Updates!

I'd be lying if I said my transition to my new life in London has been easy, falling into some sort of  organized routine here seems near impossible, but I'm trying my hardest!

Yesterday, after class we had to rush to the Keats house which was in Hampstead. To be honest, it was rather underwhelming. We had to take 2 different tube lines and walk up and down a steep hill in a roundabout fashion taking us at least half a mile out of our way. When we got there, I was expecting to have a guided tour of the property, to get a better insight into the life of John Keats. Instead, we just walked on our own throughout the rooms and read a little bit of background on the few pieces in his house that were restored/ replicated. We were there for maybe 20 minutes total...I did enjoy myself though, it was nice to get away from the commotion of the city. A friend and I sat on a bench in front of the house for a bit, soaking in the silence.

After the Keats house, we had the rest of the afternoon to do whatever we desired. A few friends and I decided to walk through Hampstead a little bit and get a glass of wine at this small outdoor cafe. It's amazing how bipolar the weather is here, it puts the Midwest to shame. In our two hours in Hampstead, it downpoured and then the sun came out and then it began to rain again.

We made our way back toward our flat via the tube and suddenly my exhaustion began to catch up with me, so I decided to stay back and take a nap while the others scoped out some touristy things for us to do this weekend. A few of my flatmates were in also, working on homework so I decided to join them and cranked out my short two page paper... it was quite the relief to get that done!

We then began to get ready to go out to a Fourth of July party in Picadilly, it was a lot of fun and they had really good drink specials there, we even met some really nice locals who wished us a Happy Independence Day!

We got back fairly late last night and I fell right into bed, I was (and still am...) exhausted!

Today (so far) after pressing the snooze button and getting up almost an hour after my original alarm went off, I finally emerged from my bed, reluctantly and trudged the long mile walk to class. It's unreal how much I walk here. Of course, I'm paying for it with the never-ending leg pain and blisters invading my feet.

Today is our last day of class for the week and we got the afternoon and weekend off to catch up on our sleep because we've been going absolutely non-stop since we got here a little under a week ago. I'm so excited to go to sleep early tonight and sleep forever.

This weekend should be really fun. A few of the people in my group and I are getting a "london pass" which grants access and "skip the line" passes for some major places. Some things we're going to try to make it to Friday/ Saturday is: Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle, St. Paul's Cathedral, a boat cruise down the Thames, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, The British Museum, etc.

I'm sorry my blog posts have been quite wordy lately. I promise more pictures when we actually do things that are picture worthy!

-Lauren