Prepare for {Rain}

The weather here is annoyingly unpredictable. Even when the forecast calls for sunshine, an umbrella is essential every single day, just in case! It rains more often than not here, and the weathermen never really sound sure of themselves and give very vague descriptions. Tomorrow's weather is supposed to be:

"Overcast dull and damp at first with occasional light rain or drizzle. Gradually becoming dry and brighter, perhaps some very warm sunshine breaking through inland in the afternoon. Feeling humid."

Thanks BBC Weather, although you're very polite, your predictions suck.

{Finally Sightseeing}

The weather has been nice a few days to finally get out and really see the famous landmarks of London. I've been to more museums of course, but I've also gotten to get a closer look at Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, St. Paul's Cathedral, Shakespeare's Globe, Trafalgar Square, Tower Bridge, and toured through the Tower of London. It's been a busy couple of weeks! My favorite things so far though have been going to the markets and shopping areas (and charity shops!) and also exploring the city by myself. There's definitely always something that I could be doing!

Natural History Museum

Part of the Berlin wall outside of the Imperial War Museum

Big Ben

Tower Bridge

At the Tower of London

At the Globe Theatre

St. Paul's Cathedral

Part of Camden Market! Probably my favorite place so far.

So much rain!

The weather so far hasn't been ideal! Definitely below average temperatures for London for this time of year! Since it's been particularly cold and rainy, it's been a little hard to get outside and see all of the tourist attractions. Today, my roommate and I spent the rainy day indoors visiting some museums! I could spend all of my time in museums, so I really have no complaints about feeling forced to stay inside for the day.

We went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, aka the V&A, first. It's huge and they have a ton of different kinds of things on display... not only paintings, but jewelry, sculpture, textiles, furniture, ceramics, and I could just keep on listing things! So many different cultures and time periods all put into one place... it's a history nerd's dream come true.

Only completely excited to be in this design gallery!

 

 

 

 

 

Loving the V&A!

 

 

 

Next, we walked over to the Natural History Museum, which was pretty cool! It was more of a hands-on kind of museum that had a lot of stuff about the formation of the earth and how we've arrived at where we're at today. Pretty interesting stuff! Most impressive was the entrance...

 

Natural History Museum

My first few days...

Pretty much anyone who would be reading this probably already knows that I've made it safely to London! I'm staying with a host family in zone 2 of London, which is about a 45 minute commute by train and underground to get to the main city center. Things are slightly different, mostly how everything is smaller and more condensed than in America, but it's pretty similar to home. I don't really feel like I'm out of the U.S. still.. maybe once I get more settled it will feel a little bit more real.

So far I would say I've mostly just been learning my way around the area that I'm living in and how to get to and from the areas that I'll be working and going to school (we take a once a week British Life and Culture class). I'm kind of waiting until better weather/more free time/when I get to know the tube system better before I try to venture out to the tourist sites! I'm hoping to do some of those things on Friday or Saturday.

There hasn't been much time during the day yet for sightseeing because I've been in orientation/class today and then tomorrow I start my internship! I should be working 3 full days a week, one day I'll have class, and then one day during the week we'll have time to go to museums and explore a little more. I'm also hoping to go on a few trips outside of London at some point, and it seems like a lot of the other interns in my group want to do the same thing so hopefully we'll be able to make plans for some weekends soon!

I miss being able to talk to everyone at home really easily since the time difference is six hours, and I miss being able to text whenever I want to! Oh and I miss my own bed and bathroom. But overall, it feels like I've been mostly busy this first few days and I still haven't quite realized just how far away I really am!