Rachel's Blog

Our first day in Cairo was incredible. We woke up in the morning, looked out of our window, and saw the Great Pyramid! We rode camels to the pyramids, which was a lot scarier than I thought it would be. There are some hilarious pictures of this endeavor, by the way. I tried to climb up the Great Pyramid, but apparently that is frowned upon and we were told to get down by the armed guards. We then decided to go into some of the smaller and less crowded pyramids near the big ones, which were tombs of the queens. The entry to the tombs were about 30 feet under the ground, and I definitely felt like Indiana Jones. I was the last one to leave, and as I was still in the burial room all of the lights went out and it was pitch black. I can imagine few scarier experiences than being stuck in a tomb with no lights! Luckily, the lights came back on promptly and I booked it out of the pyramid.
Funny cultural note: During the entire week of touring we got a lot of attention because of our skin and hair color. A number of times we had groups of people come up to us and ask to have their pictures taken with us...definitely a strange experience.
After we visited the pyramids we went to see the Sphynx, and our guide reminded us of something very interesting. The pyramids and the Sphynx were built nearly 2,000 prior to the temples and tombs that we had visited in Luxor, and yet they looked so similar and would both be easily attributed as "ancient Egyptian." But if you think it, our country has only been around for 300 years and yet if you were to look at the architecture and style from 1776 and compare it to 2007, you would see very few similarities. It's just a reminder of how fast our world is changing today.
On Saturday we visited an Egyptian mosque, a synagogue, and a church where Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were supposedly hiding out in during their time in Egypt. After that we went to the market to shop some more, and i was told that I was difficult - a sure sign of a great barterer! After lunch we went to the Egyptian museum, but honestly most of us were too tired and hot to enjoy it. At night the resort put on a nice dinner for us, which was similar to a luau. There were funny men in dresses who danced in the middle for us, and there was a camel to ride, and lots of great food! But the most exciting part of the night was watching the World Cup Rugby game!! In our short time in London we have developed an immense sense of pride, so we were so excited about cheering for our team , who was playing South Africa. Finding the game was quite an ordeal, which included the resort finding a Russian satellite that would show the game. We lost the game, which would not have happened if our try had been counted, which it should have been. To say the least, London has been in a constant state of mourning since then.
We left Cairo on Sunday morning, and soon found that the Cairo Airport is quite possibly the most poorly organized airport in the entire world. I won't go into detail about our experience, but here's a taste: within the hour that we were there, fights almost broke out between a German lady, a group of unruly Asians, and an Arab man who was yelling and screaming at one of our girls for looking - that's right, looking - at his son. A girls' arm got stuck in the x-ray machine, and people were crying by the time we got on the plane. We were happy to be out of that airport, but sad to leave Cairo and our amazing field trip experience. I've been so blessed to be going to school here, and I've been so blessed to have this amazing experience!

This past week was our EFT (educational field trip) to Egypt. After this experience, all my past field trips to aquariums and zoos seem utterly boring. We left on Monday morning and arrived in Luxor, Egypt five hours later. I can't imagine the ruckus that we, 40 19-year olds, caused on the plane. Since Egypt isn't exactly the safest place in the world, we had to stay inside our resort when we weren't out touring, so we got to know the Movenpick resort and its services very well.
Tuesday was a very full and exhausting day. We spent the day on the West bank of the Nile, where the ancient Egyptians buried their dead. (They lived on the east side of the nile because that is where the sun rises, and they built their tombs on the west side, since that is where the sun sets). When people started looting the pyramids, the Egyptians decided to start building their tombs in more inconspicuous places, so they started digging into the side of rocks. The result of this was the area known as the Valley of the Kings, which was the first site we visited on Tuesday. We got to enter a few tombs and look at the reliefs and hieroglyphics on the walls. Later that day we rode DONKEYS to the temple dedicated to Hatshepsut, the "Margaret Thatcher" of ancient Egypt. We also went to Karnak Temple, the largest religious site in the entire world! We got a rude awakening when we walked outside that day and were greeted by the 95 degree weather. Luckily, that was probably the hottest day of the week.
