View from my room

If I didn't post these pictures, no one would believe how incredible the view I have is from my room.

                                         A little bit rainy, but still a gorgeous view!

First Unofficial Day

The trip official starts today (Monday), but a few friends and I decided to get to London a day early to adjust to the time change and everything. So yesterday I landed at about noon London time and I had two options: take a 70 pound taxi to the hotel or take the tube for 5.50. I decided to be a little adventurous and take the tube by myself. I was relieved and surprised by how easy it was. 

Arrived at the hotel and met up with Erica and Tyler. The view from mine and Erica's room is ridiculous. We are on the 20th floor and can see for miles. (I'll try to add photos once I figure out how). After unpacking, we explored the city and picked a little pub to eat lunch at called Nicholson's. This place had great food with pretty inexpensive prices (especially for London). We also enjoyed a little bit of drinking with our meal for my first legal drink. 

After lunch, we wandered around and stumbled upon Spitalfields Market (click here for a pic). This market is about two blocks from our hotel and is massive. It only occurs every Sunday, so we were pretty lucky to stumble upon it. Despite the fact that Erica and I wanted to buy that whole market, we had Tyler with us and didn't want to subject him to our shopping. Erica and I agreed to go back next Sunday without Tyler and spend the day there
We ended up going back to the hotel after this for a quick nap (which turned into about a two hour nap for me). During the day we found this pub that has happy hour from six pm to midnight and offers buy one-get one free cocktails. Can't beat that deal. After our nap, we checked it out. The place was crowded and the atmosphere was so much fun. If we weren't so tired and hungry, we probably would've stayed all night. But we ended up going to a little restaurant called Pizza Express. (Don't worry it wasn't some greasy American pizza). It was 9 'o'clock, and the place was still packed. Not hard to tell why though, because the pizza was amazing.

After dinner, the jet lag definitely kicked in for all of us. We decided to have an early night and catch up on sleep (I think I slept about a half hour on the plane). 

Today, I'm not sure exactly what's in store for us, but I do know that the rest of the group will arrive today and we have a meeting at 3 to hopefully get our schedule for the two weeks. Erica and I are also hoping to go to some kind of supermarket today and pick up some breakfast food and toilet paper (since, surprisingly to us, it was not provided in the rooms)


More later, time to get off this computer and enjoy the city! 

Waiting for Takeoff

Currently sitting in the Grand Rapids airport, two hours early for my flight. I guess I'd rather have it this way than missing my flight. Anyways, I'm sitting here because I'm about to go to London! I can be patient if London is the end result. For those wondering why I'm heading off to London: I'm off with some students from my University of Michigan Sport Management program to tour the Summer Olympic facilities. Yup, you read it right. I'm going to London and get to tour Olympic facilities. My life is awesome. Two hour wait here in the airport then off to Chicago for another two hour wait and then finally to London!

A random aside that I feel cannot go unnoticed even though it has nothing to do with my trip or London or the Olympics, I just watched my big brother graduate from the University of Michigan today!! (So yes, besides all this traveling I had to rush from Ann Arbor to Grand Rapids to catch this flight). I'm so proud of my brother and I know he's going to accomplish even more great things in his life. He'll be off to Detroit in the fall to be a high school English teacher through Teach for America. 

I already miss Ann Arbor and all my friends, but am so incredibly excited for London and to see some friends and meet some new ones in the UK!