Being a Tourist

Whenever you are in a foreign county you are bound to be a tourist at least once. although we will still go to the sites and take pictures (we are here for four months), we did many touristy things both today and yesterday.

Yesterday started with orientation which was a little boring, but we got lots of good information. At night a group of eight of us went out to dinner and since it was still early (only 8pm) we decided to go on a little adventure. Two of our group members turned around so the six of us hopped on the tube and headed towards piccadilly circus. Once out of the tube we decided to go for a walk. Everything in London is very close together. Our walk led us though piccadilly circus and then through trafalgar square. From there we could see big ben but decided to take the read that led to buckingham palace. After admiring the palace at night we kept on strolling past the park and ended up at big ben. It was getting close to 10 so we decided to head back. once back we stopped at the pub and the guys got beers.

Today has been comprised of the touristy things. We took a walking tour through kensington (which i have been told a lot of times is the wealthiest part of london). We went to hyde park where the Kensington Palace is and the memorial for Princess Diana is. In the afternoon we took a bus tour. The sun finally started shining so we were able to see all the sights with gorgeous sunlight hitting them (look below!)

In my opinion the bus tour got a little long, it was about 3 hours and the tour guide did not stop talking once. I learned a lot of information, but at the same time i learned a lot of useless information. Did you know that the Abbey used to have pigs and horses? well now you do! it was really nice though because we got to watch the sun set and were able to see it set over big ben and the london eye and all of those incredible places. I think this afternoon alone i was able to take 130 photos. I will have a lot of memories to bring back with me. We also found the most charming place for lunch. The people were relaly nice and the food was good and cheap!! two perfect combinations for studying abroad in a really expensive place!!

it is good to be a tourist at times and i think i will go back to some of the sights to see them and take better photos during the sunset and just to walk around to really explore the area to get to know london and get to feel like a londoner.

Since I don't have class on monday i am going to walk around kensington and get to know my area and know the fun things i can do here. Class starts tuesday and it will be a brutal day with class from 9am-8pm. i will get through it though! Tomorrow is a day off, anyone have suggestions on what I should do??