Tuesday, 30 June 2009

"Children, there are 51 American states!" - Miss Isabelle aka Lizzie

New photos!!! Click the link! They are from Wimbledon and Rollerblading.

I have been very negligent of my poor blog lately. Sorry for that! I don't know what has gotten into me..

Saturday was quite uneventful. I was still feeling sick so Lizzie was my nurse (imagine that??!!) and we stayed in all day and rested.

Sunday was quite the opposite. Ha. We slept kind of late and I had come up with the brilliant idea that we should all go rollerblading aka "blading" in Kensington Park. I had seen an advertisement for rollerblades "for hire" so I talked all of the girls into going with! We paid 10 pounds and rented them for three hours! Not bad! The store clerk offered knee pads and elbow pads to us but we refused gracefully. Or rather, I said, "I'm too cool for those. Thank you anyway." :) I knew we were in for trouble when Liz and Tori had to hold onto Macon's arms to cross the street to get to the other sidewalk. The girls finally gained some confidence so we all bladed across cobblestone (made for a bumpy ride, let me assure you) around the park. We went by Kensington Palace, former home of Princess Diana, but weren't able to go in since we had on our blades. Long story short -- I am attaching Liz's video description of the happenings -- Liz had a huge wipeout, Tori fell on her butt, and I ran into a tree in a matter of thirty seconds. Tori and I were fine but Liz fared much worse. She has some serious battle wounds. Fortunately, she took it in good stride and was tripping out the entire time. She was too embarrassed to turn her blades in (she was sure that everyone who passed by was looking at her knee), so she waited outside as we paid and such. We stopped by the pharmacy and picked up some supplies to nurse her wounds. She took a bath to clean it out right when we got home and I got the pleasure of pouring alcohol onto her legs and arms. I am sure it sounded like I was slaying her at that very moment. Ha. It happened almost three days ago and the pain hasn't subsided much at all. I feel terrible for her, but she won't let me love on her much. Booo..Thank goodness for Tylenol PM! I think thats the only way that she is able to sleep.

Monday morning, we all got up and readied ourselves for our first days at our internships. I arrived at The Birth Company around 9:30am and by 11am, Dr. Gibb and I were on our way to Portland Hospital to deliver twins via Cesarean section. I was pumped!! We changed into our scrubs and headed right into the operating room. It was incredible. I will save all of the gory details in case you don't have a strong stomach. If you do, however, please ask about it. I love sharing stories!!! Basically, though, it was unlike anything I have ever seen before. Beautiful and disgusting all at the same time, to be honest. The babies were absolutely perfect. The boy came first weighing in at 5lbs 3.5oz and the girl came less than a minute later and weighed 5lbs 3oz. The parents gave me THEIR camera so I was responsible for taking photos the whole time! Ahhh! The poor daddy was sitting up by the mother's face and had to breathe very deeply at even the thought of what was going on below the screen. After they sent the new family to the recovery room, Dr. Gibb sort of threw me for a loop and said he had to hurry back to the office so I basically had to fend for myself to get changed, leave the hospital, and get back to the office. Now, I know that doesn't sound too difficult, but when you don't have an employee badge in and around an operating room, it can prove to be quite challenging. I finally found my way around and figured out how to get back to the office. I took a quick lunch break and then went back to the office for the afternoon appointments. Most women that came in had scans to check for abnormalities, growth, well-being, etc, of their babies. We had a range of patients come in and I was so intrigued by the different backgrounds, medical histories, and stories of each of the women. I got to see scans of pregnancies from 7 weeks to 10 days overdue! Dr. Gibb delivered all good news yesterday so it was a very inspirational day for me! Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed my first day.

