Yesterday, I ventured out on my own to eat lunch with my aunt who has lived just outside of London for the past 11 years. I had risotto at an Italian restaurant near Oxford St and Bond St. It was amazing, I missed my aunt so much. It was so nice to get to see her during this time. After that I went to a Dr. Martens and then ventured over to the Tate Modern. I meant to to visit and see some of the exhibits but I found an art book store across the street. I spent almost an hour in there. I probably would have bought the entire store if I had the space in my luggage. But I knew I didn’t so I only bought two.

We went to dinner as a group later and had amazing Italian food.

But alas the day has come. Today  we get on a plane and go home. I don’t want to leave, I want to stay. London has been amazing. I can’t wait until I have the chance to go back.

The hackathon is over. I wireframed, designed and helped prototype our app.

I’m proud of our team. We made a pretty awesome app. And I’m glad to say I had a hand in everything we did through this hackathon.

Today we had the surprise hackathon today. 

It went a lot better then I was expecting. I was not expecting to have a say in the groups idea or plan for the problem. But surprisingly I have had a say in most of the planning and decisions of the group. I don’t want to say just yet what our plan is, cause after all it’s partially a competition. 

But the time literally flew by. I can’t wait until tomorrow when we prototype our solution. 

FYI the photo above was a cool light fixture that we walked by that was made of light letters. 

Yesterday we all joined Autumn’s fan group and bought tarot cards, she even gave us a little lesson. I was debating about going back to get another deck because my deck was not the most authentic and there was another deck that was made by a local artist.

Luckily, Autumn was willing to sell me hers. So now I have two very artistic tarot card decks. 

Today we went to the Kew Gardens. It was beautiful! 

Its day 5 now, and I’m fully aware of the driving situation here. Left side of the road, ride seat driver. But tonight was the first night that I’ve sat in a passenger car here. I promise it’s weird to see. I won’t get adjusted to this view.

We took an uber to dinner with Kaity’s aunt. We had a 3 course meal. Unfortunately, because of my uncultured palette and my picky eating habits.. I was left to one option for an adult meal (which still included two items that I have never eaten before) or asking for the kids menu. I felt as if I needed to eat a grown meal (something other than burgers and mac’n cheese). I put on my big girl pants and and ate Risotto, Cod, and a Lemon Poppy seed dessert.

First time having cod. Have to say not bad. I always became nauseous at the smell of seafood, so I always stayed away from it. Surprisingly, the only thing I didn’t like was the dessert, it was WAY too sweet.

Then we took a taxi home. I’ve never wanted to pass out so badly!

Great night!

I saw my first Broadway Musical. 

Wicked. 

I’ve always wanted to see it, but have never had the time. What better time than while abroad in London?

I must say, it was amazing, I may have even shed a tear. I went it to the show knowing most of the musical numbers. It was cool seeing how they came into place in the musical. 

Today, by far, was the wettest, windiest, and coldest day on our trip. I almost flew away with my umbrella, like Mary Poppins. Although I was advised not to wear a hoodie because I would be noticeably American, but I could not help myself. It was so cold.

We started our day at Madame Tussaud’s wax museum. To be perfectly honest, I was the least excited about this museum. I’ve been to one before, it wasn’t that interesting the first time and the wax figures are SO realistic they are a little creepy. It was better than I was expecting. There were many rooms and there was a little ride too. I didn’t get any pictures other than our entire group with the Royal Family wax figures.

After that Kaity and I made our way on the tube to the British Museum. On our own, may I add, only a little slip up but still… I am super proud of us figuring it out so fast! Once at the British Museum, we were stunned by the massive size of the actual museum. We walked around the upper and ground levels mostly. I grabbed a New Yorker sandwich before entering the featured exhibition on American art. SO good! Sadly we weren’t able to take pictures of the exhibit, trust me if I could I would have. It was an amazing exhibition!!

After, we came back to hotel, eventually going out to All Bar One to share 4 small meals and 3 sampler buckets of fries with Nina, Sheila and Arthur. Right as we were leaving we found a baby bunny that had found its way into the bar entrance. We brought it to the nearest garden safely away from the streets.

We did so much today! And it pretty much rained all the way through until we dropped of bunny near a leafy tree!

First full day in London. Wow!

We woke up really early and had many croissants for breakfast. After, we made our way to the Underground Station to pick up our Oster cards. Before getting on the tube, our professors made sure we all knew where to go if we got lost or separated.

“What stop are we?” – “Tower Hill”

“What stop are we?”  –  “Tower Hill”

They asked this question over and over to every person on the trip. By the end of the conversation, it was practically engraved in our heads. If we didn’t know anything about London, we did know our stop was at the Tower Hill.

We then made our way over to Piccadilly to hop on the double decker bus. So much history of London was shared and so many places were seen today. I swear I learned more about London today alone than in any history class I have ever taken before. We hopped on and off the bus for the rest of the day, taking detours for shopping and food as we went along.

Sometime around noon, 5 of my friends and I stopped for lunch at Nicholson’s. A nice small pub were I had a cheese burger and sweet potato fries, everyone else got fish and chips.

We made our way back to the bus while stopping at bookstores, art galleries,  and many more alone the way. I found an amazing bookstore full of Alice in Wonderland books and collectible stuff. There was this book that had been cut up and made into an art piece, I wanted it so bad. But the store was closed.

So much happened in today alone, this morning feels like it was SO long ago! At least I know how to get somewhat back to the hotel for the rest of my time here.

“What stop are we?”

Today was our first official day in London. After traveling across the big pond on a six hour flight, then skipping forward five hours through time zones. We landed at 10:00 am this morning, most of us had very little sleep on the flight. For the rest of the day it was as if we were in slow motion. Casually taking our time as we walk through the streets of London. No hurry, just taking it all in! We tried our best to stay up against the jet lag. But alas, it got the best of me when I knocked out for a nap at 7:00 pm. Overall, today was a leisurely day of enjoying the new scenery, taking our time and catching all the ZZZ’s!