then headed to the sight seeing tour that was scheduled for the day. The tour was really fun, we got off the bus a bunch of times and got to take pictures at Buckingham Palace. It was kind of a brief tour, even though it lasted two and half hours. The tour guide brought us to places like Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, and the Tower. We weren't at each place long and it was nice to get a general sense of the sights we wanted to see. For instance, I really want to go back to Tower Bridge, the London Eye, and Buckingham Palace. We also passed by the West End briefly and I know that I'll end up there at least once at my stay here.
The most surprising thing I learned on the tour was definitely about London Bridge. Everyone knows that song "London Bridge is Falling Down" and you'd think it would be really extravagant and pretty. Turns out it is just a bridge, there's really nothing special about it. The tour guide told us we were driving over it and all of us were really shocked. London Bridge just sounds more extravagent than it really is. Turns out Tower Bridge is really where it's at. They raise the bridge every week or so (I forget what exactly the times were) and we were told that we should definitely see it. I plan on doing just that and I also really want to walk across the bridge.
After the tour, I went with some girls on my floor to dinner. We decided that we wanted to have a picnic in Kensington Gardens. There's a Whole Foods right by, so originally we were going to eat there. However, a lot of shops close early on Sundays because in England it's thought to be a holy day, so by the time we got there it was closed. This was a blessing in disguise because we stumbled on this great restaurant called Nandos. They basically were a chicken sandwich restaurant, and the food was amazing.
We ordered take away (take out) and as we were waiting for our food, there are these very attractive policemen also waiting. One of the girls from my floor, Ashley, decides that to start a conversation with them. She end up flirting with the most attractive one and it was just really funny. They probably thought we were silly American girls or something. I must say, we Americans are very entertaining. Unfortunately, they left before Ashley could exchange numbers. I don't even think she caught his name!
When we finally got our food, we headed to Kensington Gardens. The park was extremely pretty and we could see Kensington Palace (where Will and Kate live) from where we were sitting. Our dinner became "girl time" where we talked about boys (especially cute British ones), and bitched about our single lives. You know, real girl stuff. We decided that we would do this every once in a while and that no boys were ever allowed. Afterwards we got drinks at the local pub. It was a great first day and made me more excited for the ones to come.
P.S. Marley stole these.
P.P.S. While a lot of the food here has been hit or miss, Nandos had some of the best food!
No comments:
Post a Comment