Day 8 - Orientation & Scavenger hunt in London!

I'm going to be honest, last night was a bit rough. A combination of many things set in this emotional rollar coaster sized down fall from things like me being super exhausted, not having met a ton of people yet, figuring out I'm living in a small town which is not anything like London, waking up in the middle of the night to crazy loud people and ultimately questioning why I signed up for this month.

LUCKILY today was AWESOME and many of those went out the window. We had orientation today and we received our travel cards which was exciting, that meant endless trips to London!! We also took a walking tour of Kingston which is super cute...there's a vegetable and fruit stand, many cute tudor homes and fun stores all along their downtown! There are also these famous leaning tower of telephone booths seen here in my picture below with other fellow classmates!

After lunch at a pub, we were sent off on a scavenger hunt of London with our flatmates and hallmates. This was great because we finally got to see London and meet some really awesome people as well as bond with our flatmates! In London we arrived at the Waterloo station, made our way to the London Eye, Big Ben (with our friend Big Ben ha), Westminster Abbey, Parliment (Picture below is of Mary and I with Parliment in the background), Picadilly Circus, Leicester Square (where the famous London telephone booths originated) and the National Gallery.

It was such a great way to get an introduction to London and the transportation systems throughout London. We ended up staying after the scavenger hunt in London to enjoy our own meandoring throughout the streets and we found this great little park called Victoria Gardens. Mary and our new friend Jillian and Ben decided to play soccer, or football as they call it, with some local boys. Mary kicked butt if I do say so myself, you go girl!

London is great, I'm so glad today went the way it did because it gave me hope that this month will be great! I really want to take advantage of every moment I'm here and take in all that's around me. Who knows what tomorrow holds when I'm so close to London...maybe a performance of Phantom of the Opera? Trip in the London Eye? Or just another day of sightseeing!