By the way, I must say that I feel such like a "city girl" as I walk through the crowded streets of London on my way to and from work :)

I went to work for a half-day today. Dr. Gibb is on "holiday" so one of his associates, Dr. Abbas, was there to fill in for him. I got to see a CVS today and that was quite impressive. Again, not trying to gross anyone out here, but it was the coolest thing. CVS's are performed to determine if the baby has Downs syndrome or any other chromosomal disorders. These tests carry a risk of miscarriage and must only be performed if there is significant reason to believe that the child may suffer from one of the disorders. Anyway, Dr. Abbas discussed the risks with the patient and proceeded with the test. Dr. Abbas then performed a scan to see where the placenta was located. Next, he put on some local anesthetic and then stuck a needle about as long as my forearm (no kidding) into her stomach. We watched the scan the whole time and I saw the needle go right into the placenta! What an amazing thing! He then drew up a sample of tissue and blood and that was it! We checked for the heartbeat and it was still there. Seeing the heartbeat means that the risk of miscarriage is reduced from 4% to 1%. Anyway, moving on from the medical jargon.....

We were finished with appointments by 3:45pm so stopped on the way home to buy a much-needed fan for our room. I have been so freaking hot. I packed for chilly, rainy weather and it has been neither since we have been here. It got up to 84 degrees today. Blech. I know that doesn't touch what y'all have been getting in Georgia, but this girl never likes hot weather anyway. Plus -- I wasn't mentally prepared for it, you know? ;) I got the okay from Mama to get some shorts and other hot-weather gear since I foolishly thought I wouldn't need mine. Oh well...it won't hurt me to get a fewwww new things, will it? Haha...

We are all watching The Queen right now. We are all feeling very Brit-ish, I guess! I'm getting sleepy, though, so we will see how long I last. Hope everyone is doing well! I miss the States!

Lots of love,
Abbie

Friday, 26 June 2009

Oxford & Blenheim Palace - Day 9

Today, we rode by coach (aka chartered bus) to Woodstock which is about an hour and a half away. There, we went to Blenheim Palace. It was built by the first Duke of Malborough and is still lived in by the 11th Duke right now. Winston Churchill was born and married there. The palace is stunning and has the most beautiful scenery around it. There are several gardens and a lake surrounding the palace, but we really didn't get to explore as much as we wanted. I hate that we can't take photos inside of these places -- the furniture, wallpaper, paintings, lighting, and on and on are so exquisite! Liz and I just can't imagine having that kind of extensive wealth. How baller would it be if you could wake up in the morning and look out on a property like that and call it your own? Maybe I should be celebrity/royalty man hunting a little more:) Haha..I began to feel really crappy (this stomach stuff is flaring up a little) so I was glad when the tour ended. We had packed our lunches so we ate them in a small cafe right beside one of the gardens.

Next, we headed up to Oxford. We toured some of the colleges at the University and heard a bit about the history, how hard it is to get in, etc. Our tour guide was a 6'3 British/American woman. She has quite an interesting story! She did a one-year long study abroad program at Oxford when she was 20 and met a boy there! After six months, she decided to stay here and ended up marrying the guy! 14 years later, she is still in London and has definitely picked up the accent. No worries, family, you have nothing to worry about with this girl! I love London but I love America more!!

Anyway, I am not feeling so hot so Tori is going to pick up a movie for us and we are going to have a chill night in. Tomorrow, I think we are going to go shopping so Lizzie can get some clothes for her internship and then we plan on going OUT! Woop woop!

Hope everyone is doing well! Would love to hear from you!

Smooches,
Abbie

Thursday, 25 June 2009

Oopsie...I slept through Wimbledon ;)

What a wonderful day we had! I stayed up last night until about 1:30am downloading and editing photos that I have taken so far. I cannot believe that it has only been a week -- I've taken about 250 photos and am only getting started :) I feel like we have done so much and have seen a great deal of London in such a short time! Isn't that great?

