Day 2

Let's see how much of my day I can get through before I fall asleep.. jet lag is no fun.

We started our day out bright and early with a bus tour of London. Our tour guide was one who has a special license I guess to show she's extra good at what she does. She was awesome. Her name was Trudy and she had the best accent and vocabulary I've ever heard. I want to talk like her by the time I move back to Missouri. We took the bus around and learned a lot about the history of different parts of London. We only got out to take pictures at St. Paul's Cathedral, so the rest of my pictures are from on the bus. We ended up in Picadilly Circus, which we assume means "plaza". It was a HUGE shopping district. We walked a LOT and went in to a ton of super cute stores.. we'll definitely be going back.

I bought a blanket because our flats are 175 years old and at times very chilly because it hasn't been past 65 degrees yet. I also got a cardigan and a zip up sweater... the zip up was 6 pounds, and the cardigan was 16... awesome purchases! The blanket was 4 pounds. 

We got our oyster cards today so that we can ride the tube. Apparently it costs 4 pounds one way without the card, and with the card it costs 1.50 pounds each way and it works like a pay as you go card, it's great and will save us tons of money! 

We had dinner at an Italian restaurant down the street tonight, everything we need is in walking distance, it's prefect. I had pizza - it was really good! But we had to pay for the water (tap water) and the bread - we each got one roll. Definitely not an Americanized Italian restaurant! We asked for olive oil to dip the bread in and our server said it'd cost 2.95 pounds .. $6 for olive oil?? no thank you!  I'm sure we'll get used to the fact that things are not included with meals here and that everything, everything, everything costs money, and a lot of it. Although our meals were pretty cheap tonight.

We got to see a lot more of the city today while in Picadilly Circus. I'm in love with the way the buildings are structured and how they line the streets. Every street has small cafes, coffeshops, and pubs on them. The way of life here is obviously centered on pleasure and enjoyment and relaxation - unlike the US where we're all go, go, go. Our tour guide said please about 50 times today. She mentioned that they always say please here. I'm glad that's a habit of mine, but I'm going to pay special attention to say it every single time so that I'm not labeled a rude American. Ally got asked for directions today by other tourists.. so at least we don't look the part.. even though we knew no more than the person asking did. 

Picadilly Circus is like a MUCH classier Time's Square. there is ONE building with moving advertisements, the rest are older buildings with shops lining the streets. We went in to Primark today, the "walmart" of London, but for clothes. They have SUPER cheap fashion but since it was Sunday, it felt like our walmart at Christmas time. It was crazy! People love their shopping here.

I can't figure out how to get pictures on this site, but I can post a link to my Picasa online album, it is 

picasaweb.google.com/girlsthatdrinkpintsarebutch/TheSites

I posted a lot of pictures from today with captions so that you can understand what you're look at and some of the history that I remembered from the tour to go with the places.

I can't think of much else to talk about from today. We have orientation tomorrow morning and start classes for 2 weeks on tuesday. We STILL don't know for sure what our internships are! It's killing me, I'm really scared, I hope everything works out and I gain valuable knowledge about advertising, not just tea!

Everyone calls everyone "love" here. I heard one guy say it to another today, it was quite strange. It has no affectionate connotation, so on that note.....

Goodnight loves!