Football Friday

Well today was probably my favorite day here so far! The morning started off with our first taste of some classic English weather, cool and drizzling. We made our way to the Emirates Airline cable cars over the Thames, and for a very reasonable price (3.20) we got to have about a 10 minute cable car journey over the river. While the weather wasn't altogether unpleasant, it did spoil the photo-op from the cable car, as all I could my camera to focus on was the water droplets on the outside of the window!

Once we got to the other side of the river, we made a quick stop over to the Olympic Center to have a look at the Olympic Stadium (left) and the Aquatic Center (right) from above, although the other venues were out of sight around the corner.

By the time we took the tube back to our flats, we only had time for a quick lunch before heading off to a tour of Stamford Bridge, home of my favorite club, Chelsea FC. For me, this was an incredible experience. Not only was it my first time at the stadium, but we got to visit the press room, the visitors locker room, and the home locker room, as well as sit in the teams' dugouts, all in addition to sitting in some of the best seats in the house at either end of the pitch. I took way more pictures than I could possibly share, although there will probably be more on Facebook than I put on here.

At the press table in the stadium press room!
Last player to sign his contract at this table?
Frank Lampard.

Home Dressing Room

Sitting on John Terry's PT table

When our tour came to a close, we, again, had just enough time to run back to our flats and eat before heading off to our final event of the day, England vs. Moldova in a Fifa World Cup Qualifier! Before the match, we got to hang out at one of the popular pre-match pubs for England fans, and the atmosphere from there carried right on through to the stadium. In the one day, I got to go to two dream soccer destinations! Not only was the stadium beautiful, but England came through winning 4-0, with the only thing missing being a Frank Lampard strike (although he did have a very nice assist to Steven Gerrard's opening goal). 

All in all, it was an awesome day of seeing some of the best sights London has to offer, ranging from almost 200 ft above the Thames to right in the heart of a world-renowned football club. All three things that I accomplished today were high on the list of things I wanted to do while in London, and visiting both stadiums takes two items off my bucket list! It was a great final day of my introductory week to London, and now it's time to start thinking about my classes (starting Monday) and internship (starting Tuesday)!

Day Two - The Day I realized I'm not creative with post titles...

Well today was a busy, busy day, although it didn't get started until after 1pm. Me and the roommates went to visit the Museum of London, which basically chronicles the history of the London area from before it was settled, through the early settlements and the Roman "Londinium" all the way through to present day. Just outside there was a wall built by the Romans 2000 years ago!

After the museum, which was very well done, extremely entertaining, and best of all free, we decided to wander the area. We ended up walking through the financial district, and found this cool little urban workout station down by the river. There was a timed 40 meter dash course and a section designed to be used for sit-ups and other exercises.

After that, we visited the tower bridge which was very cool to see and walk across, and then made our way back home. After dinner, we went to see a performance of "Once," which I had never heard of, but turned out to be a really good introduction to London theater. We had a little tour through the SoHo, and Mayfair areas, before a few of us decided to trek out on our own. Walking along Park Lane, I saw some of the poshest sites I'm ever likely to see. Although earlier in the day, I saw my first Aston Martin!

One driveway along Park Lane contained a Range Rover, a top of the line Audi, an Aston Martin, and a Porsche. Parked on one of the streets we walked down was a Porsche 911 Carrera GTS, which isn't available in the US, but sells in GB for the equivalent of $120,000. Just unbelievable to me the kind of money some people in that section of the city have. Apparently it is some of the most expensive real estate in the entire world! Eventually, we made our way past Buckingham Palace, and down to Big Ben before crossing over a beautiful little foot bridge and back to our home. I walked excessively far in probably the worst walking shoes I brought, but every minute of it was worth the sites I saw! That's all for day two, and even I have no idea what adventures tomorrow will bring!

First Day!

Hello all! I figured that since so many people might be interested in the goings-on of my trip, I would start a blog to keep family and friends updated! No promises on the entertainment value, but I'll do what I can, so here goes...

So, today was the first full day of my semester in London, and it's definitely surreal to be here! It's very strange to be talking to someone in the states at 11:30 local time and have them talking about going somewhere later in the night, so that will take some getting used to. It's odd that what makes up my morning will take place before most of the people back home are even awake! For anyone who doesn't know, London is 5 hours ahead of the east coast, but also, Great Britain doesn't use daylight savings time, so after the clocks in the use "fall back," we will be 6 hours ahead of everyone back home!

Today was just some basic orientation, but for the majority of us, it was also our first taste of getting around the city, and I have to say that I've personally found it to be a lot simpler than expected. Though it's not the NYC grid, there are maps all over the place telling you where you are and showing you what is in the immediate vicinity. Bus stops are also very helpful, as they not only have signs telling you the lines that service that particular station, but also tell you how to get to places you might want to go to. I think that the infrastructure that was put in place for the 2012 Olympics has made things a lot easier for foreigners to get around.

We don't have any plans for the rest of the week during the daytime, so we should have plenty of time to explore, and I'm hoping to hit some of the big touristy places this week to get them out of the way and start digging deeper into actually learning to live here! Hopefully, I will be able to update this regularly, and keep everyone in the loop about what I'm doing here!