Reality finally hit when classes began Monday afternoon. I started off the week with my History of London class at 1:30 and discovered that we will be going all over London to dig into the rich history on Wednesdays. I also started one of my core marketing classes, Distribution and Retail Management. I have a project where I compare two major businesses, which our group chose Starbucks and Caffe Nero. All semester we will research which aspects of the stores are appealing and what these companies can do to improve.

My nine o'clock class on Tuesday and Thursday is Corporate Finance. The professor has two PhDs and is certified in almost every area of business. Little did I know I was going to be prepared to become a CFA (chartered financial analyst). This intelligent woman is trying to convince us that the CFA is the best way to go in the business world. When I asked how this could benefit someone like me, a marketing and PR major, she said that my salary would go from $50k to $250k a year. Oh yeah and also I would probably end up doing finance anyways since there is a greater need for them than us "marketing people." What she doesn't know, is that I don't care about my salary. She also doesn't know that I hate corporate business. I'm taking this class because it's required for me to graduate. Since when is making the most money more important than doing something you're passionate about? Anyways....

I ended my week of classes with Money and Banking, a three hour class that may potentially put me to sleep. I've found friends in almost all of my classes to entertain me, especially when I need to chuckle about my finance professor who wears false eyelashes and has an up-do that was probably invented in the 80s.

Last night I went ice skating with some of my favorite friends here... Jackie, Katy, and Bess. One of our RAs came along and showed us the ropes. There is always so much going on, London could never get old. We experienced some delectable Haagen Dazs, aka heaven in my mouth afterwards and then headed home to watch some Glee. I get the chills every time I watch this show. It's the whole music effect on me. It never gets old. My Friday has consisted of a little shopping for rain boots, which was successful, episodes of Glee, blogging, and the movie Nine tonight!

Tomorrow is a big day. I'm going to Windsor Castle, the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world! It's going to be incredible, but with the luck we've been having it will rain all day.

Recently, it's been rainy and semi depressing around here. I've been sleeping and have a lack of motivation to do much. The image on the left is where I spend a lot of my time, my dorm. I am the third level. The past few days my school took us a few different places. Friday night was my first experience at a "boat party." There was a bar on both levels of the boat and on the upper level was a dance floor. Thank God no one threw up on me or fell off the boat. I spent a lot of the night worrying about that...

Saturday I bailed on the Southbank Walking Tour because of the nasty rain. One thing I would recommend to anyone traveling to London is bring rain boots, or wellies as they call them. I took an adventure to High Street to get a new cell phone and sign up for a gym membership for 99 pounds for four months. Now all I have to do is use it well and get in shape since one of my new years resolutions is to run a half marathon in the fall. Later that evening I experienced a tour of Jack the Ripper. I obviously didn't know what I was getting myself into. No one knows who this creepy serial killer is who cut open five different prostitutes bodies and sewed them back up, but we were taken to all the places where the bodies were left. The tour guide was passionate and definitely knew how to creep me out. I would highly recommend it although it was a little disturbing. We went to a sports cafe after. Not sure why I chose to go since sports are not appealing to me, but I have this thought that maybe if I keep watching them I'll suddenly like them so I tried. It didn't work.

Today is Sunday and we toured Chelsea stadium which was incredible! I don't know anything about soccer, especially professional soccer. I bet there's not even a difference, but I wouldn't know. We saw their locker rooms, the press room, stadium, etc. We always take the wrong way on the tube but somehow manage to get back even if it takes an hour or more. I took a workout class with Bess and pretty much got my booty kicked by this extremely ripped black woman. She wasn't afraid to point out how weak I was either... in front of everyone. Not sure if I will be going back to that class. The only thing I enjoyed was her singing of Kelly Clarkson. I can only imagine how much my body will be hating me in the morning.

Classes start tomorrow! I'm excited but not really. I met some people in my classes which is comforting. I am also currently planning some trips. So far I have signed up for Scotland, Portugal, Stonehenge, Rome, Paris, and Oxford. Wales and Brussels are next, just gotta make sure my bank account can handle it.

first blog

I'm creating a blog because I have the worst memory and could potentially forget this trip even happened five years from now, and it could be fun. We'll see if it continues a few weeks from now...

Highlights...

• discovering the movie Fame on my flight
• new music from Dane I can thoroughly enjoy
• getting 12 hours of sleep a night
• tours of Kensington, which is the richest place in England unfortunately
• the Lion King
• listening to the british accents
• trying fish eggs on accident
• riding the tube
• buying my own groceries at Whole Foods, which is simply amazing
• eating the best homemade scone of my life

The biggest challenge on this trip is meeting people. I feel like I'm a freshman in college all over again. It's hard because some people want to go out to pubs every night, some people absolutely never want to go out, some people study a lot, so forth. I feel like I've never fallen into a particular category, but I think that's okay... I'm hoping to connect to a church, potentially Hillsong London, soon and maybe join a small group. I feel like it's going to be hard finding quiet time here, but there is literally a Starbucks on every block. I'm glad to have my gift card! I am definitely looking forward to traveling. I have a long list of places I want to go and hopefully I can get to them all. To all my readers, thanks for reading. It's nothing fancy but I hope you enjoyed.