First week of classes

Hello there my dearest friends, life in London is still great. It's settled down a lot, but I'm still having lots of adventures and enjoying myself to the fullest (also doing school for like, an hour). Also I've just been exploding with love for Jesus lately, so don't worry about me, I'm doing grand, just missing all of you fantastic people with my whole entire heart and soul.
Monday was the first day of class, but my schedule here is super not demanding, so I'm only in class three days a week, and two of those days I only have one class. Yay, British education system.
On Monday morning, Alex and I went into Putney so she could get her phone set up and I could grab some groceries and go to SuperDrug and Poundland and stuff. So I got a lot of things that I needed (silverware, no more making tea with makeup brushes, holla) which was good. We also got hot chocolate at this cute little place for only £1 which was A+.

 First ever time legitimately grocery shopping and of course I got in the "Five Items or Less" lane with an entire basket, got yelled at by an old woman, yippee.

Cute little brekky courtesy of the man who was harassing us to come inside and try it.

So in true Rachel fashion, I had no idea where my first class was and ended up how I usually always arrive places: late and sweaty (that should literally be my Twitter bio). The class was pretty similar structure to classes in the States, minus the fact that we got a tea/coffee break in the middle. Also, their classes here are a year long, not by semesters, so I'm coming into all of my classes right in the middle which is strange. So, teachers are talking about essays that are due by this weekend and I just have to break it to them that that's not gonna happen. And there's pretty much no homework, ever. For all the classes that I've been to so far, all we have is one essay or test at the end of the semester and that's it. That's our grade. Scary, yet awesome.

Lunch courtesy of a local café, these people are serious about eating "chips" with everything.

So Monday and Tuesday were spent just going to class and then having pretty chill evenings, watching movies and eating in our rooms. Alex and I may or may not have watched This Is Us twice this week already, oops.
Wednesday though, none of us besides Alexa have class, so we decided to go into central London to explore some more, shop, get food, and most importantly, see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. So we woke up and got on the bus to the Hammersmith bus station where we grabbed a quick Starbucks and then got on the tube to Green Park. When we got there it was conveniently raining, so we hurried across the park to get to Buckingham Palace which was freaking beautiful, even in the rain. It's just incredible how much history there is and how long things have been around for and everything's just so old and beautiful. When we got there, tons of people were pressed against the gates and were gathered along the sides of the streets, etc. because the changing of the guard was happening at 11 and we got there at about 10:50, so we were right on time. We ended up getting a pretty good view of whatever was happening, but it was really extravagant. It took around an hour and there was a small musical number performed, a parade, and ridiculous amounts of marching. Obviously, I'm not really up to date on the whole changing-of-the-guard scene, so I had no idea why any of it was happening and it just seemed like a really drawn out way for people to clock in and out. Either way, it was really cool to see and now I can cross that off my bucket list (jk it was never on there).

I've decided to make it my mission to leave a trail of lipstick marked coffee cups across the continent of Europe.

 You are now watching the throne.

 Obvi a selfie was necessary

 Green Park gate, seriously so beautiful.

It's crazy to think that they go through that ceremony every weekday morning, just another cool little piece of the history of this city that I'm quickly falling in love with. So when that was finished, we grabbed some pictures with the incredible Green Park gate and then hopped back on the tube to go back to campus (Alexa) and to Oxford Street (Paige, Alex, and I) to get some food and walk around and stuff.
We got off at Tottenham Court Road and ended up once again in front of Primark, oh the beauty. This one was huge (who knew that was possible after the 3 story one we saw the other day), but way less overwhelming because it lacked the hundreds of people and scary huge piles of clothes and hangers that the other one offered us. This one was surprisingly empty and so it was a lot easier to navigate. However, I quickly found myself realizing that I could spend hours upon hours in there, so I made myself buy the couple things I had found and then leave and immediately take refuge in my happy place (McDonald's). So I hung out there and used their free wifi (that my phone so conveniently automatically connects to now) while I waited for everyone else to finish shopping. When Paige was done, she joined me and we ate there and then met up with Alex and Allison when they finished.
Topshop was our next stop, and oh if y'all only knew the magic that this store held. It was by far the most intimidatingly beautiful (basically Candice Swanepoel in store form) thing I had ever experienced. Five stories. Bubble tea bar. Restaurant. Froyo counter. Cupcake shop. Tanning bed. Tattoo and piercing parlour. Shoe store. Hair and nail salon. Beauty bar. Literally not even all that this store offered. Immediately after walking in, I got separated from the group so I just wandered around by myself looking like I had died and gone to heaven (I'm still waiting for confirmation that that's not what happened). It was just beautiful, but so huge and crowded and overwhelming and hot, so I ended up having to leave before having a stroke. Then I was exhausted and I had a FaceTime date with my cuties Spell and Han Man, so I left and headed back to campus while the rest of the girls stayed and shopped and ate. I wish my energy would've lasted long enough to allow me to further explore the 6-story H&M that was across from Topshop, but that's another adventure for another day, I guess.

 Oxford Street

6-story H&M *heart eyes*

I got back and FaceTimed with them while they ate at Alpha Gam (shout out to my squirrelies) which was so great to see their sweet faces. Then I took a quick nap and tried to work on figuring out how my Chinese homework works. Alex returned and we made dinner and I watched a movie and then headed to sleep. Super exciting, I know, but the UK Netflix is chocked full of glorious movies that we don't have access to, so I have to take advantage of that, right? Also, two strange things that I've noticed that this country seems to be foreign too: credit or debit cards that you have to swipe, and multiple choice tests. When I was checking out at Primark, the guy at the till had to bring his manager over to show him how to swipe my debit card because they literally don't use them. So weird, and then in my class on Tuesday, the professor was letting us know that we'll have an essay and an exam as our assessment for the class, and he had to explain what a multiple choice test was because people actually didn't know what a multiple choice test was. What? Have they even gone to school before? What? So insane.
Life has been amazing lately, partially because I'm living in the greatest city in the world, but mainly because Jesus is so great and fun. The words, "Who the Son sets free is free indeed" have really just been my anthem lately, and I'm not sure why. Probably because they're the Truth, but for some reason they have been truly resonating with me. It just brings me so much joy to think about the fact that I am so free. Free to be happy. Free to live without worry. Free to do what makes me happy. Free to think I'm the greatest (because Jesus thinks that about me, so why shouldn't I?). Free to love people. Free to explore. Just free to do whatever I can to glorify God! Like whaaaat? So awesome.
Also I've just been really thankful lately for long-distance relationships and the fact that I have so many people I love scattered across the globe and I've just been realizing that you don't have to be constantly attached to someone's hip to be close to them or to enjoy their friendship (I mean if you can be, that's so great), but I just think it's so awesome that there are people with whom my path crossed for just a smidgen of time and I got to meet them and now I get to share with them in the joy of them following the Lord's path for their lives until our paths meet again in Heaven!! What a cool thing we get to do with each other! I digress, and now I'm basically just talking because I'm happy and excited about life.
I love you all so incredibly much and wish I could hold you all in my arms at once (which is exactly what I plan on doing when I return to the States) and I miss you. Also, someone tell my friends (you know who you are) to stop going to the tanning bed because they won't listen to me. Stay rad, y'all

xx

Also, I'm trying to win a free ride to the airport at the end of my program so I don't have to carry all my bags on public transportation and be a sweaty mess all over the city of London. Basically, all I need is the most Instagram likes on all my pictures with #CISLondon, so if you would like to help me out with that you can do so here.