GREETINGS FROM LONDON!!!!

I finally made it here, I thought this day would never arrive but we landed safely in Heathrow Airport around 7:00am Tuesday Morning (still Monday in the U.S). We took a bus to the AIFS office where we checked in with Sinead who gave us the rundown of the happenings of London such as where we can eat, do our work, important numbers we need in case of emergency and all there things that we needs to know. We then got our packets of information and maps so we don't get too lost our first couple f days in a new city. Sinead then called us taxi's to take us to our home stays. While groups were waiting to be picked up, we all took a stroll around to block to explore and get a feel for the area; most of us had lunch, went to the bank or bought phones so we could talk to each other while in London, others just slept to catch up on Jet lag.

When the taxi finally came for me and my roomies, we took the craziest ride of our lives, ducking and weaving around buses and people to make it to our temporary home in Tufnell Park. The area is very nice with little shops for eating and grocery and even a pub at the corner. The family is so nice and showed us to our rooms right away. We unpacked and took a nap for a couple of hours. When we woke up we have tea with the family and got to know the parents a little better. The mom is a freelance editor and the father is as he puts it " a Jack of all trades with no special talent". The mom told us that they would make us dinner the fist night so while supper was being prepared we took a walk around the neighborhood. An hour or two later we had supper and really got to know the family better.

We then wanted to catch up with everyone else to see how their home stay families were. We all met at a pub maybe 10-15 min away from Tufnell called O'Neil's. We then made our way to another bar called Cafe Loco. It was a lot of fun trying to navigate the bus system and getting to know other people in our groups but the most fun was being able to talk to locals and get a better sense of what this place is really about.


On Wednesday we all met up at the ULU which is the building where we will be conducting class. It is directly across the street from the AIFS office and is only maybe a half an hour tube ride. That was an adventure in itself because we definitely got ourselves turned around of the tube a couple of times. We had orientation in which we talked about safety and the norms of London. We talked about etiquette while staying with our home stay families and our internship assignments. After the meetings were over we met for lunch and met up to board of coach tour of London. But first what's interesting about the area where we have our classes is that down the road there is the Senate House building in which Orson Wells once worked and was his inspiration for his famous novel 1984. the building in which he worked was his muse for the idea that "big brother is always watching".

While on the tour we were able to see London city life. We got to stop at Buckingham Palace and see where the queen lives. her royal flag was flying high so she was home that day. We got to see Piccadilly Circus, the Tower Bridge and Tower of London. We then got out and walked from South London to North London on the Millennial Bridge which was built in the obvious year of 2000. After crossing the bridge we got to see where they filmed the song "Feed the Birds" from the movies everyone knows and loves Merry Poppins. We then took a tour of St. Paul's Cathedral which is not a royal church but the "Church of the people". We got to look at all the amazing carvings and sculptures and tombs of famous citizens of London. An interesting fact is that is withstood being attacked by 38 arsenal bombs in WWII and that there was a superstition that if St. Paul's fell London would fall too. After the tour we all went our separate ways to wash up for dinner we then made our way to Wood Green and all met for dinner at a Pub near one of the other groups home stays. It was an early night for everyone because we were all still trying to get used to the time change.