As I sit here eating a tray of "favorite biscuits", it's difficult for me to determine the start of the day considering that I didn't get any sleep the night before. I'll begin with landing in London. From the beginning, we were all pretty excited and despite the fact that most of us did not sleep on the plane or got little sleep in an awkward, uncomfortable position, and we could not stop smiling and discussing future plans with one another. After dragging an incredibly heavy carry-on through the custom's line, I was waved to see an officer. He was very friendly, and while he looked through forms we discussed various tips for traveling. He told me about some great hole-in the wall places that most tourists over look, and I told him about some states, that might be worth his while. He told me that he had intended to go there one day, and wanted my opinion. From there we left in a large group to meet with someone from Nido, the program partnered with LA Tech to put it all together.
The representative took us all to Nido, where we were allowed an hour of down time to put our things away before meeting in the lobby. We were all assigned roommates (flat mates), but my room was empty, so I just assumed that I was going to be rooming with someone from our group that's coming later. When we met down stairs, we were split into two groups and given a detailed and descriptive tour of the Nido building. These facilities are amazing, and they offer so much to their residents, including safety. You need a key card to enter and exit the building, and to go into various rooms inside the building. We even have keys for personal slots in the fridge and cubby holes for food. I am very excited about that. They host movie night every Sunday, have pool tables, have foosball tables, and a 24 hour access gym. They also host several other colleges from around the world, so we can meet students from various other countries. There is one other American school here, that we know of and most of them are from New York nor New Jersey. After the tour, we were allowed about 30 minutes of down time before meeting in the lobby again.
This time we were shown how to use our Oyster card (bus/tube pass), and taken to Oxford street, which is famous for shopping. Several people in our group bought go phones at the Carphone shop(Samsung store), went to stores, and had a lot of fun. It was our responsibility to find our own way back, so we still stayed in groups of about 3 or 4. My friend Sydney and I went to PRIMARK, which is equivalent to Target, but with more of a selection, nicer quality, and cheaper prices for some items that she needed for her room. Then we went to Boots (drugstore) for some personal items that we both needed. Then, we went to a local market for some food, so that we would not have to constantly eat out. We then decided to return back to Nido to eat dinner at 7 with our professor.
We were all incredibly hungry, because he had not eaten anything since 8:30 that morning on the plane and were excited to eat. We decided to walk around and find a restaurant and decided on an Indian food place a few blocks away. It was my first time trying Indian food, and to be entirely honest, I wasn't too crazy about it. It was an interesting experience, but if I never went to another Indian restaurant again, I would be fine with that. After dinner, I was exhausted and left the group to shower and go to bed. It was there, that I discovered just how remarkably comfortable this bed is. Wow!! That is why I am headed off to bed right now. - Cheers!
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