Journey to London

Well, I can hardly believe it myself but I am in London!!! It has been quite the adventure so far, so I'm going to do my best to update you. I'll start with the evening before I left...

Hannah, Holly, and Michelle came to visit me from Provo my last night in the states. These girls have been my best friends this summer and I honestly don't know what I would have done without them. We went for my last meal at Cafe Rio, then came back to my house for cheesecake and reminiscing about the good ol' summer days. Up until this point we were doing really well but it was the group hug before the last goodbye when Holly started crying and then we all cried. Ooohhh how I love and will miss the "core 4" of summer 2008!

Tree came over after that to keep me company while packing and spend the last night with me. Finally it was the day of and I was totally bawling and freaking out... NOT WANTING TO GO AT ALL. I finally chilled out and got everything ready. Selena took me to the airport and saying goodbye to her and the kids was an absolute disaster. Once again... bawling.

The plane ride from Salt Lake to Chicago wasn't bad, but it does involve a funny story. Question - how do you feel about people who talk to you on the plane? I've never really had a problem with it because I enjoy meeting new people, but I also try not to initiate it too much because I don't want to be annoying or whatever. I'm also not a fan of annoying people who talk too much. Well, my next question is this - if you do talk to the person sitting next to you, how much is too much? And when are you divulging too much info? Example... the girl next to me was a really pretty girl from Brazil. We chatted for a bit and then all of a sudden she was touching her boobs saying that they hurt and told me she just got a boob job that morning... Ummm... can we say too much info??? She literally had just come from getting the plastic surgery. Poor planning if you ask me. Anyway... haha. Kindof funny really.

Landed in Chicago at 5pm and my flight had boarded for London at 4:55pm. Needless to say I was freaking a bit because I still had to find the gate where my plane was departing and Chicago is HUGE! Not to mention that I had my heinous carry-on with all 40 of my books (30 pounds) for this semester in it. And get this... NO WHEELS! I wanted to kill myself! Seriously, I was sweating and it hurt so bad. I'm still sore. Anyway, everyone was all boarded and here I was running around the airport sweating and praying that I wouldn't miss my flight. Ugh! No worries though, cuz I made it!

The flight to London wasn't bad at all, and I didn't even sleep for most of it! I wrote 10 pages in my journal while listening to music and then watched the edited version of the Sex and the City movie. I was sitting in an aisle seat with no one next to me and a really nice Ukrainian woman with a very thick Russian accent in the seat next to that. She was so great and was so excited about Sex and the City. She kept on pointing to the screen saying "Sex ;lakdf;lkadflj!" "Sex a;lfdj;lakjdf;l!" (I couldn't understand her at all... She was trying to speak english but it wasn't working very well) Anyway, the movie was surprisingly good and I was amazed at how much the 4 women remind me of the "core 4!" Here is a pic and this is who I think is who (I don't know names cuz I'm not really a Sex and the City watcher).

I am the one on the left. She is a total germaphobe about everything. Hannah is absolutely Sarah Jessica Parker. Gorgeous, sweet, and totally into fashion. Michelle is next because she is the brilliant one, and Holly is the one on the right because she does PR, is rich, successful, and loves men. Anyway... random tangent...

Back to London and arriving at the University...

I finally arrived and felt like HE-double. So, so tired. Thankfully people from the University were there to greet me holding little Roehampton U signs, and I got to meet some of the other international students. We took a bus ride to the University and checked into our accommodation. Ummm... this is where the depression set in because I was horrified by the state of my room. Call me a spoiled brat but it reminded me of the nasty hostels I stayed in while traveling around France and Belgium and I was totally grossed out. I think I have a problem... but London will be just the thing to help me get over that.

This is becoming quite the novel and I'm probably boring you to death! I think my blog has become my journal... kindof disturbing since everyone can read it but whatever...

So my first couple of nights haven't been that bad, but I still feel so tired. Yesterday was a bit of an adventure because I took the bus for the first time and went to ASDA - a supermarket that is pretty much the equivalent of Walmart. I took one of my empty rolling suitcases so I could shove all my crap in for the bus ride back. There were other students there who thought I was pretty crazy with my rolling luggage, but they were jealous of me in the end. Haha.

Last night was fun too - my first party experience in London. It was just at the flat of this guy my flatmate met from Serbia named Rad. There were a bunch of people there and everyone was so nice. It's amazing to be meeting people from so many different countries. I'm surprised by how many people there are from Greece and Cyprus! I'm going to have friends from all over the world! Amazing!

Today has been pretty low key with an information fair all morning. Tonight should be interesting with a dance and possibly going out on the town... We'll see.

Well that's a pretty brief update, but I will do better about making my posts smaller and more frequent. Here are a few pics of the University! This is the Grove House right in Froebel right by where I live. There are beautiful parts of campus... very historical... and other parts that aren't so beautiful... =)

I guess this building was in the film Pride and Prejudice... it is beautiful. Here are more pics from my walk through campus...

Fountain in front of Grove House...

There is a really big lake on campus and this is a pic I took while walking along the path that I will take to class everyday. Beautiful, eh?

More pics to come everyone! I love you all and will keep you posted! xox