a little bit about london

---

okay so i know i haventposted yet and my trips almost over, by im trying, im doing a few days at a time, its just been so busy and ive had no time! hope you evjoy my latest adventures! 😊

Day 1

Mom and Jay thankfully were willing to drive me into the city to catch my plane at JFK. We stayed over in a hotel with my friend brandy, we didnt sleep that well though because I was on a pullout couch and brandy was on the floor. Since the hotel was close enough to the airport, they offer a shuttle. Brandy, the professors on the trip and I all hopped on the 530 shuttle and arrived at the airport just in time for checkin. I didn't have to check a bag so I went right through and got my ticket. I couldn't go through to security though because we had to wait for all 17 students to have their tickets. Unfortunately, one girl was lost in Jersey so we all decided to get through security and if need be, a professor would come back out without baggage and help her get back to the gate. We had plenty of time one we got through security because no one had any problems. Of course the metal on my bracelets went of but it was the full body scanner so they knew I was fine. We exchanged money and got breakfast and just waited at our gate.
The ride was nice and easy, sort after the ride to Africa. I watched Ted and hope springs, both were good and funny, hope springs more so than Ted in my opinion. I knew I couldn't sleep if I didnt want jetlag but that was much less of a problem for me than it was for my friends. We were served breakfast on the plane, by three time they got to me all they had left was vegetarian, but I didnt really mind. The food was good except for my orange juice being frozen.
Once we landed we had to go through customs which is easy when you compare it to coming back to the states when you've been a 'farm'. They just wanted to know what we were doing here and where we were going. Once everyone got through and reclaimed their baggage we met up with our tour guide Peter Wild from Casterbridge. We then hopped on a Mercedes Benz coach bus to the millennium hotel in Chelsea. It took us forever to try to turn the lights on because we didnt know you had to insert your keycard into the switch. Everyone went in search of WiFi since we were supposed to have it, but I just unpacked and went to bed instead. Brandy came back to the room and the WiFi was still connected so I sent a quick email to mom telling her I was safe at the hotel.
Day 2
Today we woke up around 8 thanks to the extreme alarm clock on my tablet that makes me do math to turn it off. It's simple math but man when your brain isn't working yet 21*6 is hard. Brandy and I got ready and had breakfast at the delta lounge in the hotel. I had a chocolate croissant and man it was delicious. Peter gave us all our tube cards to get us on any subway in zones 1 and 2 for free. He then led us to the Fulham Broadway tube station and we took it to south Kensington which is where all the museums are. We went to the science museum which honestly was awesome, there was a lot there about psychology and what makes someone them. I really looked the who am I exhibit.It was all interactive so I was even able to find about about myself, although I'd be really weary about trusting the aging program. On one thing we created an account about ourselves by completing some tests and then our little dot with our information was sent to the back wall with everyone else's which was cool. When we left the museum, we were making our way over to a bunch of cafes for lunch and Peter stopped us at a building with a bunch of hours and dings in it with a plague that said those were all from WWII and they remained there to remind everyone of that time. My friends and I went to Paul's for lunch which is a chain cafe here. I got a chicken sandwich which was pretty good, the bread was really hard though. We ate at an opening in the street which was cool until the pigeons came, then it wasn't that fun.
After lunch, the group met upagain and took the tube to Westminster. There we saw Big Ben, the Eye, Westminster Abbey along other things. It was awesome, but we didnt stay long so we knew we would have to come back on or free day. Peter then took us to a cultural area to set us free for dinner. My friends and I went to w
Wagamama which is like a Japanese noodle place. I had chicken ramen and peach ice tea. It was wonderful, so much better than other ramen, and I finally figured out chopsticks! 😊
After that we went back to the hotel and sat in the lounge to use WiFi, you were supposed to order something to stay in there, but everyone else ordered something, so I kinda just piggybacked off them. Brittany and Hayley both got wine. Both of then were disgusting though, Brittany's was so dry, I felt bad, it cost them 6 £ which is close to 12$ for nasty wine. I finally got on Facebook and texting to talk to the family. Pretty good day one...... Would have been fantastic had my feet not been in so much pain.
Day 3
Today we went to the Winston Churchill war rooms which I actually thought were pretty cool. I don't actually know much about the war because I am awful at history and I forget everything I learn about it. It had audio guides which after a while hot annoying but they do tell you a lot if information. I found out that churchill's favorite outfit was basically a giant red onsie, I don't know how anyone took him seriously. Peter asked us what churchill's signature sign was and I was the only one who knew, go me! (It's the peace sign but it stood for v for victory). I saw the room that they had all their confidential meetings in, set up like a standard board room but it was cool to see something so influential to history, thats the room where they made the decisions that effected the war. The museum also had a huge timeline where you could find what Churchill did everyday for the spam of the war and the decisions that were made which was really interesting, I only made it through like a month before I had to move on because if the time.
Then we took the tube to London bridge and me and my friends ate at absolutely starving and I had a chicken samosa which was spicy but delicious.
Once we met back up, we all went on the HMS Belfast which was really influential in the war. But man that ship was not built for me, I hit my head probably five times and we were on the ship for an hour. When we got on, we all got audio guides and when the figured out we were on a psychology trip, one of the workers who served in the war, talked to us about what living with PTSD is like, which is always cool to hear from someone instead of reading it.
We went in this room that showed a video of what it was like to fire the cannon and be in battle. After that we just explored the ship. It was so confusing and the stairs were like ladders, some of the girls were in heels so they had a lot of problems. Even though I got lost, I'm sure that its like first day if freshman year, it looks all big and confusing but it just takes for getting used to. In the ship was also the punishing barracks, which is basically this tiny room that people have to spend varying amounts of time in, but one person had to spend 2 weeks! I sat in there for a minute and got bored.
Once off the ship, we sat around and listened to two presentations on d-day. It was the same topic by accident so they ended up giving an overview and then had like a fun fact off which was funny.
It seems that Peter loves walking very long distances, for a 65 year old man, he is really fit, and fast! We walked on over to the Tate museum and saw these street performers on the way, well we couldn't actually see them because of the crowd, but it was happening. There was also an area of people dressed like mid evil times which is always interesting. By the time we got to the museum, my friends and I were so tired Thayer barely paid attention, some stuff was cool, but I don't really get art, like in one room it was dark and there was just two tables sitting on top of one another with light coming from between the space, like what should I get from that?
To end the day, we went to Leicester square for dinner. We went to the m&m store first to get some crispy ones because the actually sell them here! Man I missed those. The were expensive though, so I only bought a few.
We then ventured to an Italian restaurant and had fish and chips. Pure England style 😊 we took the tube home and stopped at brogan's Irish pub because Peter said there would be music, that didn't happen, but I had a fabulous long Ireland iced tea, so that's a plus.

---