We woke up at 6am to go to Wimbledon today. We rode the tube to get there and walked a short way to get in line to waaaiiiitttttt. I emphasize that word because that is EXACTLY what we did. I can't be too much of a drama queen, it honestly was not bad at all. We met up with some of the girls from UGA on the tube and so Bess, Spencer, Macon, Liz, Tori, and I all sat in the "que" from about 8am-11:30am. They didn't open the gates until 10:30am and the first 6,000 -- yes, that's what I said -- were able to get in. We just happened to miss that cut off and were 6,700ish in line.

Not to worry, we kept ourselves quite entertained. There is a delicious beer here called cider and it tastes like apple juice with a little kick. As we've learned, their beers have a much higher alcohol content than the beer we are used to. haha. We all brought either a bottle of wine or three 570mL bottles of cider for the morning. I can't say that my body is used to consuming alcohol that early, but hey, new experiences are always great! ha. We also brought some snacks and a blanket so we sort of set up camp for a while. Pikachu (sp?) was sitting right next to us...ha, that is, a teenage boy dressed up as him. Quite strange, really. Also, two representatives for Blossom Hill wine were going around taking photos and handing out canvas bags for promotions, their website, etc, and fell in love with us Georgia girls. The girl just kept asking us to talk and proceeded to perfect her "y'all" for the crowd. Love it! In fact, she was so enamored that when she met a few law students from Georgia a few thousand people away from us, she absolutely demanded that they come and meet us. Sooo-- two law students from Georgia/South Carolina who are studying abroad in Ireland came to talk to us for a bit. They were only in London for the weekend but asked what to do, where to go, etc...

Anyway, we made it in finally and I thought Lizzie's eyes were literally about to pop out of her head because she was so thrilled! She loves tennis and said she has been hoping to go there since she was a little girl. In my mind, I had been expecting something much like the Masters but to be honest, it wasn't that similar. There were far more people and the atmosphere was much more relaxed.

We walked around for a little bit and then found the famous "Hill" where there is a huge big-screen TV where you can watch many of the matches. It was nearly impossible to get the six of us into an actual court but we watched some of them from above/to the side. We sat down and set up our little picnic area again. We grabbed some grub and then watched a few matches. I was exhausted from staying up so late and waking so early, so I thought I may lie back for a minute. I even had my diet coke laying across my chest since I wouldn't be lying there long. That minute turned into about an hour and a half. HAHAHA. Oopsie! I woke up (diet coke still in hand) and was so hot, sweaty, and a little burned. The girls had been chatting it up with two British boys. They weren't cute so I ignored them. hehehe...We had Pimm, which is some sort of alcoholic mint tea drink and it was yummy! We stayed a little longer and left about 4:15pm. Poor Macon, Tori, and Liz are quite burned from the day in the sun. I am just left with a crooked/curved tan line across my cleavage. Real cute. That's what you get for passing out, I guess.

Lizzie is currently napping and I just took a nice bath. We have a day trip planned for tomorrow to Oxford and Blenheim Palace. It should be fun!

Until then --- cheerio!

Love,
Abbie

Wednesday, 24 June 2009

An Eye for An Eye

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015616&id=1120860040&l=40514336cb

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015610&id=1120860040&l=b6973bfab3

Here are some photos that I posted to facebook! There are quite a few, but my memory card ran out of room!

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Day 7 has been long. Along with our internships, we are taking a British Life and Culture class. It really is very interesting, but we had two lectures back-to-back and then had to watch a movie -- all in the same classroom. Liz & another girl next to me, Lisa, both fell asleep during the lectures and the movie. Bahaha. The man giving the lecture was so nice and knowledgeable but yet again, had a speech impediment. He stuttered about every twelve words. Nothing against stuttering, but I have a hard time focusing on anything but that. Liz agreed -- so, she fell asleep. Ha. We watched Brideshead Revisited and it was an excellent movie. I definitely suggest that you see it! It gave us a sneak peek of Oxford since we are going there on Friday.