On Wednesday about 20 of us woke up at 4 am to take a hot air balloon ride. Boy, if we only knew what awaited us in the next 4 hours... We were supposed to be on the hot air balloon when the sun was rising, but when we got to the site we were the 4th group in line, so we missed the sunrise. Getting into the basket was quite an ordeal - basically they hoist you up and you jump in and sit as far down as you can because the heat is so intense. Once we finally got off the ground, it was so neat! Our ride lasted about 45 minutes and we followed the path of the Nile and saw the things we had seen the day before from a bird's eye view. Landing the balloon was a little different. We were told to get into landing position, which consisted of us crouching down and holding on for dear life. We hit the ground about 5 times, dragged for a while, and then flipped over. We were laughing hysterically, especially when we realized that the van wasn't there to pick us up and were surrounded by Arab men wanting to take pictures with us in the middle of the Egyptian desert. Don't worry - The Arab men were very nice and the van finally found us and took us back to the resort, right in time to leave for our coach tour of Luxor. We went to papyrus "factory" where they make papyrus paper the same way the ancient Egyptians did. We then went to a local market and I may or may not have bought some Christmas presents. The afternoon was spent at the resort recovering and relaxing, which was really nice. Around 4:00 some of us took carriage rides through Luxor, which I had some mixed feelings about. It was really fun, but at the same time I felt so guilty about riding on a horse-drawn carriage to see how "primitively" people live and to observe them. I can't imagine how dehumanizing and humiliating that must be for the people living there. I know that we are contributing to their economy which is good, but at the same time it's still hard for me to rationalize that. Anyway, that night back at the resort we got to hang out on the docks overlooking the Nile, where there was a live band and "shisha." Just another day in Egypt...
On Thursday we woke up at 6 am to tour another temple before catching our flight to Cairo. We arrived in Cairo at night and went directly to our next Movenpick resort, this one slightly less accomodating. Our bathroom sink wouldn't turn off, our floor flooded from the shower, the television wouldn't turn on, and we all started getting strange bites, presumably by some sort of bugs.
But hey - TIA...

This past week has been absolutely insane. I left for Switzerland right after my last class ended on Thursday, got back Sunday night and went directly to church and didn't get back to the house until around 10 pm. This wouldn't have been a big deal if I hadn't had midterms the next day...but oh well. Monday was very stressful, as was yesterday, but today they are over and I have my life back - which is why I'm writing in the blog now.
So, Switzerland:
My first challenge was actually getting to Switzerland. It was my first time leaving the UK, and I was traveling by myself. Somehow I made it there without losing any luggage or missing my flight, and the Lovely Laura met me at the airport and took me the rest of the way to Lausanne. A lot of my friends are studying in Lausanne with the Pepperdine program there, so I was so excited to get to see them again - some of them for the first time since April of last year! One of my friends, Alex, was supposed to go to Paris the weekend I was there, so I didn't think I was going to get to see him. But as Laura and I were walking toward the Lausanne house at 1 am, I saw some sketch guy sitting by himself at an outdoor table. It was Alex!!!! He decided to wait and leave for Paris on Friday night, and I was so happy I got to see him! The next day I got to see Elle and Alyssa for the first time, and got to spend the whole day with them and the rest of the group on the field trip. I felt so welcomed in Lausanne - the group there is amazing and so fun to be with. The field trip was to a watch-making factory, which was...cool. The neatest part of the day was actually lunch. We ate at this random restaurant overlooking a canyon, and it was the weirdest place I have ever eaten at. There was a real bowling alley inside the restaurant, a working witch's cauldron, lifesize Smurfs outside (p.s. life-size smurfs are only slightly larger than life-size elfs), and 240 items on their dessert menu, the signature dessert being a swan made out of marangue. It was certainly an experience. On Friday night, Laura, Elle, Alyssa, and I went to an Italian restaurant in Lausanne. We were there for over two hours - a truly European experience! Oh, and I learned that I absolutely not cannot speak French - and the phrase that my mom taught me when I was little: "Ale, toot suite, veet, veet" does not actually mean "hurry up. go faster." (I apologize to those of you who actually know how to spell in French - I probably butchered that.)
