The London Chronicles: The city, the school, and the jet-lagged student

The journey begins...
   My latest adventure--leaving for another country, nay, a continent! And so far, this journey has been nothing close to what I have imagined it to me...it's better.
   I arrived on a rather hot southern day to Tyler Pounds airport. After a farewell to my mother, I was Dallas bound, and met up with the London crew themselves: Rikki George, Darby Williams, Marcus Sams, Emily Duncan, Marianne Pickins, Caleb Howard, Sonya Barret, and Ethan Davis . We sat in anticipation before boarding our 777 plane for our 9 hour flight to Heathrow/London airport. I got a window seat (although the man next to me was not quite sober), and after a nice dinner of microwavable chicken and mashed potatoes, Red Riding Hood, and an Ambien, I floated through the next three hours quite solidly.

 
Before we knew it though--we had landed in the UK. After about a 4 hour wait in customs (a exaggerate a tad) we take off through the terminal to find Kingston University staff with signs for Kingston Summer School Students. We then proceeded to wait for the bus to take us to campus (while I paid with pounds for my first purchase in the UK: what else, coffee), and then were dashing through the thoroughfare to Seething Wells Hall, our place of residence.

 And when I say dash, I mean speed through tiny little streets, bolting through lights, pushing pedestrians aside, and driving on the wrong side of the road. Seriously, I will NEVER drive a car in London. I would die. Immediately. But the sights we saw along the way to Kingston....amazing.

  Upon arrival, we receive our welcome packets, find our rooms, unpack, I talk with my family, get our 18th century "mo-bile phones," and have a lovely baguette sandwich on the grass. Then we take a little tour into Surbiton, the nearest city center to us (5 min. away) and after grabbing groceries and getting ourselves settles, we go for Italian at a little place called Zizzi's in Surbiton and toast to the best month of our lives. Then we promptly hit the hay at 8.

Our first full day in London is orientation day! This means we get all of our city passes, learn about what is expected and get welcomed by the Kingston staff, head to downtown Kingston for some touring, eat a lovely beef burger and Pepsi at a Kingston pub, then head to London for a "photo frenzy" scavenger hunt. After figuring out the tube, learning to despise the buses, and watching Charlie Chaplin draw a mustache on a child, we found a little hole in the wall for dinner. Me and Sonya split some amazing duck and then the group found a dine in Hagaan Daz, where you were actually served like a restaurant.

 
Day 3, we got this down! Class is at 10am, and we talk about what British culture is made of, as opposed to the common stereotypes (FYI, they are really sensitive about the teeth thing). Lunch is free, yea! Then it is into the shops of Kingston for a day, though we found a beautiful little church hidden away and fell in love with Costa, the best coffee ever! See ya Starbucks. The London group had a family dinner, and after much laughter (most on my part) we headed to the Fox and Hound to spend the rest of the evening with locals out on the patio.

  
   Three day--it feels like it has been a month. I can't imagine leaving. The weather, the flowers, the food, the people. Relaxing, talking, taking time, watching ducks, hawking fruit--I have returned to the motherland!