After that, we all rode the tube over to the London Eye. The capsules had room for about twenty people and we had fun taking pictures of the panoramic view of London. It is a great way to see an overview of the city as a whole. We had dinner in again tonight and are just downloading pictures and resting up for our long day at Wimbledon tomorrow!

Oh yeah, I was the one that tripped/leaped today. The girls got a kick out of it. :(

Here is a silly video of us playing around on the London Eye this afternoon:

Xoxo,

Abbie

Tuesday, 23 June 2009

Peter Punch You in the Face

We definitely just saw a fight break out at Peter Pan between a dad and this other dude. The amphitheatre/arena was fairly small and loud so we saw and heard everything! Crazy! Of course, scaredy cat Lizzie was grabbing my arm and barely took a breath while it was happening..haha...

Anyway, Peter Pan was "cute". I guess I am show snob because I expected it to be more professional. The characters looked like they were flying around and hanging down from coat hangers. They unclipped themselves every time they were done flying. It was strange. Speaking of strange, there were some freaking weird men that carried around animal puppets (Nana, the dog, and some other creature)...They made the sounds for the dog and bird-thing too. I was a little weirded out. Hahaha....I suppose we will have to keep catching the shows until we find a winner. When we walked out, two older British ladies said it was the best production they had ever seen and how memorable it was! I am not sure what rock they've been hiding under!! :)

Liz & I skipped back and sang Wicked songs the whole way home (I really think I'm hardwired to be in theatre...I guess I missed my calling). All of the tubes were closed so we found a bus stop and rode it back to Baker Street. Oh yeah-- we walked 7 miles today! Get it, girrrlllsss!!

Love,
Abbie

Bakerloo & Jubilee

Day 5-
I was the last to wake up since I had the shortest walk to my interview for my internship. I ironed my clothes, took a shower, got ready, and was out of the door within 45 minutes! Go me! I absolutely love being in the city. It is so exciting and refreshing to be right in the middle of the hustle and bustle every day. London is such a pretty city. There are a few boring buildings, but most of them have beautiful architectural design that is so pleasant to look at!

My internship is with The Birth Company. The office is on the third floor of what looks like a townhouse on Harley Street. The office is pretty small, but is modern with clean lines, an aquarium, and bright colors. Dr. Gibb is the physician with whom I will be interning. He started the company five years ago and has two physicians that help him on the side. We sat down and had a short interview and he basically told me that I would "be his assistant". He said that they would teach me to test urine, look through charts, etc, and that I would be able to go in many of the appointments with his patients. Guess what he has set up on Monday?? He is allowing me to go in with him as he delivers twins via C-section!!! I am sooo excited! What a great way to start off my week! The rest of the week should be short because he will be on "holiday", but they will still have me come and watch scans, do odd jobs, whatever. I am thrilled that I am getting this experience!

The rest of the day was really not too exciting, I'm afraid. We are trying to remember that we have six weeks here and although it will be over before we know it, we do need a little rest every once in a while. After the rest of the girls got home, we all took naps, cleaned, blah blah. Tori, Liz, and I rode the tube over to High Kensington Street and found a Blockbuster! I really don't think they watch many movies over here because it was difficult to find a place to rent a stinkin' movie! Anyway, we rented "Baby Mama", a favorite of mine. We live right by a Subway sandwich shop and Liz has had the smell in her nose for a few days, so she decided she HAD to stop. I was a good girl and ate at home! You'd be proud, Mama & Daddy, I only spent 2 pounds yesterday! Can you believe it? Yeah, me neither.

Day 6 -
We had class this morning from 10-12 but just about half of the class got lost coming to the location, so we didn't really get anything done. We basically went over the itinerary and talked Dr. Hardin into letting us push Wednesday's and Thursday's classes together so we could have Thursday off to go to Wimbledon! Oh yeeeaaahhh! Tennis isn't really my thing, but I don't think we can pass this up! Liz is super pumped and I think many of our other friends are going that day, as well.