Laura and I woke up at 5 am to catch a 6:20 train that would take us to Interlaken. We got there smoothly, but that's about the only thing that went as planned that day. There was fog covering all the moutains, and that dang fog nearly ruined our entire day. We were supposed to meet the skydiving company at 9:00 at the train station. They still weren't there at 9:30, so I wandered around trying to find a payphone. Apparently, pay phones in Switzerland only take credit cards and only give directions in German. So we finally got in touch with the skydiving company, which informed us that it was bad weather (obviously) and that we would try again later that day and see if the weather was better. So that meant that we had to call the canyoning company and change our canyoning time to later in the day as well. They didn't have a later time, so we ended up canceling our reservation and paying an outrageous cancelation fee. Laura and I hung out in Interlaken for a few hours, admiring the Asian influenced architecture (weird, right?) and buying genuine Swiss army knives from Switerland. How legit is that?! So we arrived back at the train station at 12:30 to meet the skydiving company. They picked us up and took us to the store, but the weather was still terrible. So we waited until 2:00, and the weather was still bad. Alex, from the skydiving company, told us that she would take us back to Interlaken and would call us at 4:00 to tell us if we would get to jump. The odds didn't look and we didn't think that we were going to get to do anything exciting that day. So Alexis told us that we could probably go bungee-jumping if the weather didn't get better. We obviously didn't want to come back from Interlaken, the extreme sport capital of the world, with the highlight of our day being getting "yeah, we got some sweet Swiss Army knives," so we decided to go bungee jumping. (side note: Alexis, who is a professional skydiver, told us that bungee jumping scared the life out of her and would probably never go again...as our reservations were being made. Awesome. hahaha). So at 4:00 Alexis called us and told us that the weather was still bad and we wouldn't be able to jump, and so we confirmed our bungee jumping reservation. I was so bummed and was trying to figure out when I would ever be able to go. I had already planned the rest of my weekends, so there was no chance of being able to come back. And yes, you can skydive anywhere, but there's absolutely no comparison to skydiving over the Swiss Alps. Well, about 2 seconds later our friend from Pepperdine who was with us made a phone call to some other people who were going skydiving at Interlaken that day to tell them that they probably wouldn't be able to go, and they replied with "Actually, we're on our way to the jumpsite right now." So in a time span of about 2 minutes, we cancelled bungee jumping without having to pay a cancelation fee (thanks, Alexis!!) and ran to the train station to meet the other skydiving company. (By the way, let me just say that Alexis, who runs the first skydiving company, is amazing. She drove us around all day and tried to organize other things for us to do. She knew that I wouldn't be able to come back, and totally encouraged me to go with the other company if they were jumping that day, even though it meant that she was losing business.) On the way up to the jumpsite, Laura was so torn between whether to go or not. She had not originally planned on skydiving that day, since she was planning on going in December with her brother in Arizona for much less money. She ended up deciding to go, which I was so happy about, and she is too!
As for skydiving itself, I can't even put into words how amazing it was. My tandem partner was Hans (The Hansinator), and a guy named Mick jumped with us and filmed me. The guys were absolutely hilarious and tried to calm my nerves...not really. I asked Hans how many times he had jumped, and he said "five." I was about to cry, and then he said "No, between 5 and 6 thousand." Holy cow!!! I can't imagine skydiving 6,000 times!!!! Anyway, the flight up to 13,000 feet was incredible. As I was about to jump out of the plane I saw the snow-peaked Swiss Alps at eye-level (amaaaazing!) all around me. I was the first one to jump, and was absolutely terrified. There's nothing like standing on the ledge of an airplane and someone pushing you out. We were free-falling for about 30 seconds (I'm not sure exactly how long it was - I was a little out of my element at that point). We were spinning around and doing flips (at least that's what Hans told me afterwards). Then he pulled the chute and we were soaring over Switzerland. If you've ever been on the ride "Soaring Over California" at Disneyworld, you have a taste of what that feels like. It was the most exhilarating thing I've ever done, and can't wait to do it again! (sorry, mom!)
On Sunday morning back at Lausanne we went to a little church of Christ that some people from the group go to. We sang some classic CoC songs in French, which was really cool. And as I was looking around, I spotted a picture of my friend Bryn hanging on the wall. Random! Then I remembered that she had done "Let's Start Talking" in Switzerland a few years ago, and that was the church that she worked at. Isn't it funny what a small world we live in !? After church we had a Swiss potluck, which is the best kind. There was a crepe maker in the middle of the table, and toppings and fillings all around, and everyone made their own crepes. We seriously need to reform our potlucks and adopt this method. It was incredibly yummy!
