So, welcome. I guess this is my first blog entry though I've been on my tripfor a week now. And all I can say is up until now it has been a crazy whirlwind. I'm going to try and be really good about updating this blog, but I can't promise anything. The only reason I'm updating now is because I finally have a few free hours and was able to find internet for less that £5 an hour (thanks a lot hotel).

This first week has been absolutely fantastic, I'm so glad I was able to share that experience with my mom and grandma. We arrived at London Heathrow airport Tuesday the 16th at 5:00ish am (London time). We made it out of the airport in mere minutes (customs wasn't at their desk? I went through immigrartion though, don't worry). We took the Undgerground to our hotel and got there around 7:00 am, but they had no avaliable rooms until 2:00, so we left our stuff in the lobby and went on a double decker bus tour of the city. This was so so cool. It was really exciting to see the city and hear more information before jumping in to explore further.

In order for this post not to drag on too long by having to cover a whole week, I'm just going to split it up and share the important details. If you want more info, email or comment or whatever. I'll post pictures as soon as I can connect my laptop to some wireless.

Hotel:
Our hotel was probably the tiniest room I've ever stayed in, all three of us couldn't be moving around the room getting ready at the same time or we would have been constantly bumping into each other. But we weren't there much, mostly just to eat breakfast and sleep. Their breakfast was quite delicious, it was a traditional full English breakfast with sunnyside up eggs, ham, canned mushrooms, baked beans and broiled (?) tomatoes. I mostly had cereal and croissants. And coffee, lots of coffee. We all got in the habit of drinking at least two cups of coffee in the morning, bad bad bad! But the hotel had this really amazing machine that could make a whole bunch of different types of hot drinks. So I'm standing by my massive amounts of coffee.

Sights we saw and best parts about them:

The stuff I'm listing is the stuff we actually made a point to go in and explore, we saw an unbelievable amoutn of other amazing sites while we walked London (and we did a lot lot lot of walking throughout our trip, or feet all need a break).

• Winsdor Castle- Sooooo cool! We walked through the castle and we able to see all kinds of historical things from British royalty like the old bedrooms and stuff. Very beautiful.
• Stonehenge- A big pile of rocks in the middle of nowhere... but we had to go see it.
• Roman Bath- Another really cool city, weonly got an hour there, including going into the old bath, so it's a place I would like to go explore more.The town is adorable and we didn't get to finish the tour through the Bath. We drank the water there though, it was gross, but it's supposed to be really good for you... it tasted like metal. We almost got left behind here because Grandma Joanie got lost.
• Westminster Abbey- Beautiful beautiful beautiful. The coolest things in here were Elizabeth I's grave and Poets corner where I snuck an illegal photo of the memorials to famous literary people (like Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and ... Lord Byron (and Sex in the City movie was playing on the plane on the way to London! I will never escapse him, hahaha)
• Parliment Building- I think one of the coolest things we did was take the tour in here. I got detained at the beginning though because they thought my anitbacterial was mace, which is illegal. Ooops. Our tour guide was awesome and we got to go into all the parliment rooms because they aren't in session. Undescribably fantastic.
• Jewel Tower- lame. Didnt even have any jewels.
• Tower of London- Super cool, it was way bigger than I expected! It was like a whole village. The tour here was fantasic as well, it was given by a yeomen who had been in the British miltary before working there. We saw where Anne Boeyln lost her head, and where prisoners scratched stuff into the walls.. creepy. And the crown jewels were fantastic and sparkly.
• Buckingham Palace- we only saw this from the outside, but it was beautiful.
• Globe Theatre- One of the collest things we did! We went and saw the Merry Wives of Windsor, which was absolutely hilarious! We stood like peasants, but the actors were all around us. I would do this again in an instant.
• British Museu- I was tired, sore, and cranky by the time we made it here and this had too much art for me, but it had some cool sculptures in it.
• British Library- AMAZING! And free ! It's a working museum, it's huge and it's beautiful. I vow to work here some day! They also had an exhibit of stuff that included (all originals) A Gutenburg bible, Beatles lyrics scratched on backs of birthday cards, the Magna Carta (one of only 4 still around), stuff from Shakespear, Austen, Bronte, Beethoven, and some other really amazing, priceless stuff.
• Victoria and Albert Museum- We did not allow enough time for this GIGANTIC museum. We saw a lot of beautiful sculptures, a fantasic photography exhibit, and their jewelery collection. I hope I can spend some more time here. (Monica, I think you should work here... www.vam.ac.uk)
• Oxford Street- Amazing shopping. So so so crowded and expensive. Living in London would be so expensive. We went to H & M and all kinds of other amazing stores. My next goal is to go to the T.K. Maxx (yes, T. K.)
• Portobello Market- A flea, farmers marke that was like streets and streets long. We went on a saturday which was a bad idea because it was packed shoulder to shoulder. I'll probably try this again on a weekday morning.

I think we did more, but I unfortunately did not take note as we went along, so all the week is running together in my head.

Food:
We had: Indian (AMAZING), traditional English food (fish and chips, jacket potato- aka baked potato), two different noodle bars (both fantastic), Turkish (the hummus was fantastic), pub food (I had broccoli and chedder soup, which was amazing, but the service there was beyond terrible).

Ok, so I only have about 5 minutes left before my hour runs out. I guess I just want to tell everyone thanks for the well wishes! I'm having a fantastic time so far, and all though I'm extremely nervous about checking in with my program (which I'll be doing in about an hour), I'm also really excited. I'm proud of the way I've mastered the tube and I shocked by all the generous help I recieved from people in the station helpingme with the stairs and my luggage this morning. This city is a whirlwind, there are people everywhere all the time. It is so international, I've heard what seems like every language and dialect one can possible imagine. I'm loving London, but I'm excited to get down to my city by the sea (Brighton). We should be heading there near the end of this week. Hopefully I'll be able to post then.

Love to all my family and friends! You'll be hearing from me soon!