London, I’m Here.

 

I’ve been in London for a week now and have been getting settled into this new and amazing city. My flight arrived early in the morning at Heathrow Airport and I took the underground to Kings Cross Station. Taking the train rather than a taxi saved me a lot of money. Coming from Chicago I felt like I would be able to handle the public transportation and luckily I ended up in the right place.

I am glad that I took the  train into the city because I was able to sit for the 45 minutes it takes to get there and take in the views along the route. As I sat on the train I noticed how almost everyone was reading a book or the morning paper, which was quite refreshing to see.

Once I checked into my residence hall, I roamed around Islington looking for… towels. I figured it would be easy to purchase some but after walking around aimlessly for miles, I decided to hop on the underground and go to Oxford Street where I ended up at a very popular shopping area. Although browsing the stores would have been fun, I was drained by all the traveling so I bought only the necessities and got back to my place.

The next few days were spent at orientation and checking out a few of the sites in London. The International Programmes Office sponsored a bus and boat tour for us to get a brief view of the city. The tour gave us  a glimpse into the popular spots, so later on we are able to go back to the places we like. We stopped by Big Ben, Kensington Palace, Tower Bridge and the London Eye to name a few of the popular sites.

Most of my time so far has been spent exploring the surrounding neighborhoods and getting comfortable in my new place. Hopefully once the first week of school is over I will be able to start planning out how I want my semester to go!