When I got back on Sunday I went straight from the airport to church, backpack and all! I started studying for my midterms really late, and basically pulled an all-nighter. I won't bore you with the details of my midterms, but imagine this: I had gotten less than 5 hours of sleep every night in the past week, and had to take four essay tests on subjects such as "Describe everything you know about the Fall of Rome." It was fantastic.
But midterms are now over, and I am ecstatic about having my life back!
Tonight I am going to see "Phantom of the Opera" with the group, and I can't wait! I'll be sure to tell you how it is.
So until next time, "Au Revoir! And go to Switzerland!"

This week has been much more pleasant than last week. Our professors have decided to have a little mercy on us, since midterms are next week, so the work load has been manageable. Last weekend I was planning on traveling to Heidelberg, but my plans changed at the last minute and I ended up staying here in London (not such a bad option). Most of my other friends here were in other places like Amsterdam or Dublin, so I was on my own for the weekend, for the most part. On Friday I decided to explore London, looking for vintage shopping. I started out at Notting Hill and didn't get much further. There were literally vintage clothes and record shops all down the streets. I found some great deals (a leather jacket, two pairs of shoes, belts, and scarves for a combined total of under 30 pounds)!! Then I made my way over to Oxford street and joined the 8,000 other people shopping at Primark, and pretty much negated any originality I thought I had.
On Saturday I took a day trip to Brighton, a little beach town about an hour outside of London. I was unsure whether or not I would be able to get on a train, but I went to the train station anyway. Luckily, the train system was much less complicated than I expected, so within 10 minutes I was headed to Brighton. Every Saturday morning they have a flea market on one of the streets, so I scoped that out for a while. I actually found a really neat old pilot's helmet that had been used in WWII, and I was going to get it for my dad, but when I came back to buy it, the man was gone. (sorry, dad!!). After the flea market I had some classic fish and chips, and spent some time at the pier. If you ever get to go to Brighton, definitely pay the 7 pounds and get a tour of the Royal Pavilion. It's said to be the most unique palace in Europe. Before George IV was king, he owned the pavilion and decorated it himself. It looked nothing like the hundreds of other castles and palaces in Europe (thank goodness), and had gold dragons hanging from the ceilings. It was truly an experience! When I got back from Brighton, my friend Erin and I decided to go see "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." When we got there, we were told that they didn't have any tickets left, but when we went back outside a woman came up to us and offered to sell us one ticket. We almost turned her down, but another man came up to us and offered to sell us his ticket. Somehow we ended up sitting about 5 feet apart, despite the fact that we bought our tickets from two separate people. How crazy!! And the show was definitely amazing! Apparently the actor who plays Joseph won the equivalent of "American Idol" to see who would get to play Joseph in the London production of the play. So when we tried to get his autograph outside afterward, we were accompanied by about 200 people. Apparently he's a bigger deal than Fiyero. Too bad!
Tuesday night was the first "HTB Student" group. About 10 of us went, not knowing what to expect. There were about 60 people there, and everyone was so nice! During the "mingle time" I met another American girl who goes to Boston University and spent 5 weeks in Tanzania this summer! As soon as we found out that we had both been to Tanzania, we started speaking in Swahili to eachother - it was soooooo exciting! We exchanged lots of Africa stories, and she shares the same view of Ugali as I do. (for those of you who don't know what Ugali is, it's a...blob of cornflour and water that is basically eaten with every meal. Yummy!). And then I found out that Mike, one of the leaders of HTB Students, grew up in Tanzania, so I got to talk to him about Tanzania as well. What a small world we live in!
One of the ministries that the Student group has is that it runs Student Alpha. Alpha is a "course" for people who want to know more about Christianity, and HTB's Student Alpha is held on the top floor of a club in London. So on Monday we're planning on going to that to participate in that, and then go see Vanilla Ice, who's the performer at the club that night! I know that I talk a lot about how great this church is, but I really can't say it enough. It is so encouraging and challenging at the same time to see a church that is so intensely involved in their community. They have poured so much into organizing Alpha (you can expect to hear about Alpha in every single sermon) and God has blessed the ministry and has spoken to so many people through it. Nearly every week someone gets up in church and shares their testimony of how they came to Christ through the Alpha ministry!
