BLOOM: July 19

LONDON CALLING

We are at our halfway mark. Starting a downward slope. Is it really that time for London?! Yes, yes it is and I couldn't be more excited about it! I imagine it to be sort of similar to NYC but obviously very different at the same time.

What is it going to be like with cars on the opposite side of the road and drivers in the passenger seat? Are their teeth really going to be that bad? So many questions and two and a half weeks to find out!

This morning we woke up and packed our bags. Every time I am taking my bag up or down stairs, Darrin (my professor) seems to be right there! It happened again today! I don’t plan this guys! He just somehow magically appears and our conversation goes something like,

Darrin: “here, let me take your bags”

Me: “ I can get it”

By this time he has got my bag in his grasp...

Me: “let me at least help”

and by this time he’s done it. Seriously so nice! Thanks Darrin… you’re the bomb!

Time for check out! It’s time to load the bus and head for the train station. I start running a checklist through my head to make sure I have everything. I get nervous when we leave hotels because I don’t want to leave anything behind. As I checked my purse for my passport and my camera… wait! Where is my camera? I charged it right before we left and I only had the charger. So I start searching my other bag and no camera. We get to the train station and I’m thinking that I left it and hoping if I call they will be able to find it in my room. The only suitcase I have left to check is my big roller bag. There it was lying tucked in between my clothes. Sigh.

I’ve been anticipating our ride to London via the Chunnel for sometime now! I think it’s pretty cool that this train runs through the English Channel. Unfortunately or not so unfortunately I slept through it! At some point I did wake up long enough to realize that we were in this water tunnel but I must say It’s a smooth ride!

We made it to London and are staying in a flat in South Kensington. South Kensington is a really nice area in London. Apparently Cameron Diaz, Jude Law, and Leo DiCaprio were spotted here Sunday night.

Our neighbors pay the big bucks to live here. I’m a little surprised that they have these flats available to students in such a nice area. There are three flats that our group is broken up into. I’m in a flat with 6 other girls. We share two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and common area. It’s like a college dorm room. Our group of seven lucked out. There are about thirteen people from our group that share a flat on the top floor. If I were up there I would probably still be dragging my suitcase up the stairs as we speak that is if Darrin didn’t find me first. There are lots of flats that are being occupied by other students so this place is crawling with young people. Because this area is so nice we have to be extremely quiet on the street and actually were informed that if we are caught making noise they will fine us thousands of pounds.

Did I mention that there are nice cars everywhere! Oh my are there some beautiful cars! We all got on the topic of the kind of cars we would love to have someday! Everyone has expensive taste!

(cute little convertible on our street)

Darrin and Susie gave us an hour to unpack. We went to the grocery store to get groceries. A kitchen will be nice since up to this point we’ve eaten out just about every day. Later, we took a walking tour of London. This is a tour that we do in every new city we go. Basically it gives us a general idea of where things are.

a few things we saw on our walking tour...