Anyways, on Friday, the university had set up a program for all the international students (weird that that's me now) to break into groups and go on a Sleepover-esque photo scavenger hunt around the city and get pictures with the main tourist attractions, i.e. London Eye, Tower of London, Sherlock Holmes museum, cool ish, etc. The point was to force us to have fun and get to know each other while also learning the ins and outs of public transportation. So that happened on Friday, and was so cool to see so many things that I'd only seen in pictures and movies and here I was finding out they were actually real, like what? So here are some bits of that...
Me and my buddy Benny Chimes.
Cool chalking in Trafalgar Square where people left change on where they were from. Conveniently, the US and Chinese flags were right next to each other.
Mei guo ai Zhong guo
I actually don't remember what this was... Awk
Piccadilly Circus, someone said this was the Times Square of London? Not sure that they're the same.
Tower Bridge, not the London Bridge, apparently that burnt down and was then rebuilt in Arizona? Confirmed: America literally steals everything from everywhere.
St. Paul's Cathedral, so gorgeous.
An actual dream come true. Shout out to the sweet British lad who provided the scarf and held it up for me. Love you.
No idea what this was.
Architecture is dope.
Trafalgar Square is a crowd favorite.
So after spending seven (yes, seven) hours running around the entirety of the city, we got back on the train and came back to campus. I took a nap and was meant to be resting up for The Bop. Oh, The Bop, this is a party that happens every Friday in the student bar (still weird) and is a "fancy dress party" aka theme party. What I'm gathering is that this is basically like a school-wide swap every week only you have to pay £5 to get in and apparently they're super popular because it sells out quickly so you have to buy your ticket, then pregame, then go back to the actual party. I think they could've picked a better name for it than The Bop, but they're trying. Also next week's theme is American High School, so we'll see what happens.
After naptime, Alex, Paige, and I headed down to Putney to grab some food and do some grocery shopping (I still have no food or hangers) and just hit Poundland for a few things. After waiting thirty minutes for a bus that was completely off schedule we realized that basically everything besides pubs in this country close at seven p.m. Literally, the street was basically dead and it was 8:30. Cool, England. We wandered and ended up realizing that everywhere we wanted to go was closed, so we just went to Gourmet Burger Kitchen for dinner which was amazing and they told you exactly how to work the restaurant so it was super handy because we didn't have to do that awkward tourist thing where we stand in the middle of the restaurant wondering if we seat ourselves or if we pay at the till or what. Also we got a lot of food for not a lot of pounds and I got my Sprite in a glass bottle, so ya girl was pretty content.
I ended up passing on The Bop because I was too tired and we had to get up early the next morning, so I hung out with my good friend Melatonin and got a good eight hours. #NoRegrets
Saturday we were having a traditional English breakfast with our abroad program and then going on a double decker bus tour of the city again, which was a great way to see the city without actually doing any physical activity, holla.
Toast, sausage, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, blood sausage. For lack of better words: hellz yeah. (Also blood sausage looks and sounds scary, but is actually great).
This gives Tuscaloosa sunsets a run for their money.
Shout out to my flatmate Renee for giving me her limited edition London Olympics 2012 Oyster card.
After the bus tour, we wandered around Oxford Street and ended up at a little Turkish restaurant because they gave us a great meal deal, so we had to hit that up. We went there because it had a lot of variety and then we basically all ended up ordering the same thing, so, we're totally breaking the stereotype about Americans who don't branch out.
Thank you Grand Bazaar for the cheap and fantastic dinner.
After dinner, we discovered the wonder that is Primark. Oh, I have a beautiful love affair with Primark that is only just beginning. Think huge Forever 21 layout, aka a nightmare, with basically everything you could ever want and also incredible sales. It was so huge and so many clothes I wanted to cry. I ended up buying a pleather skater skirt? I don't know what this city is doing to me. Well, Primark was basically the only thing that mattered after that point, so.
Today was Sunday and was probably the best day here I've had so far. Thanks to JShides, I ended up getting hooked up with a couple who are on staff with CRU over here, so they were the sweetest people ever and invited me to breakfast at their place this morning at 9 a.m. (timing was not so sweet of them) and Jude made pancakes which filled my little American soul with much joy. Also, Sophie did not lie when she said that English bacon was next level, get your hands on some of this goodness asap y'all. So that was fantastic, then I ended up going to church with them and I got to meet the Bridges STINT team that's here, which was so great! They were telling me how they actually do a lot of work with East Asian students who are over here studying, which is just so fabulous. PTL, but they invited me to go to some of their events that they put on for students, which I am way looking forward to.
After church, I had some time to kill before I was meeting Rachel to go to Hillsong, so I wandered some shops and then tackled the tube on my own, completely overestimated how much time it would take me to get there, so I ended up getting to church like an hour early and eating at McDonald's by myself before meeting up with Rachel and seeing her flat, which is huge and amazing, also she is fun and amazing.
Hillsong was incredible. Christ Church was incredible. Jesus is incredible. In Christ Church this morning when they were praying, and hearing everyone pray with their perfect British accents was just the greatest thing in the world. Every time I hear someone pray in another accent or language it is just such an awesome reminder of how huge the Lord is and that He is not held back by any cultural or geographical barriers. He is the same in every nation, tribe, and tongue. How freakin' cool. Just looking around today in church and seeing people who were so different from I, yet we had so much in common because we serve the same King, was really humbling and so awesome to think about. It's like looking around the Alpha Gam dining room and knowing that even though everyone there is so much cooler than I am, I get to hang out with them forever in college. Only it was like twenty times cooler because these people have accents and we get to hang out with them for eternity in Heaven!! I was just really hit with how amazing God is and just how fun and rad He is. Like He knows I love traveling and that I love British accents and that I love Him and so He lets me do cool things like study abroad and live in London and go to awesome churches? Like what a sweet friend Jesus is!! That is so the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me (besides dying on the cross and giving me eternal life, duh).
At Hillsong, the message was about how a relationship with God is like dancing, it's supposed to be fun and loving and totally not scary, and it's something you do with someone you love, and even if you suck they still make you look good and I was just like, "Wow! I am a horrible dancer literally and figuratively in this situation, and yet Jesus still wants to dance with me for all eternity and also wants my friends to come too, what a boss." Also, we sang a song that was just literally the Gospel, and it was just such a great reminder of how free we are in Christ and the weight of what He's done for us and just how He deserves all the praise. Like dang, God is good. (You can listen to that song here).
So yeah, basically just basking in the glow of this city and in the glory and grace of Jesus that I get to soak up on the daily, so I mean, life rocks.
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.
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