Loving the City

Sorry I haven't been updating this as often as I would like! We have been busy every single day with new adventures! We've been here for a week now and it feels like we have been here for a month! Everyday we have been going to Central London and doing new things over there. The second day we were here we had tons of presentations and seminars to go to and once we had the free time we got a few new friends and decided to go to Central London! When we got there we were on Oxford Street, one of the biggest shopping strips in the world. The architecture is just beautiful! The streets are as busy as New York City.

We started making our way towards Big Ben, the Eye of London and Westminster Abby. We’re all anxious at this point. It’s so overwhelming because literally everywhere you walk you are amazed by everything. There is so much to see in London. One of the speakers that we listened to said, “The day that you find yourself bored in London with nothing to do is the day when you realize you don’t have a life. I have been in London for 14 years and I still find new and exciting things to do.”

When we got to Big Ben it was like the whole world just stopped. We were finally here. To me, I was finally realizing that we were in London. All the detailed architecture of each building is absolutely breathtaking. The old black taxi’s and double-decker buses remind me I’m not in Chicago anymore. And I love every bit of it!

The day after, we had a photo frenzy where we got a group together with a camera and went on a scavenger hunt. This activity was to make us comfortable with commuting on the tubes and coaches. Since Paul and I went the day before we had a general idea of where we were going and which tubes and buses to take. We ended up going with a bunch of people from Hawaii and one from Norway. They were all so cool and loads of fun. We ended up being down there for 6 or 7 hours just chilling and going at our own pace. In the end, we only took 4 pictures out of the 12 clues…oops!  =P

Since our time in London, I’ve been bugging Paul about going to see the last Harry Potter film again. We finally found that free time and went into Leicester Square, which is where all the film premieres happen. I’m hoping and praying that there is a film premiere while we are here! I would literally die. Anyways…we saw Harry Potter which was so cool seeing it in London because during the scenes where you saw central we were like “WE WERE THERE!” haha we are such dorks. When we got out of the film we were starving! We looked up and saw this really fancy restaurant at the top of this building with pretty, sparkly lights. Anything that has sparkly lights on it, I want to go see it! So Paul tells me that we should check it out and maybe just get an appetizer or dessert since it looks expensive. While we are walking there, a guy outside the building tells us about this restaurant and how everything is 50% off. We look at the menu and everything ranges from 10-20 pounds, but it’s half off. On our way up, everything is so nice, with cool lights and music and when we get to our seats we’re just smiling and laughing because we’re in this really nice restaurant. We ordered some drinks and Paul had seared tuna (which I had by the way). Yes I had fish…in your FACE! And I had lemon and thyme chicken. It was delicious! We also had some yummy dessert J Afterwards, we walked around Piccadilly Circus (a scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt 1 was shot there. The scene where they apparate during Ron’s brother’s wedding and almost get hit by the bus.) Night life in London is very lively. We watched a live band perform on the street as well as see a dancer dancing out on the street. There are so many street performers here.

I probably saw the saddest thing in my life while I was there. Well…not the saddest obviously, but anything that has to do with a puppy it’s sad. Paul and I were walking around and we saw this homeless couple with their puppy on the street. We look at the puppy and it’s sitting there with a sign in its mouth. The sign says that they’re homeless and hungry and any donation would be nice. As we are looking at the puppy it looks at us with those big puppy eyes (you know the ones where you see the white underneath) Yea, that made my heart break a little bit. We didn’t walk back the same way we came.

So far everything has been wonderful here. We’ve been plugging into a small group which is called The Christian Union. We’ve met some really great people here. It was crazy that the first night we were here we met these wonderful people and they turned out to be Christian. J It was such a God thing.

Welp…that’s it for now! London is a beautiful city and everyday we make sure we don’t take it for granted. We thank God so much for giving us this experience. We will never be able to experience London like this again.

Em

P.S.

I am also having a great time here as well and am still alive and healthy, well kind of. I’m getting over a small cold…but the sites are great and the weather has been surprisingly nice for us since we have been here. Emma and I have to cook our own food since they don’t do meal plans out here and we would love it if you would send us any of your favorite recipes for us to make!

Talk to you soon,

Paul 

First day in London, already sad we have to leave in December...

