How Much Can One Do in Three Days in London?

Hello mates. Well here in London it is has been quite busy with an enormous amounts of traveling around the city and sight seeing.  On Tuesday we had an orientation at the University of Westminster.  Here they went over our program and went into more details about our placements.  I spoke with one of the members of the EUSA staff regarding my unknown placement and she told me I would hopefully hear about something on Wednesday.  After the orientation we were given a couple of hours to go eat before we had to meet up at St. James' Tube station before a walking tour.  My roommate, Jessie, and I decided to try our first pub!

It was small, but so cute.  There were many work men and women inside enjoying lunch and a few beers before heading back to work.  When you walk into a new restaurant you never know how they are going to seat you.. so we figured out we paid at the bar even for food and go to pick our spot!  Tip: Londoners don't tip like Americans.  Usually only around %10 if they do! (I'm enjoying this, bam money saver!)  After our delicious lunch we meet up with our tour guide.  Boy did I see the whole city (well not really, but my feet felt like they did).  This was really useful as we figured out what sites we wanted to see more of or even see at all.  Below is my mini synopsis of our walking tour:

First stop: Westminster Abbey!  One can not get a full sense of what this building looks like until you are right there in front of it.  The detail is unbelievable and it is huge!  I think I also liked knowing that Kate and William got married in it about a little over a month ago.

Next we went to "Big Ben" and Parliament.  Also, the red telephone booths were everywhere!  If anything, what is so fascinating about London is the building are so old, ancient compared to America.  But instead of tearing down these buildings, they are preserving them making for a unique architecture experience.

This was our first sighting of a solider, and he was on a horse (what more could you ask for in your first sighting?) That's my roommate Jessie!

London Eye anyone? Fun fact for you all, where the gravel is where they planning to build the stadium for sand volleyball for the Olympics next summer.  This is also where the Queen will end during her parade on Saturday which we are going to!  Yes, I will see the Queen.

Buckingham Palace! Also the street the Queen will come down in for her Parade.  Doug, our great tour guide, gave us the perfect viewing spot for Saturday.

Shakespeare's Globe.. don't think I will be attending one of his plays because I am not a huge fan of Shakespeare, but you can take tours of the building with the guards which would probably interest me more. Welp, thats the end of our tour in pictures!  After 3 hours of walking, and taking pictures we were famished.  Before the tour ended, Jessie and I spotted a cute little cafe.  Once he said we done with the tour, we walked swiftly around the corner.  I won't even explain our thoughts about this place, have a look for yourself..

Salivating yet? It was so delicious, one has no idea. After a long day of walking we headed back to South Kensington, the area in which we live in and went to an italian rest for dinner.  Yet since we are still getting over jet lag we didn't eat until a little before 9 o'clock!  We headed back home as we had to get up early for a scavanger hunt the next morning.

After going to the EUSA office, we were given our list of clues and headed out to go find certain places in London.  It was a little difficult, but we ended up at Harrods.  We headed straight for the foot halls (Paw Paw this is for you).  Harrods is my new favorite place, more for window viewing though.

You can find literally everything here, including food.  It almost seemed unreal of how good the pastries looked.  After circulating the chocolates, I took a few chocolates home for an afternoon snack.  After to resting up, we got ready for EUSA's party at a local bar and restaurant called Foundation.  It was a really neat atmosphere with tons of good drinks and drink specials.  After several hours at Foundation we headed to a nearby pub and talked over some beers for an hour.  Since it was such a long day, we all came back to our apartment and went to sleep.

Today we got to sleep in, and after an hour from waking up I received an email regarding an interview for today! Little did we know, it was about an hour away, and we got lost.. but fingers crossed that I get the job!  More to come in the next couple of days including the Queen's Parade.