I have been hollering about going to see a show since we first got here, so the girls finally gave in and we went to buy half-price tickets for a show tonight -- Peter Pan! It is in an outdoor amphitheatre and the weather is beautiful today, so it should be wonderful! Hopefully we will be able to see Jersey Boys, Sister Act, Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, Grease, or any of the other awesome shows that are playing in London right now. BTW, Jude Law is starring in Hamlet here...we are definitely going to line up and try to catch a glimpse after the show. O000hhh weee!!!

I have begun to compile a list of things that we must do before leaving London...I don't want to forget any of it! We walked through Regents Park today and it is absolutely beautiful! The flowers are all in bloom and the grass is as green as it can be. There were a million geese out there today -- I don't think they appreciated me running after them much. I honestly am suprised they didn't turn on me. Liz has a video; will post soon.

Hope you're all well! Peace...

Abbie

Sunday, 21 June 2009

Grocery Store Feet

Liz tripped three times today. I am not even kidding you:).

Last night, Tori, Macon, & I went out for dessert while Liz stayed in and watched "Madea Goes to Jail"...Haha...We figured we could find something close by, but I swear to you that we probably burned all of the calories we ate when we walked to and from the Italian place we found to get dessert. I can safely say that I would be forever content if all I had to eat in this world was sweets. They "tickle my fancy ", for sure!

Liz and I stayed up until about 2:30am...we have this wonderful ability to entertain ourselves and each other by using silly voices, making up ridiculous poems/raps/jokes, and just laughing as loudly as we can. Poor Macon & Tori were able to sleep through it all, but I do wonder how they did it.

We all slept late and I didn't get up until 11:30am!! It felt great! We got up, got ready, and rode the tube over to Notting Hill. We had heard about this antique shopping district/market in the area so we thought we would check it out. I first stopped to ask directions from this guy in a Falafel (my favorite word) shop, but he basically stared at me like I was an idiot and said, "a market - there , next door". What great help! NOT! Liz said he was looking at my butt when I walked out (by the way, he had a unibrow---ewwwww), and she literally scowled at him with the worst undertaker look I've ever seen her give. Yay for my bodyguard!

Anyway, we found our way to Portobello Market and shopped in an adorable, quaint area. Liz bought a hat and Tori found an adorable dress! We all bought landscape photos of London for 3 pounds a piece! What a steal! Liz & I plan to frame them and put them up in our new apartment when we get back to Athens..

Cupcake shops seem to be everywhere around here so we all stopped and got one. I couldn't resist today. Oh well...life is too short:) Haha... We rode the tube over to Parsons Green to find Liz and Macon's internship place. It was an adorable area that had a huge park right in the middle of it. After we checked it out, we rode (for about an hour) back to our flat. We ran into some creepers there, but again, I was glad to have my bodyguard at my side.

Four girls have the ability to make a mess pretty quickly, so we already needed to clean a little in our apartment. After we did that, we Skyped for a while and I did a little laundry. Katie was supposed to come over for dinner but she sketched out...we are going to have to break her of that habit. I've been there--- I'm a recovering sketch--- so I'll see what I can teach her. Liz & I ate dinner at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen and stopped by the grocery and bought some strawberry frozen yogurt. Yum! We are now back at our place and have been watching "Madea" again. That and "Clueless" are the only DVDs we have right now so we are working with what we've got.

By the way, the title is a tribute to what my feet look like right now after a day walking around in flip flops. Its gross! I probably should wash them before getting into bed, eh? Haha..I'll try...

Night!
Love,
Abbie

Saturday, 20 June 2009

Living Life at a Different Angle

Hello there! I slacked off yesterday and didn't get a chance to update, so here goes:

Needless to say, we passed out pretty quickly on Thursday night and woke up rather early on Friday. Liz & I started off our morning by drinking diet coke out of a two-liter bottle. Cheers!

