London Bridge is Falling Down, Nope Just The Rain Falling

Since we have 4 day weekends here, it has been very convenient for us to go on mini trips. Last weekend, we decided to go into London for an adventure. During the day, we saw the sights, mostly the touristy areas, but we found some less mainstream and exciting areas to explore as well. I have come to find out that if there is a 20% chance of rain or greater, that means it will DEFINITELY rain in England. I need to invest in a better umbrella, the one I have is now blown inside out from the wind. On our adventures, we walked across London Bridge, and saw the Tower of London. You know something is truly breathtaking when it is still beautiful when it is surrounded by freezing rain and glooming gray clouds. We wanted to take the tour of the London Tower, but by the time we found it, tickets were no longer on sale for the day. I plan on coming back again soon!
   I have become an avid tea drinker since my arrival and my acculturation process to the UK. However, drinking lots of tea is never a good thing when there are no free public restrooms in sight. I think that my group visited every Starbucks in London to use their facilities. I can't waste 20 precious pence on the loo! After our daytime adventures, a group of us decided we were going to spend the night in a hotel and go explore the London nightlife. We went to the largest night club of the city. It is called The Ministry of Sound and is known worldwide. It was the biggest club I had ever been to! We danced the night away...and danced til the sun came up, literally. The club didn't close until 6AM and we left at 5:30AM.        The best part of the adventure is that we were unaware that the underground is closed until 6:30AM, so upon leaving the club, we didn't know how to get back to our hotel. We were told by staff at the club that there was a night bus that would take us to our hotel, so we waited at the stop. And waited. And waited. But the bus never came. After waiting outside in the cold in our clubbing outfits and high heels(not warm or practical) we finally hailed a taxi to take us to the hotel. Ten minutes and ten pounds later, we were back in our rooms. We had a 4 hour nap and then it was time to check out and take the train back to Guildford.  The rest of the weekend was spent reading for my modules and recovering from our night out. Who knows what next weekend will have in store!!

I finally have my own castle! ;)

In front of London Tower

The Olympic count down clock in Trafalgar Square

The fountain in Trafalgar Square

My Surrey Family getting ready at the hotel

So much fun on our photoshoot in the rain!

We are becoming pros on the Undergound

Oxford

   The student's union here is so great. Not only do they let us have crazy parties, but they also sponsor inexpensive day trips for students. Today I went to Oxford via bus with a large group from school. It was a 2 hour ride by bus from my campus. The town is absolutely beautiful. So posh(and so expensive.) I would give my right arm to be able to attend grad school, or even re-do my undergrad experience, at Oxford University. It is the prettiest campus I have ever seen. It blows away Harvard or any other Ivy League school. We spent the day in the town and on Oxford's various campuses. I had no idea that parts of the Harry Potter movies were filmed on this campus. As I was walking through the various libraries and courtyards, I could almost hear the Hogwarts theme music running through my head, I felt quite witchlike ;) It is such a historic town, there is an epic story behind every building and statue. We were too cheap to pay for the guided tours(overpriced,) so we did some research on our own and learned quite a few fun facts. Our group ate at a pub for lunch, and of course I had to order fish and chips! I could live off that meal forever...good thing I did quite a bit of walking today so I won't end up looking like a cellulite- filled fried fish! No gym membership necessary when one is touring and jet setting about Europe.

Glasswork in a cathedral in Oxford

I think I fit in quite well on campus....

Even the gates are beautiful( to keep out the undergrad folk)

The hospital scene from Harry Potter was filmed in this library entrance

Coat of Arms

One of the academic halls on campus

The clock tower in the courtyard of Oxford

A fountain that looks like it came to life out of The Secret Garden

The Oxford Christ Church campus cathedral

The dorms on campus...I want to live here

More sets of Harry Potter filming, I <3 Oxford!

