We made it!!

It's day two in London and I'm already OBSESSED!!

It was an easy flight, only spent 5 minutes in the customs line, and Hailey and I got a taxi with no wait. We didn't expect it to take an hour and a half to get from the airport to our flat though. Traffic that could have easily competed with Houston's 610 rush hour. But then we got to move into our flat and it's incredible! All of the walls in the building are painted a cute pink/purple color with bright royal blue doors! We got a corner room, which is basically triple the size of all the other rooms. It has a really intricate white crown molding around the ceiling and two floor to ceiling windows behind each of our beds. The community bathrooms aren't as bad as I thought they were going to be, but then again, no one has moved in yet except one exchange student from Japan. We've only run into him once.

My side of the room! Don't worry, I didn't pick out the bedding

Hailey and I spent our first day looking around our neighborhood and running errands, nothing too exciting. But being two girls who have never really lived in a cold climate, we made the rookie mistake of thinking a sweater would be enough to walk around in. Thirty minutes later, when it was raining and windy, we were definitely regretting our decision. We escaped the rain and ate lunch at Nando's (favorite restaurant ever), did a little shopping, and then went home until dinner.

We met up with one of my friends who I've known for twenty years (wow that makes me sound old) (so basically my whole life), Marshall Shaffer. He suggested we eat at The Rum Kitchen in Notting Hill and it was great! Tons of locals on dates and friends meeting up for dinner. It was so good to see him!

After Hailey and I passed out (hello, jet lag!), we had an International Students Orientation meeting where we quickly realized that almost every International Student is from America. We did meet one Australian and one Italian though. We also let some of our inner tourist out and went to see Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. I LOVE how Big Ben just towers over you when you step out of the Westminster Underground stop. It's literally the most exciting feeling in the world. We took our obligatory photos in front of the landmarks and headed home, and now I'm writing this!

We made some plans with some other Americans the Australian we met so we'll see what ends up happening tonight!

x

lizzie