Sight seeing, Big Price Tags & Visiting Boroughs

So after all of the orientations, we had to do some sight seeing! CAPA took us on a tour of London, where we saw the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, St. Paul's Cathedral, West Minster Abbey, the US embassy, Parliament, various districts throughout, and lots of parks & memorials. It was so exciting to be touristy and see all this famous stuff! After we did that, it finally started to set in that I'm in LONDON!

St. Paul's Cathedral

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

Tower Bridge

We went to Camden town markets, which were a little eccentric! It is an outdoor market made up of tons of different little sections; clothing, bags, shoes, posters, and plenty of little junk shops. The outdoor market ran off of a street with lots of other stores too. I saw at least 5 people with blue mohawks, and maybe 3 green ones. And I mean real mohawks, like at least a foot tall. The decorations on some of the buildings was amazing; like these huge 3D sculptures of random stuff. It was pretty crowded, and after milling around each isle we decided we had had our share for the day.

Decorations on Camden Markets

Yesterday, a few of my flatmates and I went to see Harrods, the famous and HUGE department store. Everything there is designer made and extremely expensive. We also went to Harvey Nichols, an even more expensive department store. We walked through and touched the gorgeous gowns, laughed at the bizarre hats, and rolled our eyes at the price tags. In both stores I marveled at the color coordinations of the displays. Each room almost had a color scheme, which made the whole thing sort of pretty. It was also organized spaciously in some parts, like a whole lot of thought went into the set up.

We also visited the princess Diana memorial on the ground floor of Harrods. It leaves something to be desired, as it was only about a room large, with and picture of Diana and Dodi and some candles. For a place that does everything excessively, princess Diana was kind of given the short straw.

I've been within several boroughs of London, including Earl's Court (where I live), South Kensington (right near by), Bloomsbury (where my internship is located at the University of London), Piccadilly Circus and Liester Square. Piccadilly and Liester Square are like the Times Square of London. There are lots of restaurants, theaters, and clubs there, and at night its all light up and pretty. I've already ended up there a few times, so I'm sure I'll be seeing even more of it as the semester goes on :)

Flight Delays, Sleeping in Airports, & a Flat for 6

I have finally made a blog! Enjoy :)


My flight to London was a serious adventure/disaster. Because of the snow, my first flight (from Philadelphia) was delayed almost 4 hours. By the time I was finally getting on the plane in Philly, my connection flight had already left Dulles, Washington DC Airport. I had to decide to whether or not to stay in Philadelphia (home sweet home) and risk not getting on another flight until Thursday, or go to Dulles and spend the night there. After about twelve phone calls home and some stressful tears, I ended up leaving Philadelphia to have a lovely slumber party in Dulles before my 9 am flight the next morning. Luckily, I wasn't alone. When I curled up in a chair to sleep, there were 3 other people sleeping at the same gate! Besides being fearful of my stuff getting stolen (I slept on top of my computer, passport, & wallet), sleeping at the airport wasn't so bad. Well, waking up surrounded by early morning travelers was a little bit odd, but things could have been worse!

When I finally reached London, and got through border control (stood in line for over an hour) and got to my flat (expensive cab ride on the wrong side of the road), it was about 1 am London time. I didn't have a key or anything, and i rang the doorbell for about an hour before anyone woke up to open the door. There was more stressing, but in the end i didnt have to sleep on the stoop.

So on my first full day here, we had orientations which were both helpful and tedious. We learned lots about CAPA, my university here. It stands for Centre for Academic Programs Abroad. There are students from lots of universities here; lots from Pitt, University of Minnesota, and UMass Amherst. There are some students from other schools too, like Arizona State, Missouri State, and University of Delaware. There is one CAPA Building where we have advising, classes, and other such fun things. Our orientations were on London in general, what to expect from internships, and police safety information. Then at night CAPA held a "Welcome Tea Party" at a fancy hotel. They fed us scones and mini sandwiches and tea, all of which were surprisingly DELICIOUS. I usually don't like tea at all, but the Brits may have convinced me!

My flat is within walking distance to the CAPA building (about 7 minutes), while all other dorms have to take the tube to and from. We are in Earl's Court, within Kensington. I love the area we are in, we have a bunch of convenience stores, coffee shops, clothing stores, and restaurants around the corner from us. All of the buildings are kind of uniform looking townhouses, which I think makes the streets look really pretty!

There are 6 of us in our flat, and several flats above us with other CAPA students. Our rooms are very small for 3 people, but we have a large common room and kitchen so I think we'll be able to make it for 4 months :)