  
There is a small group of us planning a trip to Ireland for St. Patricks Day, I'm sure that will be an amazing experience! I need to start searching for some posh green accessories to be prepared for the holiday. Tonight is my first evening that I've spent in my room relaxing since I left America, it was much needed. I am finally getting over my nasty cold, but I'm trying to avoid a relapse. My body hates me when I don't let it sleep. There just aren't enough hours in the day to explore, study, and sleep, so unfortunately I always seem to sacrifice sleep. The days are even shorter here than back home because the sun sets around 5:00pm, or 17:00 as we say here. All of the stores also close around sun down, so forget running any errands at night time. This is probably a good thing, since it is even colder after dark, no one should be running around in the chilly night air. Planning on running some errands tomorrow, but I will be sure to post any new exciting adventures soon!

Uni Life

Having fun playing in the snow in front of my dorm before a night out

My next door neighbor and good friend Zara

The courtyard in front of my dorm

My view from my window

Picnic tables on the campus square

SNOW SNOW SNOW

This school is absolutely amazing! As much as I have loved my time at UCF, I wish that I could've spent more time here at the University of Surrey! Everything is so different here. The professors have a completely different mindset. I love how their teaching is focused on hands-on experience as opposed to text book learning. My favorite class is Event Management. In a class that I took at UCF with a very similar syllabus, my class planned the Rosen College of Hospitality Career Fair. This is the most dull and non-glamorous event possible. Here at Surrey, my group mates and I have the creative license to plan any event we like as long as we use one of the on campus venues. This is very easy to do, on campus we have one full-service restaurant/ball room, one pub, one club, one lounge, and numerous outdoor locations(once the weather is more pleasant, of course.) My group has decided to plan a big party! The team that makes the highest profit on their event will receive the highest marks. Back home at UCF, the campus is so conservative, basically we aren't allowed to attach anything risky or risque to the schools name. Here, the school sponsors crazy events! Some of the past events that the student's union has hosted included mud wrestling, fireworks, and entertainment provided by strippers. Basically, as long as the proceeds go to charity, anything goes. I think that is why my group got a little carried away...we have so much freedom we want to do the extreme of everything! Our event won't occur until until April or May. Our top theme choice is an ABC(anything but clothes) party. Attendees would be required to wear anything except conventional clothing( beer cans, tape, toilet paper, balloons...etc) the more creative, the better! We want to rent out the biggest club on campus, which holds 1,500 students. The party will be complete with a DJ and educational themed decor and a huge raffle. A big endeavor! The title would be ABC Party for Education and we want to donate all the proceeds to a children's education fund here in Guildford. So excited! My other classes are Sustainable Tourism, Operations Analysis, and Consumer Behaviour( notice the British spelling of "behavior"...I'm adjusting!) For the most part I am interested in all of my courses and am looking forward to learning the European ways of my industry. Classes are only on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so I am free to travel the rest of the week(and study some, I guess...) The weather has dropped this week and we are experiencing record lows in the city, of course that would happen my first week here. Today was a whopping high of 32...yes a high of 32 degrees FARENHEIT...thank goodness for fleece-lined tights, they are my godsend here! More to come about more travels!

Settling in!

