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