7/19/09 -- Transfer from Paris to London

So today was the transfer from Paris to London. I was definitely ready for a change of scene. We had to be up and ready at about 9:00. So I was up at about 7:00 to finish getting packed and to ge ready. My suitcase just seems to be getting heavier and heavier the more places we go! ha ha I can't even imagine how it's going to feel at the end of the trip. Anyway so we went to the station and got on the train. We were taking the EuroStar which goes through the chunnel! That was way freakin' sweet because the chunnel goes right underneath the English Channel. I got to sit by Mallory and her and I talked for awhile and I got to get to know her some more. I really like her a lot! It was fun to sit by someone new. While we were going through the chunnel I didn't really like it. The pressure from the outside onto the train makes your ears hurt really bad. That was not a fun experience at all. But thank heavens for the chunnel because we got to Paris in an hour and a half.

ABOVE: This is a picture of the guards outside Buckingham Palace.

After we got off the train we headed for our flats. The place that we are staying at is an apartment complex for international students. There are people here from all over the world. They let us come inside for a bit and the RLS, similar to RA, gave us the low down on all of the rules. Pretty basic really, but we live in a ritzy area of London called South Kensington. Apparrantly people pay big bucks to live where we are staying and so we have to be extra quiet or we get fined a lot of money. It's hard for some of the people in the group to be quiet. Ha ha Darrin calls them the cacklers. Anyway, after we got told all of the rules we were give our room assignments. I share a bedroom with Ashley, Kylee, and Julia. And then my flat mates consist of: Scott, Mark and Erika, Ali, Ashley, Lyndsey, Kaitlin, and Brady. There are a lot of us and it's quite the adventure. We were assigned to flat number 17 and, don't worry, it's at the very top of the building so dragging our suitcases up to the top was pretty miserable. But we made it. The room itself is pretty big. There are four wardrobes and two sets of bunk beds. Then the rest of the flat looks like a large dorm. There is a common room with a tv and then a pretty small kitchen.

We got settled and then met downstairs to go grocery shopping. I was so excited! I get really tired of eating out all the time. We had to stop at the ATM on the way and get some cash. The exchange rate in London is even worse than in France! 100 pounds is equivelant to about $200 US dollars. It's crazy. Anyway, my roommates and I decided to go in together on food so it ended up not being to expensive and we take turns cooking dinner which is nice. We headed back to the flats after the grocery store. But on the way Kylee and I decided we wanted to see Harry Potter 5 before we went to the 6th movie the next night. We found a little rental place and ran in to see if they had the movie. Ha ha they did so we had to create an account to rent it. We made up some random address ha the guy seemed so confused. Ha we were able to get the movie though, which was good.

After we got back to the flat we had to meet up with the rest of the group again for a walking tour of London. And boy it was a walk. We took the metro to all sorts of places, but we mostly walked around Big Ben and saw Westmintser Abbey. We also saw Tower Bridge, and the Millenium Bridge. Darrin mostly just wanted us to get our bearings of where we were to help us get around. After the tour we all headed back to the flat for our Harry Potter party!! We didn't get a very good turn out. Ha it consisted of about 10 of us, but we all brought a treat. Chocolate cake, Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans, Chocolate Frogs yuuuummmmyyy. We didn't even finish the movie because we were all so tired, but it was fun!