Ello England!

Well our flight out was interesting! I got to sit with Karley and Lexie (the girls from my school who are in my program) which was good.. And the TV was free! We got a pretty nice meal with Spanish wine (and of course a spot of tea!) but we all only slept for about 2 hours. There were 5 other girls from our program on the flight, so we started out having some friends in London which was nice!

Our hotel was awesome, and the 90 of us in the program took up almost the entire 3rd and 4th floor. Even though we were all exhausted, we decided we needed to go out and see some of the city. A group of 10 of us girls walked to a cute cafe down the street for lunch. Most of us had quinoa salad and white wine... Which was surprisingly delicious! We then walked to Kensington palace. We didn't take the tour, but we walked the gardens and poked around inside. I was expecting it to be bigger, but it was absolutely beautiful. By this point we were all toast and went back to the hotel for a nap. We finished off the evening with a mixer for everyone in the program at a Pub down the street from our hotel. We ate fish 'n' chips and drank beer and got to know a lot of the people we'll be spending the upcoming semester with. There are only about 10 guys in the whole program, so I'm sure they were pretty overwhelmed! Everyone is so friendly, and there are people from all across the US. I haven't met all 9 of my roommates yet, but so far I love the ones I have met!

Our last day in London was PACKED! We ate a continental breakfast at the hotel, then we loaded onto a double decker coach and headed out on a tour of the city. The tour lasted about 3 hours with a quick coffee and wifi break. We got to see so much! Everything from buckingham palace to Big Ben to London bridge and everything in between! Since we had such a short time in London, this was the perfect way to see all of the sites. After the tour, we had a quick bite to eat then went shopping around a little market and explored the city. We went back to the hotel to regroup in the late afternoon because we had a big night ahead of us! A group of girls took the tube into the heart of London for a Thai food dinner... Which was definitely out of our comfort zone! After dinner we went down the street to see Dirty Dancing the musical (so quirky and cute!). Once the musical was over, we went to Tiger Tiger, a local bar/club. There were a bunch of other AIFS students, along with a lot of locals which was the perfect mix and made such a fun atmosphere. The night ended with about 15 of us sprinting through the tube station trying to catch our ride home. We all got about 4 hours of sleep before we had to load all 90 of us on the coaches and head to the airport for our flight to Pisa!

London was an amazing city, and I definitely want to come back for a longer period of time to experience it more in depth. But right now I absolutely can't wait to get to Florence!!