So I'm here in London!!! June 1st merged into June 2nd to form one mega-long day so I have an extra long post.
We got to sleep in until a whopping 8:30 our last day in Bloomsburg, which seemed incredibly late compared to getting up early for class the rest of the week. Most of us took a bus to Wal-Mart to pick up some last-minute stuff for the trip. I grabbed some snacks, a magazine to read on the plane, and a 5 hour energy drink, which I've wanted to try for forever. We also got a thank you card for Dr. K, the Honors College Director at Bloomsburg who has been a wonderful host to us all this week. I got a quick run in after getting back and finished packing all my stuff in time to catch our bus to the airport at 2:30. And then, we were off!!! It was a long 3 hour ride to JFK, but we managed to get ourselves pumped up on the way by watching The Tourist, which takes place in Venice, one of our destinations.
 |
| Getting pumped on the bus to the airport |
I've never traveled through an airport in a large group like this before, and although it took us a bit of confusion to check all of our bags and get through security, we made it. Our flight was set to leave at 8:55, but due to the late arrival of the plane we didn't actually leave til around 10:00.
 |
| Us clogging up the airport |
By the time we got on the plane most of us were so keyed up that we couldn't really sleep on the plane. I at least got a 2-3 hour nap, but otherwise watched 30 Rock on the fancy personal t.v. screens we all had, wrote in my journal, and imagined the stranger I was sitting next to was the Air Marshall. Seriously. I've convinced myself he was secretly protecting us all--why else would he dress in all black, listen to headphones "minding his business", and fill out a form entitled "Federal Registration"?
 |
| On the plane!! |
Anyways, after a long and semi-comfortable flight we landed at Heathrow in LONDON!!!!!!! We met Yvonne shortly after getting off the plane, our tour guide who will be accompanying us for the duration of our time in Europe. She's a middle-aged French, slightly cranky lady. She seemed sweet at first, but it didn't take long for her to change her demeanor to a controlling woman who clearly viewed it as her extreme duty to keep us juveniles from arriving late to the bus, jumping out windows, or worse.
 |
| waiting for the bus at the airport in London! |
It was a sleepy sleepy ride to the hotel, with Yvonne yapping off lots of information about where we were going and the plan for the day. There had been a bit of confusion with the travel agency about the day's itinerary--we were told we had a free afternoon, but instead had to hurry to go tour the BBC that afternoon rather than another day. I was really pumped to get to see it, but the lack of organization and communication from the agency from the get-go did worry me a bit.
Emily, Eve, Alyssa and I went to a pub about a five minute walk from the hotel called Hereford Arms. We all got fish and chips and I got a Pimm's, which I was very excited for. I was also excited to eat the fruit when I'd finished the drink, including a very lemony lemon.
 |
| Enjoying my Pimm's |
We had a free hour around Oxford/Regent's St before seeing the BBC. I was super excited because that's right near where I went to university last summer at University of Westminster!! I actually went back and saw both Regent's and New Cavendish campuses. Had a serious case of deja vu and can't believe it's actually been a whole year since last summer here. Missing my Westminster peeps, but having a ton of fun with this crew :)
 |
| University of Westminster--New Cavendish St Campus--I'm back!!! |
 |
| BBC! |
The BBC was so freaking cool. We got a tour of the news and radio studio. One of my favorite parts was getting to record our own play to see how they do the sound effects for all their plays. Also saw the weatherman in action forecasting. Super super cool. While we were walking around on the tour I started hetting uber tired so I decided to try out my 5 hour energy drink! It tasted kind of like cough syrup, but right after I drank it I felt myself start to perk up so score energy drink!
Dinner was at the hotel, but we had to rush rush rush to leave and get to our concert! We went to Royal Albert Hall to see Coronation Classics--that was when I realized that it was the Queen's 60th anniversary of her coronation!! That was pretty awesome to be in London on such an important day. The music at the concert was music played sixty years ago at her actual coronation!!! Some of the music was hard to get through without falling asleep, particularly a 20 minute cello concerto, but by the end I was actually really enjoying it. It was sorta like England's 4th of July, and lots of people were waving Union Jack flags to the music, before the concert ended in a sort of sing-along to British national songs including God Save the Queen! I'm convinced I owe it to that energy drink that I didn't pass out at the concert. I felt wide awake!
Also came to the sad realization that our hotel has no Wi-Fi. So I won't be able to get on and update this blog as often as I'd like, which is why this is showing up a few days late. Either way I'll eventually get everything up!
 |
| Coronation Classics Concert |
It was kind of hard getting to sleep actually, I don't know if that was due to an energy drink-induced state or I was just so used to forcing myself to constantly NOT sleep, but eventually I drifted off, thinking of French accents in unexpected places, waving union jacks, and lemony lemons.
Until next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment