It’s still unbelievable to me that I’m in London! Our bus tour lasted about 3 hours that day and I am so glad that I went. The next day, IES planned a free trip to Windsor Castle for anyone who was interested. Not only was it a trip to take a tour of the oldest castle in England, but it was free so OF COURSE I went! It was really cool because our bus driver took the “scenic” route which let us see the (semi) countryside of London. We got to Windsor and took a small tour of the town before heading to the Castle. I couldn’t believe how huge this place is; no matter where we went in Windsor, we could see some part of the castle at all times. I was in complete shock. The coolest part for me was thinking about all of the history that happened there. It was built during the times of conquers and wars over the land and battles actually happened in Windsor at the castle where I was standing. I couldn’t even wrap my head around it. We took a break for lunch then entered into the Castle walls. I wish I could post every single picture I took there because it was just so incredible. We got a 2 hour tour of the publicly available areas (the space where the Queen/Royal family occupies when they’re there is not open to the public) and the rooms where the Queen still hosts “parties”. The detail in the rooms were out of this world and there were so many interesting stories behind even the smallest of things. I was so pleased with this trip – even more so because I didn’t have to pay!

The days that followed our great weekend was the start of class. Monday I don’t have any classes so I just hung out around the dorms trying to figure our travel plans. Words to the wise: travel planning for a group of people is stressful as ever. At least we got one success out of the whole day — we booked our hotel in Dublin for the St. Patrick’s Day festival! Now we just have to figure out how to get there. Tuesday was my first day of lecture; my classes that day were Intro to Criminology and The Performing Arts in London. I slowly caught on to their word usage throughout the class. The one difference I was not made aware of until this lecture is that they call lecture time lectures and tutorials are called class. It’s definitely going to be interesting trying to get used to the way the education system works here; good thing I like a challenge. Wednesday I only have one class, Historic London, and we only meet one more time on campus. Every other week we get to meet at different places throughout the city for our lectures. I’m really excited about that class because it isn’t just going to be us sitting in a room talking about the history of London — we actually get to go and explore the history! Thursday I had European Business Culture and Global Political Issues in the 21st Century. Unlike the rest of my classes, my first class was at 10am. I have about a 45 minute commute so I left at 8:45. Well, let me just start by saying that rush hour on the underground is much later then I would have expected. I had to wait for 2 trains to come and go before I even thought of trying to get on! I have never in my life witnessed so many people trying to squeeze onto a train. I now know why the majority of people here are not overweight, it’s because they wouldn’t be able to fit in any public transportation to get to work on time! I finally squeezed my way onto a train and managed to get to class 10 minutes early! That was a wonderful success. Both of the classes I had I think will be incredibly interesting.Oh, and another thing about college in Europe: syllabus week doesn’t exist.

We had a free dinner set up with IES on Friday at the National Art Gallery Rooftop Restaurant; the view was unreal. We had a rooftop view of St. Paul’s Cathedral, Big Ben, The London Eye, and many other buildings. The meal itself was pretty good, too.
This weekend we decided that we were going to explore around Parliament Square/Westminster Abbey a bit more. It was so much fun! We went into the back entrance of the Abbey and explored in there for a bit and then walked along the River Thames by Big Ben and crossed the river. It was so gorgeous. It truly hit me that I’m in London when I was looking at the Parliament buildings along the river. I was speechless.

There are so many things that I am learning about myself being here; and I’ve only been here 2 weeks. I’m excited to see what else I’ll be learning, but I’m trying to change my normal behavior and live in the moment as much as I possibly can.