class time!

i was told to post pictures...the problem with pictures is that they take forever to load. i'm somewhat impatient so the idea of waiting FOREVER for a picture to load does not make me jump up and down with joy. however, right now i am in class so i have 2 hours to post pictures!
(p.s. i'm updating my blog using firefox instead of safari and its soooo much easier!)

i'll post some from the past two weeks in london...

here we are in class...


i am diligently listening to the professor and taking copious notes.

i thought a picture of the london underground would be useful since i talk about the different stations. as a reference, my house is off the ealing broadway station (last station on the green left in the western part of london) and my school is off the south kensington station...can you find it?



here we are traversing the london streets in order to feed ourselves cheaply. its amazing to me how expensive eating out here is. i can easily spend 10-20 pounds ($20-$40) on a meal but when i go to the grocery store its so much cheaper. i can get bread for $1.50 and milk for $2. it truly is wonderful. and now that we are in a house, its so much easier to buy groceries and eat at home.





here we are in front of the pepperdine house (with our groceries).


one night we decided to find soho. we went to this really great bar that served excellent mixed drinks. i thought the place was great and could have spent all my time there but everyone else wanted to try new bars. well, the next three that we went to were gay bars....needless to say, the guys were not too excited about this. finally we found a great british pub (and just in time since the rain was coming down hard). there was a great alcove in the front of the pub that all ten of us were able to fit in.


because there were so many of us, we decided to institute the buddy system. i thought it was a great idea and an excellent system, yet we still were able to lose a guy. he went to the bathroom (never a good idea when in a big crowd) and thats when we decided to leave. so, when he came out of the bathroom, we were all gone! he tried to chase us down, but we were way to wily for him. the buddy system failed =(

pepperdine arranged for us to go on a bus tour of london. our guide was hilarious and let us get out of the bus at several stops. one of the places we got out at was a palace where a guard stood watch. i felt really bad for this poor bloke because within the span of minutes he had 50 people
surrounding him waiting to take pictures. i heard through the grape vine that he eventually got a bit huffy and decided to walk along the wall of the palace instead of stand in front of it (probably to get away from all the american tourists!)

here amy, kerry, and i are waiting expectantly for the tour to start.

we also got out so we could take pictures of the tower of london and the tower bridge. this was also along the river bank where we walked this past sunday night (i'm still feeling the affects of that walk in the form of blisters all over my feet).


at the end of the tour, can you guess where we went? to a pub of course! the prince regent near our school was the last site on our "meet and greet" with london. many nights have already been spent in the pubs of london and i'm sure many are to follow.