Today was pretty fun! Dad and I went to the Tower Bridge and walked around the Tower of London and walked the bank of the Thames. Then we travelled to St. Paul's Cathedral, where Princess Di was married and where Churchill's funeral was held (right across from St. Paul's is the Millennial Bridge, also known as the Wibbly Bridge. This bridge can be seen in the 6th Harry Potter movie when the Death Eaters destroy the bridge)
Friday night my dad surprised me with tickets to WICKED!!! I've never seen the play before and neither had he, but we both really loved it!!! The special effects and the music was amazing, but the singing was even better (don't ask me who was playing whom, I don't know names). I plan on going to see it again when it comes to ASU Gammage in the fall! If you don't know anything about the play, it's a story that coincides with the Wizard of Oz and focuses more on Elphaba (the wicked witch of the west) and Galinda (who later becomes Glinda the good witch). If you haven't seen it, I would definitely recommend it!
Saturday
Today was move in day for my program. Everyone was supposed to fly in that day and meet at the airport. But I didn't want to have to meet at the airport, so we just went straight to my flat (which is located right down the street from Portabello road for you Bedknobs and Broomsticks fans). I got to meet my roommates MC, TP & HG as well and they seem like nice people and I can't wait to start exploring with them! It's going to be hard adjusting to living here for sure, but I think it'll be fun (ask me again in 3 months and we'll see if the answer is the same. Currently I don't have any pictures of the flat, but I'll make sure to post some soon. I think one of the things I'm going to have to get used to is living so close to a main road. At home we don't have any cars that come driving down the street at 2 am. But there are lots of cars that drive past our window during the night and for me (a light sleeper) it's very hard to sleep! Hopefully I'll get used to it.
A big difference that the UK and the US have are the size of things: smaller flats, smaller cars, and smaller BOILERS!!! Thats right! We were told that our hot water showers can be no longer than 10 minutes because after that, the hot water runs out. (No wonder Europeans don't shave, they don't have any time!) Once we've used up the hot water, we have to wait 30 minutes for the boiler to fill up with hot water again! Good thing I shower at night so I don't have to really wait for anyone. Thankfully, we've found a bunch of goodies left over from previous residents hidden away in closets such as: 3 hairdryers, 4 straighteners, and 3 curling rods. This is nice because now I won't have to go buy one for myself!
Sunday
Today we had our first orientation at one of the Westminster campus's and meet other students from the program. After the orientation, we went on a double decker bus tour throughout London which was rather fun, but I couldn't hear the speaker very well, so I don't really know anymore than I did before the tour. But I did find out some interesting things! The person in the center of Trafalger square is not Napoleon, however much it looks like him. Big Ben is actually the name of the bell inside the tower, not the tower itself. 6 million people ride the Tube a DAY! (Which is greater than the population of Minnesota) and in 2013 the Tube celebrated it's 150th birthday AND the fish and chip is not the most popular dish in London anymore, it has been replaced by the Chicken Tikka Masala (which I have yet to try).
On our bus tour we also drove past Oxford street (one of the busiest shopping streets in London), the bank that was used to film the front of Gringotts, and we passed the university some of us will be taking classes in (yes I am one of those students). Actually, we were able to find out most of our schedules for the semester. Although this week we have individual orientation to make sure that our schedule is right. So far my classes run from Monday-Wednesday (4 day weekends!!!) and I have Yoga, Intro to Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology and The London Blitz (A history class, YAY!)
I got to meet up with my dad again today and we did some more exploring. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get tickets to the Arsenal game today, but we did manage to get to the stadium right as the game was letting out (bad idea). We were the two fish swimming against the current and the current was 60,000 strong. We got some pictures (of course!) and we vowed we'd be back to watch an actual match!
On the way back from the stadium (Arsenal has an entire tube stop named after them), we stopped in King's Cross to go to Platform 9 3/4! There was a bit of a queue (thats how the British say line), but we kinda snuck in from the side so dad could get a picture. I'll come back later when the line isn't as long.
Please ignore the rubbish bags on the ground
YES my fellow Sherlock fans!!! This is the flat that they use to film 221b Baker Street!!! It was really weird seeing it at night in with no one around, but it was here! The weird thing is that this street is actually called North Gower street and the number isn't even 221, it's actually like 187. The numbers are attached to a block of wood, which is then put on the door which then comes off when they are filming I believe. I was really excited to be there and even more excited to find out that they are starting to film the Christmas special sometime this month, so if I'm lucky I might be able to see Martin Freeman, Benedict Cumberbatch and Amanda Abbington!!! Fingers Crossed!!!
Wow! I enjoyed being along with you in spirit on those adventures. And yes....things here in Europe are definitely smaller. Love you. Grandma Madsen
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