The one where I finally reach London

So much has happened in the past four days I don't think this entry can justify all of it.

On the plane ride over, I was sitting next to Jon-Paul. Virgin Atlantic likes to be all fancy and high-tech so we were trying to figure out what all the buttons in front of you did. I told him to press one where a huge *ding* goes off and seconds later, a male flight attendant comes over with his British accent, "Can I help you guys?" All while the plane is dead silent at the time so everyone was staring at us. I was like, "...Oops?" It was pretty funny, he never let me live that down the rest of the ride.

The day we arrived on Sunday, we took a walking tour around our neighborhood, Clerkenwell. As our group of about 20 students, mainly females were walking down a sketchy street, we not only see a random group of like 8-10 year olds walking by themselves no parent around, they were also yelling "Tourists! Tourists!" I found out they were a gang. Apparently there are alot of gangs of kids around London. Weird.
While walking, we also passed by a guy who yelled to us, "Do you girls want to be in a video shoot?" He was meaning we would be extras in a music video for Kanye West or something. We definitely saw past that. It could have been porn for crying out loud! Our advisor, Anthony looked so pissed and annoyed it was hilarious and completely random.

We went to dinner that night at a very fancy restaurant where they were turning away people left and right. The drinks averaged about $16. I didn't want to order dessert so I was gonna order and give it to Brittany to take home. They didn't even have anything to put it in to take home. Apparently in England, it is considered gross to wrap up uneaten food when dining out so no one does it.
The most hilarious part of the night was when a homeless guy comes in to the restaurant and begs our table to give us some of our food. Anthony said he has never seen anything like that happen in London in his whole life. We went to a bar called Saloon near where we live that night and let me tell you, Absenthe is really overrated.

Monday was an orientation at FSU where we are taking classes. Tuesday was cool. We went on a double decker bus tour of the city and saw such landmarks such as Big Ben, the Parliament, Hyde Park, The London Eye, and the London Bridge. (FYI: It is not falling down.) We then took a boat cruise down the Thames River to Greenwich where we visited the Prime Meridian line. I know, totally dorky but after remembering learning about it in 3rd grade Social Studies class as the line that divides the Western hemisphere from the Eastern hemisphere and where Greenwich Mean Time is located I had to check it out.

Yesterday we went to CSV, the placement offices where they are assigning what we will be doing for our 10 hours a week volunteer work. Most people have to work in museums or tutor, but I think I got one of the coolest assignments of all! Me and Liz have the press-related assignments. Liz gets to be a TV reporter for CSV and interview all of the volunteers and report on what they are doing. I get to help her with production. I also get to be CSV's publicist and also act as a journalist interviewing people in order to write my press releases. I am working with London's leading left-wing national newspaper, The Guardian! It's a well-known paper all around the UK and I might be published in it!

That night, we attended the BBC Proms concert at Royal Albert Hall. It is a symphony concert held everyday during the summer. But sitting there, it only managed to hold my interest for all of...5 seconds. I guess I'm not much of a classical music fan.

London is everything I pictured it would be looks-wise. It can be intimidating at times as everyday is a fashion show with people all dressed up walking up and down the streets. I hardly saw anyone wearing sweats. The prices are intimidating as well. Everything is crazy expensive, like $10 for a bottle of shampoo! There are many streets as it is a very large city I have yet to fully navigate through. No one wears bright colors. They all wear muted colors like blacks, greys, and browns. Perhaps they are saving the bright colors for all the neon green and orange plastic grocery shopping bags? I hardly see any fat Londoners around. All the food in the grocery stores seem health-conscious with their labels unlike the US.

Speaking of grocery stores, in order to get your old British Pound bills from the 1960's used (as most stores I've found, don't accept them anymore) just flirt with the cute checkout guy at the grocery store with the amazing British accent!

Cheers!
Farida