Good brews, brekky, and a wee little room tour

Hi love bugs, Rachel here, still reporting from London. It's been a quiet couple of days around Roehampton, just going to class (gross) and finally getting settled into somewhat of a routine (still way too much freetime). Monday and Tuesday were both very chill, I just went to my classes and caught up on sleep, laundry, Chinese homework, etc.

Here's the view out of one of my classroom windows, though. This campus is totally beautiful.

Speaking of laundry though, let's talk about how that's one of the biggest differences we have over here. I'm realising that I was completely spoiled by having three different laundry rooms in my dorm building at Alabama because here they have about five different laundry rooms for the entire campus. So, if you aren't blessed enough to be living in one of the blocks that have laundry, you have to make quite a trek. Let me set the scene for you: Monday night, Alex and I decide that since we haven't done laundry for two weeks, now must be the time. So we gather our (huge) bags of laundry that we've accumulated and set off. We only had a vague idea where we were going and we were covered by the darkness of night, so I was hoping that we wouldn't run into a member of One Direction or another hot British boy during this journey. Luckily, we made it there with no problems, the only awkward part was walking past the Union (which was quite poppin' for a Monday night) and the tennis courts (where a sports team was conveniently practising) with our embarrassingly huge bags of dirty clothes.
We arrived in the laundry room (that was hidden in a dark, dingy alleyway thing) and I actually wanted to cry. There were two washers and two dryers. The washing machines and dryers were kind of different and we had to wait, but we weren't sure how long because they were hard to understand. Basically, it was one of those culture-shock moments that they talk about where I was just in a real I-miss-America-and-wish-we-could-do-everything-here-like-we-do-there moods. I know it was super overdramatic of me, but the moment passed quickly and everything was fine. We ended up making friends with two of the cutest girls in the laundry room and they invited us to go to a club with them in Kingston on Saturday, so I guess there are happy things to be found everywhere (even in super cold, somewhat gross laundry rooms).
Tuesday I only had one class and then Alex and I got lunch from a café on campus, which was nice. Then I took a super glorious nap in the afternoon that was exactly what I needed. Then I made a pizza and watched Modern Family (at the same time as Niall was, I might add #MeantToBe) until we decided to have a little girls night and go grab some drinks in Hammersmith. The five of us ended up at a super cute pub right across from King's Mall and we just had a couple pints and talked and enjoyed each others company. Yay life, I love people.

I felt extremely British here.

Always leavin' lipstick prints, you know me. (Also beer is still not my favourite).

 I really like you.

The Tuesday crew.

Then today has just been really laid back. Slept in a bit, and then grabbed a delicious English breakfast with Alexa and Alex at a little café that's just a short walk from us. Love it there. We're determined to become regulars. I was just really happy and also really thankful that the Lord is good enough to allow us to get our calories from exciting things like breakfast foods and not just boring things like kale.

HYFR

Then I had a bit of a headache (no, Dad, I wasn't hungover) and I needed to get some work done for my Chinese class, so I've just stayed in all day while Alex met Alexa downtown to take her to Primark, so that's why I thought I would include a lil' room tour seeing as I did nothing else exciting to talk about and I'm really proud of the way that I've gotten my room settled. Rooms are weird for me. I feel like as soon as I get really moved in somewhere and get used to calling it home, I move. Just thinking about the fact that in the past year I've lived in five different rooms on three different continents is insane to me. I've had quite the nomadic lifestyle so far, and I couldn't be happier, wow Jesus has taken me on some crazy adventures lately. That's about it for this week so far! I'm excited about what the rest of the week and the weekend holds because tomorrow I'm going to a Bridges bible study with the STINT team over here, Friday Allison and I are going to Hillsong's Sisterhood event, and Saturday we're going to Kingston with our new friends, yippee!! So lots of activities, I will make sure to document it well (and will probably make another video). God is so great! Life is so great! London is so great! Now onto the room tour...

Shout out to mom for sending a comforter with me to England because the one the school gave me doesn't smell like my favourite thing, so I'm glad I have this one to cuddle up with.

Gotta have the SnapBack set up sorted.

That kettle was the greatest £8 I've ever spent. Thanks ASDA.

Obvi the greatest part of any room (especially The Wet Brush).

Wouldn't be a blog post without some kind of selfie.

I brought the perfect amount of shoes to fit in the bottom of my closet. Also shout out to my reusable grocery bags that I have in the corner that help me rep my squirrels (AGD fo lyfe).

That's all for now, folks, you'll be hearing from me soon enough, though. I love all of you an incredible amount and miss you all tons. I hope everything's going well with you and please keep updating me on your lives. Sidenote: I'm still not completely sure how my texting works, but obviously texting my 843 number doesn't work anymore, so you'll either have to iMessage my email (raychillo@gmail.com) or text my British number (+447502947640) to get a hold of me, otherwise I won't get your messages (I promise I am not ignoring you or hate you, annienewt). Also I would really appreciate it if y'all would pray for my coveting as Alpha Gam has been experiencing the best menus in the history of the world these past couple weeks, so let me find joy in what the Lord has blessed me with over here (which does not include Chipotle or Fried Fridays, in case y'all were wondering). I'm great. I love y'all and life. And I hope everyone has the most fun time at Rose Ball ever!! Be safe babies!!

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.