Well, I am about to leave for Switzerland, so I'm sure I will have lots of adventures to share with you in my next blog.
Au revoir!
(check out the new pix from this week!)

Sorry for not updating this earlier - this past week has been so busy, I've hardly had time to sleep.
Last weekend started off with a day trip to see Stonehenge and Bath. Stonehenge was...large. It's much more impressive in real life, but still not worth the 5 pounds it costs to go inside, which is why my friends and I admired the large rocks from outside the fence, sipping our lattes. Dont' worry - we got lots of pictures, fence and all! The city of Bath was really neat! We ate in a small cafe called Sally Lunn Bun's, which is in the oldest house in Bath. We went inside the Bath Abbey, which was huge! There were vendors lining the streets of Bath, selling overpriced trinkets to the naive tourists. Poor saps. (We don't really consider ourselves tourists anymore: we know to look to the right first when you cross the street, and we walk fast so that it looks like we know where we're going.) We took a tour of the Roman Baths, which was really neat. Apparently the people who lived there associated a god with the hot natural spring that they transformed into an ancient spa. So they would write down curses on pieces of parchment (?) and throw it into the springs, hoping that the god would act on their behalf. They had some recovered "curses" on display, and it was humorous to read them. Almost all of them read something like this: "so-and-so has stolen my gloves. Make sure that they pay with nothing less than their blood." A little intense, don't you think?!
On Saturday we went to our very first football (a.k.a. soccer) match. I have seen few people in my life as excited as these fans were. Imagine this combination: Robert (Ray's brother from "Everybody Loves Raymond") plus the most outrageous sports fan you know plus a lot of alcohol = the guy sitting in front of us. He was a Manchester City fan sitting in the middle of the Fulham section, and it was very hostile situation, to say the least. He would run up and down the bleachers when his team scored, and I'm pretty sure he started every chant that would eventually echo throughout the entire stadium. What a fun game!
But it was back to the grind on Monday. One of the coolest things about studying here is that we have class in museums sometimes. When I first considered studying here, the draw for me was NOT the museums, and all that "history coming alive" junk. But there's nothing like hearing a lecture on Medieval Europe and then hopping on the tube (the subway) and hearing an explanation of the Medieval altarpiece sitting right in front of you.
On Thursday night 33 of us went to the Apollo Victoria to see "Wicked." Oh. My. Word.
I saw this piece of musical and theatrical genius in L.A., and this time was just as good! The British accents shook it up a little bit too. (If you've seen it, trying imagining Fiyero singing "Dancing Through Life" with a British accent, and you'll have a good laugh). If you haven't seen it, drive to the nearest booming metropolis and go see it! The best part of it was that after the show we waited outside the stage door to meet the cast. Fiyero was greeted by the 8 of us girls screaming "Marry Me!" It was truly "swankified." (if you don't understand that word, that's another sign that you need to see this play.)
Tonight was another exciting night. Bear Grylls - as in, THE Bear Grylls, the "Man" from "Man vs. Wild" was speaking at the church that I go to as an outreach event, so we went to go hear him talk. If you know my youth minister, Jon, you've probably seen an episode of his show. So you can imagine how excited I was to meet him. I mean, this is the man who drinks water from cow dung, drinks his own urine, guts animals to sleep inside of them, and traps wild animals using only a piece of string and a stick. He is the MacGuyver of the outdoors. He spoke candidly to a full house about his job, the recent controversy that has surrounded the show lately, his family, and his faith. It was a great night!
Well, as I finish up this blog, I have a long night ahead of me. I have a 2,000 word essay to write (the 2nd one I've been assigned for the same class). I think someone forgot to tell our teachers that we came here to travel and see Europe, not do homework. Oh well.
Don't forget to look at the new pictures I uploaded!
Thanks for listening, and thanks for holding down the fort!
