Wednesday 6 January: Left Raleigh, got to Philly, had to drag all my luggage (1 huge suitcase which had a wheel broken off as soon as we took it out of the car at the airport, yes lovely, 1 duffel bag, a laptop case and a carry on) past two terminals in the freezing outside to get to the terminal with British Airways only to find out that my flight had been canceled. Great. Sat in the airport for 3 hours before being told that a hotel with dinner and breakfast would be provided for me free that night. yay! Then I found out I had a new flight to London for Friday AND they upgraded my ticket!
Thursday 7 January: Explored Philly for the day. Met an Italian guy on the train and talked to him for awhile and spent an hour or two browsing around Philly until we parted ways. I went to see the Liberty Bell, the Edgar Allen Poe Historical site, ate Philly Cheese Steak (not the traditional Philly way because onions and cheese whiz are gross) and it was GOOD, walked along the Delaware River for a bit, and then headed back to the hotel to pack and get ready for the next day's depature.
Friday 8 January: Arrived at the airport, checked my luggage in, found out that because my seats had been upgraded I was allowed to check in 2 bags for free:), met a girl in the airport who was also going to London, happened to be on my flight, and, oddly enough, we happened to sit next to each other on the plane. Wierd!
Saturday 9 January: Arrived absolutely exhausted in London, but safe. I had a hell of a time getting through customs. Literally, it took an hour and a half for them to let me through. Eventually, they let me through due to a "loophole in the system" so I was allowed in as a student visitor. Which is what I am. Duh. Left the airport, took the tube into the city center, dragged all my shit (don't know how I did it) up the stairs and out of the tube station and made it to the hostel where I was planning to stay (still don't know how I did it). I'm not going to lie. Lots of people laughed at me. It was not very encouraging after a night with no sleep and in a foreign country.
Sunday 10 January: I had a horrible night at the hostel and couldn't stand being there much longer, especially since I hadn't had a shower and had only 10 hours of sleep in 2 days, so I went to my ECU academic advisor's husband's, sister's life partner's sister's house to stay and they've (her and her husband) so graciously allowed me to stay there for now and that's where I've been the past week!...No idea if any of that made sense. They took me to a lovely pub for a "pub lunch" as they call them, and had delicious food and a pint of beer. I'm beginning to like pubs already:) Did you know pints here are 20 ounces? Yup.
Monday-Friday 11-16 January : My first week of internship. Not an easy start as I was told I needed to come up with my own projects. That wasn't what I came here for. Oh well... On Tuesday I got invited by my mentor, I guess you could call her, to go to the pub with some of the PhD students. They were all so impressed at how fast I was able to finish a pint, which to me wasn't a big deal. My mentor told me "We (British) drink to binge. American's drink to fall flat on the pavement outside." Well that just totally made my night. Sadly that first week, I missed my only sister's sweet 16 on 14 January :( Sorry Meghan! Love you! So for the weekend I tried to leave all the internship stress behind as I was finally able to enjoy London!
Saturday 17 January: I took the tube into South Kensington which is where a good deal of museums in London are. I visited the Science Museum first, which ended up being massive! It has five floors total and I spent 2.5 hours on the first floor and one area of the third floor. The first floor talked about space, genetic engineering, steam power, and the third floor talked about health in the olden days (now you know why I only saw part of the third floor!). The second museum I went to was the History of Natural Science. Natural science museums are always my favorites. Yet again, this museum was enormous, and contained exhibits dealing with dinosaurs, global warming, a Charles Darwin centre, and had a gem and mineral room. Very cool. Also, the building this museum in was GORGEOUS. It was easily the nicest building I had seen in my life. I spent another 2.5 hours at this museum and then went to mass at the Brompton Oratory. I thought it would be neat to go to mass in a different country. Not too much different from traditional mass services in the US, only a few different parts which were mostly at communion. What I didn't know was how absolutely beautiful the inside architecture of this church would be. It was absolutely stunning. Not that I've traveled much, but I've never seen a building with so much attention to detail. Even if you're not Catholic, it's definitely a building to check out if you go to London. Only sad part was that pictures weren't allowed inside. After mass I went to a pub down the street and had the traditional British meal of Fish and Chips. For all of you (if anybody actually reads this) who know how much I hate fish, you should all be so proud of me. It wasn't bad either (although the pint (20 oz, don't forget!) I drank before might have contributed to the dulling of my taste buds). And then, for whatever reason, I decided I needed another pint. Oh, and be excited for me, they have cider! Apple and pear, so I get a choice. I don't think I've indefinitely decided, but I think that pear is my favorite.
Sunday 18 January: LONDON WAS SUNNY!! Holy crap! So how could I not take the train into London? I decided to walk on the south shore of the River Thames (try as hard as you might, I bet you can't pronounce it), in an area which is so creatively named South Shore. I was able to take some beautiful pictures of London. I was able to see the houses of parliament, Big Ben (Did you know Big Ben is the name of the bell in the clock, and not the clock itself?), The Eye (if you don't know what this is, google it. One day, I'm going on it.), The National Theatre, St. Paul's Cathedral, OXO tower, the London Bridge (and it wasn't falling down!), the Millennium Bridge, Shakespeare's The Globe Theatre, a cute pub built in the 17th century, the Tower Bridge and many more. What an eventful day! Then I came home, and Dorothy had made Cottage Pie for dinner which is basically ground beef, veggies (like stewed tomatoes, carrots, peas and onions) and some spices all mixed together and layered in a dutch oven. Then a mixture of mashed potatoes and mashed parsnips are layered on top and put in the oven to bake for a little while. It was very delicious. Sunday was a great day.
Today, Monday 19 January: Finally, today, I went to my internship and just started working on a brochure and some fun games for the obese children at the clinic to educate them on healthy eating. I sent in a proposal to my internship advisor and my mentor so they're going to review my work and see if it is something that could be delivered to the clinic. There's good potential that it wont work as my internship advisor doesn't work there, but I have hope that something will work out for this. Hopefully I didn't come to London for nothing, right?
So I said I'd keep it brief, but I so obviously didn't. Really though, how was I supposed to keep the descriptions of a week and a half in a new country short?
Until the next post,
Britt
PS: Did I mention I have a place to stay in London starting the 23rd? No? Well I do! I'll be staying in Hampstead which is supposed to be very nice. I've only been there once, and that was to see the flat and room, and I wasn't paying all too much attention to my outside surroundings because I was still spaced out from the flight.
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