1st day in London

So last night was my first night in London. Mindy and I got in at about 8 in the morning and easily found our way to the hotel. I already consider myself an expert on the London "Tube" which is way easier to use than any American system :) However, when we got to the TINY hotel/bed and breakfast that we were staying at our rooms wouldn't be ready until 12 AM so Mindy and I looked for a place to grab breafkast. Everything here is INCREDIBLY expensive. Yikes. I think I may only be eating one meal a day while I'm here.

After that we went back to our hotel and fell asleep. We were planning on only sleeping a few hours but ended up accidentally sleeping 7 and 1/2! We were going to go to Les Miserables, but it was too late by the time we woke up! Shoot!

However, we took the underground into the city and tried to find a place to pick up a night tour of London, but we took the wrong train and missed that tour too. We finally just rode into London and walked around, trying to find the Buckingham Palace. We didn't have time to find the palace because it was around 10:30 at night and I didn't want to be out any later than that for safety reasons, but we did see the Queen's Gallary and some big monuments.

We went back to our hotel which was sooo small, but I liked all the same. The man at the front desk (well more like front tiny hall) was Indian and thought we Americans were funny. He helped us find our way to different places and kept offering us a cup of tea, which he probably thought we were a bit rude for refusing. Mindy bought some icecream bars on our way back last night and since we didn't have anywhere to store them, offered them to the front desk man. He looked a bit startled and refused but Mindy kept pushing them on him, because otherwise she'd just had to throw them away, and finally a bit awkwardly he accepted them. hahah. The bathroom in our hotel room was probably the size of well I can't think of anything as small as it. The shower head had to be held up and the pressure was that of a dripping sink. Needless to say, showering this morning was an adventure, and there were no electrical outlets in our room so I wore my hair wet...luckliy it was warm out.

Then this morning Mindy and I went down to breakfast (which was tea and toast) hhahha, and sat with a couple from Spain. They spoke little English (which I didn't realize at first) and when I asked them where to get the dishes there was a bit of an awkward exchange. However, I was later proud of myself when between my knowledge from my 9th grade Spanish class and there small amount knowledge of of English language we had a short and choppy discussion. They asked if I was from England- and were very surpised when I said "United States." Once again I have realized how much I LOVE America! Free internet, telephones, and everything else is so lovely!

However this morning the rest of the group flew in so we went to meet them just two doors down from the hotel we were staying at last night. It's nice to see some familiar faces and it distracts me from the bit of homesickness that I had been feeling yesterday.

I have come again to realize how much I love the clean air of UT! My nose is constantly burning from the smoke here. Ugh! :)

We took off with some of the girls to go shopping in London, and I was surpised to see how similar the clothes are to that of America. Consequently I don't feel the need to spend $300 for a jacket that would cost $150 in America and look the same...we'll see what happens when I get to Paris. We also stumbled across a beautiful church this morning.

Tonight we are going to see Les Miserables hopefully and tour all of London with our group. I'm thankful that I got here a day early so I could sleep and recover, seens how everyone else will be absolutely exhausted today.

Well until next time...