   I am finally settled in to my dorm in Guildford! It definitely is a tight space...but isn't nearly as tiny as I was expecting. Luckily, I have an ensuite toilet and shower, so I don't have to go down the hall to shower or use the restroom. I hate the faucets that they have here, they make no sense. Instead of one knob that you turn to the hot or cold side, there are 2 knobs, one that is scalding hot and one that is freezing cold. So when washing my hands or face, I have to choose whether I wasn't third degree burns or frostbite, not logical at all. 
   On the plus side, it is snowing!! Light flurries began last evening and got heavier overnight. When I woke up this morning to look out my window, I had a beautiful view of the campus covered in a blanket of snow! I have seen snow on the ground before, but I have never seen snowflakes fall from the sky before, it is an incredible sight! We had our orientation at the school 2 days ago. There are close to 200 international students in the exchange program, I had no idea that there would be so many of us! It was so much fun to chat with everyone about their different cultural backgrounds and to swap stories about our schools. Everyone here is so nice! All of the other exchange students are in the same boat that I am, we are all trying to make friends since no one knows anyone here. After our orientation, one of the local girls threw a housewarming party for all the exchange students in her flat nearby campus in town. There, I met even more people! I feel like I have made hundreds of new friends in the past few days. The school has an activities programme that organizes trips for the students. I will surely be taking advantage of this. Some of the upcoming trips are to Amsterdam and Paris Disneyland! It is so reasonable to travel here on the trains, so traveling won't have to break my bank. 
   I went into town yesterday with a group of students to purchase groceries and other necessities. What an experience that was! I will appreciate my car so much when I return back to the states! In the grocery stores here, there are no push carts, only little hand baskets. Locals don't do large amounts of shopping at once. Unfortunately, I had NO food to my name and had to buy many groceries. By the time I left the grocery store, I had 4 bags in each of my hands. Heavy bags filled with milk, and glass jars, and heavy produce. Keep in mind, town is about a 2 mile walk to the edge of campus. It's a lovely little stroll when your hands are free and it isn't 26 degrees out and about to rain/snow. My friends and I had to carry our bags allllll the way to campus, and then once to the edge of campus, my dorm is the complete opposite side of campus, so that's an additional 15 minute walk for me. To make matters worse, the plastic bags here are very very thin, and while walking across campus my bag ripped, spilling all of the contents(including a glass jar of mayonnaise and honey) only the cobblestone road. Of course, the jars shattered and my food was ruined. Then I had to stuff my pockets of my jacket and my purse with the remaining items from the broken bag to carry them to my room. 
    When I woke up this morning, my body felt like I had been training for a triathlon. Everyone knows that I am not the most athletic person on this earth, and I have been nonstop moving this whole week. The hardest part about moving around is that the town is located on so many hills, my poor legs are used to flat Florida and my calves are beginning to hate me for making them work to go up all these hills. No wonder Europeans are so skinny! I feel like I should reward myself with a whole cake and ice-cream or something equally high in calories for all the working out I have been doing. 
    I have been pretty sick with a nasty cold this week so I plan on taking it easy today, although it is very tempting to run around outside in the snow and have a snowball fight like a child... The Superbowl is actually really big here, a lot of the British love American football, and the bar on campus is hosting a party tonight to watch it. I will be sure to make an appearance for the good food that will be offered, but due to the time change, the game will be beginning at midnight here. I just really don't care about sports enough to stay up all night just to watch the game, especially when I should be resting to get rid of this cold! Cheers for now! <3

Gotta Be The Good Life

PURLOINING

I even found Disney in London!

London Bridge is falling down...nope it's not, good thing!

There is sunshine here!

Beautiful cathedral

Big Ben!