On Day 2, we had a wonderful 20 minute walk to the Hampden House to meet the rest of the group. Liz tripped twice. Bahaha. Anyway, we visited some of our ADPi friends in their flat. It was much different from ours. It was in a building of apartments and had of sort of Victorian architecture which is so different from our modern little nook.

We all walked to our Orientation and heard more about our internships, the city, etc. We are constantly reminded to have an open mind and really soak it all in. Don't worry, I am definitely striving for both! By the way, I just have to tell you...thanks to my mother, I notice tiny details and mannerisms that other people might not notice. These have the ability to drive me crazy at times. Here is an example: our program director, who is extremely nice, had two little quirks that had me reeling by the end of the meeting. She is Irish, so she said "um" like "em" and said it about every four words. About every two sentences, she pushed her glasses up...even if they weren't falling. Haha..it's terrible that I focus on that, but I honestly cannot help it!

Okay, back to things you care about...we had baguettes from a little sandwich shop and during our walk there, Katie (the new friend) informed me that I make the worst impressions of people. I am appalled! I mean, I know I'm not the best, but I loooveee to do my Chinese voice, speak with a lisp, use a British accent, etc...I guess I'm going to have to work on it.

After we had lunch, we were supposed to have a lecture and it was cancelled! So, we went around to some shops on High Kensington Street & helped Katie get a phone. We rode the tube home and then took a short nap. By the way, I have been wearing a pedometer and we walked about 4.5 miles yesterday!

Tori & Macon cooked dinner (rigatoni with marinara, a salad, and bruschetta... yum!) and then we all got ready -- very quickly, I might add -- to go to the pub. As I mentioned earlier, we have a pub above our flat and it has been bumping every time we go by there. It is called "The Volunteer" and is a kind of retro, chill place that has dancing, board games, tables, an outside area, and even played "Sweet Home Alabama???". We shared two pitchers of Sangria and soaked up the atmosphere. Our program director told us that the British usually just out for a few, so that's exactly what we did. The pubs get busy right after people get off of work and close around 12am. We were spent by about 1030pm, so we took the thirty second walk back to our flat and jumped right in bed! Successful night, I must say!

Onto today, we walked the twenty minutes to Hampden House again and enjoyed a nice "cat call" from a few construction workers while we were at it. We jumped on a chartered bus and rode down to St. Paul's Cathedral. We did not go inside, but enjoyed ourselves as our tour guide told us how it was significant to London's history and the USA, as well! Our tour guide was absolutely amazing. Not only did he look like an older Hugh Grant, aka HOT, he was so knowledgeable and great at having us really feel the history and appreciate it. I am not a big history buff, but he made it impossible for me not to be engrossed and enamored with everything he told us about.

Next we went to view a few buildings, ie. the "inside-out" building and the "Big Dildo". Don't ask, I will show pictures and you will understand. We then went on to Westminster Abbey. We had to pay to use the restroom right before we went in (50 pence--ridic!). I still don't understand the stinkin' coins over here so I put about 1.15 worth of coins and finally figured out that I had to push the turnstile to get in. Well, I got stuck in the turnstile because the dang thing jammed me in the leg. After I cursed it, I went on in and listened as the British bathroom attendant blessed out a poor Asian lady who couldn't speak English very well..haha..poor thing.

Okay, so we went into Westminster Abbey for a tour. It was majestic, to say the very least. As I said, Russell (tour guide) was so theatrical and it made the experience even better. We learned about things ranging from modern pop culture to Henry VII to Princess Diana's funeral to Charles Darwin who is buried there. I think that this has been the best part of London so far. I loved it there and hope to make it back for a service..it's the kind of place that can give you chills.

