Exploring London for the first time...

So, because of the snow and ice, school was canceled again. However, we did not let that deter us! Anne, Nicole, and I took the tube into London, which was super easy--yay! We learned how to get to school and when we got there Martin (our program director) gave us a tour of the building. He is so nice and the building is so cool. There are lots of staircases and little rooms and it's much bigger inside than it looks from the outside. We are all really excited to go there tomorrow and get started and meet everyone.

After that we were off to explore London! We took the tube farther down and when we got off we were in the West End (i.e. London's Broadway). EEK! Anne and I can't wait to go to plays there! Then we walked to The National Gallery, which is right across from...Trafalgar Square. (Don't worry Patrick, Anne got your picture.) Oh my gosh! Everything about London is so impressive! The buildings are so huge and ornate. I took lots of pictures, but they can't do any of what we saw justice. (Speaking of pictures, I am having huge difficulties getting my pictures onto facebook, so sorry about the delay in photographic evidence!) Anyways, we wandered down--passing important-looking-building after important-looking-building and around St. James's Park--until we reached...Big Ben! Of course, that means we also saw the House of Parliament and Westminster Abbey! There were all HUGE! We didn't go into any of them, but we did go into a "little" church next to Westminster Abbey called St. Margret's Church (I think). There are so many old/historic buildings--I couldn't take it all in and I definitely can't remember all their names. There were people with memorial plaques, in the church we went into, who died before the United States even existed! We kept wandering and we eventually made it to the edge of the Thames. After that, we started making our way back to the tube station to go home. On our way Anne and I stopped to get post cards; we also stopped in an art store and visited the National Portrait Gallery.

Eventually, we made it back--tired and a bit wet. So, that was our adventure for the day. I am quite satisfied. Now that we know more about our schedules (hopefully we will find out about the rest tomorrow), we can make plans and a list of everything we want to do. Oh! And this Thursday we are going to see our first play. Ready? It's...A Midsummer Night's Dream! Seriously. Isn't that hilarious? I'm really excited, though. We will have seen a play within our first week!

So far it's been pretty amazing. I'll let you know how our first day at school goes. :)