The Bridging Cultures program also included a Jack the Ripper tour, which took place in the same area of London as my school!  Afterward, we went to an Indian restaurant on Brick Lane.

Leah and I at a Soho club

Dinner by the Tower of London

The whole crew!

After the Bridging Cultures program ended, I had three days before I could move onto campus. I booked a hostel that was only half a mile from the hotel we'd been at, and dropped my suitcase off at Paddington Station at the "left luggage" desk, to pick up before I went to school.

I was nervous about staying at a hostel--never done that before--without anyone I knew. However, I think I really lucked out: the girls in my room (there were six of us) were friendly, and not hostile at all (get it??). I spent an entire evening talking to a girl from Australia named Laura. She'd been traveling Europe for two and a half months with seven of her friends, and decided to go to London by herself at the end. Needless to say, she was pro at the whole hostel thing.

We went to the British Museum one day, which was huge.  Admission is free, too!  I saw the Rosetta Stone, and lots of old English artifacts.  Here we are standing in a South Africa landscape display outside the museum:

On one of our gap days, I went on a bus tour of Stonehenge, Windsor, and Oxford with Caroline and Robbie. Our tour guide was hilarious. He said there is one expression you must know if you wish to move up in British society, and it consists of three words: air, hair, and lair. Say them all together like this: Air, hair lair! My favorite part of the tour was definitely Windsor—so much history! That’s something amazing about England, there is history here that puts American history to shame, as far as, well, how historical it is! We saw the changing of the guard, Queen Mary’s dolls’ house, and the drawings gallery, which included photographs of the queen as a child.

Changing of the guard at Windsor.  Rockin the headphones.

Stonehenge

We were all a little loopy by the time we made it to Oxford...

After our gap days, it was time to move into school, finally!  I was so excited to move in and not have to live out of a suitcase anymore.  It was quite a hassle picking up my bag from Paddington, then taking the tube to Mile End station, which is right next to my school.  Robbie and Caroline were with me, and we had to say goodbye to Caroline, who was catching a train to her school in Scotland!  

So I've been on campus since Saturday.  The living arrangements here are awesome.  I live in Pooley house, with, so far, 7 flatmates.  Five are from around England, one is from Los Angeles, and one is from Norway!  We all have our own rooms with fridges and bathrooms in them, and we share a kitchen with two stoves, a toaster, microwave, and freezer!  Pretty cool set up.  The first person I met as I walked down the hallway to my room was Lucy, (who, by the way, is currently playing the violin in her room...I think.  Sounds good!) who introduced me to Squash--not the vegetable or the sport, but the drink--it's kind of like concentrate that you add water to.  Anyway, I love my flatmates--we've been hanging out each night, then going to Drapers, the bar on campus, which has been packed each night.  It blows me away how huge a role drinking plays in campus social life here--well, not just campus social life, but social life in general!  British people love their drinks, that is for sure!

Sorry these posts are so scattered...but that's how my thoughts are these days!  More later, I have to get ready for a boat party on the Thames that QM is having for the international students here.  It's a rough life, huh?