   Today was our first official day in London. We got a chance to explore the city finally! Yesterday was a whirlwind spent checking into the hotel, napping, and getting our phones set up. Our hotel is absolutely beautiful (props to Hilton and to Ali for getting us the hookup) My only problem is that our internet has been somewhat sketchy which is why I haven't had the chance to write sooner. Our arrival was nearly flawless, with just a few minor hiccups. Upon entering the European Union customs check point at the airport, I was almost not let in because I did not have a visa. I had to explain to the customs officer that for my business in England, a visa is not mandatory since I am a student. After about 15 minutes of more questioning, the officer seemed content with my reasoning and my extensive paperwork that I had shown him. Phew! Since our flight was a red eye overnight, we were exhausted as soon as we checked into the hotel, and our jet lag didn't help with our sleep deprival. All 3 of us American girls decided to save money and stay in a room with 2 double beds instead of getting 2 rooms. Based on our experience in the USA, this would not be a problem...2 queen beds, one of us would sleep alone and the other 2 would share a large bed. However, here in the UK, they only have twin beds in double rooms. Dessi came up with the ingenious idea of pushing the 2 twin beds next to each other so that all 3 of us could fit horizontally on our newly Macgyvered bed. Surprisingly, it was quite a comfortable sleeping arrangement. By the time we finished napping and went to the local mall to get our sim cards for our phones,  whole day was gone, thanks to the time difference. We fit a plane ride, bus ride, and train ride all into 24 hours, it was quite the day for traveling! 
   We also had to exchange our American dollars for pounds, that was an extremely depressing experience...We got so excited when we first made the exchange because the conversion booth gave us 540 pounds in exchange for our combined 600 dollars(they don't charge a commission if you exchange a certain minimum of money.)We were jumping for joy, we weren't going to be as poor as we thought we would be! Nope, wrong. The conversion bank teller chased us down and told us she had exchanged euros for pounds instead of dollars for pounds. She then processed the new transaction and we ended up with 340 pounds. Again, very very sad. We didn't even buy anything but, poof, our money was gone. Guess we will have to really start living like poor college students now. Ramen noodles will be our new gourmet meals! 
   Today was the coldest day I have experienced in all my life!!! We woke up to a very nice full hot breakfast at the hotel, which of course we gobbled up our share and then purloined half of the buffet that remained. Food is so expensive here, we are learning to take every chance we get to have free food and drinks. Our hotel room is currently filled with yogurt, about 10 mini jars of jam, rolls, whole fruit, Babybell cheese wheels, and sandwiches made from bagels and the breakfast meats and cheeses from the buffet. All of our leftover food really came in handy during lunch when we were able to have a lovely free meal! Guess there really is such a thing as a "free lunch!" 
   We are slowly but surely learning our way around the train and tube system. I never in all my life thought that I would have so many transportation options. When traveling, one can choose to take any of the following transportation methods: tube(underground or overground rail), taxi cab, public bus, train, private car, or tour bus. It is wonderful! We have found that the most inexpensive methods are tube, public bus, and train. We finally found a map(and made many friends today) to help us with our train and rail navigation...the whole process can be very tricky for someone who isn't used to public transportation, but luckily the entire system is color coordinated, which helps. If worst comes to worst and you go the wrong way, you can always  hop back on the next train and go the other way! No biggie.
   I don't think I will ever get used to the road system. I am so thankful I will never have to sit behind a wheel of a car over here. Even when crossing the street, we never knew which way the cars were coming, or which lanes were able to turn left and which ones turned right. Some intersections don't even have cross walks so jay walking is inevitable and it is a free for all battle between the vehicles and the pedestrians. We unfortunately do not have the home field advantage...Something else to get accustomed to! 
   I am also quickly learning that I will get looked at like I have 3 eye balls if I say certain American words across the pond. So far my old English lessons have taught me trash=rubbish, bathrooms/restrooms=toilets, thank you= cheers, and don't even think about uttering a "y'all" if you would like to be socially accepted in the UK. This is exactly what I came here for, to learn and try new things! 
   My biggest hangup is the weather. Contrary to popular belief, England does have a sun, and it does shine on occasion, but it is always cold. Not like Florida's idea of cold(anything below 70 degrees.) It is like the arctic tundra here. No amount of clothing can keep you warm when the wind starts to blow. Today was a high of 32. That's right, it was 32 degrees at the WARMEST point of the day. Hopefully my blood will thicken just in time for my to move to the mountainous, and also freezing, Colorado. While out today, we did most of the touristy things. We visited Big Ben and the houses of Parliament(not to be confused with Parliament House in Orlando. ;))  We also took our fair share of photos in front of double decker buses, telephone booths, and pretty cathedrals and monuments that we had no knowledge of. All in all I would say it was a great day. As the song goes "Woke up in London yesterday, found myself in the city near Piccadilly....Oh, this has gotta be the good life, this has gotta be the good life, this could really be a good life, good good life....yes it is ♥ Can't wait for tomorrow...