-Rachel

It's so funny how God surprises you sometimes. I had a whole set of ideas of what I thought Londoners were like and how things were going to be here, especially in relation to church. I had this idea in my head that all the churches here were going to be stagnant. For some reason I thought that passionate Christians didn't live in London. I've quickly learned that my stereotypes about London were wrong. On Sunday night I attended one of the most passionate church service I have ever been to, rivaling that of the Moshi Town Church of Tanzania that I attended for 6 weeks this summer. As a Church of Christers, I was a bit shell-shocked, I'll admit. There was dancing ... boy, was there dancing! People of all ages were worshipping freely with one another. The 75 year old man was raising his arms and jumping up and down in joy just as much as the 20 year old girl standing next to him. It was amazing! I can't express how encouraged I am by the church here. There's a college group that I'm going to start going to, and I went to a worship team meeting on Monday night. The worship leader at this chruch (Holy Trinity Brompton) is Tim Hughes, who is a huge name in contemporary worship music. He wrote the song "Here I am to Worship" and "Beautiful One," and I'm so blessed to have the opportunity to learn from him! In fact, the most exciting thing that I got out of worship team on Monday night was a booklet that they handed out. It was written by Tim Hughes and Al Gordon (another worship leader at HTB and an awesome guy!) and it was entitled: "Worship leaders remember the poor." It's about how God's heart aches for justice and for his people to work for justice, and it talks about the ways in which we as worship leaders can do that and enable people to do it too. As I was reading it I was so overwhelmed because they were combining the two things that I'm passionate about: music and injustice in the world. Those two things have always been mutually exclusive for me, and it's so cool to see people who are combining them in meaningful ways!

http://www.htb.org.uk/
www.tearfund.org
www.invisiblechildren.com

Last weekend was my first trip outside of London. 15 of us took an overnight coach on Thursday coach to Edinburgh, Scotland. Most of us (including me) weren't able to sleep on the coach, so we arrived at 8am very groggy, and some of us quite grumpy. The only thing we had when we stepped of the bus was the name and address of our hostel. Our plan was to go where the wind carried us...and carry us it did. hahaha.
We finally figured out which city bus to get on that would take us close to our hostel. We then asked the bus driver which way to go, and he very wisely *insert eye roll* suggested that we take the short cut "across the way" that would take us right in front of our hostel. Great idea! So we proceded to hike through a field, take the first dirt path we could find, and we somehow ended up in the middle of a golf course. I can only imagine what this must have looked like to the poor chaps golfing there: 15 sleep-deprived, backpack-wearing teenagers walking out of the woods, very confused. But not to worry: after 2 more miles of walking we finally found our hostel, which was surprisingly very nice!
The first thing we did was to take a bus up to the Royal Mile and walk around the "city." We took a free three hour walking tour (sounds appealing, doesn't it?) of Edinburgh. I've never really been enthralled by history or guided tours, but I have to say that this was very interesting! We saw the coffee shop where J.K. Rowling penned "Harry Potter," and saw some old stuff too. I had been running on 5 hours of sleep in the past 40 hours, so that day was mostly a blur to me.
On our second day in Scotland we went on a tour of the Scottish Highlands. This tour was one of my favorite things about my time overseas so far! We practically had a private tour, since there was only one person in the van who wasn't in our group, and our guide was hilarious! We went with the "Highland Experience" tour company, which I would highly recommend! The company formed because they decided that they wanted the people who came to Scotland to know the real history of Scotland, not the sugar-coated version that is widely circulated. Our guide told us stories of clan life, battles, and the very dark history of Scotland. He was really passionate about his country's history, and it really had a profound impact on all of us. I really have a new appreciation for my heritage now, thanks to our awesome guide. There were also some humorous moments on our tour. We passed a whiskey distillery with metal pipes running down the face of the mountain, and someone asked what it was. Our guide replied "Well, that is actually the world's largest water slide!" We were thrilled to hear this and wanted to know how we could go on it. Apparently he was just kidding, and he told us what it really was: in the event of a natural disaster, it was an escape route for the sheep." Again, we were enthralled and wanted to know more about it. Well, he was kidding that time too. He then proceeded to tell us that it was a porridge shoot, and that they used the proceeds from the porridge business to fund the "Gullible Students Fund." Most of us caught on then.

