I am now on day three of London! Still getting used to the time change, but more used to everything here!

Yesterday, Monday, was fun. My roommates and I woke up fairly early and walked down to Harrod's! It was about a 10-15 minute walk from our flat. It was huge and much fancier than any store I have ever been in! Everything was beautiful and sparkly and I was very surprised by the full grocery store in the middle of it! The kids' section was fascinating!  All the clothes were like gorgeous pieces that I wish I could enlarge!   It was a great experience though and I'm going to have to go back for tea!

In the afternoon program sponsored a boat tour of London on the Thames which was a great way to get a first glimpse of some of the sights! We passed by Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, the Globe Theatre, City Hall, the Tower of London, the spot where the Mayflower took off from! It was a pretty long tour and we went from being in the center of London to the shipping areas where Charles Dickens went to get inspiration.  Seeing the city transform like that was very interesting.  I am excited to explore and get more familiar with all the sections.  It was alos great timing becuase the boat went out when it was still light and then back when it was dark so all the fancy building lights came on! It was definitely a perfect introduction to London!

On this program we are in charge of cooking for ourselves, which I was not at all prepared for! But the food is not expensive over here.  And the premade sandwiches are SO good.  Back home I stay clear of them, since they are usually freezer burnt or soggy but over here they have actual veggies in them and are fresh! It was a great find!

Last night there was a pub night at Imperial College, which is right down the street from us.  It is nice because BU has a partnership with them so all BU students get honorary membership to the college services.  A bunch of us played darts with some British guys who helped us figure out the scoring.  It was fun to interact with some local people!  I think we will go back there, since the food and drinks were really cheap and being a block away is really convenient!

It has been freezing cold here and cloudy every day.  No rain yet though! And getting a hang of the money is not as bad as I expected it to be!  Figuring out which coin is which is complicated but besides that the pound notes and coins are alright.

Today was the least exciting day so far.  We are in orientation right now so today was filled with lectures.  The British police came to talk to us (I can't lie, I thought of "Hot Fuzz") and we also had the beginning of our lecture series that is basically Britain 101.  It is helpful though, since its going over some history and economics and other basic things we should know to be immersed in the culture. More of that tomorrow and then class starts on Thursday!