We finally made it to London! I can't believe we are finally here! We took off around 8:30pm, had a 6 hour 45 min flight and landed into Heathrow at 9:30am. Paul and I were too excited that we didn't fall asleep on the plane. By the time we landed into Heathrow we weren't even remotely tired and it was about 4am in Chicago. We ended up watching 2 movies, played some video games and watched some Modern Family :)  And we had dinner on the plane which was very good :) It ended with some strawberry cheesecake and some night time tea. It was amazing being able to leave Chicago at night and in the middle of the fight you could see light in the distance and going over Ireland and London it was daylight.

I have a very embarrassing story that you probably will all laugh at, but as most of you know me, its quite typical that I have a blonde moment from here to there....So here it goes... We were on the plane and our seats are right by the wing of the plane and there is a light that is on the end of it. And a few minutes into the air, I look out my window and I see this bright light and I am thinking to myself, "Wow look at that airplane!" So I turn to Paul and I say, "Paul look at that airplane, don't you think it's a little close to us?" And he looks at me and he says, "Emma...are you talking about the light that is at the end of the airplane wing?" I guess I thought it was an airplane because our plane was turning at that moment and the light was above us...so yea there's a funny dumb Emma moment. haha. There was also this very weird woman who you could tell had a lot of plastic surgery done to her face. And 30 minutes before we were landing, she got up and did about a 20 minute workout routine and let me tell you, it was VERY awkward to watch...I was embarrassed for her. She ended up swinging her arms and hitting a flight attendant! It was quite hilarious!

As we were landing into Heathrow we were able to see our University and also the set up of the Olympic games! It was amazing! We also were able to see the eye of London and Big Ben from the plane! When we landed we met up with a woman who picked us up in a taxi and prepared us with phones, Oyster cards to go around London using the Tube and mentioned all the different events we can go to. One of the things we are able to go on is an excursion to Scotland with a group, which we think we will be doing :D

Driving from the airport to Roehampton was amazing. London is absolutely beautiful! All the buildings are old fashioned and so close together. Our University campus is so breathtaking. There are small gardens and creeks everywhere, with old bridges and buildings everywhere. Its like a fantasy for us. Paul and I grabbed a coffee and walked around campus in the cool breeze and also a little bit outside of Roehampton into the streets of London.

Paul and I have never had problems making new friends and meeting new people. We went to the Student Union which is a pub with a bunch of pool tables and bars and couches to lounge and chat and we ended up meeting the most genuine people. Their all british and we ended up talking over a few drinks for a few hours! We walked around campus for a little bit and talked about anything and everything. It was wonderful. We're all planning to meet up sometime in the next week to go to the eye of London to hangout. :)

Now its time to unpack for a bit and good to sleep. London is already amazing and it is just the beginning. Can't wait to see what is in store for us next. Goodnight.

Em

Here are some photographs from the plane ride! We had a TV in front of us that told us how much longer we had on the flight, where we were, how much fuel we have, etc. it was awesome! And the picture below this one is Ireland!

3 More Days!

I can't believe it's only 3 more days until we head out to London. Words can't even describe how incredibly excited we are!

A lot has happened these past months preparing for London. Paul and I have both worked very hard to try and get to where we are now with figuring out classes, accommodation, transfer credits, etc. But I know our hard work will pay off. :) We finally have our classes figured out! We have classes Tuesday through Thursday so far, but that might go down to just Tuesday and Wednesday which gives us 4 or 5 days of travel time :) Accommodation also worked out where Paul and I are in the same flat, right next door to each other. God has blessed us so much this summer and we are so incredibly grateful. He also blessed Paul with a full time job at Merrill Lynch in Chicago starting in July. I still can't believe it! :)

We got our excursion list from our program and we are very excited about the many trips we will be going on. We will be able to go inside the Buckingham Palace for a tour (which is very hard to get right now), we'll be going to Dover, Canterbury, Warwick Castle, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Camden Town and many museums!  We also want to make it out to see the Stone hedges and also go to Bath.

Our last weekend in the states cannot go any faster. :) Next time I'll be writing in here will be in London. Cannot wait! I hope that you all will enjoy my blog as we are traveling around!

Emma