Tom Sellick was on the same flight as me.

So here I am on Day 2 of my London adventure. Yesterday was looong and weird seeing as we landed around noon, had an orientation walk around Kensington at 4, then I went to my first pub, then back hom for a horrible nights sleep. We had 2 more meetings today and a private coach tour around the whole city. In between Abbey and I have explored our little neighborhood and a miniscule corner of the great Hyde Park. Everyone here so far is pretty ok. I had the best gelato today. We're finding great places to eat on the cheap, which is hard in Kensington. Everyone we tell where we live responds instantly with some comment about how posh our neighborhood is. All the houses go for about 2 million...and then theres us. My housing, called Metrogate, can be seen in the movie Layer Cake. But yeah, we found a deli where I got a veggie pizza for two pounds and Abbey got a chicken pocket thing for 55 pence! They had pasta and sandwhiches priced the same, and you get a free piece of fruit with every purchase. Wine is about 3.50 a glass, and you dont tip the bartender. So far in two days I've only spent about 18 pounds (or 36 dollars, roughly). We are taking it way easy tonight as we have a 5am train to Paris tomorrow. After a couple days there we are off to Amsterdam, then back home to start class. Our room is way better then I expected. Just myself and Abbey share a small room and bathroom, but it has really high ceilings and a huge wall sized window, so it feels much larger. All the rooms have wireless, and we share a small kitchen with the other 20 or so people on or floor, but have our own refridgerator. There is 24 hour reception and computer lab, as well as cctv everywhere, so everything is super safe. I can receive all incoming calls and TEXT MESSAGES free, so keep em coming. Pedestrians do not have the right of way here, and that will probably take the most getting used to. Overall, I'm very happy comfortable, and while I'm excited about Paris, I'm kind of bummed about leaving London right now when there is so much I want to do. 90 percent of the bajillion museums in London are completly free, and the rest have student pricing. They do not carry Lucky Charms at the grocery, however, there is an import store down the street that sells them, but not for cheap. The other strange thing was that at the grocery store the checker never says a word to you, not even your total. And you bag your own groceries. I said thank you and the checker just nodded. It wasn't just me though, I watched everyone and that was how they rolled. I'll update again next week after I come back from the tour and start class. Miss everyone.

This is an Adventure.

This monday I will be boarding a plane to the UK. This trip has caused me so much stress the past few weeks. I've been working alot to secure myself financially, and I've come to the conclusion that I hate serving. Not really, I'm just burnt out. I only have three days left of server hell, then I don't have to work for the money til Christmas. Now that I am pretty much packed, and have almost all of my business here taken care of, I am nothing but excited.
Monday I fly to London, two days later we go to Paris for a super quick trip. From there its on to Amsterdam, then back to Paris, then back to London to start school on the 5th. Oktoberfest starts the 15th, so hopefully we'll make it to Munich for a weekend. I have two good friends studying in Florence, so a weekend will be spent with them, and then on to Rome. We also have pretty solid plans for Dublin and Madrid as well. With school I'm doing a ten day jaunt to Prague, which is super stoked worthy. In between all of this I have school tuesday thru thursday from 9-2, then all day fridays. The friday class consists of mostly field trips to Bath, Stonehenge, Oxford, Parliment, etc. Eight weeks into the semester my classes end and I start my internship.
My dorm is in Kensington, by Hyde Park. This is the really upscale part of town. I plan on jogging with Madonna, Sean Connery, and Posh and Becks on a regular basis.
The timing of this trip works out very well for me also in that I return to the U.S. on the 17th of December, and a very short five days later I turn 21. So as of Monday, my days of being underage are over. I also will be leaving the OC on Virgin Atlantic Airlines, which is exciting in itself.
I have pretty much convinced myself that my cats are going to die while I'm gone. They are my biggest concern regarding this whole excursion. I'm hoping that they will keep on kicking in anticipation of the souveners I'll be bringing them back...I'm thinking tiny little berets.