When we left there, a few ADPis (Caroline H, Katie M, Lizzy B, Christen P, Brittany M, Liz, & I) went around our elbow to get to our ****hole and finally found our way to Covent Garden, which is a little district in London with great shopping and food! We were all craving fish and chips -- ironic since I don't like fish -- and walked around forever until we found a true English pub. We savored our fish and chips and then walked down to a cupcake shop. Can you believe I didn't get one? I'm trying not to become obese while over here so I am resisting a feeewww things. We then took the tube home and came home to an empty house, locked up computers with no key, and phones that wouldn't work because we forgot our pin numbers (which were saved on the computer). Soooooo, we took a nap. When we woke up, we made a pizza and salad which Liz drowned with ranch -- so typ..

Sorry these things get so lengthy. I just don't want to leave out any details and am not able to talk to everyone while I'm here so this gives you a glimpse, albeit LARGE glimpse, into what we are getting into over here. Okay, cheerio for now! I will check back in soon!

XOXOXO
Abbie

Thursday, 18 June 2009

First Day in London!

Ahhhh!!!! We are finally here! I am pretty amazed that I am actually in London since I had so many issues getting my VISA, i.e. I picked it up on the way to the airport. Crazy, right? It caused so much stress but was well worth it! I packed only one suitcase with a purse and a carry-on. Can you believe it? I was shocked, to say the least. However, when we got to the check-in, my suitcase was 70 lbs (20 lbs over the limit). Thankfully, my mother is a genius and suggested that we bring a small suitcase in case it was overweight. I am sooo glad she did because we would have ended up paying a good bit when we could have avoided it! Snaps for Debbie!
The flight was quite long. I sat between my best friend, Liz, and my new friend, Katie! She is so cute and sounds like she will be one of our pub/dinner/exploring buddies. She & Liz definitely hit it off because they started off comparing notes about boyfriends, blah, blah...Haha. Anyway, I definitely slept a good bit of the trip. Katie, Liz, & Beth (one of our teaching assistants) said that I was curled up in the fetal position and looked like I was sleeping good:) I bought a neck pillow in Atlanta airport and I definitely think that did the trick.
Our landing was rough...I said, "Land much?", kind of loudly and Liz & Katie were embarassed. Oops. I think I will probably end up being that token, loud American..Haha...We shall see. We went through customs without a problem. Well, okay, that's a lie. I took three photos while we were standing right outside of customs waiting for a few of our girls. A customs guy ran over and yelled at me and made me delete them. Rudddeeeee!!! Thank goodness I didn't get kicked out. I better be careful!
We rode on a chartered bus from the airport to our flat. It took about an hour and a half. We drove through countryside, an area that looked like Canal Street in New York, and then through the historic area. We dropped two loads off before we got to our place. Our flat is literally sandwiched between a pub (which is sooo hopping right now...woop woop!) and The Sherlock Holmes Museum. You can barely see our door in between the two. The stairs going down to our flat are ghetto. As I walked down the stairs, I thought to myself, "great, this place is janky....". Anyway, as it turns out, our flat is amazing!! We have two big bedrooms - one for Liz and me and the other for Tori and Macon. We have a huge open kitchen and living room, a great room with a futon and desk, and a big bathroom aka "loo"! All of the appliances are new and I am pretty sure it was recently renovated. We also have a little garden/deck area off the back and it is adorable! There is a table out there right now that Liz thinks is perfect for beer pong. Oh, Lord!
Okay, this is long so I am going to cut the rest short. Basically, after we got here, Liz and I took a three hour nap (she is still grouchy, btw). We then went to Pizza Express and I had a "light pizza". It was delicious! It was a pizza with the middle cut out that has a salad in that middle part! Yum! Less than 500 calories! We then came back and figured out what groceries we needed. We walked 15 minutes away to get groceries, a hair dryer, and a flat iron! They really weren't too expensive, so I'm pumped!
We just got back to the flat and I am getting ready to shower and get an outfit ready for tomorrow. We are meeting up with the group to have orientation and have a lecture in the afternoon (wooopdeeedooo.....).
Anyway, I don't know if every post will be this in depth. Liz just made fun of me but I am "gay" and enjoy this kind of thing. Will check in tomorrow!

XOXOXOXO,
Abbie