First I'd like to start off with a disclaimer: for those of you family members who read Kristen's weekly e-mails about her time in London, prepare to be disappointed. I'm going to try my best to keep this updated, but I'm not sure how this all is going to go down. Also, I'm not an English major, so disregard any grammatical errors. I'm really excited to be starting this so that y'all can "travel with me" and hear about and see what I'm doing here.
So....
Week one:
I started off my trip here very apprehensively. I was really sad to be leaving everyone behind. In fact, I told my friend Matt who took me to the airport to take me back to school because I didn't want to leave. To my chagrin, he left me at the airport with 39 other people I didn't know. That really wasn't a great day - in fact, I was crying so much on the airplane that right before take-off the flight attendant got out of his make-shift seat and brought me a kleenex box. Embarassing! Anyway, after the 9 hour flight we arrived to Heathrow Airport early in the morning on September 5th. The first few days were a blur to me. I was still sad after leaving home, but we were doing things all through the day so I didn't really have time to be sad. And thanks to skype and AIM, I've been able to audio and/or video chat with most of my friends and my parents, which has been such an encouragement.
Despite our jet-lag, we filled our first few days with exciting activities. We went on bus tours of London, went to see the Prime Meridian, walked around Greenwich, and sat through hours of informational sessions - everyone's favorite activity...just kidding. I'm rooming with Elizabeth, our RA, and she is amazing! I didn't know her two weeks ago, but I've gotten to know her and have already been blessed by her Christian character and her sweet personality! We have our own room in the basement, complete with our own bathroom (which includes the world's smallest shower) and a disco light! Apparently the previous room renters were avid dancers, so maybe we will aquire some similar skills this semester, thanks to our disco light. On our floor we have the house kitchen, common room, internet cafe, and laundry room. Needless to say, our floor is pretty busy all the time, but I like it that way. The London House is, in a word, breathtaking. It's located in the "posh" area of London, only a five minute walk away from Harrods. The house is very Victorian looking, and our "classrooms" are gorgeous rooms with intricate ceilingwork and chandeliers! Our program directors are amazing, too. Thomasina is the assistant program director, and she is a native Londoner (accent and all). She is definitely the mother figure of the house, and is a comfort for those of us who miss our moms (me!).
As far as classes go....well....I have a lot of them. I decided to add another class, so I now have a full load of 18 units. But I feel like I can handle it since we only have class four days a week (They give us Friday through Sunday to travel). I anticipate that Science will be my hardest class, considering that on the first day of class our professor assigned us a 2,000 word essay to be turned in the next week. And the day that we turned it in he told us that we were to give 10 minute presentations the next class period. Sounds like a fun class, doesn't it? I do really like my English class. Part of the requirements for my English is that we have to go to plays. Sweet!!! Anyway, I won't bore you with classroom talk anymore.
My first week here I tried to get out of the house a lot. I'm starting to really value time to myself, so I've tried to take time out of my day to journal or go to a coffee shop to do homework and such. I've really enjoyed exploring the city by myself - I truly feel like a real Londoner, especially with my new boots! Speaking of boots, fashion here is very unique. The only fashion rule is: if you have confidence, you can wear anything. In fact, I've rarely seen a Londoner NOT wear straight-leg jeans. I could be wrong, but I feel like it takes a lot of confidence to pull of straight-leg jeans.
So now that I'm onto cultural differences, here are a few:
-As you probably know, cars drive on the wrong side of the road. So to help out the rest of the world, they've written "Look Right" or "Look Left" on the crosswalks (called Zebras). It makes the foreigners pretty easy to spot, though, because they intently stare at the road when they approach a crosswalk. I think it's pretty hilarious.
-You're not supposed to make eye-contact with people as you walk down the street. That is actually considered rude. Weird, right?
-And since tip is already included in the bill at restaurants, waiters really have no incentive to be, well, good waiters. So you'd better have a good two hours to spare if you eat out.
-And how could I forget to mention the extreme difference between the dollar and the pound? Basically, all of us here are in shock at how much money we've already spent. I'll go to Starbucks and spend 2.50 pounds on coffee...and then I leave and realize that we just spent over $5 on a tall latte.
Okay, well that's enough for now. Hope you enjoyed reading!